GPS & Smart Phone Technology Question for Tech-Savvy Freepers (VANITY)

Self | 7/18/2021 | Alberta's Child

[Alberta's Child]

Folks:

Pardon the vanity, but I've found over the years that many Freepers are tech-savvy people that have come to my aid in the past on a wide range of subjects. Here's the situation I'm in, and the question at the end:

1. I am working to develop some analytical tools for a project I am working on. This project involves travel data for a fleet of delivery vehicles that are tracked by the company managers and archived for their own records.

2. Before I download the client's data I am using my own GPS data to test the tools I am developing. Basically, I have tracked myself traveling over considerable distances on 3+ hour business trips and archived the GPS data from my own GPS unit. I then go back and compute various metrics that will be of interest to my client when applied to a large fleet of vehicles -- e.g., how long does it get from Point A to Point B on average, how long does this trip take under congested conditions, what is the optimal time of day to begin a trip or delivery route, etc.

3. I am using an old GPS unit -- a Garmin Nuvi 255W modal -- for now. The positional data points are accurate enough, but I'm finding that due to the age of the unit or the age of technology it isn't providing positional data at frequent enough intervals to test my tools accurately. Sometimes my location is tracked in 1 to 3 second intervals, sometimes the gap is 10+ seconds, and occasionally there will be a gap of 20 seconds or more.

4. I haven't used this GPS unit regularly for a long time because all of the usual GPS functions have been available with smart phone mapping products for years. I only decided to use it for this short-term exercise because I know how to download and organize the data quickly in a format that I can use for my work.

5. QUESTION: Are there any good iPhone apps (preferably free!) that can be used to download and store GPS data from my phone? I am looking for something that is at least as accurate as my Garmin Nuvi and tracks data at more frequent, and consistent, intervals. An easy download process would be great, in a format that can quickly be converted to a text-delimited file and imported into Google Earth as an XML file. Eventually the analytical tools will be developed for compatibility with ArcGIS/ArcMap.

[Openurmind]

I get it. You are just compiling the data. I was just ribbing you a bit. :)

That micromanagement really does suck though. They will spend more on that tracking and micromanagement than the driver’s wages and any losses a driver could cause. It is OCD insanity and they step over a dollar to pick up a dime. It is actually wasteful business policy that costs them more than they would save.

[Alberta's Child]

Ok, thanks. So that’s a powerful real-time travel tool. I don’t need the real-time functionality but I do need the data behind it.

[Alberta's Child]

I know a company that uses those vehicle tracking tools to train drivers. They get a huge insurance discount for using it.

They’ve got a reputation as a great company to work for … with an outstanding safety record.

[Dalberg-Acton]

A couple of years ago,I looked at RFO Basic! for Android on Google Play store. I know it had access to every bit of GPS info. I assume any language you want to use on the phone can access all the data.
Go to page 184 of the manual for an idea of what you can access: http://laughton.com/basic/programs/apks/De_Re_BASIC!-v0190.pdf

[Openurmind]

We used to have similar in our trucks but old school. Qualcomm with GPS on both tractors and trailers. And of course the hardwired text tablet in the truck for the dispatchers to bug the drivers all the time. They would not even let them get their legal sleep. We used to see them hanging out the passenger window all the time when a driver was trying to sleep.

It was kind of cool in one aspect though, I could monitor the engine computers while a tractor was going down the road, and monitor the temps on the reefer trailers. But we had almost all the same capabilities for parameters which the terminal computer application deciphered. We had a running record of speed, miles driven, idle times, shut offs, engine operating parameters, etc.

But man... That is out of hand OCD you are dealing with from your company driver...

[Openurmind]

I guess if they are all like that now you don’t have a choice.

[Dalberg-Acton]

This might be a good approach, using a Raspberry Pi and GPS module.

https://youtu.be/bnOeYcfS748

[Deaf Smith]

Forgot to add that there is real time flagging of driving violations.

If one disables the app, it is flagged you will be fired unless backed up by a call to Tech Support that documents deleting/reinstalling the app as part of a trouble shoot.

Problems is the Indian contractors think Caution signs are law. A exit speed exit caution is read by the Indians as a speed limit when one did not take that exit. The speed limit sign on a parallel service road that was incorrectly placed on the left side of that road will be read incorectly as your speed limit due to being on your right .

The app gives grade for driving real time, daily, weekly, monthly...ect.

The Indian contractors do not know what a yellow sign means but a orange sign just fine. I think all Indians are color blind.

[Svartalfiar]

OK, you are off the hook. Man I hate micromanagement. I used to do fleet management and fought against corporate micromanagement the whole time. If they are just trying to track mileage the odometers don’t work? lol

It's not just for tracking your drivers. It can be useful from a logistics standpoint to know what trucks are where when a change or last-minute order comes down and you have to reroute stuff. Sure, drivers don't like being tracked, but the point of it really isn't to micromanage them.
One of the companies I used to work for had some events down in Mexico. Two semi trucks full of gear, and one of them was stolen from the hotel parking lot. $$2-3MM in gear, gone. I don't think they ever found the truck.

[semimojo]

Google 'IOS GPS logger'. There are a bunch of them, like myTracks

[CodeToad]

The GPS data is stored as a file on the phone. It is trivial to write a small app that gets it and sends it to you. That, and Apple and others won’t let you connect to other apps t get data without permissions anyway so you might was well write a small app.

[Openurmind]

I fully understand location logistics, especially to time deliveries and pick ups. But to micromanage how they drive their trucks and if they pick their nose or scratch their rear ends or not (Because now they are even putting cameras in trucks) is insane OCD overkill. The whole industry needs to draw a line with this crap.

Yes, we had to find a few missing trucks and trailers ourselves using GPS. We also had them disappear because drivers got tired of being micromanaged to the very second and covered the satellite antenna with foil.

Companies are having a hell of a time finding GOOD drivers, let alone drivers period. Then they treat them as if they are robots and not even human and wonder why... Amazon fires drivers for even stopping to take dump.

This is the new trending model of “logistics”...