Real-Time Vehicle Towing Information System (RVTIS). Design and Implementation

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: The main objective of this project is to design and implement a Real-Time Vehicle Towing Information System (RVTIS) that would facilitate real-time response by towing services in order to reduce road accidents resulting from break-down of vehicles. The paper answers the following questions: Would the implementation of a real-time vehicle towing information system enable quick access to towing service? How do victims of vehicle breakdown communicate with towing service providers? How are victims of vehicle break down located by Towing service providers?The scope provides for the boundary of the research in terms of depth of investigation, content and methodology, geographical and theoretical coverage. This project is basically designed for Towing service providers in Ghana. These Towing services providers provide a lot of services to vehicle owners which includes; fuel delivery, changing of tire, unlocking doors, jump starts, minor repair, towing recreational vehicles, and specialised towing. When it comes to the problem of vehicle break downs, it could mean just more than the vehicle s technical fault since it could lead to traffic and accidents leading to injuries and fatalities if there are no systems to request of a tow service from a provider in real time. Skowron and Kochel defined towing as the act of pulling by a motor vehicle another vehicle which, in the given circumstances is stationary. The towing process may be initiated by the vehicle owners at their own request, or by government authorities due to abandoning the vehicle on public streets or roads. In some jurisdictions the towing service sector is mostly dominated by private companies authorized by government to provide the service. However, the government may also provide the required logistics to law enforcers such as Police Accident and Traffic unit and other emergency services to ensure that abandoned vehicles are towed away from the thoroughfares to prevent unwanted road accidents. According to Ghanaian laws, it is mandatory for vehicle owners to get their broken-down or faulty vehicles towed away from the roads as soon as possible else the vehicle shall be voluntarily removed within two hours. The vehicle owner would be processed for prosecution and required to pay for the towing services. The same law also makes it a requirement for all towing service companies who have the capacity to tow broken down vehicles to register with the Ministry of Transport to be licensed. The overwhelming number of vehicles which broke down on Ghanaian roads easily lead to road accidents when towing services do not intervene in real-time. According to Badu-Boateng, the National Road and Safety Policy Document (NRSPD) has recorded that the frequent breakdown of vehicles on our roads and highways is because of poor servicing or maintenance and that failure to attend to these broken-down vehicles by towing services could be caused by two factors: the drivers failure to report the incident and failure of the towing services to respond in real time. A typical example is an AdomOnline report of about twenty-two people losing their lives through three separate road accidents within the same week as a result of abandoned vehicles on highways. The study will be organized into five chapters as stated below: The first chapter constitutes the introduction which contains various sections such as the background of the study, problem statement, objectives, and research questions. The second chapter presents the literature review. This chapter reviews pertinent frameworks and literary works by other researchers pertaining to the work. The third chapter also highlights the research methodology, which talks about how the work would be carried out. The next which is the fourth chapter explains how the work is implemented with some designed interfaces of the proposed system. The last, which is the fifth chapter highlights on summary of the findings and make some recommendations.