Siemens Learns Slow, But Well — Check Back In A Year, This Will Be A Great GPS Success Story

Greyhound Australia, the only national coach operator in the country, has successfully implemented a SiemensVDO Fleet Management solution, designed and developed by Control Instruments (CI) OmniBridge. This strategic decision was taken to fulfill the Engineering Standard requirement, tracking and communicating in a cost saving way. The FM Locator, developed by CI OmniBridge and sold by SiemensVDO world-wide, is an on-board computer that includes an internally mounted GPS engine to record GPS positions along with trip information and when combined with a GSM/GPRS module allows remote communication between the office and vehicle for active tracking and exception reporting.
The FM Locator is reasonably priced for the initial set up and installation costs. There’s excellent benefits from this solution especially tracking and tracing vehicles traveling long distances.
This solution has great benefits, for instance, in a critical event the FM Locator transmits data via GPRS or issues SMS alerts which allow Greyhound to manage its fleet in real-time. The FM Locator captures vehicle performance and monitors driver performance like overspeeding and excessive idling. This also tracks stops; records planned time of start and planned duration of each stop, and measures deviations to ensure the best possible arrival and departure planning for Greyhound’s passengers. Full Text Here:

Now if you were responsible for this network, would you be comfortable sending out employees, expensive vehicles and passengers without knowing where they are?

I surely wouldn’t, and Greyhound Australia wasn’t either.  They chose a product that really will give an ROI (Return On Investment) as well.  This decision will not cost Greyhound Australia, it will pay, and pay off big.

For years the chosen provider, Siemens VDO supplied systems known in the trade as “tachographs”.  These devices tracked all sorts of important parameters of vehicle and driver performance but steadfastly ignored one of the most important … location.  Knowing a driver has been speeding is one thing, knowing he is speeding and where and when is a totally different level of management info.

Kudos to Greyhound Australia for modernizing and kudos yo Siemens for at last recognizing the “Power of Place”

 

Some Student’s Learn Something Of Value — Did You?

 

New GPS system wise investment

We are excited to see that the Student Association is making an effort to put student funding in an area that will directly benefit the student body.

As discussed at the SA meeting Sunday, plans are in the works to implement a GPS system for the Huskie Bus Line, at an estimated cost of about $11,000 for the entire project.

Many students are familiar with the frustrations that can come with waiting for a bus to get to class. Once the cold temperatures and freezing winds of DeKalb hit, it’s rather unpleasant to wait outside for a bus only to find it pass you by because it’s filled to capacity.

The GPS system would help cut back on this irritation by allowing students to track where the buses are on their respective routes. By accessing an interactive map on NIU’s Web site, students could figure out what time they need to leave their apartment or residence hall room in order to catch the next bus… Full Article Here:

Not exactly earth-shattering news here today, but perhaps it is worth reading even for the experts.  Every day we hear more and more about global warming and about our limited fossil fuel resources.  However, we all to seldom hear anything positive that we can do about these problems we’re leaving to out children and grandchildren.

I hate to let in in on a secret that is so mundane, but one of the real mitigating actions for both problems if public transpo.  Yes I know, you’re college-educated, rich, got investments in the stock market, drive a Beemer and only poor people ride busses. Read more

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This Is Not A GPS Story, Had It Been It Would Have Been Happier

 

5 drivers guilty of falsifying logbooks

Federal ‘Safe Roads’ probe escalated in ‘03 after fatal accident

By JOHN ELLIS THE FRESNO BEE

Last Updated: October 13, 2006, 05:43:46 AM PDT

FRESNO — Five truckers pleaded guilty Wednesday to falsifying their driver’s logs, bringing to an end a major federal investigation of the practice in the commercial-trucking industry.

The deal between prosecutors and the five defendants came on the day their trial was to begin. Each of the defendants faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine. They will be sentenced Dec. 18.

In all, six companies and more than two dozen defendants faced criminal charges in U.S. District Court as a result of the investigation, which was known as “Operation Safe Roads.” The investigation began in 2003 but intensified after a fatal accident in September of that year that decapitated a man and his son on an Arizona highway…. Full Article Is Here: 

Just a little short note in here to point up a problem I have identified for you many, many times in the past.  HOS, Hours Of Service for commercial drivers.  Now admittedly using GPS tracking wouldn’t have helped this company much, since the president and the safety officer have both been shown to be guilty, but what would happen to your company tomorrow if the federal investigators came knocking at your door?

Could you prove that your driver’s logbooks (often known as “swindle sheets” for obvious reasons) were accurate?  Would you be able to prove that as a company officer you had been monitoring your trucks and had a method in place to prove which driver was at the wheel and that you had been doing your job as manager to follow the law and keep your drivers and the highway public safe?

Well for about the cost of one big rig tire you could have, and unlike a tire the “silent witness” GPS would last for millions of miles.  When it comes to cost benefit or outright rate of return there is just absolutely no reason not to safeguard yourself and the rest of us.

You know it has occurred to me that some folks may back away from known benefits of GPS tracking because they just don’t realize they have the right to use it, the system is fully paid for by our taxes and unlike radios there is no licensing or government regulation to trouble a business owner.

GPS tracking saves lives, saves fuel, makes profit.  No license required, climb on board.

GPS In The Canyon

London tests satellite tracking

TfL could use satellite technology for more flexible road-use charge

Dave Friedlos, Computing 05 Oct 2006

Transport for London (TfL) has completed a London-wide test of satellite tracking technology with a view to establishing more flexible congestion charge pricing.

Computing has learned that TfL tested a number of devices, including custom-built in-vehicle units and PDAs, to track cars accurately through London streets.

The trials were staged to gather route data and overcome common problems such as loss of signal when a vehicle enters a tunnel, or passes through a dense block of tall buildings… Full Article Here:

Lately I seem to be running heavily to British subject matter, but I can’t help it, I only report the news as it happens. I wrote about Transport for London earlier. TfL will be installing GPS tracking on buses, reporting back both to dispatch centers and public information kiosks to improve transport efficiency and increase ridership (as in profit and more profit).

As you ca see from the quoted article there also a lot going on regarding Pay As You Drive (PAYD) toll, taxation and cutting down city traffic by offering incentives for off-peak traffic use. It all sounds great to me, except for one thing.

The dreaded urban canyon effect. When a GPS receiver can view a large part of the sky … on the order of half the sky or more, it will work great. There are virtually always 12 satellites in view from anywhere on earth and a receiver needs on four satellites to get a decent “fix”. However, when you are down between tall buildings in a big city … the so-called “urban canyon”, GPS can come up with wildly inaccurate readings or just shut down altogether until more ’sky’ becomes visible.

This is well known, long known and, in my view, is a black eye on the face of many GPS manufacturers. They just ignore the problem instead of bringing out receivers that could cure the problem.

The best solution is a dual-mode GPS chip that takes positron from the sky when available and runs in a self-contained inertial mode when not enough satellites are in view. Inertial navigation is a much older science than GPS. It involves sensing the movement and direction of a vehicle and then calculating the vehicle’s position from where it was last know, Many years ago this was an expensive, mechanically complex undertaking. Today there are inertial navigator self-contained chips that are roughly the size of pure GPS internal chips. There is an added cost but most of that cost would go away rapidly if manufacturers just realized they were in the navigation business and not the GPS business. GPS receivers today are a fifth the cost that they were 2 years ago and the price continues in free fall. Add on inertial capability would fall just as rapidly if anyone decided to live up to their responsibilities.

GPS Tracking IS Only Part Of Business Management

I don’t often cover much in the way of general business tools here, but a new business resource web site opened today that I consider to be a good value:

http://www.work.com/fleet-management-for-small-bus…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The site is loaded with free resources that seem to have a lot of value for small businesses … and they found and recommended the GPS Tracking Blog, so how can they go wrong?  *smile*  The site just opened for public business and I am finding that there’s a wealth of information there, recommended.

GPS and Trucking — HOS (hours Of Service) Part 2

As Dave Barry is famous for saying, “I’m not making this up”.  You may think part 1 of this series was complicated, but when you get into local commercial vehicle operations, you ain’t seen nothing yet: (Reference)

Summary of the 100 air-mile radius HOS provision in § 395.1(e)(1)

The 100 air-mile radius exception in Part § 395.1(e)(1) is an option to use time records in lieu of RODS on days when the driver meets the conditions of the exception, which are:

• The driver operates within a 100 air-mile ( 115 statute miles) radius of the normal work reporting location, and
• The driver returns to the work reporting location and be released from duty within 12 consecutive hours, and
• The driver maintains time records as specified in the rule, and
• The driver is not covered by the “non-CDL 150 air-mile radius” provision.

Summary of the Non-CDL 150 air-mile radius provision in Part § 395.1(e)(2)

Drivers of non-CDL vehicles (those vehicles not requiring a CDL, as defined in Part 383 to operate) who are operating within a 150 air-mile radius of their normal work reporting location and return to their normal work reporting location at the end of their duty tour are now covered by separate HOS provisions. Drivers meeting these conditions are not eligible for the existing 100 air-mile radius provision in § 395.1(e)(1) or the current 16-hour exception in § 395.1(o), since those conflict with this new Non-CDL 150 air-mile radius provision. These drivers are required to comply with the following:

(a) The 11 hours driving, minimum 10 hours off-duty, 14 consecutive hour duty period, 60/70 hours in 7/8 days, 34-hour restart all apply.

(b) On any 2 days of every 7 consecutive days, the driver may extend the 14-hour duty period to 16 hours.

(c) There is no requirement that the driver be released from duty at the end of the 14- or 16-hour duty periods . The driver may continue to perform non-driving duties, which would be counted against the 60/70 hour weekly limitation.

(d) Time records may be used in lieu of records of duty status.

I’m particularly interested in this subject because nearly every day I talk to business owner who fall under one or both of these provisions and, in general, they have their necks stuck out a country mile.  Her’s some typical examples:

• A company operates out of one city, say Colorado Springs and their drivers return to Colorado Springs virtually every night. 
• Owner says, I have no need of anything to help me track miles and hours of service, my drivers don’t even need CDL’s (Commercial Driver’s Licenses) for my vehicles.

Fine, I reply, that probably puts you under the so-called 150 mile exemption, so how do you calculate compliance?  “Why, by the odometer”, he replies with a look that tells me he thinks I’m not too bright.  Take a look at the map below and tell me how many areas he’s been excluding … or how many areas he might have broken the law in.  The first complexity here is, it’s not odometer mileage, it’s a radius of operation from the driver’s reporting point.

The turquoise circle is the approximate “150 mile” radius that can be used by the non-CDL vehicles.  Yes, just to be confusing the law uses the term “air miles” which actually don’t exist.  The proper definition is a radius in Nautical miles, so the “100 mile* rule vehicles can actually be 115 miles “as the crow flies” and the “150 mile rule” drivers can venture 172.6 miles from home station.

In case you’re wondering, lots of cities and little towns inside that circle that are going to show more than 150 miles on the odometer.  So if an owner gets too cautious and defines the rule in a way the law doesn’t, he could exclude himself from a lot of territory.

On the other hand, suppose he made trip to Fort Collins.  But on that day he just happened to use one of his vehicle that does require a CDL to operate.  Ooops.  Suppose it was a non-CDL vehicle, but it happened six months ago.  Would he be able to prove which vehicle went to Fort Collins and which ones didn’t on a given day?

How many hours did each driver spend driving on any given day, and were they driving a “100 mile” or “150 mile” vehicle.  The business operator is responsible for those records, and more.  Did each driver work not more than 14 hours before s/he stopped driving?  Did he work in addition to the 14 hours on given days and was that time counted towards his duty time for the 7 or 8 day maximum rules?  Did any drivers take the special 16 hour duty day exception?  Did they have the required 14 hour days or days off in between the 16 hour days?

I don’t know about you, but this stuff gives me a headache.  But the very operator who I’m talking about here has a branch in Grand Junction.  Does he send drivers there sometimes?  Yup?  Do they then use RODS (Logbook)?  “Oh, no, I don’t believe that’s over the 150 mile limit”, is what he told me.  What do you think?

Folks, if you operate vehicles commercially, paying drivers to operate them, even if they are as small a passenger car (should they ever, even once in a while, carry goods), you better wake up.  A federal audit of you operation could really, really, really wreck your day.

Think seriously about GPS tracking your vehicles and make sure the system you select:

• Keeps your data indefinitely (many don’t)
• Gives you your data in a standard format (like Microsoft Excel) so you can ‘feed’ it to other tools
• Positively identifies who drove which vehicle, when, because it’s the records of individual drivers that the law requires you to keep … and the law doesn’t seem that simple to me.

GPS Improves the "Take The Bus" Experience

ABQ Ride adds GPS technology

New Mexico Business Weekly - 11:33 AM MDT Thursday

Business professionals wondering if their morning Rapid Ride bus will be late, or was early, and whether they’ll get to work on time, now have a way to obtain that information.

When they call ABQ Ride, formerly known as the Albuquerque Transit Department, at 243-RIDE, a bus dispatcher will provide information on the current location of a bus, its estimated time of arrival and even how fast it’s moving.

That’s because ABQ Ride has invested in GPS (global positioning systems) tracking, which it calls the Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system, that can give the coordinates of its fleet of buses traveling along Central Avenue. Dispatchers can access information about the speed and direction the bus is traveling. And if a driver is speeding, for example, he can be advised to slow down. The city’s “Slow Down Albuquerque” campaign is geared toward decreasing speeding in residential neighborhoods, schools and business districts. Full article here:

Nice story. The good things happening are:

 

    * The City is behind the idea of promoting buses for something other than “losers”

 

    * This is a big problem. Our children are taught that buses are only for the unfortunate .. the “gimps”, the “oldies”, the illegals. Just watch TV or the movies a day or two with public transpo in mind. Ever see a hotshot detective in New York City take a bus or a subway? Nope. In real life they do often, it’s often the fastest way and often much quicker than a car … but “cool” cops just don’t.

 

# The technology is saving labor and resources.

 

    * 10 buses can easily do the work of 12 if the dispatcher can “herd” them in response to changing traffic conditions. When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey, the big name in buses was Public Service transport. The buses went everywhere … many of them following the route of their predecessor trolley lines (the odd number routes, ‘case you didn’t know). My dad who had grown up with Public Service always said the buses should have been painted yellow instead of their red white and blue. Why? Because like bananas, they always came in bunches.

 

# The use of buses will certainly cut down on air pollution.

 

    * Regardless of the bad science or totally non-existent science that Al Gore uses to “prove” that the recognized fact of global warming is actually connected to CO2 emissions, there’s no doubt that5 internal combustion emissions are hurting our world. I’ve been a pilot more than 40 years now. The difference in how much you can see from the sky now compared with then is almost impossible to believe.

    * In addition to having one vehicle replace as many as 40 individual cars, most buses can )or should) run on LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). This makes their emissions orders of magnitude better.

    * One bus replacing 40 cars will improve the flow of other traffic. See my recent post on BRT (Bus Rapid Transit). So even if you aren’t going to get do-gooder’s like Gore or even me dissuade you from commuting by yourself in your “Go To Hell Wagon” H2, your commute will go better. You’re welcome.

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