Anyone understand GPS vehicle trackers?

[Ali]

Our work vehicles are tracked, and the driver + boss get a notification if they exceed 70mph.
I had a telling off a while ago for an email showing I was driving at 90+ mph, and I was shocked as the weather was appalling on that trip and I’m not that type of driver anyway. It was in a Renault Trafic, I’m not even sure they’ll do 90? I just apologised and assumed I must have had a lapse of concentration going downhill with a tailwind. The location was roughly correct.

I normally use the speed limiter anyway, but I’ve been religious about it since then. Then I got another one this morning 90.8mph and another one 1s later 68mph. I didn’t jam the brakes on like that at any point in the journey as I was fully loaded with expensive kit. Location roughly correct again.

No idea how these work but something isn’t right, unless I’m Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

 

[brightspark]

the daughter has one on her works van . it was only her 3d week in new job the boss rang her up and said take the lead out of your boots she was doing 68mph and the limit is 60 on dual carriageways every week they get told what the percentage of there driving is . the last 3 weeks have been 100 percent big brother is watching

 

[Fraserb]

Actually been looking into these recently, seems like they calculate your speed based on how far you travel between updates, if they're updating every few seconds then a slight off on the GPS position could show a big speed increase.

 

[Bornfree]

A manager on a poultry farm I work on kept getting warned for doing over 70 in a 30 limit. He eventually went into the head office to sort it out and the tracker was recording him on a 30 mph road that he was driving over a bridge on a duel carriageway.

 

[m_c]

If they're relying on GPS for speed, then it is possible to get speed glitches due to how things get updated.

I'd ask for a copy of the data, and work out what your average speed was.

 

[northwest]

GPS gives vector speed. Not the same as real world speed on the ground and sometimes the compensation algorithms get it wrong. That's what I am led to believe anyway.

 

[pptom]

They're full of issues, I got pulled in once and demanded to go through the data, once I did I calculated that 68% of the 'pings' were false.
They don't update their speed maps very often so a new road or a speed limit change might take 3 years to get onto the system. In the mean time it will just ping you to the nearest road. I was once doing 60mph at the end of a cul-de-sac! Same if you are on a fast road passing close to a slower one.
I think the system relies on reporting faults and management updating the system via the tracker company. Naturally they don't like doing this as it's extra work / faff for them. In my situation management never had the trackers so couldn't empathise.
All of our vans were limited to 68 but guys use to regularly get clocked at 80+ ???

 

[James1979]

Agree with the above.

Wife drives for a bus company. They have trackers but eco ones so they get notified if it’s hard driving - heavy braking, cornering etc.

They are always going wrong. Recording incorrect speeds, the gyros get the forces wrongs and claim the guys are heavy footed. Just a rubbish setup really.
The system although its GPS, it uses the phone network as well. Some how hers lost its signal for a few minutes and threw up an alert she had left a bus stop too early. In the bus world that is enough to get sacked.

it was sorted but the system is rubbish all the same

 

[Shox Dr]

Agree with the above.

Wife drives for a bus company. They have trackers but eco ones so they get notified if it’s hard driving - heavy braking, cornering etc.

They are always going wrong. Recording incorrect speeds, the gyros get the forces wrongs and claim the guys are heavy footed. Just a rubbish setup really.
The system although its GPS, it uses the phone network as well. Some how hers lost its signal for a few minutes and threw up an alert she had left a bus stop too early. In the bus world that is enough to get sacked.

it was sorted but the system is rubbish all the same

I guess its down to the system they employ. my BIL has worked for 2 major bus companies, both could tell when a different driver was on a route down to 10ths of a MPG. They caught a women driver that had a consistantly bad record esp for excessive fuel us (intercity route) swapped routes and it was still happening. That was until they found she was stopping in a layby and decanting diesel everyday

 

[Wozzaaah]

Agree with the above.

Wife drives for a bus company. They have trackers but eco ones so they get notified if it’s hard driving - heavy braking, cornering etc.

They are always going wrong. Recording incorrect speeds, the gyros get the forces wrongs and claim the guys are heavy footed. Just a rubbish setup really.
The system although its GPS, it uses the phone network as well. Some how hers lost its signal for a few minutes and threw up an alert she had left a bus stop too early. In the bus world that is enough to get sacked.

it was sorted but the system is rubbish all the same

We’ve got the same in our vans, you have to drive like a vicar for them to stay on green.

 

[James1979]

We’ve got the same in our vans, you have to drive like a vicar for them to stay on green.

Sounds the same. She has an app that shows a traffic light system.

 

[dobbslc]

They are inaccurate sometimes. No question.
The desk jockey at my last job would spend more time watching the van trackers than doing his actual job! I got clocked for a ridiculous speed once when I was driving parallel to the M25!
Then he accused me of 'exceeding the average speed' of my own road what that means is I wasn't actually speeding but...
The tracker works out the average speed of road users that have the same tracking system and then compares it with my speed, what he couldn't comprehend was that I would almost certainly be the only vehicle with a tracker going down my lane and hence it was comparing me with myself
So when I was sat idling defrosting the windscreen etc the average speed for my lane would be dropping down but when I was doing say 25mph it would flag me up as going faster then what it thought was the average speed
Massive stupidity!
He would often call me saying I see you're in Acton can you go to Wembley for a call out? I would then say I wasn't anywhere near Acton the tracker must be wrong but I'll do the callout anyway, you just got to keep them on their toes

 

[Wozzaaah]

Sounds the same. She has an app that shows a traffic light system.

We have a little device mounted on the windscreen with traffic lights and a beeper. Managed to get mine on red twice this week.

 

[dobbslc]

We’ve got the same in our vans, you have to drive like a vicar for them to stay on green.

It's not made by Lightfoot is it? Got this in my new van and it is completely ridiculous.
I will get at least 2 'driver penalties' just for demisting the windscreen and accelerating down the M1 slip road that's very short and very busy so you have to boot it or you cause a dangerous situation.
The van can't actually be driven without sending it off in a spasm, it constantly berates you every time you accelerate saying "nudge, nudge nudge, driver penalty issued" all day long. If anything it make me more aggressive and more likely to thrash the bloody van!
I've shut 'her' up with some insulating tape over the speaker contacts...

 

[Wozzaaah]

No, ours is Trimble.

 

[slimjim]

Agree with the above.

Wife drives for a bus company. They have trackers but eco ones so they get notified if it’s hard driving - heavy braking, cornering etc.

They are always going wrong. Recording incorrect speeds, the gyros get the forces wrongs and claim the guys are heavy footed. Just a rubbish setup really.
The system although its GPS, it uses the phone network as well. Some how hers lost its signal for a few minutes and threw up an alert she had left a bus stop too early. In the bus world that is enough to get sacked.

it was sorted but the system is rubbish all the same

Green road?

I hated it when I was a bus driver, they were never consistent, some buses you would set off the red just looking at the brake pedal, others you could throw around with abandon.

 

[MoreWellie]

I have a picture somewhere of when a diesel defender clocked up just over a thousand mph in one journey

 

[pptom]

Ours was Ctrak.
My main 'speeding problem' was about 5 roads near my house that I drove every day. Ctrak had them down as 40mph but they were NSL. As I was the worst performer in my department my name was shared with every manager in the company in a regular e.mail report. I was livid to say the least never did receive an apology.
Answer from management was not 'ok we'll highlight the issue and get it changed so it benefits everyone that drives there in the future' but simply 'drive at 40mph then'
Muppets

 

[Cobbler]

Someone I worked with got sacked because of a tracker, it kept flagging him up as completely different from where he was supposed to be. He had reported many times that there seemed to be a problem with it but nothing was ever checked out. He was a bad boy & got caught out more than a few times, but on this occasion he could prove were he was as he had a ticket for fuel, he decided not to fight it as he wanted to leave anyway.

 

[Shedendman]

GPS blockers,some are quite cheap and very good,well,thats what a mate of mine told me