CALGARY — The fall of 2010 will go down in corporate lore for inthinc Technology Solutions  a real-time driver-monitoring company.

On September 22, inthinc landed a $16-million contract to furnish Barrick Gold’s global fleet with inthinc’s waySmart driver monitoring technology.

The same day, inthinc also announced the opening of a Canadian office, in Calgary.

Ground control for the 13-year-old corporation is in Salt Lake City, Utah, and CEO Todd Follmer told todaystrucking.com that the company plans to open a Toronto office at a later date.

Current Canadian customers include large oil-and-gas mining and other organizations with large fleets. Follmer predicted that more large and small fleets will glom on to inthinc as its Canadian presence grows.

In addition to fleet monitoring and consumer products for people who want to keep an eye on their teen drivers, inthinc’s killer fleet app provides specific real-time, in-cab voice alerts to drivers if they make an aggressive turn, speed, or fail to buckle a seatbelt.

The alerts immediately coach the drivers to correct the behavior and, if not corrected within the grace period, the system sends a message to the supervisor by e-mail or text message.

This is accomplished with a unique combination of in-vehicle driver alerts, vehicle location and diagnostics, and fleet-management features that detail performance and trends for individual drivers or the entire fleet.

According to a company statement, this has been proven to deliver immediate results including fewer accidents, improved fuel efficiency, reduced CO2 emissions.

The Calgary office marks inthinc’s first international office.

"Our Calgary office represents our support and commitment to current and future clients in Canada," said Follmer.

Heading up the Canadian inthinc operations will be a familiar face in western Canada’s wireless industry, Strategic Accounts Manager Cliff Neufeld, formerly of Rogers Communications.