Vehicle Tracking

Essex-girl_2

My OH & myself run a small transport company and obivously are suffering because of the fuel prices. One of our drivers has slowed down & is saving us £10 per day average on his fuel.

I believe that some of our other drivers could do this also saving us fuel, cutting the risk of an accident and vehicle wear & tear so we are looking into a tracking system.

There is loads of stuff on the web & I have arranged a couple of demo's but wondered if anyone out there as already done this. I do think that the cost will be more than covered by the savings.

Has anyone any advice/recommendations?

[MaccA]

Hi Essex-girl,

I work in the Auto-Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) industry who specialise in this sort of things. There are numerous options available to you.

They range from a rugged PDA type device running some software and a GPS receiver to a fully integrated vehicle system giving you real time data on your drivers.

The easiest solution for your would be to get a rugged PDA (it must be rugged as your drivers will destroy something like an ipaq) with either a GPS unit built in, or attached via a USB or Bluetooth connection. You'll then need some software (probably custom written I'm afraid) which logs every 10seconds the location of the driver. This will then tell you the speed they were driving at.

Its not going to be cheap though as you're looking at £1000+ per rugged PDA and then several thousand pound + for the custom software.

Our sister company has done something like this before (they tracked some cyclists on a charity cycle ride through France updating a website once a minute with the progress) so would be worth contacting. They're web site is www.codegate.co.uk.

Feel free to reply with more questions and I'll do my best to help

[MaccA] / Andrew

Essex-girl_2

Thank you MaccA

I will have a look at the website - there is just so much out there, I know it will work for us & the savings will be worth it its just hard with so much choice.

epninety

Going along the route (no pun intended) suggested by MaccA...

Panasonic Toughbook PDAs can be got for about £200 (either second user or new/old stock) and GPS modules shouldn't be too expensive. Plenty of GPS logging software out there in freeware/shareware.

Much simpler might be something like this :-
http://www.usglobalsat.com/p-44-bt-335-gps-data-logger.aspx
... should work well with a bluetooth equipped laptop to recover the data at the end of each day. I'm sure I've seen something similar that records to an SD card which might be better - you could issue drivers with a card to return at the end of each shift.

[MaccA]

Hi Essex-girl,

yes it is very confusing with a lot of options out there. Part of my role is to design solutions just like this so if you have any questions following your demonstrations feel free to pm me and I'll try to advise you on them.

It will be worth your time to read up on a couple of factors about ruggedised devices before your demonstrations including 'Ingress Protocol', drop specification (how high it can be dropped from without breaking) and communication features (Bluetooth, 802.11b/g, GSM/GPRS).

Manufactures you are likely to be told about are Handheld Products (now Honeywell), Symbol (now Motorola) and Intermec. There are others out there such as Metrologic, Psion Teklogic and Unitech who are worth considering.

Good luck!!!

[MaccA]

Essex-girl_2

Thank you both.

I will see how the demo's go, one in particular is very much geared to how the vehicle is being driven which is what we really need.

Ive resisted going down this route for a while but with the fuel prices I cannot avoid it any longer. Not sure we are going to be popular with the drivers either but hey we are going to be as 'green' as we can be.

Many Thanks again.

Hermann

Don't the Tacho discs already provide you with the info you need?

It doesn't sound like you particularly want to know the live location at any particular time so you may not need GPS system if all the information is already being recorded in the vehicles by the Tachograph.

Ephemera

Hi Essex,

Have you checked this out with your drivers?

I joined a local company 18 months ago, a few months after Trackers had been installed on the company vans. It didn't bother me much as it was a new job and as the Tracker was already on the van it wasn't anything 'new'.

However my colleagues, who were accustomed to the little luxuries of not having their bosses know exactly where they were (!) were a little piqued at what they saw as an invasion of their privacy, etc. However, as time has gone on they are less bothered about it.

I suppose it depends on how you sell it to them - maybe a health and safety plug will help - 'we will know where you are in an accident' etc.

If it's about saving fuel why not have an incentive scheme for your drivers, if they improve their fuel miles per gallon then they get something in their pocket - a monthly bonus for staying in agreed limits, for example, or a voucher, a meal out, etc...

All the best,

Eph.

planemad

Hermann wrote: »

Don't the Tacho discs already provide you with the info you need?

It doesn't sound like you particularly want to know the live location at any particular time so you may not need GPS system if all the information is already being recorded in the vehicles by the Tachograph.

Thats what I was thinking! but they may only run small vans that do not need Tacho equipment.

What is you main aim? (to save money!) OK

How can a speed tracking device do this? It cannot!

What rules will you bring to the driver contract of employment so that you can enforce the person to save you fuel?

How would you disipline staff if you feel that are using excessive fuel?


To save fuel you do not just need to look at the speed your drivers are driving at as 30mph in third gear will use more fuel than 60mph in 5/6th gear.
Speed is not the main issue with fuel consumotion.
Tyre type and pressure awareness and good maintenance are also key to fuel savings.
Making sure that you are using the right units for the right jobs also helps and plan your routes better to advoid traffic and excessive mileage.
Do not warm up the units for long periods of time unless you need to build up brake air.

Before spending money on electronic devices maybe investment in your drivers will be better.
Sent them all on an advance driving course that they can gain something from that can push home all the points you are raising and if this does not work then look again at your problem.

buglawton

Most trucking co's would love to waste £10 per day if it means one extra delivery can be squeezed in! In reality drivers may rush it in order to get a longer break at some other time. HGVs in Europe have had tachometers since the 70s so why all the talk of high tech stuff here?

Anyway a human incentive scheme does sound the best option.

bookduck

there is cellphone monitoring/triangulation that is quite cheap http://www.accutracking.com/ http://www.childlocate.co.uk/ http://www.followus.co.uk/homeusers.html