Foreign Literature

Case Studies for our GPS Vehicle Tracking System

The savings made so far have more than paid for the total investment
According to Evans Halshaw Smart Repair Operations, it was important that they were
able to remotely monitor and track their fleet each day. With a commercial ethos focused on
customer service and swift response, they have expanded their qualified service engineers by
35% since installing the Blackbox Telematics system, based on the implementation of the latest
GPS vehicle tracking System to deliver the best possible service to customers, while ensuring
increased operational efficiencies.Since the implementation of the GPS vehicle tracking system
they improved their customer satisfaction, by timely deployment of their fleet from each of their
locations when responding to site requirements.
The vehicle tracking system instantly assists in the allocation and deployment of their
vehicles and staff around the Group, this has improved their overall efficiency and significantly
helped to increase productivity and reduce time wasted on site and hours claimed. The GPS
tracking system provides The Group now has greater control over fuel costs and general vehicle
overheads, being able to accurately deploy their teams has resulted in saving time on journeys as
well as unnecessary mileage claims.
Vehicle Tracking
The Blackbox Telematics real time vehicle GPS tracking & fleet telematics software is a
SAAS service that provides businesses with a very low cost GPS vehicle tracking system and
GPS vehicle monitoring system that has been designed to maximize the productivity and
optimize your vehicle efficiencies utilizing the most advanced GPS vehicle tracking technology
available today.
According to the Blackbox Telematics, the vehicle tracking system has proven to be
hugely reliable and robust. They established itself within the vehicle telematics industry to be
one of the leaders in their vehicle tracking field. Their vehicle tracking enables you to unlock the
potential of your business while reducing costs, increase productivity and customer improve
service. They have incorporated Driver Behavior EcoRisk system within several of vehicle
tracking offers.
London's iBus system
Bus operators in the city are graded using a system called "excess waiting time" (EWT).
This is the average time passengers wait over and above what would have been expected if the
service was running exactly as scheduled.
According to Alex Moffat, manager (performance development) at Transport for London
said: "They can see if the bus is late, the bus is early, or there are long gaps between the buses, or
bunching up, and then they can take actions to improve that performance, such as separating the
gaps, splitting up bunches. We get much better performance, because the operators know where
the buses are, and they can intervene."
Controllers can intervene by putting more buses on the route or pull them out of service
so they can stay on schedule. There are also iBus control centers at individual depots where
controllers work with CentreCom and communicate with drivers, who alert them of incidents on
the roads. Information from the bus control centre is also shared with commuters so they can
plan their journeys better. Countdown is a real time display information that predicts the arrival
time of buses. It is available at 2,500 selected bus stops, and the information can also be found
via apps on the mobile phone.
And also according to the managing director John Trayner said: "As we improve
performance, that new performance becomes your new target. When the contract is re-tendered,
it becomes ever more difficult to continue to achieve, and improve that performance. Across the
whole London bus network now, the EWT of one minute is difficult to improve on, but we are
now looking at ways we can do that, where we can squeeze every last bit out."
This has translated to better commuter experience.
The latest Transport for London report showed passenger satisfaction at a record 83 per
cent.
Foreign Studies
OpenGTS
OpenGTS ("Open GPS Tracking System") is the first available open source project
designed specifically to provide web-based GPS tracking services for a "fleet" of vehicles.
According to GeoTelematics Solutions Inc. the OpenGTS has been downloaded and
put to use in over 110 countries around the world to track many 1000's of vehicles/assets around
all 7 Continents. The types of vehicles and assets tracked include taxis, delivery vans,
trucks/trailers, farm equipment, personal vehicles, service vehicles, containers, ships, ATVs,
personal tracking, cell phones, and more.
It was designed to fill the needs of an entry-level fleet tracking system; it is also very
highly configurable and scalable to larger enterprises as well.


OneBusAway
OneBusAway is a collection of transit traveler information tools developed at the
University of Washington. It provides real-time bus arrival information, a trip planner, a
schedule and route browser, and a transit-friendly destination finder for Seattle area bus riders.
This application primarily targets the group of users who use the bus service quite frequently. It
has been implemented on a smart phone so that it can exploit its localization framework and its
built-in multi-touch map support. The application communicates with the OneBusAways back-
end server over the phones network connection to request information about stops in a given
area, information about particular routes and ultimately real-time arrival information for specific
stops. The various functionalities that the application offers are provided in the tab bar at the
bottom of the screen that provides entry points for a map screen, a bookmark screen, a recent-
stops screen, and a search screen.
Development of a GPS-Based Transit Tracking System for Corvallis
Buses can be impractical for those who must adhere to a strict schedule or depend on
them for emergencies. While variations from the official bus schedule are understandable and
largely unavoidable, a lack of communication discourages adoption at a rate disproportionate
with their actual likelihood. Even if a bus is running exactly on schedule, bus users have no easy
way of knowing that information and those that have alternative modes of transportation will be
less likely to ride the bus regardless of its actual timeliness.
According to Daniel Urbanski (2012), the CTS BusTracker system utilizes modern
technologies to provide Corvallis bus users with accurate, real-time information about the arrival
times of buses within the city. The project consists of two main parts: a GPS (Global Position
Satellite) tracking system that uses the buss positional data and route information to calculate
estimated arrival times, and a communication infrastructure that allows potential bus users to
query and receive this information in real time.
HISTORY OF GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)
The GPS System was created and realized by the American Department of Defense
(DOD) and was originally based on and run with 24 satellites (21 satellites being required and 3
satellites as replacement). Nowadays, about 30 active satellites orbit the earth in a distance of
20200 km. GPS satellites transmit signals which enable the exact location of a GPS receiver, if it
is positioned on the surface of the earth, in the earth atmosphere or in a low orbit. GPS is being
used in aviation, nautical navigation and for the orientation ashore. Further it is used in land
surveying and other applications where the determination of the exact position is required. The
GPS signal can be used without a fee by any person in possession of a GPS receiver.
In 1973, Decision has been made to develop a satellite navigation system based on the
systems TRANSIT, TIMATION und 621B of the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy. Four years
later, First receiver tests are performed even before the first satellites are stationed in the orbit.
Transmitters are installed on the earths surface called Pseudolites (Pseudo satellites). By 1985, a
total of 11 Block I satellites are launched into the orbit. Decision has been made to expand the
GPS system. Thereupon the resources are considerably shortened and the program is
restructured.
At first only 18 satellites should be operated. 1988 the number of satellites is again raised
to 24, as the functionality is not satisfying with only 18 satellites. Launching of the first Block I
satellite carrying sensors to detect atomic explosions. This satellite is meant to control the
abidance of the agreement of 1963 between the USA and the Soviet Union to refrain from any
nuclear tests on the earth, submarine or in space. When a civilian airplane of the Korean Airline
(Flight 007) was shot down after it had gone lost over Sovjet territory, it was decided to allow
the civilian use of the GPS system. In 1986, the accident of the space shuttle "Challenger" means
a drawback for the GPS program, as the space shuttles were supposed to transport Block II GPS
satellites to their orbit. Finally the operators of the program revert to the Delta rockets intended
for the transportation in the first place.
In 1989, the first Block II satellite was installed and activated. Temporal deactivation of
the selective availability (SA) during the Gulf war. In this period civil receivers should be used
as not enough military receivers were available. On July 01, 1991 SA is activated again. The
Initial Operational Capability (IOC) is announced in 1993. In the same year it is also definitely
decided to authorize the world wide civilian use free of charge.
The last Block II satellite completes the satellite constellation in 1994. Full Operational
Capability (FOC) is announced the following year. In 2000,final deactivation of the selective
availability and therefore improvement of the accuracy for civilian users from about 100 m to
20m.



WAITLESS Bus Tracking System
The WaitLess system we developed tracks all the buses on the Georgia Institute of
Technology Campus.
According to Matthew Brooks and their co-authors (2009) the WaitLess Bus Tracking
System is a standalone system that is solar powered and wireless internet driven; this allows the
system to be placed at any bus stop easily with no external power or internet connection
requirements. The WaitLess system consists of a case/sign which has a custom display which
lights LEDs positioned on a map of the bus routes to indicate the location of all the buses on
campus.
This way an informed decision can be made, to go ahead and walk or wait for the bus.