Vehicle Utility Programs

Owned by Enoch Poston
Last updated: Nov 29, 2017
6 min read

Utility programs are designed to process or speed up tasks that aren't part of the normal daily, weekly, or monthly routine. Two utility programs are available for creating vehicle cross-reference numbers.

Create Fuel Cross-Reference

This program creates a vehicle cross-reference file using the Fuel cross reference field in the vehicle record (MVM, Fluids tab). The Fuel cross reference field is used when:

  • The Cross-Reference flag is set to FUEL in the EFI load settings (FFEM)
  • For accessing vehicle records when the "Use Xref in Quickfuel" switch is set to YES (SSM, Fuel Parameters tab , switch 10)

The Create Fuel Cross-Reference program needs to be run when initially implementing the use of the fuel cross-reference numbers in the EFI or Fuel Inventory modules. The cross-references are automatically updated as vehicles are added and deleted; however, we recommend running this program occasionally to refresh and update the cross-references, especially after adding, deleting, or renumbering numerous vehicles.
To create fuel cross-references, do the following:

  1. Select System > Utilities > Vehicles > Create Fuel Xref from the RTA main menu (STVX).
  2. Read the message displayed and choose Yes to continue.
  3. Select a radio button to specify whether to create the fuel cross-references by using the fuel cross-reference or the primary vehicle number. Choose Cross Reference Number to use the existing data in the Fuel xref field. Choose Vehicle Number to fill in the Fuel xref field with the primary vehicle number; when choosing this option, select Update vehicles to update all vehicles, leave it unmarked to update vehicles only when the Fuel xref field is empty, leaving any existing values intact.
  4. Enter the starting and ending facility number(s) or press F1 to select the facility number(s) from the lookup list.
  5. When the process is complete, review messages and/or reports generated.

Create Unit Cross-Reference

This program creates a vehicle cross-reference file using the Unit Xref field in the vehicle record (MVM, main window). The Unit Xref field is used when:

  • The Cross-Reference flag is set to UNIT in the EFI load settings (FFEM)
  • For accessing vehicle records when the "Use VEH-XREF file" switch is set to YES (SSI, Miscellaneous I tab, switch 21)
  • Vehicle lookup lists are sorted by the cross-reference number

The Create Unit Cross-Reference program needs to be run when initially implementing the use of the unit cross-reference numbers throughout the RTA system OR when implementing the cross-facility fueling feature (SSM, Fuel Parameters tab , switch 31). Thereafter, the cross-references are automatically updated as vehicles are added and deleted; however, we recommend running this program occasionally to refresh and update the cross-references, especially after adding, deleting, or renumbering numerous vehicles.
To create unit cross-references, do the following:

  1. Select System > Utilities > Vehicles > Create Unit Xref from the RTA main menu (STVU).
  2. Select a radio button to specify whether to create the unit cross-references by using the unit cross-reference or the primary vehicle number. Choose No to use the existing data in the Unit Xref field. Choose Yes to fill in the Unit Xref cross reference field with the primary vehicle number; when choosing this option, set Update vehicles to YES update all vehicles, set it to NO to update vehicles only when the Unit Xref field is empty, leaving any existing values intact.
  3. If No was chosen at the "Create cross reference file…" prompt, you have the additional option of filling in the Unit Xref field with the primary vehicle number if that field is currently empty; choose Yes to fill in the field; choose No to leave the field blank.
  4. When the process is complete, review messages and/or reports generated.

Resequence Vehicle History

This program cleans up the vehicle history data file by removing vehicle history for vehicles that have been deleted from the system and re-indexing the history for existing vehicles.

  1. Select System > Utilities > Vehicles > Resequence History from the RTA main menu (STVH).
  2. Read the message displayed and choose Yes to continue.
  3. You'll have the choice of dropping history records for vehicles that have been deleted from the system; choose Yes or No according to preference and the process will start immediately thereafter; choose Cancel to exit the program.

Export/Import Vehicle Records

This program exports your vehicle records into a tab delimited text file. This file can then be edited manually or via a spreadsheet program, and then re-imported into the RTA system to update any changes made.
Notes:
The utility creates a backup copy of the file with a .bak extension. This allows you to import the .bak file and restore to the original state should it be desired.
This utility prompts for system password level 3. This utility is considered a "power user" utility. As such, it is not restricted by user security settings within the RTA software. Therefore, it is necessary to protect access to the utility with the highest system password.

Exporting the Data

  • From the main menu in RTA, select System > Utilities > Vehicle Export/Import (STVI).
  • At the prompt screen, choose "Export" and select the facility or range of facilities you wish to export.
  • Specify a file to create. Generally you should use a .txt extension (ex. Vehicles.txt)
  • The utility will process your vehicles records and the file is created.

Editing the Data

Import the file (ex. Vehicles.txt) into your spreadsheet software for editing.Detailed instructions are included below for Microsoft Excel 2003. Special care is required to follow the steps exactly as outlined below. If the formatting is not done correctly, Excel may cause unintended changes to your data values.
Start Microsoft Excel.
Choose Data->Import External Data->Import Data.
Select the file that you exported from RTA (ex. Vehicles.txt)This initiates Excel's import wizard…
Wizard step 1: Choose delimited for the file type (this is the default) and click the 'Next' button.
Wizard step 2: Choose tab for the delimiter (this is the default) and change the text qualifier to {none}. Click the 'Next' button.
Wizard step 3: The first column is already highlighted. We need to select ALL of the columns. Do this by dragging the bottom scrollbar all the way to the right. Hold down the 'Shift' key and click on the word 'General' on that last column. This will highlight all of the columns. Now, change the 'Column Data Format' option to TEXT. Click the 'Finish' button.
The spreadsheet columns will now display your RTA vehicle data.
Once data is brought into a spreadsheet to be changed, the following rules apply:

  • You may not remove or add columns to the file.
  • The utility does not delete records, it will only update existing or add new records (if the add non-file option is selected).
  • The first 2 columns may not be modified (facility and vehicle number).
  • The column titles display the field name and the maximum length of the field, such as Vehicle (8). Filling in data that exceeds this size limit will be truncated when the data is re-imported back into the RTA system.
  • The first row exported contains a legend describing each field's contents and size limits.

Saving the file

  • Now that you're done editing the data in your spreadsheet program, you'll need to save the file so that it can be re-imported into RTA.
  • It is imperative that you save the file as a TAB-DELIMITED ASCII TEXT file. Generally, this means maintaining a .txt file extension.
  • Do not allow your spreadsheet software to convert the file into it's native format (such as .xls for Microsoft's Excel).

Importing the Data

  • From the main menu in RTA, select System > Utilities > Vehicle Export/Import (STVI).
  • At the prompt screen, choose "Import".
  • Specify the file you edited in your spreadsheet. (ex. Vehicles.txt)
  • Check the Add Non-File box if you wish to add new vehicle records.
  • The utility will process your vehicles records, applying any changes found and adding any new vehicle numbers found.
  • When the import utility completes, an error file is created. The error file is named the same as your data file, with a .err extension (ex. Vehicles.err). This file should be reviewed for any possible exceptions during the import process.

PM Date Maintenance

This program allows you to indicate specific days that vehicles are used and not used. PMs will only be tracked for the days that the vehicles are in use. For example, if your company is closed on weekends, you would indicate that only Monday through Friday should be counted towards the PM intervals. Another example, your company is closed from December 23rd through January 2nd for the holidays. You can block out this entire date range as "not used" and the PMs will not show up as due during those dates.

  1. Select System > Utilities > Vehicles > PM Date Maintenance from the RTA main menu (STVP).
  2. Enter your system password required for level 1 access.
  3. Indicate which fiscal year you want to update and which month it begins.
  4. Days displayed in green color are considered active for PM tracking. Days marked in white color are considered inactive. Toggle the status of individual days by double-clicking, or highlighting the date and pressing the space bar. To update more than one day, click and drag your mouse across the days to mark them in yellow, then right-click to choose a status for that group of days. If you wish to change the status of all weekends for the fiscal year, this can easily be done using the toolbar buttons.
  5. If you have multiple repair facilities, the configuration for one facility can be copied to other facilities using the toolbar button.
  6. When you are finished making changes, click the EXIT button on the toolbar.