I want to put trackers in the vans at work, but I only need to track where they've been, not worried about instant info etc..
so I was thinking an arduino with a gps shield or an android phone would be perfect... when the power is on record gps location and the time every few min.... then once the van gets back to the factory at the end of the day upload it over wifi to office computer (or whatever, was thinking dropbox for phone, don't know about arduino)
means I can have cheap easy trackers - all the professional ones I've found will end up costing £50 per vehicle per month, so £400/month is more than I want to spend - anti-theft trackers are cheaper, but won't give enough info, I just need ot know where the drivers have been and for how long
anyone got any ideas ?
I figured I could get some android apps to suit but can't find anything at all :-(
don't mind paying for stuff, just don't want to be stuck paying hundreds/month for years
I can write you a program to do that if you want, but it won't be for a week or so. You'll need a decent battery to keep the phone on all day.
there's no hurry, and I'll wire it in under the dash to charge from the van battery
is it possible to turn the gps recording on/off when it's on/off charge ? then I could wire it in to only charge when the ignition is on, so it doesen;t record loads of useless info overnight etc. :-)
driver went out today on a delivery run, should have been back by 2pm... it's 8.30 and he's still not back :-s
I've not used the android API in 4 years so I'm not sure what it can and can't do anything (re: gps on while its charging. I'm sure you'll be able to though).
Why don't you just use a raspberry pi and a sub gps adapter?
Try and find a new driver. :dunno:
Quote from: XEntity on November 20, 2015, 21:44:53 PMWhy don't you just use a raspberry pi and a sub gps adapter?
is that easy to do?
I can't concentrate properly since I fell on my head :-\
Quote from: Bacon on November 22, 2015, 01:08:20 AM
Try and find a new driver. :dunno:
thing is, he's honest, customers like him, he does all the deliveries/doesn't miss any out, and he works hard in the factory... just takes forever doing deliveries - and he's not that he's a slow driver so that's not it
He's probably seeing a bird on the side.
the company I work for has trackers on all the vans and apparently the money it knocks off the company insurance policy more than covers the cost of the subscription. worth a look.
What about GPS enabled dash cams? Two birds one stone then, covers you for seeing if the drivers are driving like knobs, or are in an accident not their fault, and I guess on some models you'll be able to see the GPS log of where they have been? Or do they tend to just record the location if the accelerometers trigger in an accident?
Quote from: knighty on November 22, 2015, 14:32:41 PM
Quote from: XEntity on November 20, 2015, 21:44:53 PMWhy don't you just use a raspberry pi and a sub gps adapter?
is that easy to do?
I can't concentrate properly since I fell on my head :-\
Quote from: Bacon on November 22, 2015, 01:08:20 AM
Try and find a new driver. :dunno:
thing is, he's honest, customers like him, he does all the deliveries/doesn't miss any out, and he works hard in the factory... just takes forever doing deliveries - and he's not that he's a slow driver so that's not it
Maybe cut the subterfuge bollocks and just be honest with him, explain you're really happy with his work but he's a bit slow on the deliveries compared to the others and is there anything you can do to help?
no subterfuge here... he gets back late and there's me +5 guys saying where the f*** have you been
(if he gets back late guys working in the factory have to wait for him to get back to get the stock off his van)
but he insists he's doing his best, not mucking around etc...
there's plenty of times traffic etc. makes people late, it's no biggie, it's just been happening too often with him. If he's skiving I can tell him to cut it out, if he's not skiving I can tell the other guys he's doing his best and to back off
most of the time it doesn't make much difference if he's late back... but skiving is infectious, if the other guys think he's skiving they'll start too. plus, it's not fair on them if he is skiving and gets away with it
the trackers which give you cheaper insurance flag you up for speeding etc... I don't really care if the drivers speed as long as they're not being daft / thrashing it etc.
dash cam would be great if I could find one whcih would auto-upload over wifi, I've got too much other stuff to do to run around downloading info from gps/cams manually, at least if it's automatic I can check if while I'm eating lunch etc.
Yeah fair play, tough one, does he know he's being watched? Does he know that GPS/dashcam etc is imminent? I would have thought this would, if he is, taking the piss jolt him into not.
Edit- for reference I used to work with an old guy called George, and one called Dave, when you get past 50 I think your pace of life just halves :lol:
Quote from: knighty on November 22, 2015, 21:53:51 PM
the trackers which give you cheaper insurance flag you up for speeding etc... I don't really care if the drivers speed as long as they're not being daft / thrashing it etc.
not too sure about that, our email the office if we go over 80 but that's it, there are no consequences to speeding, I do it all the time with our trackers. no one except our office monitor them.
it's with a company called track you.
what your after does exist all ready tho, I spoke to a electrician a while ago and he said his movement in the van was tracked using an app on his phone but he just used to switch it to airplane mode.
anything here
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20151125114528&SearchText=car+tracking
Can't you just go for the Placebo Effect and install a dash cam and tell him it is GPS Enabled over internet and reports back to you for insurance purposes and see if he speeds up? :dunno:
Out of interest, was i fast enough? :panic:
planning on dash cams too, just want to sort this first.... I'm trying to be decent about it, he says he's going as quick as I can and I want to trust him... but still have to make sure before I tell everyone else to sod off and stop telling him to hurry up
course you were fast enough, I'd have taken the piss if you weren't :-p
there's 2 runs on a Wednesday now because there were too many deliveries for 1 van, normally about 15 on each van, sometimes a few extra... quick run is finished by about 1pm, other run by about 6pm (sometimes later) I had to do both runs myself today, did 37 deliveries and was back by 5pm :-s
(did cheat a little bit, Rye came with me to help because my back is screwed, but I did all the driving)
send someone with him for a day.. maybe a YTS lad.
See if he gets around quicker.
when he was new I went with him the first few times, then someone went with him for a few months after that.... they were late now and again but they were never as late as he is on his own
most of the time it doesn't really matter if he skives a bit as long as he gets all the deliveries done, I just need to know one way or another
if he's late and it's not his fault, then I need to either keep sending someone with him, or split that delivery route and send 2 vans
Quote from: knighty on November 26, 2015, 11:08:55 AM
when he was new I went with him the first few times, then someone went with him for a few months after that.... they were late now and again but they were never as late as he is on his own
most of the time it doesn't really matter if he skives a bit as long as he gets all the deliveries done, I just need to know one way or another
if he's late and it's not his fault, then I need to either keep sending someone with him, or split that delivery route and send 2 vans
If he finished early, would you give him more work to do? Is he treating it as Job & Finish - claiming easy overtime?
Might want to chat with him & express your concerns before spying on him. If he is having trouble with the round, then you need to be aware.
Lots of people who do job & finish will skip lunch & race around, etc. - other people will just stretch it out & go at their own pace.
tried everything I can already.... gps is the least drama way forward I think
plus, i'll put them in all the vans, so it's not singling him out :-)
EDIT: p.s. I'm going to be upfront and tell all the drivers about the GPS... they'll probably moan, but it's no big deal
Quote from: knighty on November 26, 2015, 16:09:50 PM
tried everything I can already.... gps is the least drama way forward I think
plus, i'll put them in all the vans, so it's not singling him out :-)
EDIT: p.s. I'm going to be upfront and tell all the drivers about the GPS... they'll probably moan, but it's no big deal
Just tell them by fitting GPS on all the vans your insurance cost is dropped by 30% or something, thats what my old place told me.
Actually GPS can reduce costs of vehicle insurance, so may be worth getting.
looking at it again, I can get 1gig/month sim for £6/month
would it be easy to have them report location back to base ?
instead of recording it, or record it often then report back to base once in a while ?
if I can stick a monitor in the tea room showing each vans location.... any time someone skives for too long, or takes too long, everyone else will see it and take the piss out of the driver when he gets back... which means I don't end up being the bad guy when I catch people skiving :-)
added bonus, when customers ring up asking what time there delivery will be, be can see how far away the van is from them :-)
Quote from: Sam on November 20, 2015, 19:45:28 PM
I can write you a program to do that if you want, but it won't be for a week or so. You'll need a decent battery to keep the phone on all day.
any chance of doing this some time sam ?
I've paid for an app, have 4 vans with phones and sim cards in them (the most used vans) and the app is ok
but had o use an chrome add on to auto refresh the map every 5 min to keep screens at work up to date.... now they've gone and blocked any auto refreshing app and you have to pay extra for that
so I did.... but there version times out and you have to go manually reset it every 4 hours... useless if I'm not in the factory, or not at the keyboard, or on the phone to someone and looking at a map that's 6 hours out of date :-(
www.followmee.com that's the one I'm using
this is the map page
(http://i.imgur.com/gqX9UaO.png)
phones update gps position to server every 60sec
being able to enter a date and being able to see dps info for that date is a nice touch
(http://i.imgur.com/MEdzf0S.png)
and being able to select last X hours is nice too
(http://i.imgur.com/kIivnJD.png)
but neither are essential - I've got no idea how easy they are to program
happy to pay for whatever server etc.. they connect to
or can run something on cctv server at work which is on 24/7 ?
getting pretty pissed off, it's doing my nut in, happy to get the drinks in next time I see you!
hace you tried refresh monkey plugin?
tried a bunch of different ones, every time I end up with a popup saying stop auto-refreshing or we'll terminate your account :-(
You could refresh the page with a bit of javascript and have it do so after an arbitrary amount of time, its highly unlikely they would be able to flag it as an auto-refresh then?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reloadevery/
Reloadevery has a randomise function.