GPS Vehicle Tracking Data: What Do I Get?
What information do GPS vehicle tracking systems provide? Here is a summary and examples of how you might use the data provided by GPS tracking devices:
Rental data: Latitude and longitude provided in degrees, minutes and seconds. It is accurate to 33 feet, which is as accurate as any commercial GPS device. A vehicle’s location is updated at intervals between 2 and 15 minutes. The standard update interval varies between manufacturers or can be set by the owner (optional).
- Who is closest to the customer who just called? See where all your employees are by looking at the map. Never call an employee again just to find out where they are!
Speed calculation: Rate of movement in miles per hour. Movement that exceeds a preset speed (standard) or an owner-set speed (optional) triggers an alert that is sent to the owner.
- Are employees routinely speeding? Speeding causes excessive wear and wastes gas. Your vehicles represent your company to the public; What kind of image does a speeding or reckless company car present?
Current address: Compass direction in which the vehicle is traveling, expressed as north, south, east, or west.
- Is employee ‘X’ on his way to the customer or leaving his location?
Use of geofences: A ‘virtual’ geographic boundary, created by the owner. Crossing this limit triggers an alert that is sent to the owner. Alerts are typically email messages or automated phone calls from the system to the user, including vehicle ID, date/time of crossing, location of crossing, and more, depending on the system. A geofence can be anywhere from 1/4 mile in diameter to over 20 miles.
- Is a delivery truck approaching the warehouse? Is the door open? ;i>
Alerts: An automatic email, sent to the owner, with the date, time, location, identification and other details related to some event that has occurred and deserves your attention. Alerts are triggered when a vehicle exceeds a preset speed or crosses a geofence boundary, for example.
- Email alerts can be sent to your Blackberry or handheld device. You can monitor your business while you are away from the office or away from your desk.
Fastest speed report: A daily report of the maximum speed of each vehicle.
- Why was employee ‘Y’ driving 80 mph?
Historic information: A record of all data related to each vehicle, kept for 90 days.
- Which vehicles averaged the most miles traveled each day? Export vehicle data to an Excel spreadsheet to compare productivity between employees.
On off: Time, date, and location of each instance a vehicle’s ignition was turned on or off.
- when it was Tits restaurant put in the path of employee ‘Z’?
Inactive report: Time, date, location, and duration of each instance a vehicle was stationary while the engine was running. The owner can adjust the duration of inactivity allowed before a report is generated.
- Idling the engine wastes fuel and causes unnecessary wear. Employee ‘Z’s vehicle was idle twice as long as employee ‘Y’s vehicle; perhaps employee ‘Z’ should turn off the engine of his vehicle when making deliveries.
Accumulated mileage alert: An alert sent at 3,000 miles, 5,000 miles, or at an interval set by the owner (optional) as a reminder to perform preventative maintenance.
- Email: Time to change the oil in vehicle ‘A’.
Rent on demand: The ability to locate and display location information when requested, regardless of when the last scheduled update occurred.
- Where is employee ‘Y’? I need to find it right now!
Map details: The vehicle’s location is displayed on a street map, which the owner can zoom in or out to see more or less map detail.
- Clerk ‘A’ says Main Street is closed for construction, which is the next West Street?
Points of reference: Landmarks that may or may not be visible on the map created to designate locations important to the user of the system. Reference points can be customer locations, the user’s store, warehouse, satellite offices, etc.
- Who has gone to the store today?
Breadcrumbs: When requested by the owner, a trail of points can be displayed on the map, indicating a vehicle’s route over a given period of time.
- Do the routes overlap between vehicle ‘A’ and vehicle ‘B’?
Many GPS tracking system providers offer additional information, but as I hope you can see, even this list of basic data will give you all the information you need to manage your vehicles.
