It’s Time for GPS Accuracy (give or take 15 seconds)
While working with one of our technical “geeks” here at the TrackerSystems.net Tech Bench and Gambling Casino (just kidding about the casino) I was offered what I thought was a sucker’s bet. I said that the GPS time clocks in the GPS Satellites are so accurate that they are within a nano-second of UTC time as measured by the National Bureau of Standards. These satellite clocks then adjust the clocks in our GPS Vehicle Tracking Devices. To my surprise, the Captain offered that the GPS time was over TEN SECONDS off from UTC time. I said that was impossible – I had read that they were atomic clocks matched up to a land-based reference clock. So, I took the bet… and lost. Here’s why: GPS Time does not “honor” leap seconds – the adjustment added to “human” UTC time every so often to account for the earth’s rotation slowing down. So, in the years since the GPS clock was started, UTC time has slowed down so that it lags GPS time by 15 seconds today. What’s more, the LORAN-C (the maritime radio-navigation system that preceeded GPS) clock, started years before GPS, is 24 seconds ahead of UTC time.
Here’s a neat link to a comparison clock: http://leapsecond.com/java/gpsclock.htm
Geo-Fences allow customers using GPS Vehicle Location to identify illegal activity
When they think of GPS vehicle location systems, most administrators envision seeing their fleet of trucks portrayed as icons on a map. That’s what most real-time Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) systems do. But with the more advanced “real-time” vehicle tracking systems, customers have come to expect so much more.
Read more »
Auxiliary Input monitoring
Auxiliary Input monitoring and Landmarks puts the “WHAT” in GPS Vehicle Location
Most companies envision seeing their fleet of trucks portrayed as icons on a map when they think of GPS vehicle location systems. For some, that is not enough. In addition to detailed reports and alerts, many fleet managers need to monitor specific inputs from their vehicles and equipment. Read more »
Definition: GeoCoding and Reverse GeoCoding
Filed under: GPS Technology | Tags: GeoCode, GPS Terminology, Whitehouse
Leave a Comment GPS Terminology abounds these days. Thought we’d take a moment to cover two ‘new’ words that appear in the technical vernacular: GeoCoding and Reverse GeoCoding. Both GeoCoding and Reverse GeoCoding are critical for GPS Tracking systems and allow for converting the data received from the tracking device into useful information.
GeoCoding is the process of taking an address, say: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and turning it into the latitude and longitude, its geographic coordinates. These can then easily be mapped with mapping software. While we all recognize 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as the Whitehouse in Washington D.C. Computers are more particular and require more detail, often a state or zipcode. At google, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave returns 10 choices – none are the Whitehouse!
Reverse Geo Coding is the opposite. Its the process of taking geographic coordinates, latitude & longitude and converting them back into an address. The math behind this is much more complicated and the data used is often based on government census information.
GPS Tracking: Increase Accountability, Cut Losses and Minimize Payroll Discrepencies
Filed under: Finance | Tags: accountability, geofences, GPS Tracking, recession
Leave a Comment Standard with all TrackerSystems.net packages is GeoFence reporting. The feature allows the users to define a region on the map and specify where vehicles can and can’t go. Downtime from equipment theft is a big problem for all companies, but not more so than the landscaping industry where the seasons are short and the competition so readily available. A landscaping company in South Florida raves “finally, we can track our trailers all over South Florida, and, most importantly for us, we can set alarms when they go where we don’t want them to go.” He went on to say “before Tracker Systems, we never knew where the trucks ‘really were’. Losing a mower to theft means insurance hassles, downtime for our crews and unhappy customers. Takes a long time to recover.”
Workforce Management: Quick Notes
Quick Notes Tags is a new feature we’ve added to help customer’s manage their workforces. The easy to use feature helps our customers see where their vehicles are assigned with a quick glance or a quick mouse over.
Each customer has their own configurable list of status tags. ”On Vacation”, “In Shop”, “Due for Maint.” are common examples. Once the list is configured, and it can always be adjusted. On the unit view, its just a matter of selecting an item in the pulldown menu and clicking the pencil icon to save. Full fleet editing occurs under the Manage Units tab. The status, for easy viewing, shows up when you mouseover the icon on the map.
Work force management quick notes quick status at a glance status
Follow That Grader!
Filed under: GPS Technology | Tags: fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, truck tracking
Leave a Comment Where shouldn’t your heavy equipment go?
Heavy Equipment Owner Utilizing Tracker Systems
Obvious question you’d think. But one of our customers discovered it wasn’t as obvious as he thought, when he looked at our mapping software. There, in plain sight, was his six wheel road grader making progress down a city street heading towards a convenience store.
He immediately called the operator on his cell phone and asked why he was driving down a city street. The operator explained that he had forgotten his lunch and was hungry! The manager ordered the operator to drive the equipment back to the jobsite. It turned out to be a good thing because just after the equipment was back at the site an inspector showed up.
Originally, the system was purchased and installed to keep track of when worker’s started and ended their days – automated time cards.
Backup Reporting System
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Real Time GPS, redundant backup
Leave a Comment Our new Backup Reporting System has been turned on. This new service feature involves upgrades to our servers and the software in our customer’s GPS Tracking devices. Each device is now in regular contact with both its Primary and a Backup Server located in a different state in the USA. This redundancy allows us to remain in contact with each device and reprogram it through three systems (2 servers located in hardened facilities plus the cellular carrier’s system). Even in the event of a loss of the primary server, the mobile device will continue in contact with the backup server. If the primary server cannot be restored, user access can be re-directed to the secondary server. Each mobile tracking device will now perform a “check-in” every few hours in addition to its regular reporting (you may have noticed the “check mark” icon every so often on the unit map and the “self-test” items on unit list reports).
Redundant Backup Reporting standard feature
The redundant Backup Reporting is part of our ongoing system enhancements to provide our customers with the most reliable, easiest to use GPS Vehicle Tracking service.
You’ll see more and more enhancements, features and advanced alerting functions in the next few months. We’ll have instructions on how to use these features in our “Tips” pages (you’ll need to log in to this website at the top of the page to access these new features and the instruction pages).
