GPS tracking devices have traditionally only given reasonably accurate mileage data — they typically don’t tell you what your odometer readings is. That is something we have recently improved across our line of GPS tracking devices in order to ensure that GPS data can be used for maintenance, state mileage and DOT reporting, and just overall usefulness.
Here is my odometer reading as of 12/26/2008 at 11:30:
It reads 22859:
I have 3 different GPS devices in my vehicle — a 3000 (Rob 3000), a 3500 (Rob), and a 4000 (Rob Q4C). They all have reported my odometer slighly differently since I “sync’d” them up 22 days ago using our new odometer adjustment tool.
The 3000 and 4000 use GPS only in order to calculate odometer, which tends to understate mileage (since straight line distance between points seconds apart can be less than the actual route travelled). The 3500 uses information from the engine to calculate odometer, and is generally slightly over actual miles travelled. Our only “perfect” unit in terms of odometer is the 3500 HD (for heavy duty trucks) which gets exact odometer readings from the engine — this is useful since the biggest requirement for 100% accurate odometer readings is for fuel tax and DOT compliance, and this is the unit they typically use.
They are all within around 7-10 miles of reality, but for some customers, this isn’t good enough, so I’ll show you how we can adjust these now using our new odometer adjustment tool.
First, this shows the odometer readings as a graph, with adjustments as vertical green lines (these can be edited as well):
My 3000 unit:
Here is the 3500:
Then the GPS Insight GO-4000:
Now to adjust these:
An adjustment is created automatically:
Choosing “Vehicles” on the administration tab brings up all of our GPS Insight vehicles/tracking devices:
Zooming down, we see all the odometer readings are now 100% accurate again:
Note that 1 unit (the 3500 which talks to the engine’s computer for RPM when determining ignition status) shows I last reported 2 hours ago, and the other 2 show 35 minutes ago.
That’s because in order to take a picture of my odometer reading 35 minutes ago, I turned my key to “On” but didn’t actually turn on the engine. The 2 “3 wire” units installed in my vehicle thought (incorrectly) that my engine was running (idling). However, the 3500 checks RPM, which were zero, to determine engine ignition status.
Since these units correctly detect ignition/idling status when the key is in “accessory” mode, which is more common than “on” mode, this really isn’t a problem for our units or our customers, but is worth mentioning here.
Bear in mind that all GPS tracking devices aren’t the same, and we sell several variety — ones with engine diagnostics, inexpensive “bare bones” ones, ones to track trailers, ones to track freight, ones to track heavy equipment, ones with switches/sensors, ones with the capability to use a mobile data terminal, etc.
What’s important is that we know EXACTLY which ones fit our customers’ needs, and they ALL WORK TOGETHER within GPS Insight’s GPS tracking suite, and we will help to make sure you get the most suitable device for your needs. We will also make sure that your reports and maintenance alerts are highly accurate and consistent, regardless of which units you choose. This is all now possible using the GPS Insight historical odometer offset tool.
By the way, this is in contrast to most GPS tracking companies which either A) don’t actually track odometer readings (only mileages), or B) give at most 1 odometer offset, which means your current odometer may be accurate, but when reporting historically, it’s nowhere near reality. This is absolutely necessary if you ever need to replace a GPS tracking device down the road, or upgrade. Without the ability to adjust these odometer readings, you lose a valuable capability of GPS tracking in general.
Give us a call if you want to get clarification on this useful feature or our overall product.
Thanks,
Rob.
December 26th, 2008 7:35 pm
Interesting, Rob. Points up the fact that even though a huge segment of the US economy revolves around ‘miles’ the techniques we have for actually measuring miles traveled haven’t changed a lot since the days of the rag tied around the spoke of the covered wagon wheel.
There are perhaps a half-dozen different Federal laws and regs that govern things like tampering with a vehicle’s odometer but there is no Federal law which controls accuracy of the odometer … a some court cases have accepted tolerances as high as +/- 10%. You can’t run a business to the level of accuracy needed in today’s economy on that sort of guesswork.
Your suggested iterative correction factor will ‘dial’ a fleet in to very close tolerances over time, It’s by far the best method available in today’s world and has the advantage of not requiring additional equipment and costs for clients.
July 25th, 2010 1:26 pm
[...] year and a half ago, we allowed our customers to enter multiple historical corrections, which is much better than the single “offset” which most companies [...]