ACS buys into GPS

ACS, the Dallas based government services group with a strong toll division in Washington DC is buying big in satellite/wireless based location finding. The company has completed the purchase of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) a business unit of orbital Sciences Corp, they announced today.

TMS is a leading supplied of GPS (satellite) based fleet management systems.

The acquisition parallels developments at TransCore which has developed fleet management and other satellite based services - especially for trucking companies. TMS is more into fleet management for transit buses with 60 client agencies and companies and some 27k vehicles equipped with TMS serviced satellite/wireless location finding.

Another toll systems company with an interest in satellite location finding is Mark IV whose president is on an advisory board of the start-up Skymeter which is focussing on location finding for toll collection and parking.

ACS paid $42m for TMS. ACS got into tolling when they purchased Lockheed Martin's toll system interests several years ago.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-06-02