Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SteveBailey on April 28, 2008, 09:06:28 PM
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Does anyone know anyhting about these units? Have recommendations? I want to be able to track my vehicles in real time, graphically, and be able to remotely download the trip data from the vehicles.
Thanks for any help,
Steve
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The drivers will revolt!
;) :noid :lol
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The drivers will revolt!
;) :noid :lol
You could be right.. if they knew. :aok
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If you're paying the insurance and taxes on the vehicles, they shouldn't have a problem.
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The drivers will revolt!
;) :noid :lol
they sure will. I considered doing the same thing and asked a friend who has a few service trucks on the road and his guys were actually less productive even though he cut down their suck off time considerably. I came to the conclusion that if a guy wants to visit his honey mid day on my dime I'm ok with it, I prefer the harmony and the good will I have in my shop.
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As long as the girlfriend isn't too far away I suppose. I imagine these days, with gas prices where they are, the suck off time isn't the problem as much as the gas being burned while chores are being done and friends picked up from out-of-the-way locations etc on your dime.
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truckers are starting to get GPS put in there trucks, like it tracks them in real time, downloads the data to the main computer and yea, its to make sure that the truckers done run away or someone if they steal a truck can be tracked. I dont know what its called srry, but i think that if u trust your workers enough then it wont be needed.
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but i think that if u trust your workers enough then it wont be needed.
LOL. It's foolish to trust employees completely, insane to trust new-hires.
came to the conclusion that if a guy wants to visit his honey mid day on my dime I'm ok with it, I prefer the harmony and the good will I have in my shop.
Storch, this is insightful. What I want to be on the watch for is after-hours usage of my vehicles as I let my drivers take their vehicles home at the end of each day to save them from having to drive to my office each day. I wouldn't get too bent if an otherwise reliable employee made a "pit stop" now and then. That's not what I'm concerned about.
Additionally, if you have an employee that's suspect or someone has "dropped dime" on you could confirm suspicions or exonerate him rather simply. This is a small thing though, as I said, I'm almost exclusively concerned about after-hours usage.
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Qualcomm?
I think their "kid tracker" might work. I think that's the one that even gives you trip data ( speed driven, acceleration, etc)
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Steve-o....
I work for Cox Communications here in Tulsa (was there in Phoenix too) and we use a program called "@Roads". My supervisor can pull up the Applet on his laptop from anywhere and locate my work truck down to 10 feet. Real time (slight delay /5 minute max). Plus, he gets an Idle report every morning in his email. If we idle longer than 10 minutes at any given time, he knows about it and we get yelled at. With gas prices forcing our operating budget to forecast 2 million over budget for 08, they are very interested in keeping tabs on us. I take my company vehicle home and have strict restrictions when I am off the clock with regards to their vehicle. I believe you can set it up to alarm you if it leaves a certain containment area that you set up. Thats a nice feature too.
http://www.trackmyvehicle.com/piccolo-st.asp
:aok
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As a truck driver the companies i've worked for have used the GPS for years. So far the 2 that i'm familiar with are Qualcomm and People Net. Both can be installed easily and have basic feature packages and advanced packages. Depending on what type of vehicles you have, as in a car or small truck i'd say People Net would be the way to go as it uses an antenna just like a cell phone were as Qualcomm uses a large round satellite dish about the size of or slightly larger than a breakfast bowl. If you have cars or small trucks there are probably much smaller and cheaper systems than these that will work just as well but will provide you less information. There are good and bad things about these from an employee stand point. Yes they make it feel like your being watched 24/7 and gives you the feeling of "big brother" standing there. Then again if you ever had a problem, say an accident or something like that, your company knows exactly were you are at and can send help straight to you. One example i can use is a driver of ours had a heart attack, he managed to type in help on the keyboard and tell them what was happening before he passed out. They called 911 and an ambulance arrived within 20 minutes of him sending the message. Saved his life.
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Steve,
I looked for one to manage a 90 truck fleet about a year ago, I wished I remember the name. Might have been http://www.gpstrackit.com/l2000.html (http://www.gpstrackit.com/l2000.html). They all do the same reporting real time position/max speed/time of use/ daily reports/ thef alert-recovery ... but the feature I liked on the one we went for was that the GPS was connected to the truck computers letting you know when a mechanical malfunction on your truck was detected, and would even rememebr you of upcoming preventive maintenance. Also had a link to traffic congestion.
Drivers off course hated it because they couldn't BS their way out of anything, but for the fleet manager it dramatically improved the dispatch rate in a matter of a few days.
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We just installed [http=http://www.peoplenetonline.com/]PeopleNet[/http] units in all of our trucks in the fleet. Many of the features I would guess go way above what you need. I know ATT has a fleet management solution, Qualcomm, and many others. Not all read engine data, and I believe PeopleNet is geared just towards big rigs (at least the engine data cables that come standard).
You can get Nextel phones that do real time GPS for monitoring locations of users, and you should be bale to find a bunch of cheap GPS only solutions.
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I just saw a demonstration for a GPS tracker from a company called K-Systems. http://www.ksystemsinc.com/fueloil/tracking.htm The unit costs about $300 and is not limited to the fuel oil industry (where they are marketing it).
Charon
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Does anyone know anyhting about these units? Have recommendations? I want to be able to track my vehicles in real time, graphically, and be able to remotely download the trip data from the vehicles.
Thanks for any help,
Steve
steve,
if you don't mind making a long distance call, call 856-227-8877..that's Borchers Towing. i used to work for him, and installed a system that does what you seem to want....on 7 of his tow trucks. i can't remember the name of the system though, but he is very happy with it though. either ask for Dick(owner) or Jen(daughter/driving force there) :D.
tell them John(me, the incredibly great diagnostic guy :D) told a to call and ask about it......hope this can help ya at least a little.
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The drivers will revolt!
;) :noid :lol
installed properly, the drivers won't even know it exists....i know..i installed them where i used to work :D
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they sure will. I considered doing the same thing and asked a friend who has a few service trucks on the road and his guys were actually less productive even though he cut down their suck off time considerably. I came to the conclusion that if a guy wants to visit his honey mid day on my dime I'm ok with it, I prefer the harmony and the good will I have in my shop.
harmony and good will don't pay the bills...especially with deisel over $4.00 a gallon now.......if they don't like it, there's always someone else who'll do the job just as well....if they have a problem with it, then you probably don't really want them working for you and driving your very expensive trucks anyway.
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Qualcomm?
I think their "kid tracker" might work. I think that's the one that even gives you trip data ( speed driven, acceleration, etc)
a buddy of mine drives for Werner...they use the Qualcom.....he says it over-complicates almost everything.
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harmony and good will don't pay the bills...especially with deisel over $4.00 a gallon now.......if they don't like it, there's always someone else who'll do the job just as well....if they have a problem with it, then you probably don't really want them working for you and driving your very expensive trucks anyway.
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lol I challenge anyone to find skilled metal workers. fuel at any price is inexpensive when you can pass it on to the end user, which is what everyone does, the end user pays all of my expense and in my line of work there is very little competition.
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lol I challenge anyone to find skilled metal workers. fuel at any price is inexpensive when you can pass it on to the end user, which is what everyone does, the end user pays all of my expense and in my line of work there is very little competition.
soooo..the end user covers the extras fuel that your driver wastes as he goes 15 miles out of his way because he absolutley NEEDS to see his girlfriend? i'm not trying to question ya, but again...if they have a problem with you tracking the trucks(and accordingly them) then you really don't need or want them working for ya. you can train someone to do their job quickly(in most cases), or find someone who's already knowledgable to replace them.....EVERONE is replaceable. we had this problem where i used to work with some of our tow truck drivers......so they got fired.........i just bought my own repair shop, and will in the next year or so have a tow truck, and a service truck..and you bet i'm going to have some sort of tracking device on there....it's just dumb to put someone in my 50k truck and trust them
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I dont want to piss in all you guys' cornflakes,
BUT there is going to be a day when evey car or truck will be mandatory to have the GPS.
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This is great, thanks guys! This thread is full of good info. I appreciate all the wisdom. John, I may just make that call. i'll tell them you sent me. Seems like some of the systems are overkill. While I want real time tracking. I wouldn't mind knowing how fast they are going, etc. Engine data is not important to me. do you guys think a system is out there that might over tpyical gps info without all the fancy engine data capabilities?
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Id imagine with record prices for diesel, its important to know where your vehicles are. I'm sure the drivers understand the need for efficiency. If not, get one who does
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I dont want to piss in all you guys' cornflakes,
BUT there is going to be a day when evey car or truck will be mandatory to have the GPS.
YOU'RE MUCH MORE RIGHT THAN YOU KNOW.........look at onstar.........it uses them....and wait'll theyhit us with OBDIII.......
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This is great, thanks guys! This thread is full of good info. I appreciate all the wisdom. John, I may just make that call. i'll tell them you sent me. Seems like some of the systems are overkill. While I want real time tracking. I wouldn't mind knowing how fast they are going, etc. Engine data is not important to me. do you guys think a system is out there that might over tpyical gps info without all the fancy engine data capabilities?
well......as for if they're going too fast or not......Dick had gotten a call from a motorist that one of his service trucks was driving down the atlantic city expressway and weaving in and out of traffic.....he pulled up the vehicle number.....the guy was doing something loke 90mph............it's a great system, and the install is fairly easy too.....even better..if you need to send driving directions to a driver.....you type it into your computer, click send, and it goes right to them on the gps.
good luck!
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Steve, forget about GPS- just fire all the lazy dishonest white drivers you have now and replace them with illegals. You get much more bang for the buck with illegals, especially if you pay them under the table and avoid payroll taxes.
The only drawback, of course, is that if they get in a minor fender bender they flee the scene. Other than that, though, it's the only way to go.
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steve... good luck, gas is $4/gallon... business owners need to keep an eye on expenses. dont ever hire an illegal! <S>
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YOU'RE MUCH MORE RIGHT THAN YOU KNOW.........look at onstar.........it uses them....and wait'll theyhit us with OBDIII.......
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i can see it now "they" are going to say old cars are destroying the ozone so outlaw all old cars/trucks and only new cars with this type of system in it will be allowed!!
OBDIII?? whats this??
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As long as the girlfriend isn't too far away I suppose. I imagine these days, with gas prices where they are, the suck off time isn't the problem as much as the gas being burned while chores are being done and friends picked up from out-of-the-way locations etc on your dime.
Curval doesn't need GPS.
"Where's the delivery truck Curval?"
"I can narrow it down to about a 10 mile radius"
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Some buy here pay here car lots have a device that will shut down a car if payments are not made.
and no, they do not shut them down when someone is driving them!!
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Steve, forget about GPS- just fire all the lazy dishonest white drivers you have now and replace them with illegals. You get much more bang for the buck with illegals, especially if you pay them under the table and avoid payroll taxes.
The only drawback, of course, is that if they get in a minor fender bender they flee the scene. Other than that, though, it's the only way to go.
dude, I'm always glad for your pokes at me and enjoy your humor, even when I'm the target. This wasn't bad, but I know you can do better.
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i can see it now "they" are going to say old cars are destroying the ozone so outlaw all old cars/trucks and only new cars with this type of system in it will be allowed!!
OBDIII?? whats this??
on board diagnostics........right now we have OBDII.......these computer systems only ocncern themselves with emissions........they run the engines wonderfully, but there can be problems that may not affect the emissions, they won't alert you........
OBDIII....if my understanding is correct, you'll be getting letters in the mail, and emails telling you that you need to take your car in for service. i think ONSTAR already does this, but i'm not sure. i think they may be considering taking it farther to the point of disabling the vehicle if it's not repaired. i just read someone elses post about them wanting ot get rid of old cars...and that person is right too. there's a LOT of emissions that need to be cleaned up. i don't truely believe that automobiles produce as much as factories, or power plants, etc., but it's 10 times more expensive to make a factory clean up it's emissions than an automobile....so you and i both know what they're gonna try to do. as for the computer systems.....sometimes it gets a bit frustrating, but in general, i like seeing the new systems they come up with, as it keeps my job ever-changing, and challenging. i love diagnosing computer problems. you can train a drunken 4 month old chimp to change oil or brakes.......but it takes talent to diagnose the control systems that're being used today.
on the other hand, i have a 1978 ford fairmont futura.....450hp, fuel injected(EECIV) 5.0L, 5speed that runs 12's......street legal.........which i guess won't be for much longer :cry
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Some buy here pay here car lots have a device that will shut down a car if payments are not made.
and no, they do not shut them down when someone is driving them!!
and then after you pay the payment, they charge an extra "reactivation" fee.....i dated a girl that had one in her pontiac......
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now picture going over the speed limit!!
no need for cops on highways letter in the mail!!
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Some buy here pay here car lots have a device that will shut down a car if payments are not made.
and no, they do not shut them down when someone is driving them!!
Some people <cough..brother-in-law> have them on their cars when the chick he...errr they happen to be living with gets a little too sassy and he ...errrr they think she needs a little quality fresh air time to take a walk and think things over..........about three miles from nowhere.
:rofl
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Steve, this is the system we have in our vehicles. http://www.trimble.com/tms/trimweb.aspx?dtID=overview It tracks in real time, depending on the plan you get you can get a lot of other info about what is going on with the vehicle too. I am not sure about the price. You will have to get a quote from them. As I recall the pricing was comparable to other tracking outfits.