GPS Vehicle Tracking

Below is a very good article that goes over what kind of data can be gotten from GPS car tracking systems. It covers in detail the information and how the GPS car tracking information is used by businesses to help them save money and improve their customer service. This is a great GPS Tracking 102 article to start with if you are wanting to learn more about GPS Tracking.

What information is provided by GPS vehicle tracking systems?
Here is a summary and examples of how you could use data
provided by GPS tracking devices:

Types of GPS Car Tracking Data

Location 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 of between 2 - 15 minutes. The standard
update interval varies between manufacturers or can be set by
the owner (optional).

* Who is closest to the customer that just called? See where
all your employees are by checking the map. Never again call an
employee just to find out where they are!

Speed calculation: Rate of movement in miles per hour. Movement
in excess of a preset speed (standard) or owner-set speed
(optional) triggers an alert, sent to the owner.

* Are employees routinely speeding? Speeding causes excessive
wear and wastes gasoline. Your vehicles represent your company
to the public; what kind of an image is presented by a speeding
or recklessly-driven company vehicle?

Present direction: Compass direction the vehicle is traveling,
expressed as north, south, east or west.

* Is employee 'X' en route to the customer or leaving their
location?

Geofence use: A 'virtual' geographic boundary, created by the
owner. Crossing this boundary triggers an alert which is sent to
the owner. The alerts are usually e-mail messages or automated
telephone calls from the system to the user, including the
vehicle identification, date/time of crossing, location of
crossing and more, depending upon the system. A Geofence can be
1/4 mile to 20+ miles in diameter.

* Is a delivery truck approaching the warehouse? Is the gate
open?

Alerts: An automatic e-mail, sent to the owner, with the date,
time, location, identification and other details related to some
event which 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 portable
device. You can monitor your company while out of the office or
away from your desk.

Fastest speed report: A daily report of each vehicle's fastest
speed.

* Why was employee 'Y' driving 80 m.p.h.?

Historical data: A record of all data related to each vehicle,
maintained for 90 days.

* Which vehicles averaged the most miles driven each day?
Export vehicle data to an Excel Worksheet to compare
productivity between employees.

Ignition on/off: Time, date and location of each instance where
a vehicle's ignition was turned on or off.

* When was Hooter's restaurant put on employee 'Z's route?

Idle report: Time, date, location and duration of each instance
where a vehicle remained motionless while the engine was
running. Owner can adjust the duration of idle allowed before a
report is generated.

* Idling the engine wastes fuel and causes unnecessary wear.
Employee 'Z's vehicle idled twice as long as employee 'Y's
vehicle; perhaps employee 'Z' should shut off his vehicle's
engine when making deliveries.

Accumulated mileage alert: An alert sent at 3,000 miles, 5,000
miles or at an owner-set interval (optional) as a reminder to
perform preventative maintenance.

* Email: time to have the oil changed on vehicle 'A'.

Location on demand: The ability to locate and display location
info when requested, regardless of when the last scheduled
update occurred.

* Where is employee 'Y'? I need to find him right now!

Map detail: Vehicle location is displayed on a street map, which
the owner can enlarge or reduce to see more or less map detail.

* Employee 'A' says Main Street is closed for construction,
what is the next street West?

Landmarks: Reference points which may or may not be visible on
the map created to designate locations important to the system
user. Landmarks could be customer locations, the user's shop,
warehouse, satellite offices, etc.

* Who has been to the warehouse today?

Breadcrumbs: When requested by the owner, a trail of points can
be displayed on the map, indicating a vehicle's route during a
certain time period.

* Do 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 info you need to manage your vehicles.

About the author:
Ken Sink, owner of My Vehicle WatchDog, is a veteran with 20+
years of transportation experience, including fleet management
of over 800 vehicles. Visit http://www.MyVehicleWatchDog.Info
for more information about GPS vehicle tracking systems from
Fleet Management Solutions, Networkfleet and Sprint/Nextel.
Submit your info for a quick, no-obligation system quote.
Quantity discounts for volume purchases.

Tags: gps tracking - vehicle - car - employee - geofence - productivity - alert