Two posts last week introduced the topic of Location-Based Services (LBS) and an earlier post this week explained Geofencing—which is a common LBS feature.     Another common LBS feature is breadcrumbing, but what is it?

Breadcrumbing uses a GPS-enabled device to collect historical location data including route, speed, direction, stops and stop duration at specified time intervals.  This data is presented on a map as a “breadcrumb trail” of position markers.  This data can be used to improve field performance, increase fleet safety and give managers an enhanced view of field activity.

So what are some of the uses and benefits of breadcrumbing?

• Breadcrumbing can reduce fuel and maintenance costs, increase productivity, improve safety and increase awareness of field activity that can improve overall customer service.
• By recording driving speed, businesses can deter speeding and gain valuable documentation in case of accidents or insurance disputes.
• Improve field performance by acting as a “supervisor in the field,” protecting against unapproved routes, excessive work breaks and  unauthorized stops.
• Control off-hours use of vehicles.
• Accurate and automatic audit trail that can be compared to time and attendance records to verify actual worker time on duty.
• Route optimization plans the most efficient routes and “breadcrumbing” provides confirmation that they were followed. 
• Breadcrumbing provides data such as travel times between stops, slowdown areas and wait times.   By basing calculations on actual, accurate data from the field, route optimization systems can create “real-world” routes that reduce miles driven, improve utilization of fleet equipment and raise mobile worker productivity.

Let’s get mobile!  DecisionPoint has multiple Location-Based Services solutions. Contact DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. to determine which one best meets your requirements and budget.

Two posts last week introduced the topic of Location-Based Services (LBS).     A common LBS feature is Geofencing, but what is it?

A Geofence is a virtual perimeter around a geographic area using Location-Based Services so that when a GPS-enabled device enters and/or exits the area a notification is generated. 

This notification contains driver and/or vehicle identification and location data which can be sent to a mobile device or an e-mail account as well as recorded for reporting purposes.

A Geofence can be set for all employees, groups or individual employees.  Fences can be either permanent or temporary.   There are two kinds of Geofences: polygonal and radial.  Examples of both can be seen in the screenshot at the right. 

So what are some of the uses and benefits of Geofencing?

• Location-based messaging can be used with radial fencing to send emergency-related alerts.
• A Geofence can be set in a radius around a customer’s site so that an e-mail alert can be automatically sent to the customer advising of the imminent arrival of your driver.
• By capturing both the arrival and departure times, a business can automatically capture the duration of a stop.
• A business can be automatically alerted when either an individual employee or any employees enters an unauthorized location.

Let’s get mobile!  DecisionPoint has multiple Location-Based Services solutions. Contact DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. to determine which one best meets your requirements and budget.

In yesterday’s post we defined Location-Based Services and described typical functionality. 

Did you know that Gartner is predicting huge gains for mobile location-based services (LBS) in 2009 estimating total LBS subscribers will more than double worldwide this year, to 95.7 million.   Why is this?

There are a number of benefits driving this growth especially in the Direct Store Delivery (DSD), Proof-of-Delivery and Field Services verticals.  Benefits include:

• Increase productivity and improve customer service knowing delivery or work order status.
• Dynamically dispatch nearest driver to reduce cost, increase customer service and driver productivity.
• Route optimization increases productivity and reduces fuel and maintenance expenses.
• Know where your field workers are at all times—and where they have been. 
• Integrate mobile location into short messaging alert notifications and e-mail for improved customer service.
• Measure and audit mobile workforce productivity.  Eliminate unauthorized locations and identify long stops and excessive idling.
• Identify safety issues with speed alerts.  
• Automatic reports for common vehicle maintenance (e.g. oil change, tire rotation, tune-up, etc.) based on GPS mileage.

Let’s get mobile!  DecisionPoint has multiple Location-Based Services solutions. Contact DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. to determine which one best meets your requirements and budget.

Location-Based Services (LBS) use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology to monitor the location and movement of drivers and/or vehicles.  

The two major components of an LBS solution are GPS-enabled mobile devices or black boxes and back office software to interpret and display the raw GPS data in a meaningful way. 

 The GPS receiver/wide area radio devices in the vehicles broadcast their location at fixed intervals over a cellular or satellite wireless network and dispatchers can view vehicle locations on a map.  The back office software is usually Web-based. 

Common features include: 

• Real-time, current location of all mobile resources or assets overlaid on a map
• Historical data commonly known as breadcrumbing
• Geofencing
• Alerts
• Reporting

Both breadcrumbing and goefencing will be covered in more detail in future blog posts.
 
Let’s get mobile!  DecisionPoint has multiple Location-Based Services solutions. Contact DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. to determine which one best meets your requirements and budget.