	Trip Management on mobile platforms with enhanced features.

For a detailed explanation of the application we suggest to read Trip Log FAQ.

Summary

We often hear about “dot-on-the-map” functionality, which spans a group of attributes used in fleet management but Trip Log has five major features:

trip recording with enhanced type of locations (geofences/status/message/idling runs)
trip detection using several sensors
geofence/geozone management
reporting and charting
back-end synchronization and management (subscription version)

The application is designed to run even when the application is not started in the case a trip had been started and not ended. Also, the application monitors the vehicle state in order to start/stop a trip. For user’s convenience, the app provides a widget which controls basic functions.

As with all other applications, the user can monitor several vehicles within the same app. The application supports both metric and imperial systems of measurement.

As with all our mobile applications there are three versions: free, in-app purchases and subscription.

The free version application has the following limitations:

only one vehicle is allowed
only two geofences/geozones are allowed
only two trip tags are allowed
the maximum number of trips is 20
the maximum number of locations recorded is 2000

Short descriptions of features

We designed and created Trip Log as a replacement for black-boxes used by GSP/fleet management companies. The PRO & CONS of using mobile technology for asset management versus special designed hardware was discussed on one of our previous posts.

Trip Log is using the GPS, the accelerometer, the compass sensors (or fusion sensor) on the phone to collect GPS data, motion data and is applying business rules in order to monitor geofence activities, idling engine runs. With collected data the user can create a variety of reports and charts to monitor vehicle usage.

What is new and different than other mobile applications with the same purpose (trip mileage management) is the bias on adding features which are common for hardware GPS boxes:

monitoring geofence activity
monitoring idling runs
detecting automatically when a trip begins or ends
send messages with location back to web servers (status feature with location – attaches GPS information to the message)

Dashboard

The dashboard shows a list of all managed vehicles, the daily activity information for the current day and the information of the last trip. Daily activity consists of the current odometer, number of trips, total mileage for the day and total driving period for the day. The trip information consists of the duration, the mileage, the maximum and average speed and the lists of all the locations recorded for the trip. There are the following type of messages:

start/end trip
location
geozone info (in or out of geozone)
message with location information (when a driver reaches a location it can send a message which is supplemented automatically with the GPS info)

Trip Recording, Daily Stats

The application allows to see daily statistics of the vehicle:

counting vehicle trips
the current odometer
counting the number of km/miles for the day
counting the driving intervals
counting the idling intervals

For the trip management, the user can assign tags (with colors) to any trip, assign notes and view the GPS locations. The trip will also record in/out of geozones, idling runs and messages with location.

As with all our mobile applications there are three versions, free, one time fee and subscription. We understand some features are not useful for some users (geozone, motion detection, reports and charts) and that led to supporting in-app purchases for:

geozone management : creation, assignment to vehicles and monitoring
trip definition using GPS, motion sensors
detailed reports and charts for daily activity, trip summary, geozone activity, idling runnings

The subscription version will synchronize data to our back-end solution (www.fleetgateway.com) and allows IFTA reports, precise mileage control, and user management. For the subscription version we will post another document.

Motion detection

The free version allows manual control of the trip events (start/stop) and power detected trip control. When the phone/mobile device is powered by the cigarette lighter, the user can opt-in for trip start/end when the power is detected.

There are two other options for trip start/end:

based on GPS – if the speed is greater than a certain threshold the trip is started automatically or the user is prompted to do it. If the idling period is crossing a threshold time duration the trip is ended.
based on motion detection – if the confidence the mobile device is in a car is higher than a threshold then a trip is started automatically or the user is prompted to do it. If the confidence level is higher than the mobile device is on foot, then the trip is ended.

These three situations relieves the user of manually starting/stopping the trip:

If the mobile device is automatically connected to the cigarette lighter and is not attached to vehicle then it may use ignition on/off to trigger/stop a trip.
If the mobile device is with the driver all the time and it is used for other tasks then motion detection is appropriate and precise.
The GPS speed and idling monitoring is less precise (due to frequency and delays of getting GPS info).

Geozone monitoring

The Android platform has support for geozone/geofence monitoring and we included it in the application. The user is notified when it enters/exits a round zone defined as center location and radius. The application allows to draw a geofence/geozone and records activities of crossing the boundaries.

Advanced Reporting and Charts

The reports reflects what is available in the dashboard screen:

daily activity reports and charts
trip summary reports and charts
trip idling reports and charts
geozone activity
total idling per trip reports

User Manual

For a detailed explanation of the application we suggest to read Trip Log FAQ.