Before we discuss the various Global Position System (GPS) offerings, it's important to understand GPS, and why it's not always as accurate as it sounds. The following excerpt is courtesy of AirClic:

GPS readings consist of an approximate Latitude, Longitude, GPS Accuracy, and GPS Address Resolution data. These readings can be taken during a certain event in an application, (e.g. when a code is written into memory) or at predefined intervals called bread crumbing. GPS readings are simply requested by the AirClic application and returned by the handsets GPS system.

A. GPS Performance

The GPS antennae, located on the top rear of the Motorola i355, requires a clear and extended view of the sky in order to contact multiple satellites. Together, these satellites help the handset triangulate the Latitudinal and Longitudinal position of the handset.

There are several limiting factors when it comes to the GPS system on the handset. In situations of limited visibility of the sky, including inside buildings, in underground structures, between tall buildings, and heavy tree cover may limit the ability of the GPS to receive an accurate reading.

Even under optimal conditions, GPS readings may be 150 feet (45 meters) from the actual position but could be much further from the actual location. If satellites can not be located, the GPS reading defaults to the location of the cell tower the handset is communicating with, which could be several miles from the actual location of the handset and user.

B. GPS Accuracy Improvements

To improve GPS readings, stay in locations with an extended view of the sky away from tall buildings or dense foliage. Extend the antennae and do not conceal the GPS antennae area on the back of the phone. Hold the handset away from the body and the back of the phone toward the sky. Whether in a building or an automobile, the best GPS readings are taken when the phone is near a window. Improvements can be made by staying in network coverage, the network provider relays information through the data network which allows the handset to retrieve more accurate GPS readings. Lastly, a well charged battery will produce better GPS readings versus a poorly charged battery. As battery life diminishes, the GPS system on the handset spends less time calculating locations to conserve energy.

Current GPS offerings available with rockhopper:

1. With a mobile data interface, every time the driver sends a message to the base (pickup/deliver/etc.) as well as on a regular basis via polling, the latitude/longitude of the device is sent as well. (Since the devices have in-built GPS).

   We take the lat/long figure, and find the closest zip to it, based on a file of zipcode centroids. In other words, we locate the driver automatically in the closest zip to the given lat/long.

   This data is useful since it feeds our driver-search feature in Dispatch. Highlight a job awaiting allocation, press F1 (or right-click to select the function from a pop-up menu), and the system produces a list of drivers ranked by their distance from the pick-up point, as well as other useful data, like how much other work they have on-board, the direction in which they're heading etc. That results window can then be filtered for destination, fleet, etc. to narrow the search.

2. AirClic offers moving-map software called “Fleet at a glance” that takes the GPS coords, and displays a map of the city (or whatever area) with the icons showing the drivers moving about in real time.

   Fleet at a glance is an application that works with the harvester on a desktop or network server. It utilizes a customer's copy of Microsoft MapPoint with the data. AirClic's development team has this application to supplement the customer's solution for those operations that want the visual mapping of their drivers, technicians and other field workers. This is a windows based solution.

3. If no mobile data interface is in use, the driver search feature described in option (1) can still be effective, assuming the drivers call as they go and the dispatcher marks jobs picked-up and delivered. This sets the driver's last known location and feeds the driver-search feature.