The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued Trimble Navigation Ltd. of Sunnyvale, Calif., a notice of allowance granting a patent for automated status reporting of concrete mixer trucks. Trimble unveiled its Telvisant Fleet Management System — with reporting functions for programmable events such as “leave plant,” “pour begin,” and “return to plant” — in March 2002 at ConExpo-Con/Agg. Augmenting the introduction was an alliance with mixer truck giant McNeilus Cos., offering Telvisant modules factory installed. The system (background screen in top photo below) has since been adopted by users across the country, with major fleet installations including Tarmac's Florida operations and Robertson's in southern California. Phoeniz area independent Maricopa Ready Mix was the premier Telvisant user.