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ENGLEWOOD, COLO., 27 March 2001 – International Parking Management Inc. (IPM) has shaved 600 miles off the daily mileage of its shuttle bus fleet at Denver International Airport by purchasing a GPS-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) system developed and installed by CompassCom Inc. of Englewood, Colo.

Based in Seattle, IPM owns and operates the DIAValue Park.Com parking lot located about nine miles from the Denver airport. Its six shuttle buses move passengers between the lot and terminal 24 hours a day seven days a week. CompassCom installed the AVL system for IPM early this year.

"Not only is the AVL saving us on fuel costs, it is allowing us to provide faster service to our customers," said IPM President, Steve Sundberg. "With six buses each saving 100 miles a day, the AVL system will pay for itself in a year."

CompassCom is a GPS solutions company specializing in AVL implementations for emergency, utility and service fleets. After several years of installing AVL systems built by third-party vendors, CompassCom this year unveiled its own line of AVL products for remote tracking and management of vehicles using the latest GPS location and Internet communication technology.

With its new CompassTrac AVL product, CompassCom has the ability to customize the background map to show the new street, parking lot structures and areas under construction that change bus routes at DIA, which is a key advantage over other AVL systems. CompassTrac also has the advantage of frequent GPS reporting updates to provide accurate bus positions on the short trip from the airport to the parking lot.

Each IPM shuttle bus is equipped with a Trimble Placer 450 GPS receiver and a Sierra Wireless MP200 CDPD modem. The modem transmits vehicle locations from the satellite-based GPS units to the AVL server at CompassCom headquarters in Englewood, Colo., where a broadband Internet link serves the information to the dispatch computer at the DIAValue Park.Com office. The console displays a digital map of the airport and surrounding roadways.

"Our dispatcher sees on screen where each shuttle is at any given moment and makes sure no bus leaves the airport until another is there to replace it. This maximizes our efficiency," said Sundberg. "Our passengers appreciate the AVL because they never wait for more than a few minutes for a pick-up."

Sundberg said the system has also dramatically cut the cost of operating the cell phones used by the dispatchers and drivers to communicate with each other. IPM is so pleased with the advantages of CompassCom AVL that it plans to install the system at its newest parking facility opening at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport later this spring.