GPS Vehicle Tracking Tools and Blog

Wireless operators are offering mobile phones equipped with GPS chipsets. L & MT looked at how technology can serve as truck owners and operators around the world.

If anyone needed a reminder of the ubiquity of cell phones in American culture, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provided that certainly. For weeks, transcripts and recordings of calls – post from inside the hijacked aircraft or from in and around the condemned skyscraper – the night is saturated with news.

At the same time, which helped focus attention on the place fitful progress toward the incorporation of cellular technology in the network of emergency response – a Federal Communications Commission initiative.

Identifying the origin of a cellular call is often not quick or easy. In 1999, the FCC revised its decisions on enhanced 911 for wireless services, called E911, to allow the use of phone-based location technology.

The second phase of the so-called E911 requirements for carriers to begin selling handsets and activate the automatic location identification (ALI) capability not later than October 1.2001; to ensure that 100 percent of all new digital phones On December 31.2002, and later ALI-capable, and ALI-capable phones in the hands of 95 per cent of all customers on December 31, 2005.

Most carriers have struggled with compliance, but the FCC has maintained the pressure and progress is being made. Given the options available in today’s technology, which suggests that the GPS-enabled cell phones will soon be common. And for many owners and operators of commercial vehicles, which could be very good news.

Monitoring of Little Guy?

Nextel Communications began selling its first GPS-equipped phone – Motorola i88s – in October 2002. It was introduced a second model ruggedized – Motorola i58sr – in January 2003. While some of the motivations was meeting the standards, Nextel has a specific market in mind – the mobile workforce. And the market responded immediately.

The same month as the first Nextel offers Motorola i58sr, Xora, Inc. of Mountain View, California, launched GPS TimeTrack, arranged a solution with a startup time of 24.99 U.S. dollars and a monthly fee, per unit of $ 11.99. The system puts a small Java application on the phone that transmits regular time and location data to a central server, accessible from the Internet, while allowing a button-notification of the server when an employee reaches a workplace For example, or begins and ends the service for a particular client. Xora already has about 100 customers and over 1000 end users, with negotiations under way for thousands more, said Mark Springfield, director of marketing.

“We think of this as a new market,” said Springfield. “On long-haul truck, for example, you have a massive, incredibly expensive mobile assets across the country, so it may make sense to spend $ 1000 or more [in a vehicle-mounted unit] to track engine of logistics and things like that. But if you have a couple of installers to 60 U.S. dollars an hour, and are supported by a van, probably not the van that is most concerned about. ”

For a company like that, said Springfield, a cell phone with a tracking device could be the perfect solution.

One company that is shaping Xora is Elyxir attractiveness of the distribution of Watsonville, California. Elyxir is a modest size of the beer and soft drink distributor with about 120 employees, many of them in the field. Elyxir adopted the system of GPS TimeTrack after the pricing of other larger, more expensive, vehicle-mounted units. Not only were the prohibitive prices, but the units do not exactly meet the needs of the company.

“Do not worry about the pressure of oil or mileage as much as we do about our time delivery rate is spending on a specific account,” said Dave Webb, director of operations for Elyxir, who has been using the system since February 2003. It is too early to speculate about the return on investment, Webb said, but the initial indicators are very promising.

“Normally, when you have people in the countryside, do not have a time clock, so you have to rely on being honest,” said Webb. “When I started using the system, we discovered that we had some guys … [Recording your start time] when he left home in the morning. [GPS TimeTrack] fixed in a hurry.”

Elyxir the Merchandisers utilize the system to keep track of their time on specific accounts. The staff who clean the bar taps are paid based on the number of taps to clean on any given day, and are able to use their cell phones to enter start and stop times, as well as the number of taps to clean. Already in the central office, the resulting information goes directly to payroll, and can also be collected for analysis.

“We use the UPS Logistics routing software,” said Webb, “and said that [drivers], where they have to go, what sequence to follow, and how long it should take. At the end of the day, we have a real comparison of While you can relate to, without having to send someone out there with them.

Global Positioning System – GPS – the devices have become everyday items for many of us as their cost has dropped.

These devices communicate with geostationary satellites, which tell the device, exactly where on Earth it is. Potential applications of this knowledge are endless. If you know where you are, where they were and at the time between then you know exactly his speed. If you know where you are then others too.

GPS systems can be installed in cellular phones and satellite phones. Sportsmen and women can use GPS devices to calculate how far have been exhausted or paddle, your current speed and average speed.

More and more companies are setting their vehicles. The trucks can carry 500,000 U.S. dollars worth of goods, so it is worthwhile to install a GPS system so you know where he is. A similar system is sold as a theft deterrent to private drivers.

Other companies are mounting a system that interacts with the engine management computer on vehicles in its fleet of company. As a driver leaves a predefined region, the engine power goes down and continues to fall even further outside the designated area the vehicle. The system will soon pay for itself in reduced levels of unauthorized mileage.

GPS devices are now so miniaturized that can be worn on the wrist like a watch. GPS navigation systems are commonly installed in trucks and vans. Built into the software interprets the GPS information in a number of spoken commands like “Turn left” or “You’ve missed the turn, take the next right and turn around.” A GPS system messaging means that companies can achieve faster deadlines because drivers are never lost.