GPS vehicle tracking

[Complete Turf Care]

I am considering adding GPS vehicle tracking to 2 or 3 of my trucks. I have a lawncare/landscaping business, and I want to have a better handle on where my crews are throughout the day.

Does anyone have any experience with these systems?

What should I look for in a system? What should I avoid?

What is a reasonable cost per truck?

I did a search here and found lots of threads related to GPS, but none for vehicle tracking.

 

[powerpace]

Commercial truck lines use them. Armoured car companies use them. Taxi cab companies use them.

I have used reverse tracking on a personal cell phone before. If you supply cellphones you can add that Application.

gps tracking devices for automobiles - Bing

 

[Diamondpilot]

Check into smart phone apps. I have one that shows where all the phones in my family is. Cheap and works.

Chris

 

[PoorMansCat]

our company trucks use Trimble. They have the ability to do a myriad of things, it all depends on how much you want to spend.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

All my employees have their own cell phones. I don't supply cell phones, so that's not an option.

 

[Code54]

Also make sure how or if you have to notify your employees that you will be tracking them and your Equipment - in todays litigious society you need to cover your bases.

 

[Sysop]

Shadowtracker. It is used on the road-service trucks owned by a local semi-truck repair facility I work for to track their service trucks as theft prevention. Local county transit authority I also work for uses it to display real time GPS data for their city busses on their website. They are a reliable system.

 

[OKnewguy]

When my daughter turned 16, my wife and I used a cheapo cell phone. I tucked it up under the dash and and wired in a car charger to keep it charged. It worked to keep tabs on her. She was a good kid, but we did catch her doing some things a few times. We used Kajeet and the service was round $8 a month. At the time there was nothing cheaper. It let you program 5 or 6 times to check the gps, and we had unlimited manual locates. Just to be clear, this is a sprint mvno geared toward kids (parents) that is a standard cell service.
Dave

 

[Bigfoot62]

FWIW, my cousins own a fairly large construction company. (over 100 employees) I don't know the name or cost of their system, but they have tracking units on all of the trucks and equipment, plus cameras in all of the buildings and yards. It works, but there are drawbacks. They have had numerous valuable employees to quit over the "snooping." Some of the supervisors are on a power trip. They spend way too much time calling equipment operators and truck drivers to find out, "what are you doing" or "why aren't you moving?" They want the workers to KNOW that they are being constantly watched.
Don't misunderstand me. It's their company, their equipment, their employees. But, you need to think about the benefits vs. the drawbacks of any kind of "big brother" monitoring. Some of your people probably won't appreciate it.

 

[Sysop]

My opinion on that matter goes something like:
I don't care how good you are, they're kind enough to pay you a wage for your time. If you have such an issue with the company you work for ensuring their time and equipment are managed wisely to the point you want to quit, you deserve to have nothing and be nothing; or go do it all for yourself running your own company your own way. You are on their time and their dime, get over yourself; you are not that important...

Myself, I have more bosses than I have fingers and toes and always have someone looking over my shoulder. It's just the way things must be to collect a paycheck, so I accept it. I am on their dime and it is time they are paying for, they should get full use of it and "say" in how it is managed...

 

[Bigfoot62]

Sysop,
I completely agree.
Just wanted the OP to realize that some of his employees will probably resent it.

 

[Sysop]

I don't disagree, but I like to think it just weeds out the losers that probably shouldn't have had the job to begin with. People who put forth an honest effort to provide a day's work for their day of wage know how hard dollars truly are to come by and generally don't have an issue with someone protecting their dollars. A company that can reduce waste and theft is a company that might find enough to pay everyone a bit more. Granted that takes the right kind of mindset from management (which sadly isn't often seen in larger companies)...

 

[Toddao]

We use Fleetmatics it works well, lots of reports available .

 

[newbury]

It depends on why you want to track them. There are a number of systems I've seen that are designed to be hidden on the vehicle. Some are extremely small and are designed to be hidden. If you are trying to "catch somebody" it's one thing.

However it might be best for you to provide a phone for each truck/work crew "lead" for "free" with the understanding that work calls only, the phone goes with the truck, and it is tracked with GPS. An inexpensive phone with a phone card only costs $10 a month or less (that's what I have).

Then your employees would have no excuse for not calling in case of "problems", you've got tracking, you've got a GOOD number to call when you want to call them all in for free beer and they have little to complain about.

 

[Diamondpilot]

It depends on why you want to track them. There are a number of systems I've seen that are designed to be hidden on the vehicle. Some are extremely small and are designed to be hidden. If you are trying to "catch somebody" it's one thing.

However it might be best for you to provide a phone for each truck/work crew "lead" for "free" with the understanding that work calls only, the phone goes with the truck, and it is tracked with GPS. An inexpensive phone with a phone card only costs $10 a month or less (that's what I have).

Then your employees would have no excuse for not calling in case of "problems", you've got tracking, you've got a GOOD number to call when you want to call them all in for free beer and they have little to complain about.

This is what I would do.

Chris

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Sysop,
I completely agree.
Just wanted the OP to realize that some of his employees will probably resent it.

I would hope to present it to my employees in a way that they will see that it benefits them too.

I would tell them it's to help with fuel efficiency, and theft prevention.

Right now, I have 2 trucks on the road, and sometimes a 3rd truck.

I appreciate the replies so far, but no one has mentioned the cost per month per vehicle, and what should I look for, and what should I avoid in a tracking system.

And, what is the initial cost per vehicle to set up a system?

 

[coobie]

I would hope to present it to my employees in a way that they will see that it benefits them too.

I would tell them it's to help with fuel efficiency, and theft prevention.

Right now, I have 2 trucks on the road, and sometimes a 3rd truck.

I appreciate the replies so far, but no one has mentioned the cost per month per vehicle, and what should I look for, and what should I avoid in a tracking system.

And, what is the initial cost per vehicle to set up a system?

Be honest here,it,s not about fuel efficiency or theft protection you want to TRACK your employees to make sure they are not screwing ya correct?If you don,t trust them show up at there job from time to time and save your self a few bucks.

 

[GManBart]

I have some experience with these sorts of devices

Keep in mind that they typically provide you two kinds of data, GPS, and Assisted GPS. Straight GPS is when the device can get a satellite signal, and AGPS is when they're someplace that they can't see the sky, but can get cell reception (most will list the kind of cell platform they use, i.e. GSM, etc). If you're getting AGPS data, they can be off by a long ways (mile or so) because the device is triangulating it's position based upon cell tower response time, and sector data that the tower provides (that's ridiculously simplified, but close enough). That happens in places like open parking garages pretty regularly. Still, for the most part, they're pretty amazing. A modern tracker doesn't even have to see the sky directly, they can work off signals that bounce off pavement (in other words, the tracker can be hidden, and still work perfectly well as long as it can see pavement, or see through a plastic bumper cover, etc.

One commercial system I was impressed with is called a GL-200, and you can even buy them on Amazon! I'll link to one of the bigger retailers at the end. I'm not sure what they charge on a monthly basis, but the micro tracker goes for around $100-125, can accept a hard wire power adapter, and has an activation cost around $50-60.

The nice thing about these new trackers is that you can monitor them from all sorts of devices like smart phones, or tablets, and you can program them to report things based upon your preferences. In other words, you can set up a geo fence that will alert you to the tracker crossing a certain line you've set on the map, or entering/leaving a defined area (circle, box, etc), of if the tracker stops moving for more than a set amount of time....i.e. they get a 30min lunch, and the tracker doesn't move for 1.5hrs.

I've considered hard-wiring one of these into my vehicles just in case they get stolen. Since you own the vehicle, you can put a tracker on it, and not worry about any legal implications. Employees have no expectation of privacy in how they operate equipment you provide. Here's a link to some GL-200 info:

Micro Tracker Miniature GPS Tracker

 

[Travelover]

I've used at Garmin GTU10 for my dog for a couple of years. Garmin sells a 12 volt adapter for permanent vehicle installation. Garmin has a neat smartphone app, so you see the location of the GPS unit on a map in real time. Service is $50 a year, and the first year is free with purchase.

Garmin GTU 10 Tracking Device - Walmart.com

 

[dodge man]

I know of a company that put them in their trucks. This place does service calls. One person was going to a job doing the work, but then he drop by his house and stay for a few hours, and not just for lunch. He got fired. The thing is the people new the trucks were being tracked. I don't think its a problem to put a tracker on your trucks. Keep em honest.