Category: Real-Time Tracking

Earlier this year, our partners at Geotab reached an important milestone! Geotab reached 1 million subscribers on its fleet GPS tracking network as of February 2018.

1 million subscribers is an important industry milestone because it shows the growth of fleet GPS tracking as a whole. For instance, Geotab is now used in 137 countries and collects 2 billion data points per week.

Beyond celebrating Geotab’s achievement, this blog explores the science behind fleet GPS tracking. First, we will study its origins. Then, we will look at how fleet GPS tracking adapted and turned to powerhorse that it is today.

Roots of GPS Science

The original science behind GPS tracking comes from a military idea. For a long time, the military needed a way to locate and track their assets. They used a lot of ideas including radar, radios, and everything in between. However, the military did not fully trust those technologies’ reliability or accuracy.

Then, someone thought about using satellites and trilateration. What in the world do those words mean?

The Solution

Trilateration means using 3 satellites to pinpoint a receiver’s location. Confused? Don’t worry, you are not the only one! Here’s how it works.

Satellites send signals to receivers, which are placed in each tracked vehicle. When satellite signals are received, satellites can detect the distance between each receiver and itself. However, a single satellite cannot trace the receiver’s direction.

That’s why 3 satellites work together! Each satellite creates a circle representing all possible asset locations. Then, the 3 satellites overlap their 3 circles. Finally, the exact location would be the intersection between all 3 circles.

And how accurate is trilateration? According to many studies, the most accurate satellite GPS trackers capture locations within 3 meters of the actual location.

Adaptation of GPS

Even after the invention of satellite tracking and trilateration, scientists are constantly looking for new ways to use GPS tracking. Some of the biggest challenges of satellite tracking include:

• Data lag between communicating with satellites in space, and
• Costliness of satellite solutions.

One of the biggest innovations is shifting from satellite to cell towers. Scientists realized that cell towers are more readily available than satellites. Also, they eliminate data lag and provide real time tracking at a lower cost!

For that reason, many GPS trackers nowadays have a built-in SIM card and use cell towers to provide live tracking.

Big Data & Fleet GPS Tracking

Finally, it’s worth noting that the science of GPS tracking is still adapting. Scientists are constantly finding new and better ways to use GPS tracking.

Perhaps the biggest trend for GPS’s future is leveraging big data. Big data means collecting and owning data to make decisions. In other words, vehicle trackers collect and use much more data than standard fleet tracking.

A great example would be CMMS, a software that automates the maintenance process. CMMS uses GPS big data to diagnose vehicle issues. Then, the software creates work tasks for company maintenance staff – and no human input was needed throughout the process!

Links

Geotab: Geotab Celebrates 1 Million Subscribers

GIS: Trilateration vs Triangulation – How GPS Receivers Work

“Our GPS tracker just didn’t work,” said a disappointed business owner. “It never did what it was supposed to do because it turned off half of the time!” What was wrong with the GPS tracker? Well, it turned out that the device itself wasn’t necessarily the problem. The business just needed a tamper proof GPS tracker.

The Problem

The business owner thought that their GPS tracker was a winner. After all, it was cheap and it was installed in just under 2 minutes. However, the quick install might have led to the problem – the device was fragile and was far from a tamper proof GPS tracker.

In fact, the owner later found out that employees unplugged the devices whenever they did not want to be tracked. They would then replug the device.

This left the owner to wonder – what are some good tamper proof GPS tracker alternatives?

Alternative #1 – Hardwired GPS

A popular alternative is hardwiring. Hardwiring is when mechanics install wires within the vehicle.

What are the advantages of hardwiring? For a long time, hardwiring was the go-to tamper proof solution. Since the solution was part of the vehicle, employees cannot tamper with tracking by unplugging a device.

On the other side, what are the concerns? According to fleet managers, some of the biggest concerns of hardwiring include:

• Time. The vehicles need to visit a installation shop. It might not be feasible to do every single vehicle at once, so businesses tend to install the fleet in phases. As a result, the process could take several weeks to complete.
• Cost. Some hardwired solutions can have upfront costs of over $1000/vehicle. Hardwired solutions are typically more costly because businesses need to pay for both hardware and installation.
• Installation risk. Hardwiring requires a high level of technical skills. Businesses must ensure that the installer is certified in order to mitigate vehicle damage risk.

Alternative 2: Tamper Proof Plug and Play Solutions

Another alternative is using tamper proof plug and play solutions. Over the past few years, a lot of plug and play solutions developed anti-tampering hardware and software. For example, Geotab systems have two powerful anti-tampering measures.

Harness

Harnesses are anti-tampering superstars. Harnesses hide the tracking device under the vehicle’s hood and away from open view. As a result, the system is protected against accidental kickers or deliberate yankers.

Unplug alert

Let’s say a mischievous employee gets creative. They go under the hood, find the device, and use a tool to remove the device. Can they get away with it?

No. Another precaution against tampering is setting up unplug rules. This is a handy alert and report system where all unplugs are documented. Meaning administrators can know when a device is unplugged when it next communicates.  However, it is important to note that there is no guaranteed time on when it will next communicate.

Summary

With both a harness and an unplug alarm, Geotab is a tamper proof GPS tracker system. Tampering with the system makes no sense! It’s almost like a staff member walking up to their supervisor, blindfolding them, then trying to walk out the building – probably not a great ending for that employee!

Looking to install a tamper proof GPS tracker? Check out Geotab’s Harness Guide!

Real-Time Alerts Monitor Driver Behaviour on the Job

GPS systems offer fleets an abundance of data for managers to better monitor their vehicles and engine diagnostics. To make the process even more accessible, GoFleet offers the ability to send events recorded in real time to effectively monitor driver behaviours and stay on top of business needs. This poses as an advantage over some of the other driver behaviour monitoring systems that do not allow for updated real-time alerts.

Receiving alerts in real-time translates into being able to monitor driver behaviours while on the job. Alerts are generated when a rule set within the database is broken. GoFleet driver behaviour monitoring systems is designed with default rules that can be customized based on your company preference by selecting appropriate conditions. When the condition set is broken by a driver only then will a notification be sent out. These notifications can be sent to management or selective users via email, popup’s within the database or the device can be set to beep (within the vehicle) to fix the driver behaviour immediately.

Below is an example of a rule set around speeding. As per the condition set, if the driver drives over the set speed limit a notification will be sent out containing information about the speeding incident. These notifications generated can be customized based on what data your company would like to gain.

Creating a rule

Setting Conditions

1. Select “Add speed”

2. Set the speed limit you would like the drivers to remain within

3. Choose how to notify someone when a rule is broken

Notifications are important, if a vehicle is spending too much time speeding/idling it leads to an increase in fuel consumption. The more money wasted on excessive fuel costs, the more your business bottom line suffers. By monitoring driver behaviours through alerts you can ensure that behaviours are fixed easily. You can also generate a report based on the number of times the driver broke the same rule set, allowing you to take corrective measures and keep a record for legality purposes.

Other example of alerts include programmed off-hour alerts. This means that managers can ensure that their vehicles are not being driven during non-working hours. Moreover, there are tons of other expenses that come along as a result of over-using the company vehicle or driving recklessly. There will be an increase in vehicle part replacements and more overall maintenance costs due to more wear and tear. To avoid further expenses take advantage of our solution; let GoFleet’s real-time alerts help for you.

For more information on the important features of GPS real-time alerts, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

1-888-998-1122 | [email protected]

Live Track Your Vehicles with Real Time GPS Fleet Tracking

Real time GPS fleet tracking can be an important money-saving tool for any sized business. From the ability to reduce fleet idle times, improve driver behaviours and measure maintenance costs, the solution is designed to control expenses that can eventually affect your company’s bottom line.

Live tracking is an important and interesting feature offered by GoFleet’s solution. Designed to help locate the current location of your company vehicles; the solution is capable of playing back trip details, generating reports based on location visits and optimizing routes for customer visits.

How to locate fleet vehicles?

Locating vehicles within the database is fairly easy and accessible. You can select multiple vehicles at a time which will automatically populate on a map as shown in the image below or select individual vehicles to locate in real time. The status of each vehicle selected will then be displayed on the map, helping you quickly see the position of that particular vehicle. The application is also capable of automatically saving records of each trip made when vehicles are driven from place to place. The telematics device will record the distance travelled, time spent driving/idling and other important engine diagnostic events which take place along the way. Such data can later be generated (within specific time periods) to verify driver location needed from the past or even the current route taken during the day.

Fleet Management Reports

Reports containing such information can also be downloaded to better understand the data or used for important decision making. For instance, mangers can obtain reports of fuel efficiency based on the route taken and whether the drivers were idling along the way. These reports can be scheduled to determine areas where drivers may be wasting fuel. Increase in fuel usage might occur at times when there is needless idling, unapproved vehicle usage and speeding. Managers can then eliminate irrelevant fuel expenses by using the GoFleet’s real time tracking solution.

A few drivers may not like the idea of being monitored, but the overall savings of real time GPS fleet tracking will be worth the potential dissonance. With live tracking we can help managers regulate scheduled vehicle maintenance, monitor drivers in real-time and verify log times of employees. All of these aspects are important to saving the company time and money allowing you to never lose sight of your vehicles, but instead effectively manage your fleet to eliminate labour costs and bring forth positive changes.

For more information on the important features of real time GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

Response Time Improved For Emergency Responders Using GPS Technology

GPS technology is being used in the Ozark foothills to help emergency responders. Frank Wideman, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri, teaches the responders how to use GPS technology to provide faster emergency services in Madison and Iron counties.

The GPS technology is being used to help the volunteer firefighters locate the 300 local fire hydrants. A local Boy Scout troop worked with the town’s volunteers to locate and save the location information of all the fire hydrants in the Global Positioning System map. This is extremely helpful because it is hard for the volunteers to be able to know the exact location of all the fire hydrants in the area.

When the emergency responders are dispatched, the GPS location information is sent electronically to the firefighters. The information includes the emergency location, the nearest fire hydrants and individual fire hydrant information. The GPS technology system shaves off minutes of critical emergency response time because the volunteer firefighters are not stopping to ask residents where the hydrants are or searching through paperwork for fire hydrant locations.

It is important that the fire fighters know where the fire hydrants are located because they need to quickly determine the length of the hose, the pumping capability and the type of connector needed. The information that was gathered by the local Boy Scouts about each fire hydrant includes the installation date and the manufacturer. This information is also helpful to officials for replacement and maintenance decisions.

The GPS technology is also being used to help search and rescue teams find lost or stranded campers, hikers and boaters visiting the mountains. Many of the area’s steep canyon trails are only accessible by foot and are unlit. Cell phones send the GPS signals to the emergency dispatch team. Responders are able to find the people despite the darkness and rugged terrain. According to Democrat News, the GPS technology has cut search and rescue times by approximately 75%.

Using the GPS technology for emergency responder services also saves property owners in the area money. The shorter response times in the event of a fire, lowers the Insurance Service Office ratings (ISO ratings). Risk experts rate the quality of the fire protection services in the area. The lower ISO ratings equal lower insurance premiums for the local property owners. When the GPS technology was implemented for emergency services in the Ozark foothills, the ISO rating decreased 3 points on a 10 point scale.