GPS Vehicle tracking

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martyyn

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#230271 16-Feb-2018 10:00

I wasn't sure where to put this so I'll try here.

I have a need to track 4-8 vehicles. We need to know where they are, how long they have been there, how fast they are going if moving and location details if they are stolen. All the typical stuff for a sparky, plumber, builder, etc.

We've been quoted $2400 a year for 4 vehicles which includes paying off the navman units over 24 months. But $4800 seems like a fair amount given you can pick up GPS unit on Aliexpress for USD50.

Anyone have any other options or is $2400 annually considered reasonable ?

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#1959002 16-Feb-2018 10:31

It's all about the service levels.

The cheapie device will tell you where the vehicle is, when you txt it, if its battery has enough charge and if the prepaid SIM card you inserted has enough credit. It actually doesn't meet your requirements by a long shot, when I re-read your requirements.

A professional level service will tell you what the driver had for lunch three Sundays ago. There is no comparison. $50 per vehicle per month for 2 years strikes me as affordable and likely you'll recover this easily with the team being more efficient as they are less likely to 'push the boundaries'.

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martyyn

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#1959006 16-Feb-2018 10:41

Dynamic:

A professional level service will tell you what the driver had for lunch three Sundays ago. There is no comparison. $50 per vehicle per month for 2 years strikes me as affordable and likely you'll recover this easily with the team being more efficient as they are less likely to 'push the boundaries'.

And that's a fair point. When the original navman units were installed several years ago the speeding tickets in particular stopped immediately. Worth it from a safety point of view at least, never mind the public perception of seeing a signwritten vehicle bombing down the road.

Breaking it down to $50 a month per vehicle puts it into perspective too.

bluedisk

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#1959044 16-Feb-2018 11:17

Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything, scary times. Good old fashioned trust and leeway is being eroded daily.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

martyyn

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#1959053 16-Feb-2018 11:42

bluedisk:

Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything, scary times. Good old fashioned trust and leeway is being eroded daily.

Errrr, I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here.

We run a business with 8 guys out in the field and charge on a time and materials basis. Should we be using a pencil and paper to run the business ?

kryptonjohn

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#1959055 16-Feb-2018 11:49

bluedisk:

Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything, scary times. Good old fashioned trust and leeway is being eroded daily.

Pfft. When you supply vehicles to your staff you owe it to the business and the public to do what is required to ensure they are operated safely.

bluedisk

225 posts

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#1959057 16-Feb-2018 11:50

martyyn:

bluedisk:

Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything, scary times. Good old fashioned trust and leeway is being eroded daily.

Errrr, I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here.

We run a business with 8 guys out in the field and charge on a time and materials basis. Should we be using a pencil and paper to run the business ?

As a freelancer who works on a daily rate I would hate to be checked up on electronically. I guess its the world we live in now where we must expect to be tracked every hour of the day.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

martyyn

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#1959069 16-Feb-2018 12:10

bluedisk:

As a freelancer who works on a daily rate I would hate to be checked up on electronically. I guess its the world we live in now where we must expect to be tracked every hour of the day.

This isn't to track the guys and see what they are doing. If that was the case I would walk away myself.

Daily rate is easy, hourly rate is a different matter altogether. If we had a dollar for every customer who claimed we were only there for 5 minutes I'd be a happy man. Some jobs are urgent with people's safety at risk, we don't need to be calling all 8 guys to see where they are. We want to call the closest one and get them onsite quickly. The guys note their hours and we only confirm they match the GPS if a customer calls to question it.

The vehicles also have a lot of expensive equipment in them so if one is stolen we would like it back, and yes we would love to think all the vehicles are driven to the road rules, but that's not always the case. If anyone is consistently breaking the speed limit we can have a quite word with them and re-iterate that is not within the company philosophy.

I'm not a fan of 24x7 tracking either, but don't assume the worst until you understand the reasons why.

CamH

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#1959071 16-Feb-2018 12:14

bluedisk:

martyyn:

bluedisk:

Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything, scary times. Good old fashioned trust and leeway is being eroded daily.

Errrr, I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here.

We run a business with 8 guys out in the field and charge on a time and materials basis. Should we be using a pencil and paper to run the business ?

As a freelancer who works on a daily rate I would hate to be checked up on electronically. I guess its the world we live in now where we must expect to be tracked every hour of the day.

We're about to start tracking our work vehicles too. 5 of them out in the field at any time of day or night, we need to track for scheduling, time management and above that, safety of staff, especially if they're out on a job at 3am. Also very good piece of mind that your equipment is more secure - a lot of these systems can be connected to do a remote fuel shut off. Perfect for if a vehicle is stolen (we've had that happen before).

I was going to trial some of the Aliexpress units in our vehicles (there's a big company in China - the name escapes me) who have pretty good reviews and then just get a 2degrees plan and run shared data off it. Low monthly cost and should do exactly what we want.

bluedisk

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#1959082 16-Feb-2018 12:29

martyyn:

bluedisk:

As a freelancer who works on a daily rate I would hate to be checked up on electronically. I guess its the world we live in now where we must expect to be tracked every hour of the day.

This isn't to track the guys and see what they are doing. If that was the case I would walk away myself.

Daily rate is easy, hourly rate is a different matter altogether. If we had a dollar for every customer who claimed we were only there for 5 minutes I'd be a happy man. Some jobs are urgent with people's safety at risk, we don't need to be calling all 8 guys to see where they are. We want to call the closest one and get them onsite quickly. The guys note their hours and we only confirm they match the GPS if a customer calls to question it.

The vehicles also have a lot of expensive equipment in them so if one is stolen we would like it back, and yes we would love to think all the vehicles are driven to the road rules, but that's not always the case. If anyone is consistently breaking the speed limit we can have a quite word with them and re-iterate that is not within the company philosophy.

I'm not a fan of 24x7 tracking either, but don't assume the worst until you understand the reasons why.

Sorry I didn't mean this to be personal to you, and I apologise that I came across that way, my bad. I do appreciate there are good business reasons for tracking courier deliveries, expensive equipment etc.

My comment was meant to be more of a general lament as to how easily we trade off our privacy for "efficiencies", maybe me being a grumpy old man today.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

Aredwood

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#1959121 16-Feb-2018 13:09

I have GPS tracking installed in my own van. I use it as my primary time sheet system. As I always hated having to fill out paper time sheets. Now I just login to the tracking website and get the details from there. Both easier and more accurate.

I use Blackhawk tracking based on a previous recommendation.

Also their fee is only $22 per month for 1 vehicle, including device rental. And they had a $300 install fee.

davidcole

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#1959130 16-Feb-2018 13:26

I run my own GPS TRacking at home based on GpsGate.com server software.

They do 5 for free, or more per device. Which have include self hosting or they can host for you. They also have instructions for installing on AWS EC2.

They support a large number of devices and I've found it pretty good software and pretty good support considering I don't actually pay them anything.

Make sure with the aliexpress ones that they're 3g.....especially as 2deg are turning off 2g.

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martyyn

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#1959165 16-Feb-2018 14:33

bluedisk:

Sorry I didn't mean this to be personal to you, and I apologise that I came across that way, my bad. I do appreciate there are good business reasons for tracking courier deliveries, expensive equipment etc.

My comment was meant to be more of a general lament as to how easily we trade off our privacy for "efficiencies", maybe me being a grumpy old man today.

I didn't take it as personal at all, I'm glad you joined in.

I have a tin foil hat just like everyone else when it comes to privacy ;)

sparkz25

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#1959243 16-Feb-2018 17:04

i use armada gps, they are about 30 a month and you can generate reports and so on for mileage, stop times and so on,

i got both my units off trade me a few years ago and they work great, they also have inputs and outputs that you can configure to do almost anything, i used a set for unlocking and locking the doors of the old work van.

there is also another company called snitch and sensium which are pretty much the same company

they also do a free vehicle tracking where you buy a unit and supply your own sim

have a look at their website https://www.sensium.nz/

Journeyman

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#1959291 16-Feb-2018 18:20

GPS in trade vehicles are useful for more than just snooping. There is a health and safety aspect to it as well. Sky TV's in-house installers have a tracker in their vehicles (might possibly have something on their body as well? Not sure) so that if an installer has been at a job longer than expected, the office can try calling him or send someone out to check up that he hasn't fallen off a ladder.

ANglEAUT

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#1959764 18-Feb-2018 01:41

bluedisk: Wow, we are definitely in the age of Big Brother watching everything ...

Journeyman: GPS in trade vehicles are useful for more than just snooping. There is a health and safety aspect to it as well.

At my current work, we use a system called eRoad. Because we deliver dangerous goods, the dual dash cam for road & driver cabin monitoring comes in very handy. Absolutely no cellphone while driving, monitor driver response & fatigue. Ties in with NZTA for hours worked per shift & enforced rest breaks. Plus all the other info gleaned from the ECU as previously mentioned.

On a personal note, we all monitor our electricity, water & bandwidth usage The above is simply another data point for greater profits, health & service.

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