Apr 02 2013
GPS Insight was featured on FOX NEWS today on a piece about Western US cities leading the economic rebound. I was interviewed regarding growth in the technology and software sector [although they cut all of the 30 minute interview EXCEPT the part where we talk about our growth -- not my opinion on why the West is leading the country]. Check out the video below:
Click Video to Play - GPS Insight Featured on Fox News
Thanks,
Rob
Oct 31 2012
Several of us got dressed up today for Halloween in the office. Hope you have a great one as well!
GPS Insight Halloween
GPS Insight Pumpkin
Rob.
Sep 04 2012
As someone who works daily in the GPS Fleet Tracking space, I’m all-too aware of how much fuel is wasted by vehicles regularly by idling. Plus I’m very sensitive to it when walking around in the Phoenix area where I live. Just like that kid in Sixth Sense saw dead people, I see idling people. And GPS tracking generally helps them all.
I saw a TRULY DRAMATIC example of how much fuel is wasted while I was idling the other day — when trying to return a rental with a full tank after only having driven it for about 25 miles (from the airport to our office in Orange, with a side trip to the mall & back for lunch).
I used Google Earth to get a feel for how many miles it takes to move the needle on a full tank of gas on a rental car:
Computing mileage to & from the airport
I was coming to the airport, & needed to fill up the tank to return the car. But I could NOT find a gas station. I was running late so I just brought the vehicle back, knowing it would cost me $9.65 per gallon if I didn’t fill it if and the fuel gauge fell below F, where it had been all day.
Fuel gauge moves when idling
When I pulled into the garage it was still on “F” — I parked and left the vehicle running since I know they need to view the odometer & fuel before cashing me out for my receipt.
I literally sat there and watched for about 2 minutes while the needle dropped from F to 7/8th of a tank! Right in front of my eyes. Arggggg!
Of course, I realize that the needle isn’t 100% accurate, but idling for that 2 minutes was all that needle needed to drop back down to where it belonged — definitely not F after 25 miles in an SUV.
It was a Chevy Tahoe with a 26 gallon tank. At $9.65 per gallon “refill” rate at the rental company, those 2 minutes idling was going to cost me over $30!
Luckily my attendant didn’t pay close enough attention and I got away without getting gouged for those 3 gallons of fuel.
Either way, it was a truly poignant way of visualizing the wasted fuel associated with idling.
Here is a graph I made of the # of gallons a fleet of close to 1000 vehicles wastes idling in a month, which considers the LENGTH of the idling:
Fuel wasted idling with idle stops of minimum durations
Essentially, if this client could cut all idling to 15 minutes or less, they could save over $15,000 per month. If they could cut out all idling > 5 minutes, the savings are nearly $28,000. (this is based on an average of $4 per gallon, as half their vehicles are diesel, and half are gasoline).
Interestingly, the WORST offenders of idling, in the 60+ minute category, account for less than $2,000 per month — it’s everyone idling 5 minutes (vs. 1) which really comprises the majority of the wasted fuel which can actually be cut out.
Not every fleet and vehicle function can eliminate idling. PTO sensors help us to distinguish between “true idle” and “working idle” times. But this is food for thought. And a really simple way to pay back almost all of your GPS Tracking expense, if you can enact programs which meaningfully curb idling.
Here are some other articles about idling and how we help customers to reduce or eliminate it.
Thanks,
Rob.
Jul 03 2012
We have a golf cart and our house is near a really steep hill.
Doing 16 MPH up to the top of the hill in my golf cart
The golf cart is limited to 25 MPH, even downhill (it engine-brakes to keep you from going too fast).
Unless you turn the ignition off…
Then you can zoom down as long as you have guts before stomping on the brake or turning the car back on:
racing to the bottom of a hill in my golfcart
But when you turn the ignition off, you lose your speedometer, so you don’t know how fast you’re going.
I was curious how fast I could get it to go down the hill, & realized I could just look it up in GPS Insight:
Running an Activity Detail Report for my golfcart
And I can easily see the max speed of 45:
Going 45 MPH in a golf cart meant for 25
The reason the device keeps reporting even though the ignition is off is because I wanted an easy install & just wired it straight to the battery and programmed it to only report when the vehicle is moving.
This helps me to see that my golf cart hit 45 MPH max on the way down the hill. And notice that it interprets 5 minutes of non-movement in my garage as “Off” and stops reporting.
And the next step? Create an alert to let me know any time this is happening so that if my kids try it, they’re in huge trouble:
Alert to let me know any time the golf cart goes > 30 MPH
Any time “Rob Gemcar” goes > 30 MPH (only possible down a hill with the ignition turned off — otherwise it hits 28 or so absolute max), WITHIN our subdivision called Forest Highlands, I will get an SMS text message instantly, as well as an email, alerting me to this fact (along with a map of the location in the email). I included it in our subdivision so that if it’s ever put on a flatbed for transportation to the dealer or something, it won’t alert as it’s going > 30 MPH on surface streets outside our community (it’s not licensed for streets > 35 MPH).
By the way, we’ve worked with companies in the past to prove that their vehicles were going DOWNHILL when they exceeded the supposed maximum set by them in their rig — they did it by putting the truck in neutral and coasting to more than the max allowable speed. That’s where I got the idea to check GPS Insight to see how fast the vehicle was actually going (it felt more like 50!). I promise, it wasn’t that unsafe though… I value my life.
Don’t try this at home!
Rob.
[Update: I was late for dinner last night & at a friend's house, & in a hurry, so I performed the "go fast downhill" trick and predictably, got an alert emailed and via text to my phone -- here they are:]
GPS Insight alert email for speeding down the hill
And here’s the text I got:
GPS Insight SMS alert for speeding down the hill
Note that the actual reporting time of the point as 6:47:32 PM, and it was sent at 6:48:30 PM, which is why the alert appears to be 2 minutes later [it was only 58 seconds, which is typical]. We round “down” and the email/sms round “up” with dates:
Raw GPS Data for golf cart speeding event
Running an alert report shows it was sent at 18:48:30:
Running an alert report
Alert sent at 18:40:30
Just a good example of how much information we have available to support the alerts we send.
Rob.
Apr 24 2012
We just got back from the NAFA 2012 conference. NAFA is the National Association of Fleet Administration (also known as the “Fleet Management Association”). This was our 6th consecutive year exhibiting and it was even bigger and better than previous years.
Here are photos of our booth and Team GPSI:
GPS Insight booth at NAFA 2012
Team GPSI (from left to right -- Ryan, Alissa, Rob, Chelsea, Harry, Elliot)
It’s always great to meet new people and see familiar faces at these conferences. We appreciate everyone who stopped by our booth – see you next year in Atlantic City, NJ!
-Rob
Apr 16 2012
Yesterday (April 15, 2012) GPS Insight celebrated 7 years in business.
We have grown from one customer with 286 tracking devices in service in 2005 to over 1,000 customers and more than 35,000 tracking devices in service today.
Many heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far!
Thanks, Rob.
Mar 26 2012
I knew my boys had flag football practice this evening and that my wife was bringing them, but didn’t know where, and didn’t want to have to ask her for directions.
A few text messages (while parked) later and I was on my way to meet them.
Here’s what I did using GPS Insight to get going within a minute (less than asking my wife for detailed directions or an address): [note that 477-477 is "GPS-GPS" and our 6 digit short code]
Using GPS Insight SMS text messaging
At that point my Garmin showed a “flag” in the top right corner indicating I had a dispatch item:
Garmin Dispatch Item to my kids' flag football field
Clicking it I see the item at the bottom of my dispatch items (many show a green check indicating they are complete):
Dispatch items in GPS Insight's Garmin integration
Clicking that item (which shows I need to go 7.2 miles SouthEast to get there), I am given a choice to “Edit Stop” or “Go.”
Choosing to "Go" to "flagfootball"
Note that GPS Insight receives exact timestamps for when we send the dispatch, when the Garmin receives it, when the driver views it, then chooses to go there, when they arrive, and when they mark the stop as “complete.” I’ll show that later.
Choosing Go, I’m now given visual and turn-by-turn directions on how to get to the destination:
Garmin takes me to "flagfootball"
So as I’m driving there, I was stuck at a light and decided to take a picture to show what it looked like on the way there:
Almost there
And as I arrived at the site where I “landmarked” my wife’s Navigator (nav2) the Garmin shows my location, even though it’s technically in a parking lot:
Arriving at flagfootball
So when I ultimately got home, and put this blog article together, I logged in and was able to show my path and 3D map history (with pins for just this trip, but a progressively darker/thicker blue line indicating my vehicle’s entire day’s route):
My route from Best Buy to Flag Football
And clicking on the detail area of the Garmin Dispatch & Messaging Dashlet on our main interface shows the times I received/arrived/cleared the “stop” :
Timestamps for Garmin Dispatch Statuses
The stop report shows what time I left and what time I arrived (as well as the fact that I dropped my car off in the AM to get it washed and left it there all day so they needed to move it a few times):
GPS Insight stop report with details on trip to flagfootball
And since the default landmark definition is simply a 750′ radius circle, I decided to go in and modify it quickly (under Mapping->Landmarks -> Manage Landmarks)
Manage (Edit) GPS Insight landmarks
Loading the “flagfootball” landmark, I can change the type from Circle to Polygon, change the “address pin” to the actual entrance address, and re-draw it more precisely to match the parking lot:
Change a circular landmark
And here’s the end-result: [note that the address changes to reflect the new pin location -- this allows for more accurate dispatch directions]
Accurate Polygon "flagfootball" landmark
So now the next time I need to get to that park I can just dispatch myself with a simple SMS text message to “GPS GPS” (477-477) of “gps rubi dis flagf” (note that since rubi and flagf are “unique enough” for rubicon and flagfootball I can shorten the SMS string).
It took me 1 minute to dispatch myself, 23 minutes to get there, and probably 30 minutes or so to put this article together. It’s really intended to show you how just a minute’s worth of “interaction” with GPS Insight can make your drivers’ (and my) life easier, and how much information you can get derive from their driving, automatically, should you need to go back and get more in-depth information about it.
As for my boys’ flag football team, well, I think they need to practice more… They have practice twice a week, and in a month I’ll run a landmark report to show you how frequently I attended.
Rob.
Aug 14 2011
Thankfully not by the police, but by GPS Insight.
I was heading to Sedona this afternoon with my family and got this alert by email, showing that I was doing 61 in a 35 MPH zone, along with a map showing I’m coming up on a curve:
Posted Speed Limit alert for me
I thought there was no way I would go that fast over the speed limit so when I got home from my trip, I checked GPS Insight to see if we had the right posted speed for that area.
We have an internal-use-only “pincushion” tool we use which shows the various speed limits based on which direction you’re traveling, relative to the roads nearby and some reasonable assumptions.
The pin says it changes from a 55 to a 35 a little way before my vehicle location was sent with instantaneous speed of 61:
GPS Insight "pincushion" posted sped limit tool
I thought that was unlikely, so I went down to street view, and found a 35 MPH speed sign right there (above, it’s the yellow pushpin):
Proof that it's a 35 MPH zone
I guess I was speeding.
So what’s my defense? I didn’t see the sign? At least I can measure the distance until the turn and see that there was LOTS of room to slow down before the curve that 35 MPH zone was put there for:
Rob speeding (61 in a 35)
You can see I measured 600 feet before the BEGINNING of the curve, which is plenty of time to get from 61 to 35. That’s 2 football fields. And since my prior max was 65 (in the info bubble) I was slowing — just not fast enough for the speed limit… But at least you can drill down and get some better context for the posted speed alert. That’s ideal — without the ability to easily drill down for more information, you don’t know the context of the speeding alert, and can’t make good decisions on how to approach (or not to approach) your drivers about these alerts.
So even GPS tracking company owners speed. Maybe it was so I had some good material for a blog article? Yeah, that was it.
Here is a picture from Sedona, by the way:
Sedona, Arizona
And I didn’t speed on the way home, as evidenced by the alerts report I ran for today for my vehicle (Nav2):
Run an alert history for my vehicle for today
But I did idle for 8 minutes while we stopped for snacks for the ride home (and my device went out of range when I pulled into the garage, since I live in the middle of nowhere, and my oil change and rotate tires maintenance items never got updated…):
My alerts for today
This is the point of having a GPS fleet tracking solution — set the alerts, and wait for your drivers to do something you want to be alerted to.
I’m paying for my own tickets and gas, and I know I’ve got a 4×4 and 600 feet to slow down before a curve in a pretty desolate area, so no real issues here. But you certainly want to know these types of things about your drivers.
Especially if it’s your money for fuel, drivers’ licenses at stake, and your liability should they be driving too fast.
Rob.
Aug 06 2011
So I didn’t want to wait very long in the 111 degree humid, sunny, disgusting weather for the Branson Trolley (which we happen to track using GPS Insight). so I pulled up their location on my phone and was able to wait inside Bass Pro Shop (stop #3) until it was close, then go out and get on:
Waiting for the Branson Trolley
I had some pictures of it closer on the map, and of my kids and I waiting as it pulled up, along with the stops map. I deleted them rather than sending them from my iPhone. One wrong push… You’ll just have to trust me.
Anyway, it’s nice to have GPS tracking on public transportation vehicles and be able to pull them up on Smart Phones. I’m not sure if Branson makes this available or not. They should, & we will let them know about that capability so they can advertise it to their riders.
They claim the trolley makes it around all stops every 15 minutes. I may investigate that and make that a future blog article. With the kind of traffic I experienced in Branson (worse than LA !!!), I am not sure I believe that claim. We’ll see, and GPS Insight has all the data to prove (or disprove) that claim.
Rob.
Aug 06 2011
I am on a Summer trip with my 2 boys for their vacation to Branson, MO. It’s like Disneyland for kids in the Ozarks in Missouri.
As we were getting onto the Trolley which shuttles you around “Old Town” Branson, I realized they were a customer of GPS Insight’s, and asked a support person to send me the GPS Mobile Map link to their vehicles so I could “track myself” and see how close the trolley was later when it was time to get back on. [Mobile Mapping is a free capability within GPS Insight under the "Mapping/Mobile Mapping" menu. You just need to retrieve the unique, secure link and you can view your vehicles from any smart phone or tablet]
Here is a picture of the boys on the Trolley:
My boys on the Branson Downtown Trolley
So within a minute or so my support person was able to text me the link to use from my smartphone to see the Trolley position:
Where the Trolley is according to GPS Tracking
Then quickly I clicked on Street View to see where Google thinks it looks like out my Trolley Window:
Google street View from Trolley Location
And quickly I took a picture with my iPhone to show it was EXACTLY like that at the moment:
Actual picture I took from the Trolley window
Not bad, Google (or GPS Insight)!
The Branson "Downtown Trolley"
I got off at the Bass Pro Shop stop so my kids could look around in advance of their big fishing trip the next morning. I’ll talk about how I was able to minimize my wait for the Trolley (it was 111 degrees and HUMID) in the next article.
I’m glad we’re able to help Branson with their GPS tracking initiative. Great town to visit with your family. For more information click here!
Thanks,
Rob.
