Real time driving and its fuckery
The organisation I work for take themselves and what they do seriously which I appreciate and applaud; working so hard for an organisation that did not wouldn't work for me. They have (sometimes) convoluted systems to track and evaluate many different metrics from personnel, financial, environmental, plant and equipment to facilities, waste and everything in between; the boffins that work in that space are kept very busy...they're a particular type of person too, trust me.
Two areas I'm really pleased to see are a focus is safety and the environment and there's a particular aspect of the organisation which combines both of those, the fleet...I mean the vehicles.
Telematics
Each vehicle the organisation owns (there's very many of them) is fitted with a telematics device which gives real-time tracking and data on various things. It uses GPS (global positioning satellites), a connected device in the vehicle and the cellular network to send data from the vehicle to servers and eventual reports on each vehicle and driver.
Each person (who will drive the organisation's vehicles) is issues a personal fob which has to be swiped on the in-car device each morning to activate the system; failure to do so means a loud high-pitched beeping will emit continuously from the device. I'm assigned my own vehicle but can drive any other as needed so each time I get into any vehicle I'm required to swipe the fob, it's not too difficult really and from there I use the vehicle as normal.
They track many things but the three major things are safety and environmental oriented.
Smooth driving
This relates to hard acceleration and harsh braking. The former uses more fuel and emits more harmful gasses into the atmosphere so they want to minimise it and the latter means the driver may be tailgating or driving too fast, exceeding the speed limit, in which case hard braking may be required. The telematics unit reads these metrics from the on-board systems of the vehicle itself, it's intrinsically linked. A 100% score each day is zero harsh braking events, 80% is 1 harsh event per 100km and 50% is 4 harsh events per 100km which is a fairly tight tolerance considering the fuckery on the roads these days, inattentive driving and all.
Safe driving
Speeding increases the risk of accidents and the company has had many, hence the reason why the telematics have been introduced. Some of the drivers have been clocked at speeds of 40-50 kilometres over the speed limit...100 in a 60 isn't justifiable; two of those drivers were dismissed and the cases of it have declined sharply since then. The telematics reads the speed and applies it against the posted speed limit on any given road as the GPS tells the system where the vehicle is; the metric measures the percentage of time the driver is driving at over 10% above the posted speed limit.
Clean driving
The unnecessary idling of a vehicle, say to keep the air conditioning running whilst one is parked making a phone call, emits gasses into the atmosphere and they are focused on reducing that so it's one of the three main metrics measured. Many of the vehicles are hybrid so idling is minimised but we run diesel and non-hybrids also and it's unnecessary idling in those they would like to reduce.
In the smooth category I sit in the top 15% of drivers, for safe driving I sit in the top 10% and in the clean driving metric I'm in the top 1% but that's mainly because the vehicles I drive are the hybrids or electric vehicles. I'm not overly focused on where I sit in the company when it comes to driving; if I need to brake or accelerate hard I will, if I need to speed to overtake I will and if it's hot the air conditioning is on...however the telematics makes me and everyone else a more aware driver and it has dramatically reduced emissions and incidents.
The fuckery
I think it's a great concept and system but as always it's not perfect.
Some of the systems installed are a little glitchy or not calibrated correctly.
For instance, there's one poor fucker who was reprimanded over and over, given a two written (formal) warnings for hard acceleration and braking until it was discovered the telematics device in his vehicle was faulty. Too bad if he was fired first though huh? We laugh about it though and his nickname is now Evil Knievel (google it if you don't get the reference).
Another one was found to be faulty in that it wasn't registering the metrics properly, or at all. This doesn't seem like too much of a problem until you consider that the company hand out a few hundred dollars each month to each of the drivers that end up at the top of the pack for the driving metrics. That driver has received over a thousand dollars so far...until people started to question it. The device was calibrated and that paragon of driving excellence was found to be a more shit driver than most.
Over all though, the fuckery is worked out and any situations that arise from it are reversed, although that one above was allowed to keep the financial rewards (much to the chagrin of some others).
I don't mind that they track these things as I'm a pretty good driver and generally operate within the acceptable tolerances. I've got nothing to hide and don't care that they can track my physical location by GPS and other metrics that relate to how I use their vehicles; I actually think it's a good thing. They have plans to be net carbon zero and part of that means changing the large fleet over to full electric vehicles - I'm not sure a full electric vehicle is much better for the environment due to manufacturing methods, but I don't make those decisions.
Have you folks had any exposure to real-time vehicle telematics or methods of having performance measured and evaluated in this way? Have you experienced any fuckery around performance tracking? If so, feel free to tell me about it in the comments below, or just comment generally.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
It was there installed in our office cabs....The moment,...they track the vehicle, they track the speed too....The moment speed get past 50-60 driver used tobget a call.....The GPS did helped to track few of stolen cabs ..... but at times when the office running short of the vehicles they themselves asked the driver to increase the speed to cover up.....as said every invention has certain pros and cons....if we strictly adhere to certain rules and then the world would have been a better place to live in.
I agree, there's pros and cons to everything including vehicle telematics and how they are used and how the results are interpreted and what changes that brings moving forward. It's been a good thing for my organisation though, so far, and has reduced many incidents.
Hybrid is the way to go, and even with these new plasmoid cylinders that recycle the exhaust gases that are being developed - that’s going to be good for the emissions standpoint. Full electric is a load of shit, it’s too limiting in its capabilities and charging.
I don’t mind these things too much for company vehicles, but they better not do this with personal vehicles. That’s where the powers that shouldn’t be would like to head but we have to draw the line.
I would likely be up there on most of those metrics lol I drive like an old man, my wife makes fun of me all the time that I drive too slow. Saves the gas mileage! Lol
One of my personal vehicles is a twin turbo V8 four wheel drive that runs on dinosaur juice (diesel) so I'm with you on the electric vehicles are shit thing...the infrastructure and tech needs to improve before it is viable, but they do a good job with marketing and suck people in nonetheless.
I think having concepts like telematics is good for companies though, helps to promote safer driving.
Yeah I don’t mind it for company or government vehicles - it makes sense. One thing I don’t care for in my personal vehicle is the increase in computerization of it all. Electric steering instead of power. Wireless keys and shit. More things to break and be expensive fixes lol stupid
I'm not into all the driver aids like lane-keeping, auto braking and all...it promotes bad driving, reliance on systems and I'm not into that.
Give me electric any day. Once the electric utes start coming out then you'll see what an electric motor really can do. Remember, there's a reason why trains have an electric drive instead of a diesel drive. The torque simply can't be matched by stupid dinosaur vehicles.
Range is an issue but here in New Zealand they're pretty close to having a charging station every 75kms or so so it's not too bad here. Where most of the chargers are they have a cafe so it's not that bad spending 15 minutes to get to 80%. Hell, most of small town New Zealand exists because of range anxiety. First it was horses then the range of petrol cars, now the range of electric.
In a place like New Zealand, maybe it's a good idea. The fact of the matter is electric alone right now is foolish in a world where we drive for hours and hundreds of miles in many cultures and countries in the world. Having to lose your car for an hour or more in ideal conditions is a comical request to make.
If they can improve the solar charging technology and efficiently cover a car in solar panels, sure that's one thing. Until that time though, if all you're driving is 75 kms you can have your electric car. I drove that the other day just doing errands and a trip with my kid to a place he wanted to go, and that was one way.
I know electric cars have the motors which can do great things but I don't care for them in their current state. It is incredibly inefficient, and if you think that they are "green", you are sorely mistaken. Where do you think the energy that charges them comes from most places? Coal sadly.
Appreciate your perspective though! A healthy debate helps us find flaws in our thinking :)
Umm, it doesn't take an hour to charge using a proper charger. Those times are for the trickle charging units using your house power supply. The average charger here will get you to 80% in around 15 to 30 minutes. For long distance travelling taking 15 minute breaks is actually a GOOD thing because it lessens the risks of tired travellers.
My folks have a 2018 Nissan Leaf and live about 300kms away. It's not a flat motorway either. Massive hills make up the trip. They tell me they only need 1 charge to get to us. That's only a 15 minute delay, maybe 30 minutes. Even still, that's an average delay for most people anyway on long trips.
Add to that, if you drive like Galen mentions then you can literally use regen braking to lessen the need of charging anyway. Driven the correct way you can even get more power than you started with in some circumstances.
Wish I know how to drive four wheel vehicles but for now I only know how to drive a motorcycle and I learn it on my own
Maybe one day you will.
I hope so
Yeah, fuuuuuuck that. If I had to drive something wired up like that I'd be figuring out how to imitate the Russians and spoof GPS signals in a hurry. It's not that I'm a terrible driver but I have no interest in corporate bureaucrats trying to judge how I deal with asshats on the highway. Did a few stints as a pizza delivery driver, but the only metric they were worried about was how long it took.
It's a bit of a concern when people focus on a few hundred dollars and don't brake as hard as they might normally in an emergency situation; there's been a couple of rear end accidents for that reason. There's no getting away from the telemetrics though, unless one leaves the organisation I suppose.
Ah yeah, we've had problems here in the US with people slamming on the brakes and causing accidents to avoid getting a ticket from red light cameras. Yeah, I suspect sooner or later that'll be in all vehicles.
I use all of these techiques naturally; it doesn't require a device to know hard acceleration and rapid braking use more gas. I get a kick out of drivers who pass me, angrily, because of how I drive (decelerate on inclines, accelerate on declines, roll into stops etc), then end up an hour later just in front of me at a red light. Wouldn't a class be enough for these drivers? Does your business really need to install spy devices, which often don't work?
I get it, but when there's irresponsible people and many hundreds of vehicles across an organisation that operates over the entire country telematics comes in handy; the organisation can hardly expect people to report in with every driving event that occurred outside of the set parameters. It also means metrics are gathered automatically, evaluated autonomously and reports generated and presented daily, in live time. So, yeah it's necessary for the company.
They might love the way I drive then. I have an obsession with raising my MPG. I've been driving a little Honda Fit for years, which can get well over 50 mpg easily on country roads (my preference to drive on), but it was uncomfortable on very long drives. So I got a Chevy Trax (Chevy/Buick is the only dealer for 90 miles where I live now) which is very comfortable, but getting 35 mpg is really hard.
Does your company show people how to do it? Driving lessons?
There's no driving lessons at the organisation, the expectation is people know how to drive. Of course, most probably don't focus on fuel saving, they just drive how they usually would knowing the fuel is paid for either way.
Very few people know how to drive so that they use less gas. For instance, folks think cruise control uses the least gas, but it uses the most because it deccelerates (as in holds back) on declines, and accelerates (as in increases gas) on inclines. Maybe for flat terrain it's better, but for hilly, nuh uh.
Yep, and people don't understand the lift and coast concept.
I love lift, and coasting really pisses the people behind me off. That's fun too. They pass me in a big huff, and find me right behind them at the next light.
Yep, the bob and weave method rarely pays off in time saved.
Actually the cruise control on our Mitsubishi Triton ute was awesome. You could feel it driving like a normal person would.
Cruise control on a Toyota sucks balls. Hell, I set it to cruise control in town and it then yells at me to obey the speed rules, only IT'S the one doing the damn driving.
I'm not going to talk about driving because I don't know how to drive and I've never owned a car because with my salary, even if I saved all my life I couldn't buy one.
I can't talk about telematics or anything like that, but, what I can say is that beyond the failures and screw-ups of the system, it seems to me that they have as principles the care of the environment, responsible driving and avoiding traffic accidents that cost so many lives.
As for the two very good anecdotes, although with inverse results in the sense that the one who was fired was not at fault, while the one who was economically rewarded as a good driver was not so good and besides, he kept the job and the money.
Thanks for sharing.
Happy Sunday.
Cheers and best regards.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Safety and the environment are key areas of interest for the organisation and the telematics system allows them to keep a close eye on both from the driving/vehicle perspective at least.
GPS devices installed on vehicles today are very useful for maintaining the stability of naughty drivers on the road, with GPS everything can be tracked well so people can drive better. Obeying traffic rules is an obligation for all drivers in the world. Your review of automotive and driving procedures is very good, and I also really like the picture of the Lamborghini you shared above, I have never seen that car in person, I really want to see that supercar up close.
Yeah, it seems you agree with my post as you've paraphrased it quite well.
Also, yeah it was a legit race car, there were better ones there on the day though.
I hope everyone is aware of the bad impact of breaking traffic rules which will endanger their lives.
This is the first time I've heard of real-time vehicle telematics. I am impressed by how much data they are able to collect, and how they've applied it to company cars. I think your company is really doing something good with this, by controlling the emissions as much as possible.
It's widely used here in the transport industry and can track anything on the vehicle at all as long as that thing plugs into the ECM or has a sensor attached; real time telemetry is something motor racing teams have used for many years. I agree, it's incredible what it can track and I've seen some of the reports from the ones my organisation use and from heavy industry also (trucking and mining) and it's mind boggling.
I think it's working well for the organisation I work for and they are pleased with it.
I am very familiar with the vehicle tracking and monitoring system you are writing about, because the company where I work has a fleet of over 1,300 vehicles.
How do I know that?
Thus, for these GPS devices, I provide SIM cards for GPRS data transmission, configure them and monitor their consumption.
A large fleet of delivery vehicles and trucks are connected to a special system for creating movement routes, in order to optimize the path of goods delivery and thus shorten the driving time, the emission of harmful gases, and speed up the delivery as much as possible.
Some vehicles are connected to the TAPA system, a special standardized transport regime required by individual clients.
As for passenger vehicles, there are mini vans, which are used by sellers in the field, as well as classic passenger vehicles used by other colleagues.
My position does not provide a permanent official car, but I take it from the fleet if necessary. That suits me, since we have organized transportation to the company, and by driving that organized transportation, I avoid driving cars in the crowd (I don't need an additional official car because I have my own private car, so a parking spot for official cars would also be a challenge for me).
As for the monitoring of those "private" official cars, they are subject to a special monitoring regime, especially related to driving speed, as well as monitoring of fueling at the pumps with which we have signed contracts, since we have an internal gas station that provides cheaper fuel, so it is higher cost if colleagues pour fuel at external pumps.
I wonder how the tracking has helped the company improve and what the numbers look like as far as emissions, vehicle accidents and cost reductions go.
For that information, I would have to ask my colleagues who are in charge of monitoring those processes in transport.
If I get such a report from them, there is no other, I will share it here with you as a post 🙂
I just don't know in which community to mention such a project 🤔
No stress, I was just curious. As for a community...just say you were "looking at the figures over the weekend," and use the Weekend Experiences community if you like.
Considering that equipment for such a large number of vehicles, software, licenses and SIM cards cost a lot, I believe that the benefit is greater than the cost of installation.
Now I'm interested too 😀
Tomorrow I'll go in search: expenses, kilometers traveled, number of incidents, before and after...
Wow that is a great initiative, am please to hear from you. Great work boss.
I will tell you that I know little about this subject, especially about vehicles, but I can tell you that the company you work for is surprising. The important thing is safety and that is very noticeable in everything you say. And you are also a responsible person in every way and even more so with your work.
It's a pity there's always some shit in every job .... but shit can be fixed.😂
Shit is shit but bad shit can be made into good shit if one takes time to fix shit rather than talk shit.
Totally agree... with the right tools you fix it and that's it!
Some of the insurance companies over here now have devices you can plug into your car to track that sort of stuff. Then they adjust your rate accordingly based on how good or bad of a driver you are. I choose not to participate in that sort of thing. I know I would probably get horrible marks. I tend to accelerate quickly and brake hard at times. If I knew I was being tracked for it I would probably try to do better, but not at this point.
Yeah, I not surprised they've latched onto it, another control mechanism that insurers will probably use to deny claims eventually.
This kind of data tracking and monitoring makes sense for a business fleet. Rewarding good drivers as opposed to purely using it for punitive measures is also good. It might also make sense for drivers to opt into such a system for auto insurance in exchange for reduced rates. However, I know there are a lot of control freaks who want corporations or the government to track private cars. That I cannot tolerate, although I have my suspicions about the increasing electronics and navigation systems in cars now doing it anyway.
I wonder if insurance companies offered discounts for drivers with telematics if people would adopt it and how it would affect their driving, accidents and claims. Interesting thought.
We have GPS units installed on our postie bikes. They're supposedly able to do all sorts of stuff like workout if a bike has tipped over or whatever but I don't think anyone has worked out how to do that.
The biggest issue we have is the battery on the GPS unit seems to be small and the battery on the bike is definitely small and so if the bike isn't used for a couple of days - i.e over the weekend - the GPS drains the bike battery and we can't start our motorbikes without crash starting or using the kickstarter.
It's what I like to call NIFE - Nice Idea, Failed Execution
I think it's a good concept in principle, but (as you point out) it needs to be applied correctly and in a way that's viable; clearly yours is not.
The system my organisation uses works really well and while there's detractors, I think (I know) it's making a real difference to how people drive and it's showing in reduced accidents/incidents.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea and I want it to be set up correctly. The level of safety it awards our riders if something goes wrong is immeasurable.
Telemetry on vehicles is a must for any company for even just insurance purposes and those detractors will most likely be people who get up to no good in their cars.
We’ve fired a rider for wasting company time because we tracked him sitting at his mum and dad’s place for a sizeable chunk of the day he was claiming he was working. This caused a major backlog of mail not being delivered.
We’ve also used it against couriers who were found to have been dumping parcels instead of delivering them.
I’m 100% for vehicle telemetry. I just wish the company would do research before choosing an ineffective brand.
I reckon a lot of people have been caught out and fired because telematics and justifiably so I think; there's implications for doing the wrong thing usually.
As for the research done prior to choosing a system...I agree, although it's difficult to see past the sales pitch sometimes, one can only hope it's the right thing. Good luck.
I comment on our a.i. overlords intrusion into our lives quite often to anyone in the trucking industry who will listen.
Here is an exchange just this week with my business partner about the electronics that run my trucking life now. (ELD)
Lol, you must obey your overlords...if you don't, fines apply I assume.
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