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More on Telematics Hardware Devices

Mar
2018

There are many types of telematics Hardware devices, cables, tablets, and sensors that exist in the market that all serve different purposes. Often certain vehicles require completely different specs to perform their duty. For example, a snowplow is going to require a much sturdier and durable device which has the ability to identify when a snowplows arm and plow is in the down position or not, whereas a delivery vehicle would most likely not.

There are two main categories of questions to determine when making the decision on which devices to equip.

Equipment/ Vehicle Information
- The model/make of the vehicle (a Prius and a Ford are inherently different so might require different devices).
- The year of manufacture is also important (cars older than 1996 require different hardware)
- Is the device going to need to be inside or outside of the cab?
- Is power needed or not
Functional Information
- What is the goal? Do we just need to track or is more functionality needed?
- How many inputs are needed (e.g., right broom)?
- Will you be needing engine diagnostics?
- Do you need to identify the driver using the vehicle?
- Staff to install or not?

These questions help narrow down the needs of your fleet and can identify the types of devices to be used. Below is a list of the different types of devices which each serve different purposes.

Hardware varies in complexity of installation, some are simple plug and play while others may require more technical knowledge of how to properly integrate the devices with the respective vehicles.

For more information on the different devices and capabilities please feel free to request a demo in which we can go in depth about all the different hardware, you may also want to check out our recorded Webinar in which we also explore these devices and more.

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LiGO® Features: Driver ID

Feb
2018

Where are my drivers?!

This Driver ID feature provides those concerned the ability to track the driver of the vehicle, report on drivers associated with the vehicle, and draw the vehicle track by driver. There are three main hardware components which are:

Above are the three (3) parts that come included with all Driver ID purchases. The first item is the “Adv. Power Cable”, this is a more functional I/O power harness that allows the use of our Driver ID system and is installed similarly to the basic power cable harne. Next is the “Driver ID Reader” it will plug into the 2 pin connector that is included on the Adv. Power Cable. The reader will need to be secured to the vehicle and typically gets installed on the dash near the ignition. The final item is the “ID Key Fob” this is assigned to either the driver, or a value supplied by the customer. Once the vehicle is turned on simply tap the ID Key Fob to the ID Reader and hold for a several seconds

All components are industry standard (no proprietary components). In addition we can bring a wide variety of sensors and GPS telematics devices later in 2017 as part of our cooperative research grant with BSU for a new Sensor Adapter – to streamline in and near cab sensor data to LiGO®. We can track not just calamp, but your phones, tablets, Cradlepoint, and many other vendors. These tools can be used to provide more organized and personalized work-flow, but also serve as a precautionary step in dealing with any legal issues regarding drivers and operations.

LiGO® Driver ID feature allows for much more flexibility and opportunities to more strategically deploy crews with specific information about the driver and the vehicle. Furthermore, there is an added ability of security to vulnerabilities like theft, which is a valued characteristic of any telematics solution. Customization, as always is an option, specific roles can be placed on users by ID that restrict or enable the access of information and more.

Standard role setup:

Role Name	Role Description
View Only	Role which has view only permissions and a simlified view of the application (e.g., map and vehicles only)
Operator	Role which has all the viewing capabilities, but can also run/create reports, view geofences, view events & alarms, interact with tracks and track points. No access to Administrator type features like Add Users, manage Event rules and Create Views.
Administrator	Role has all capabilities above plus the ability to add, modify and delete users. All features and rights are enabled by default.
Developer	Role which has access to API, HTTP expression, terminal, LiGO Access, Icon Library and other developer options.

With constant updates to LiGO®, we expect to see more connector tools arise as our customers define workflows and applications for this integration, as well as more integration and accessibility between wired, and wireless devices and LiGO®.

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LiGO Benefits

Feb
2018

Having trouble on deciding whether to make the switch to implementing telematics? Better Management = Smarter Government you need information and metrics to manage! LiGO enables operations managers and workers in the field to have up to date and useful information.

Know where your resources are

At any point in time know where your valuable resources (vehicles and people) are.

“Trust but verify”.

Mobile Resource history

Look at where a vehicle or crew traveled throughout a particular day, week or month.

Fuel Savings – Idling, Speeding

Reduce fuel costs & “Go Green” by reducing driver idling time, speeding, fast acceleration, and more. Savings and ROI can be derived in just days!

Regulatory Compliance

Help meet NPDES MS4 Stormwater and other regulatory compliance requirements with accurate daily, monthly yearly record keeping and reporting.

Route Optimization for Better Dispatching

Efficiently dispatching drivers on optimized routes will reduce fuel consumption, enhance productivity and reduce overtime. LiGO will help you find the right resources that are the closest to the work site.

Prevent Vehicle Abuse and Wear and Tear

Monitoring and reporting of aggressive driving combined with the use of in vehicle audible warnings feedback will reduce wear and tear on your fleet vehicle.

Safety = Saving

The tracking of speeding and aggressive driving events can modify driver behavior. This reduces accidents and insurance rates as well as vehicle and driver down time.

Stop Unauthorized Vehicle Use

Detail time and trip history reports will reduce drivers wasting time, unauthorized trip and stops. Report after hour’s vehicle usage and provide vehicle location for theft recovery.

Schedule Vehicle Maintenance and Reminders

Prioritize vehicles for repair and maintenance based on live vehicle Odometer readings, fuel usage and engine hours. Schedule maintenance reminders for your entire fleet.

Detect Engine Issues and Monitor Fault Codes

With engine fault code information (most vehicles), you can now stop engine issues before they become costly to manage and repair.

Defend yourself against frivolous lawsuits

Cities and counties are easy targets for driving related lawsuits. Can you prove where your vehicles have been and when?

Insurance Discounts

Many insurance companies have telematics programs that offer a 15% to 40% discount for sharing your fleet’s driver behavior.

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Facilitating the transition to Telematics

Feb
2018

We’ve explored in previous blogs, the different ways in which technologies like ELDs are becoming a norm in the fleet management industry. We also understand that change in business operations can often be repelling for managers and employees. Part of our job as service providers is to ensure that all our customers go through the smoothest of transitions and receive the best preparation and training when making the shift to implementing any of our software & hardware in their operations. This transition is approached through 8 intuitive steps that will, at the end have your operations running more proficiently than ever before!

Project initiation: The first step comes after a contract is signed and a PO or project notice to proceed has been issued. The first project kick-off meeting is held in which together we review the scope of work and perform an initial assessment of your company’s current systems. Ultimately the goal in this first step is to establish the project plans and understanding of communications and responsibilities.

Planning: In this phase our own Delivery Services Manager will ideally work with your own company’s Project manager to finalize a schedule which would be based on tentative schedules discussed in the project initiation phase. In planning we would also require a vehicle list provided by your Project Manager so that we can acquire the devices that will best fit your operations.

Implementation: This might be the phase most feared by our customers, which is why MarshallGIS works closely with the implementation team and your own project team. Our goal here is to design the initial configuration and ensure that through training and implementation your company smoothly integrates and grows in the ability to use the systems.

Training: Training is essential to allow our customers to feel comfortable with the systems which is why this phase essentially never stops. We keep communication with our customers throughout the entire process and focus on allowing your staff to utilize the full potential of our software to inevitably boost productivity while cutting costs.

Integration Services: Though the scope of services requested or required will vary per customer, at this stage in a standard procedure, MarshallGIS will work with our customers to deploy the relevant integration modules.

Configuration Services: After installation of devices MarshallGIS project team with work in unison with our customer’s team to configure the different groups, roles, views, GeoFences, Points of Interests (Landmarks) and reports.

Monitoring: Our input and work put into making sure your operations run smoothly will never stop. We work continuously to monitor the hosted systems, and activated vehicles.

Closing: The initial deployment phase will close after the identified initial vehicles are live, tested and the introductory training is provided.

These intuitive steps to integrating our ELD technologies to your fleet/asset operations have been carefully thought out and crafted to ensure the smoothest and most cost benefiting solutions to our customers.

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Route Optimization Best Practices

Feb
2018

Some Important Notes about Automatic Route Optimization

The automatic optimization of Routes requires solving a notorious and complex problem in computer science called “The Travelling Salesman Problem”. Truly solving the problem and obtaining the guaranteed best route for a set of points on a map is an extremely time and resource consuming problem. It is even more complex on road networks where the distance between two points might be different depending on which direction you drive between them due to one way road systems.

For this reason, the automatic optimization feature uses an approach which performs an estimate and gets a result that is not necessarily the very best solution but should be a good one and should help give your fleet significant fuel savings over time when used for a workers daily set of jobs. If your route is optimized automatically by LiGO it will let you know how much time you saved when it is finished.

Below is an example of an optimized route in Boise – that reduced total drive time by 50% for interoffice mail delivery at the City, and an example of an auto generated route geofence that you can use for other reports. This route optimization that had such an impact on Boise mail delivery took 5 seconds, and no GIS data processing.

Our take on route optimization is that there are two basic types

GIS-based analytical optimization, similar to hydraulic modelling for water systems, that is complex, is done infrequently, and only as good as the underlying data.
Day-to-Day optimization that creates “pretty good” routes, perhaps originally created from complex routing (number 1 above) and/or human experience, but is setup for easy to manage day-to-day operations.

LiGO uses data from 1) above if you have it, but is designed to support 2) above. Please call to discuss if you have any questions – or need more information.

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Route Optimization, Save Time, Make Money

Jan
2018

Using OSM (openstreetmap.org) data, LiGO® is able to generate useful results for optimizing travel through a set of points. At no extra cost, the route management functionality allows you to see the estimated distance and journey time of your planned routes and lets you automatically optimize with the “Optimize” feature or you can configure them manually with your local area knowledge. Within LiGO® you can import a pre-existing route from GIS or similar geospatial systems, you can create the route manually, or you can drive a route and auto create the route. Routes can then be edited, deleted, and reassigned to workers.

How you can use this information

Reports can be created for total time in a route GeoFence, time stopped, time with “plow down”, or other onboard engine event within a route geofence. Other metrics such as time to job and time on job are auto calculated and turn by turn directions are provided via our free LiGO® Mobile app. Theses logistics will help you always be the most efficient manager possible, cutting time and costs at wherever necessary. This also opens avenues to improve customer relationships with more accurate info on the location and status of your crews in the field.

Viewing Route Details

After configuring Route Optimization, your new and existing routes will now contain an extra field called Route Details. Here you can see the current length and estimated journey time of the route with the stops in the order that they currently stand. The map also contains a track drawn with directional arrows showing you the optimal route to take between each stop.

Optimizing Your Route

If you drag the stops around in the Route window to reorder them, the track on the map and the Route Details field will update in real time to show the newly calculated route. This is ideal when you have local knowledge of the area and want to use this specialist knowledge to tune your routes.

If you would like LiGO® to optimize your route automatically, you can click the “Optimize” button in the lower left hand side of the Route

In most cases, a mixture of the two approaches will yield the best results. Try an automatic optimization of the route to get off to a good start and then experiment with switching some stops around in areas that you know have complex road structures.

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Go Green while simultaneously stretching your Dollar

Jan
2018

Often, the concept of going green is associated with more expensive and less productive ways of doing things. As it turns out, this is not always the case. Our LiGO telematics solution paves the way for you to transform your fleet operations into greener, more efficient ones. The combination of lower vehicle maintenance costs, improved fuel efficiency and overall improved productivity allow this to happen.

What do we mean by ‘Going Green’?

Simply put, going green means reducing the direct impact of our carbon footprint on the earth wherever possible. many of the functions that fleets perform have a direct or indirect impact on our environment. This could be the use of paper for reporting and logging functions, or the CO2 emissions released by most vehicles on the road. Eliminating waste where reasonably possible not only helps our earth and its inhabitants, it also improves operation productivity and reduces overhead costs.

How will ‘Going Green’ help you save on costs

Implementation of our LiGO telematics solution means that all vehicle logistics are available to you at all times. being alerted about long idle times, unnecessary trips, and harsh braking and accelerating enable you to do something about these issues. Stopping your fleet vehicles from using more fuel than needed will help reduce fuel costs, while the harsh driving alerts allow you to make whatever changes necessary to prevent the degradation of the vehicles, ultimately reducing maintenance costs. Additionally, being aware of harsh drivers among your crew will keep your employees and others using the roads much safer.

How will ‘Going Green’ help you save on time

One advantage of LiGO telematics is the ability to reduce paper waste by switching to digital. Switching to digital not only reduces amount of paper wasted but has also been shown to provide better data with less mistakes and inaccuracies. Reports can more easily be automated, checked of any mistakes, and shared by just a click of a button. Furthermore, the move to digital paper work is a trend now long in the making. The inevitability of digitized work places in most industries is commonly accepted as exactly that, inevitable.

To recap here are some of the main ways ‘Going Green’ can help you save

Significant savings of fuel
Low maintenance cost
Streamlined operations reduced paper work
Reduction in operation costs
Lower insurance cost
Increased life expectancy of vehicles and equipment

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Avoiding Problems Before They Occur

Jan
2018

One of the biggest risks to fleet manager’s operations are negligent entrustment lawsuit’s. Negligent entrustment can be defined as when one party (the entrustor, typically in the position of manager) is held liable for negligence because they negligently provided another party (the entrusted) with a dangerous instrumentality, that caused injury to a third party. These situations are common and can lead to serious penalties.

There are many steps that can be taken towards preventing such circumstances. Preventative actions as simple as doing back ground checks on who you are hiring are a good start. Are you really surprised that the worker who totaled your transportation van had a long track record of on-road accidents, and a DUI on his record?

“Hmm, I don’t remember telling Crew #2 to go that way…”

The truth is, sometimes no matter how thoroughly you do your research or take precautions to avoid these counter-productive situations accidents do and will happen. Here at MarshallGIS we have received feedback from fleet managers and other types of department heads who have been completely blind-sided by their most ‘trusted’ employees using fleets for personal gains or illegal activities putting the operations in danger. Telematics enable managers to pin point the cause of the problem whether the problem originated internally as in the example given above, or externally.

At MarshallGIS we offer all the tools required allow managers to the best of their ability to avoid any counter-productive activity. Through LiGO® and the software it features you, in whatever managing/planning position you occupy can be notified in real time of any activity that diverges from that of the norm. LiGO® telematics can act as an efficient counter-measure for operational safety for your crew.

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Maximizing ROI through Integration

Jan
2018

Integration makes our product easy to implement while maximizing returns. One of the many functions of LiGO® ACCESS is its API functionality; our customers can keep the existing business systems with which staff are comfortable and familiar with, reducing training efforts and accelerating implementation. This means that the entirety of the telematics data collected by our software solutions can be interpreted, and then fed to a number of secondary systems for other purposes.

What are API’s how do they help?

API’s short for Application Programming Interface, is a characteristic of any software which allows it to connect different devices, and applications by allowing the transfer of data. It is what allows us to book a reservation at a hotel with just a few clicks on a device. It is the link between a command and results in times when the system in which you create the command, and the system in which the results derive from are separate. One analogy would compare an API to the pizza hut employee who takes your call places the order, and then sends the delivery driver in your direction. API’s effectively make communication between different applications possible whilst also enabling the use of the same data for different functions. The beauty of API’s is that the work they do is all behind the scenes, similar to code on a webpage; even though you can’t see it the code is constantly working to do whatever the input demands of it.

Integration features

LiGO® ACCESS web services, was first developed to enhance GeoKNX – a mature MarshallGIS product that pulls and pushes work orders and service requests to and from Lucity, Infor/Hansen and IBM/Maximo’s Enterprise Asset Management, and Work Management Systems (EAM/WMS) for over 100 customers and hundreds of thousands of service requests. We now have this functionality for LiGO®, and have added Cityworks and Esri integration.

All modules are integrated together, but can be turned off or on based on permissions (uncheck modules if you don’t want them). MarshallGIS has extensive experience with integrating Mobile Work Order Management and Service Requests with location based systems such as ArcGIS including creates, updates and deletes.

Supported Modules

Esri GIS Integration

LiGO® provides for multiple interface options with Esri ArcGIS. ArcGIS Server maps in LiGO®, live LiGO® vehicle feeds to your ArcGIS operations map, KML import/export, and CSV exports.

Cityworks Integration

MarshallGIS has been partnered with Cityworks for over 5 years and is committed to support Cityworks integration. API’s are designed to fluidly transition without breaks during a software version change.

No third party tools are needed to maintain integration.

We’ve also developed a work flows to push odometer readings from LiGO® into Cityworks and create a vehicle work order for activities such as vehicle inspections, oil changes and tire rotations base on miles and or time.

Garmin Integration

LiGO® can be optionally provisioned with Garmin’s for dispatch/jobs, routing and chat features, and even real time (based on traffic) estimated time of arrival. This can be enabled simply by checking Garmin as an option. Garmin integration brings a lot of additional functionality – including turn by turn directions, proximity sensors, additional driver ID with NFC, camera, video, and chat.

Displays

To display live vehicles/crew locations from LiGO® on your Cityworks Operation map or any ArcGIS map (Desktop, Server, Online) there are two methods. As always each have pros and cons.

LiGO® can use, but does not require, ArcGIS GeoEvent Processor to update a vehicle feature class on a user defined schedule. This method requires the user to have a Esri GEP license.
LiGO® can also send position updates to a user defined REST endpoint. The REST endpoint may be hosted at your location. If you prefer to simply publish a feature service with editing rights to the underlying vehicle feature class, LiGO® can host the REST endpoint and perform the transformation from the LiGO® output to JSON.

With LiGO® ACCESS API, Users can also populate data within Cityworks such as Work Orders or Service requests.

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Late to Adopting new Tech?

Dec
2017

Last week’s tragic train derailment which killed at least three people, and injured hundreds more, highlights a very important issue that must be addressed. Reluctance for organizations to adopt new technologies is very common in almost every industry. This unwillingness comes from a number of different reasons, the most common being cost.

Positive Train Control or PTC is the technology designed to act as a safety net to prevent human errors which account for roughly 40% of train accidents. The technology uses GPS, wireless radio, and computers systems to stop trains from derailing, speeding, or colliding. PTC came about in the early 1990’s but didn’t gain traction or national attention until September 2008. This came as a response to a tragic railroad collision near Los Angeles which left 25 dead. Consequently, Congress moved to pass new rail safety laws that set a deadline of December 15, 2015 for the implementation of PTC technology across most of the US rail network. This was later extended at the request of many railroad companies to December 31, 2018.

So why the delay in implementing PTC you might ask? “The reason why they’ve been given so many extensions has been money,” said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation inspector general. Many who oppose the mandate also question the validity of the technology. A 12-year study by the Federal Railroad Association concluded that the savings from the number of accidents avoided would not be enough to cover the costs of implementing PTC across Class I railroads (69% of U.S. freight rail mileage & 90% employees). Furthermore, in the 20 years from 1987 to 2007, 27 deaths from railroad accidents where recorded and the response to these accidents were all handled with changes to operating rules rather than implementation of technology. And now we find ourselves in 2017 with more people losing their lives to railroad accidents.

Cost benefits are a tricky balancing act for anybody in the decision making process. When it comes to safety however, a policy of ‘expecting the worst’ might be advised. Individuals in decision making positions should not take the adoption of technology lightly. No individual is solely responsible for the slow implementation of these technologies but rather a culmination of missteps and cold feet throughout the industry.

Source

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Blog

More on Telematics Hardware Devices

Equipment/ Vehicle Information

Functional Information

LiGO® Features: Driver ID

LiGO Benefits

Know where your resources are

Mobile Resource history

Fuel Savings – Idling, Speeding

Regulatory Compliance

Route Optimization for Better Dispatching

Prevent Vehicle Abuse and Wear and Tear

Safety = Saving

Stop Unauthorized Vehicle Use

Schedule Vehicle Maintenance and Reminders

Detect Engine Issues and Monitor Fault Codes

Defend yourself against frivolous lawsuits

Insurance Discounts

Facilitating the transition to Telematics

Route Optimization Best Practices

Some Important Notes about Automatic Route Optimization

Route Optimization, Save Time, Make Money

Go Green while simultaneously stretching your Dollar

Avoiding Problems Before They Occur

Maximizing ROI through Integration

What are API’s how do they help?

Integration features

Supported Modules

Esri GIS Integration

Cityworks Integration

Garmin Integration

Displays

Late to Adopting new Tech?

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