MarshallGIS Blog - Page 2 of 6

You are here: Home Arrow Blog

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.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

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

Comments Off

View Full Detail

Why Telematics Is More Than Just Mapping

Dec
2017

Telematics solutions offer more than just locations on a map. Yes, tracking is a fundamental aspect of the service that telematics provides, but the full story offers more avenues to improving operational efficiency. A common misconception about telematics solutions is that they only offer advantages to individuals in managing positions. This is entirely false; the benefits of implementing a solution to your fleet provide operational benefits to managers, and employees alike.

More than giving you locations on a map, telematics software has advanced to the point of being able to tell you every minute discrepancy of your high value asset or vehicle on the field. Aside from functions like Real-time tracking, and Geo-fencing which add useful metrics when looking at your “dots on a map”, functions like Reports, Historical views, Route optimization, Graph support, Alerts and notifications and many others, add significance in ways more valuable to running smooth operations. The list of features available with our telematics solution goes on forever, and mentioning and evaluating each one would take more time than I have. For more information on these however, feel free to reach us and set up a request for a demo.

Although it’s usually quite apparent as to the benefits these systems bring to individuals in managing positions in the fleet and public sector industries, the lesser known benefits that come to field workers and crews are equally manifested. In many of our case studies we have found that employee satisfaction with solutions employed is apparent after just a few months of implementation. In the office, streamlining the process of getting paper-work to become work orders or activities means crews receive only necessary information. Work orders and tasks that integrate with GIS features allow for better time management and delegation of tasks by presenting visual aides that also contribute useful information about routing, and other time management tools. The elimination of paper in the field makes for less chaotic organization and ease of mobility while performing field jobs. The digitization of everything also reduces the number of data entry errors. Crews and individual employees also have an added layer of protection and security against false claims that might be in relation to a work or service being performed or any type of accident that occurs while in the field. Having the type of data that telematics solutions like our own LiGO® telematics provide, really does add benefits to employees.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

Asset Theft prevention

Dec
2017

Vehicle-related thefts are up in the ranks of the most common property crimes in the US. It is estimated that on average across states an automotive theft occurs approximately every 43 seconds, with the average rate of recovery being 46 percent. Fleet vehicles often make attractive targets of criminal activities ranging from smash and grabs of valuable parts or outright theft. These factors alone should be enough for any responsible manager to take action in employing the methods available to prevent and deter criminal activity. In the case that its not, here are some case examples from this year alone.

In February a Montgomery County Md. Fleet employee was caught stealing equipment he was in charge of overseeing. The equipment was estimated up to a value of $13,000 which the manager had been selling in illegal markets. It was an anonymous tip that was followed up by police that lead to this discovery. Similarly, in march 2017 former fleet manager Robert Otterson and two body shop owners were charged and pleaded guilty to bid-rigging, theft, and conspiracy. Otterson approved 178 invoices for city vehicle repairs that resulted in unwarranted payments of $403,081.

At MarshallGIS we have received personal accounts of managers and supervisors uncovering illegal activities within their fleet operations thanks to our LiGO® software’s. Whether its real-time tracking that allows you to monitor the location of fleet vehicles, GeoFence alerts which notify you when your fleets are somewhere they shouldn’t be, or task alerts that let you know if something isn’t being done, you can stay one step ahead of mal-practice.

Source

Comments Off

View Full Detail

Handling Employee Resistance to Telematics

Dec
2017

Applying the use of telematics to your business and consequently to your crew can be a challenging task for a number of reasons. Employee push back and unwillingness to adapt new technologies or systems is common in any sort of enterprise, and telematics is no exception. The ‘big brother’ stigma comes from the unwanted feeling of constantly being watched by hardware and software devices mounted to fleet vehicles and has been known to keep employees from retaining an open mind about telematics. This is a natural reaction that managers should expect; it does not however, mean that there is no way of alleviating your employees and yourself from whatever anxieties exists towards implementation. Here are a few ways you might want to approach the situation.

Manage resistance head on. It’s important to manage resistance without beating around the bushes. Once the change is set in motion, it’s the managers duty to carry out the right professional steps to make sure it follows through. This can be achieved by employing a well thought-out structured change management approach from the initiation of the project. Being able to keep a healthy balance where employees are able to express their concerns will go a long way in helping you identify root causes of resistance, and just overall attitude of resistance. At MarshallGIS we offer a several week long training regimen designed to familiarize employees with the technology. We recommend that managers use this training schedule or some form of our structured step-by-step integration process.

Don’t be surprised by resistance to change. Chances are there is going to be some resistance to any workplace change. This can arise from a number of things including a fear of how these changes affect job roles, negative experiences from attempted changes in the past, or just a fear of losing a job all together. There is a considerable amount of psychological research pointing to the fact that change spurs resistance in people regardless of potential outcomes of said changes. The point is, that resistance should be expected and not feared. It might help management to create a list of possible points of resistance beforehand, which might prepare and make it harder to be caught off guard with points of resistance.

Communication and transparency is key. Managers must be open and clear with their employees about the changes especially when said changes entail monitoring employee behavior during work. If there is no transparency, there is no trust which is a necessary precursor to things working out. Involving employees in the various stages of change makes it more appealing but also gives the employee’s more comfort in the process of change by making it clear to them that they are a part of the change.

Emphasize the positive aspects of the change. One of the best ways to promote more favorable attitudes towards telematics is to outline the benefits that may come to employees. It’s true that telematics alert managers to negative employee behavior, but it works equally as well for positive behavior. Focusing on the fact that telematics may actually protect drivers to some extent is a good idea. Elaborating on how the new systems will not only benefit the company but the workers themselves as well. This does not mean to completely omit anything you know might trigger resistance behavior, as that wouldn’t be creating a clear and transparent picture of the whole.

Comments Off

View Full Detail

‹ Previous 1 2 3 4 Next ›Last »

Blog

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?

Why Telematics Is More Than Just Mapping

Asset Theft prevention

Handling Employee Resistance to Telematics

Recent Posts

Categories

Request a Demo