Singapore Technologies Electronics (ST Electronics; www.stee.stengg.com), a leading provider of telematics and fleet management solutions, has been awarded a US$8 million contract in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to provide an advanced taxi fleet management system in the emirate.

This contract, which was awarded through ST Electronic's subsidiary, ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems), will mark the first deployment for the company's taxi management system in the UAE. It is also ST Electronics' first project in Sharjah, the third largest of the seven emirates which form the UAE.

Sharjah Transport, which is fully owned by the Government of Sharjah, sets policies for all public transport services in the emirate. Sharjah Transport owns the exclusive rights to regulate, control and franchise passenger transport services which include taxis, intra-emirate and inter-emirate mass transport within the UAE.

The Sharjah contract marks ST Electronics' first project in the emirate.

ST Electronics will work closely with Sharjah Transport to design, supply, implement and maintain an advanced taxi despatch and management system for its various taxi fleets. The system is based on ST Electronics' homegrown and patented award-winning Cetrac iCab automated taxi booking and despatch system, and will be delivered over a period of 15 months from July 2008.

Cetrac iCab integrates infocomm technologies such as wireless, automated booking and intelligent data mining to despatch available taxi to customers in the shortest possible time. The solution optimises taxi booking and despatch operations and improves productivity by offering various channels for the convenient booking of vehicles by customers, tracks the whereabouts of the vehicles and assigns jobs to the best suited vehicle.

"With the implementation of this new system, passengers in Sharjah will enjoy better customer service and shorter waiting time. Drivers will benefit from increased despatch efficiency and fleet owners will experience lower vehicle operating costs," said Mr Abdullah Mohd Al-Zari, Director General, Sharjah Transport. "We regard this development of great importance to Sharjah as it will elevate our status as an emirate that offers first-class public transport for our residents and visitors."

Describing it as a "landmark project", Mr Seah Moon Ming, President of ST Electronics, said he was delighted to have the opportunity to bring the company's telematics solutions for the first time to the UAE. "This project allows us to extend our world-class fleet management solutions to the Middle East," he said.

The key features of the system developed for Sharjah Transport include support for bureau service operations, management of updates for digital maps and locations, seamless integration with other booking channels, automated call-taking and monitoring, computer-aided despatch, automatic vehicle location, fleet management and reporting.

The system's powerful and versatile bureau service supports the sharing of call centre or a single booking number by different fleets and companies; alternatively it also supports different booking numbers for individual companies. This feature is highly beneficial to Sharjah Transport, which will be deploying this system to manage a number of taxi fleets owned by various operators.