With fuel hitting $4 a gallon in many parts of America fleet managers are turning to GPS systems to cut costs and control fuel use among fleet vehicles. In fact, overseas some are saying that fuel costs are overtaking depreciation as the single largest operating expense for fleets.
Traditional GPS systems are designed to direct drivers along the fastest route between two points, but newer GPS systems and telematics software are introducing smarter navigation that can significantly reduce fuel consumption.
Location, location, location – we live in age where location-based services (LBS) are becoming ever more popular as connected mobile devices become more common and consumers are demanding location-relevant results from search engines. They don’t want to know the location of every Subway in town; they just want to know the one that’s closest to them.
LBS is powered by advanced mapping engines such as Telogis GeoBase, an SDK that can be downloaded for free, and used to create any sort of application that can provide users with accurate mapping, routing and other location-based services, such as the nearest point of interest.
This time of year it seems everyone, adults included, are paying attention to just one delivery guy – the fat man in the red suit. Where is he and when’s he stopping by to deliver those all-important Christmas presents?
But how exactly does he get round the whole world in just one evening?
It’s commonly known that the Gordons have racing in their blood. The whole family has been a familiar face on and around the race circuits of America. Back in 1990, Robyn Gordon was the first female driver to win outright at the Baja 1000, along with her dad “Baja Bob” and brother Robby. Now in 2010, on the 20th anniversary of that historic occasion, Robby will try to repeat history by winning the grueling Baja 1000 but this time with a bit more technology in tow.
For the Baja 1000 this year NASCAR champion Robby Gordon is being followed closely, very closely, by hundreds of fans. No they’re not running hard to keep up with him on the track; they’re doing it from the comfort of their own home.
Thanks to the live GPS fleet tracking software, Telogis Fleet, fans can monitor his every twist and turn through the torturous Baja 100, starting in Ensenada on November 18, 2010.
To know its position, a GPS device relies on being able to receive signals from at least three satellites. Without going into too much detail, a GPS unit uses the three satellites to triangulate its location* on earth (learn more about how GPS systems work).
GPS satellites transmit a low-powered radio signal that travels by line-of-sight (LOS). This means it will pass through clouds, glass or plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings or dense foliage. Electric interference can also affect the quality of the GPS signal, thus increasing the chance of the GPS unit not being able to receive the satellite’s signal correctly.
Most of us know that a distracted driver is a dangerous driver but now the numbers prove it conclusively.
The numbers comes from an analysis at the University of North Texas school of public health, published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The study showed that 16,000 drivers were killed by handset use between 2001 and 2007. That’s over six people dying every day from cell phone related accidents.
Why is texting, or talking, while driving so dangerous and what are we doing to save those six lives needlessly lost every day?
An artist's interpretation of Japan's new Quasi-Zenith Satellite, a GPS satellite called Michibiki, in orbit. Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
It almost seems unthinkable. The acronym GPS is so commonly used today that you would think it describes the entire global navigation system used by everyone around the world. But GPS is actually under threat from competitors. How can this be?
Firstly, it’s important to know exactly what GPS is and how it works.
GPS is actually only one part of the Global Navigation Satellite System, or GNSS. Over the years competing satellite constellations have been setup by other nations such as Russia, China and Europe. This has created some issues as different groups vie for supremacy.
In the days before GPS, getting somewhere you’d never been before was a major time soak. Ideally, you had a good set of directions and a phone number to call for help. Failing that, you might have tried to consult a road atlas or a map, look for a landmark, and wander around until you got lucky. If you were really stuck, you might try pulling into a gas station and asking for directions.
When it came right down to it, finding something in the days before GPS could be terribly inconvenient. Fortunately, those days are over.
Today, both in-car and portable GPS navigation systems save time and trouble. Portable units are especially popular in vehicles due to their relatively low cost (ranging from $100 to $400) and ever-increasing gaggle of features. If you’re thinking about buying one of these units, there are ten things to consider: Read more »
Imagine being able to plan your entire route online, across town or even interstate. After you add your start and stop points, the website plots your journey. You get a detailed output explaining your journey, information that answers questions such as the distance between the two points, how long the trip will take (according to posted speed limits) and the turn-by-turn directions to get there.
You might not think that’s anything startling, you could get that using Google Maps but this is where the Telogis® GeoBase™ mapping API starts to really stand out, and why DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluids) chose to use the Telogis GeoBase business mapping program to power their website’s powerful search feature.
In last week’s post we talked about some of the failings of the current emergency rescue systems. This week we talk about what’s being done to remedy these problems.
The next generation of emergency location is DASS (Distress Alerting Satellite System) and local government agencies and NASA are working together to make it fully operational within the next couple of years. The biggest change involves switching from low-Earth orbit satellites to the medium-Earth orbit GPS satellites. With the ongoing work done by the U.S. Air Force to keep GPS constellation as the ‘gold standard’ in navigation this is a huge advantage over the current system.
Nine GPS satellites are already equipped with the new technology, with 12 more planned. Teams are in the middle of testing the new technology, as well as working with international agencies such as Galileo and GLONASS to extend the reach of DASS from North America to Europe and Russia.
