GPS Insight | GPS Fleet Tracking Blog

Feb 01 2011

New Garmin “tally” function — let us count your drivers’ activities for you using Garmin (or SMS)!

Category: Ad Hoc Reports,Ease of use,Garmin Integration,Garmin Messaging,Graphs,New Features,New Garmin Features,Reporting,Reports — rdonat @ 9:51 pm

We have had a few customers ask for the ability to report on their drivers’ activities throughout the day.

One needed to count the number of passengers picked up.

One needed to count the number of mobile blood draws and mobile x-rays performed.

So we advised them to enter these numbers into the Garmin in their vehicle.

By doing so, with a space between the various numbers, we now allow them to report on the number of “activities” throughout the day/week/month.

They simply enter the # on their Garmin, and it shows up like this in a report

Reporting how many "things" a driver does throughout the month

This report shows the number of “draws” and “Xrays” performed, as input by the driver into the Garmin.

If you wanted to show it by day (then export into Excel, for instance) you would check the “Daily” box shown in this report below:

Reporting how many "things" a driver does daily for a week

This then breaks it out by day (and you can run up to 31 days currently):

Reporting how many "things" a driver does daily for a week

If you want to see exactly when the driver performed this, you can simply run a stop-notes report as shown below:

Running a Stop-Notes Report

This shows each stop’s detail, along with the entry by the driver stating how many of a “thing” he or she did:

Stop Notes detail on how many actions performed by a driver (via Garmin Entry)

Generically, we simply call these “Tally 1″, “Tally 2″, and “Tally 3″ — but if you want to let us know what your numbers mean (and in which order), then we will label them for your account so they show up more meaningfully in reports for you.

Then you can run your own simple analysis on this data within Excel, create graphs, etc:

Graph showing number of blood draws and X Rays performed over time

As always, we’re open for new ideas, and happy, willing, and QUICK to put these features into GPS Insight for your and other customers’ use.

Enjoy!

Rob.

Tags: fleet management software, fleet tracking devices, garmin input, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, stop notes, tally, vehicle tracking software

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Jan 29 2011

You should sanity check certain directions first…

Category: Humor — rdonat @ 1:58 pm

Someone brought this to my attention recently.

If you use Google Maps to get directions “From: United States, To: Japan” it gives you the following instruction at #31:

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean

It suggests you Kayak across the Pacific Ocean.

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean

Again, a good reason to sanity-check the directions your computer or Garmin give you…

Rob.

Tags: fleet management software, fleet tracking devices, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, vehicle tracking software

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Nov 26 2010

GPS Insight introduces new remote panic switch capability

Category: Alerts,New Features,New Features,Safety,Switches — rdonat @ 12:04 pm

We had a customer who needed to allow their drivers to remotely trigger a panic alarm which would go to their dispatch/safety personnel instantly.

We found a good hardware vendor for the wireless keyfob component, and programmed the necessary parts to make this work with our existing panic alerts.

Here is the hardware:

GPS Insight introduces wireless panic switches

This is a $50 one time hardware option which includes the wireless keyfobs (2), receiver, and a bright LED to let anyone in the vehicle know that the panic switch has been turned “on.”

It can be canceled by pressing the “off” button on the keyfob.

This new option is available immediately, and the service is a free upgrade.

Rob.

Tags: Alerts, automated vehicle tracking, Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking software, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps tracking trucks, gps vehicle tracking, remote panic switch, Vehicle Tracking

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Nov 15 2010

$3 million legal verdict for not having GPS tracking

Category: detecting unauthorized vehicle usage,Extreme Return on Investment,Fleet Tracking,Google Earth,Mapping,Reports,Safety — rdonat @ 2:01 pm

Well, to be accurate, if St. Louis had installed GPS in its vehicles, might not have lost a recent $3 million verdict in court.

Here’s the story:

A jury ordered St. Louis $3 MILLION to a woman who claims a municipal truck cut her off and led to a single vehicle crash.

She did not have any evidence about the vehicle, department, or employee other than the fact that “a municipal truck caused her to swerve and avoid a collision.”

The crash time and location were certainly determinable.

If St. Louis had GPS on its vehicles, it would be trivial to determine if (and/or who) was the truck in question.

You could run a landmark report for a 2 mile area around the crash location at the exact time (20 minutes between 14:50 and 15:10 near the landmark called “Mesa Riverview” in this example):

Check to see if any vehicles were near the accident at that time

We quickly see there was no activity:

No activity near the crash at that time

Then you can pull the entire day to see if ANY vehicles went nearby that landmark, and when:

Pull the full day's history into a map

Zooming in on our “pretend crash” landmark, we see that that there was NO ACTIVITY for that day, & the closest to that landmark was the “Scion” at 10:03 driving by on the freeway, and “Adam 4000″ at 12:20 several roads away from the incident.

Conclusive proof no city vehicle caused the accident

Now it’s entirely possible that the vehicle DID in fact cause the accident — however, right now it is the word of an unfortunate accident victim against the City — and apparently that word is worth $3,000,000.

That $3,000,000 would buy a city of 1,500 vehicles GPS Tracking for every vehicle for 5 years based on my calculations.

Plus they would have the benefits of GPS Tracking instead of just a way to avoid a jury verdict. And maybe if the drivers knew they were being tracked, the accident wouldn’t have occurred in the first place if it was in fact caused by a city worker.

Rob.

Tags: $3M jury verdict, avl tracking, Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking software, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, tracking hardware, vehicle accountability, Vehicle Tracking, vehicle tracking device

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Nov 11 2010

GPS Insight adds support for Metric (KM, KM/h, etc.)

Category: dashboard dashlets,Ease of use,New Features,New Features,Reporting,Reports — rdonat @ 10:38 pm

We have a number of companies which have asked for GPS Insight to support Metric vs. English (e.g. Kilometers vs. Miles, Liters vs. Gallons, etc.).

So we now officially support Metric throughout the site for non-US customers, and for those in the US which prefer Metric (who would want a measurement system which was in even 10′s, 100′s, 1000′s? That’s crazy!)

Every place in our solution where Imperial measurements exist, they now support Metric — here is the dashboard interface with a couple examples:

GPS Insight support the Metric system

Every one of our reports also supports Metric, typically Kilometers vs. Miles & KPM vs. MPH:

Here I run a Fleet Usage Summary report:

Running a GPS Insight fleet usage report

And the results are now in Kilometers:

GPS Insight reports using Kilometers now (optionally)

Every one of our 35 or so reports now support Metric, so if you need it, it’s there for you. Here is one more report, the GPS Insight Speed Summary Report:

GPS Insight reports using Kilometers now (optionally)

Now that we got this into the product, the first thing we heard was “can you support international date format too…?” (DD/MM/YYYY) Why doesn’t everyone just adopt the US standards???… We’ll get going on that shortly next. (by the way, we DO have a Spanish version of the site available also, although the translation may not be perfect…)

Rob.

Tags: avl software, Fleet Tracking, gps fleet tracking software, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, Metric support, vehicle tracking gps

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Nov 04 2010

GPS Tracking is also cheap insurance! (which even pays off if you let it lapse)

Category: Company Efficiency,detecting unauthorized vehicle usage,Extreme Return on Investment,Identifying and eliminating speeding,Stolen Vehicle Recovery — rdonat @ 10:46 am

Last month we had 2 customers benefit from their GPS devices, even though they had canceled service to save money.

One customer’s vehicle was stolen, and within an hour of us reactivating the device and giving them access, the police found it and it was recovered.

The other customer needed proof of their having performed service from the year prior when they were tracking their vehicle. It was needed to be paid out of a bankruptcy distribution, and we were able to run the report for them that day.

Obviously we prefer that customers don’t cancel with us, but even when they do, GPS tracking can still benefit them.

The moral of this story is that companies and fleet administrators need to ALSO think of GPS tracking as an insurance policy as well as an operational tool.

Knowing where your vehicles are currently is ESSENTIAL, as well as knowing where they have been historically (we store 5 years of history).

Unfortunate “insurable” events include:

Vehicle theft/recovery
Proof of delivery/service when there is a billing dispute
Proof of delivery/service when there is a LAWSUIT
Proof of speed and time whenever an accident takes place with a company vehicle
Proof of driver actions during termination
Investigation into illegal/competitive actions such as side jobs or selling of company materials
Finding a driver who has been stranded/wrecked in a remote area

Many of these types of situations aren’t considered when GPS tracking ROI is estimated or computed. But they have a tangible “lottery” effect on ROI when they occur. Quickly recovering a vehicle, proving service to end legal action or get paid, saving a life, or having data to refute a lawsuit are MASSIVE wins for a company. Simply tracking vehicles BEFORE these things happen makes the difference between a major financial or legal problem and a quick and hopefully painless resolution.

Think of GPS tracking as a mobile surveillance system for your fleet — you wouldn’t dream of doing without security cameras in your warehouse/sensitive areas for theft prevention and safety/security. Why do without the equivalent for your mobile assets and drivers? A GPS tracking system is very inexpensive insurance against many unthinkable possibilities — take out a policy as soon as possible.

Every vehicle, every 2 minutes of every day — you’ve got complete proof of where they were at and how they got there.

Week History for a fleet of vehicles

Rob

Tags: Fleet Tracking, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps tracking discount, gps vehicle tracking, insurance, insurance discount, travelers insurance, vehicle recovery

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Sep 05 2010

How to not forget things and get in trouble with your wife…

Category: Ad Hoc Reports,Garmin Integration,Garmin Messaging,GPS Insight Employees,GPSI-4000 — rdonat @ 2:34 pm

I was working yesterday (and today) and my wife sent me an email to pick some stuff up from the grocery store.

Email asking me to get things from the store

I knew I would forget & get home, & have to drive back, so here’s what I did:

Send myself a reminder to go to the store via Garmin Message to my car

Here’s what I sent only 2 minutes after getting the email:

Modern day GPS Insight "ribbon tied on my finger"

This means when I get in my car, the Garmin will be beeping at me, with this message, and I won’t get home and forget.

Here’s what the Garmin screens looked like:

I have a message waiting for me

Click on it for the full message

Full message to remind me to go to the store

And did I remember?

Yep, and I can pull up a stop report to show it:

Run a stop report for "Rob" vehicle for yesterday

Note the 24 minute stop near the grocery store:

24 minute stop at the store to get groceries

Why did it take me 24 minutes to get 7 things?

Because I need GPS in a supermarket — I made 5 trips from aisle 1 to aisle 20 — I have no idea where anything is & am worthless in a grocery store.

That would be a very useful product for guys like me.

Rob.

Tags: Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking systems, garmin dispatch, garmin integration, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, messaging, Vehicle Tracking

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Aug 30 2010

New shapes and color coded vehicles in mobile mapping

Category: cell phone capabilities,Ease of use,mobile mapping,New Features — rdonat @ 5:19 pm

GPS Insight includes the ability to group vehicles and assign shapes to them, and also color-codes them based on what their activity is.

Now that works on most mobile mapping platforms – but NOT on the iPhone, which isn’t up to date yet

Additionally, we reduced the length of the URL you need to type (once) to get to your vehicles on GPS Insight on your smart phone.

Here are some screenshots:

Here is a list of your vehicles — scroll and choose one to drill down to see it on the map:

New Shapes, Colors, and Directional Arrows in Mobile Maps

Viewing many vehicles, most stopped > 1 hour (red) at GPS Insight headquarters. No idea what Google thinks “House Hangout” is.

Lots of stopped vehicles at GPS Insight Headquarters

Note that now we show the direction of travel on the phone as well with an arrow:

One moving up in Seattle

Clicking through gives more information:

Detailed information about a vehicle

If you are a GPS Insight user, here is how you access the administration area to create your unique URL which you can then use to see current locations of your vehicles on your phone running Google Mobile Maps (most phones):

GPS Insight Mobile Map Administration

Enjoy!

Rob.

Tags: Fleet Tracking, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, mobile mapping, Vehicle Tracking

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Aug 23 2010

GPS Navigation Humor

Category: GPS Navigation,Humor — rdonat @ 7:53 pm

How true, again from our favorite geek comic strip, XKCD.

GPS Navigation Humor

Original here:

http://xkcd.com/783/

This happens to me all the time, & it drives me crazy. Except then inevitably they live on some crazy brand new street and I wind up calling them for directions anyway…

Rob.

Tags: gps fleet tracking, GPS Navigation, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, Humor, xkcd

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Aug 21 2010

$90 Parking Ticket is proven ridiculous (but we still have to pay it)

Category: Arizona,Driver Accountability,Google Earth,GPS Insight Employees — rdonat @ 1:10 pm

One of our employees who drives our GPS Insight Scion in a car pool took it Saturday morning to a remote area of the desert to go for a run.

He parked off the road, on a pull-out which was nowhere near where cars drive.

He came back to this $90 parking ticket (with my name on it since it’s my car officially…):

$90 ridiculous parking ticket

So here’s how you prove that Maricopa County Sheriff’s are scrounging around for money for our broke County, using GPS Insight:

Quickly run a 3D vehicle history for the Scion for that day

Open the “Time Slider” to the first trip of the day & show just the dots (green) on the map corresponding to the drive to the first stop and 45 minute stop (yellow):

History shows the drive to go to an early AM run

Then Zoom down & see the vehicle was parked off the road itself:

Parking off the road yields a $90 ticket

Then go to Street View mode & see that it’s a paved pull-off. Why wouldn’t it be ok to park there to go for a run/ride/hike?

Did they pave it just to lure people in to give them $90 parking tickets? Thanks Deputy Thompson.

Street View shows this is nowhere near the road

I’ve paid it since it’s got my name on it, but I will definitely send a copy of the blog article to the Judge & see if we can get it refunded.

How ridiculous, though.

Even though politics and a County with financial issues trumps GPS evidence sometimes, at least you can clear the suspicion that your driver did the wrong thing.

Also, using our DriverID, you know which driver was in the vehicle at the time of the ticket so you know who to talk with, if the original got “lost.”

Rob.

Tags: gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking

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