TRUE PATH TRACKING FOR TELEMATICS

How many of you remember the name Snitch? You know, the little NZ start-up that was something of a disruptor brand in GPS tracking world about 15 years ago?

Snitch had good product but not the best name, especially considering at the time, the resistance to GPS systems was quite strong.

The CEO and founder Jeremy Mclean stuck to it though and like all good disruptors, became a major pain in the posterior for the more conventional, heavily financed GPS providers.

Interestingly, in its heyday, Snitch created more brand awareness for GPS tracking than any other provider but eventually, the brand sort of, faded.

What had happened was a shift to Australia, where Jeremy moved to in order establish a presence in the Lucky land – a venture that took a little longer than it should have done, since Australia’s resistance to tracking systems is even greater than ours – or perhaps they didn’t like the idea of a

New Zealand provider being better than something homegrown.

Regardless, Jeremy persisted, and his company gained a foothold across the

Ditch. Now it’s back in New Zealand, but with a more grown up name: Sensium – the designer, developer and distributor of Vylio consumer product and the better known Armadagps commercial tracking systems.

That was yesterday. Today, Sensium – the company which empowers connectivity, according to its company profile – is looking to position itself in the top tier of GPS tracking systems providers; pretty much where it has been the whole time in terms of technology development according to Jeremy, but the best kept secret in the industry.

So how is this going to change? For starters, the company is going to continue its expansion into Australia and New Zealand, but it is also looking to branch into Europe and the United States.

To do this, it will be seeking FCC and CE approval for its core product, in addition to making in-roads with some innovative product to come.

In the meantime, Sensium’s existing products – specifically the Armadagps range of GPS products – have seen significant advances over the past four years especially, with a strong drive to acquiring high quality, robust data which is critical to the end user wanting to reap the full benefits of GPS as a business advancing tool.

“We have our signature products,” explains Jeremy, “which starts with the Driver ID module.

“We have always had a focus on driver behaviour as a side bar of GPS tracking, but we were always trying to deduce driver behaviour from the vehicle. This is hard to do when there are many drivers for the same vehicle so, we created Driver ID.

“Driver ID identifies who is driving a GPSequipped vehicle and relays their driving habits to whomever needs to see it. The driver’s behaviours can be assessed with greater accuracy.”

Driver ID connects easily to the

TRACKBOX TB2 primary GPS unit, which is arguably Sensium’s hero product, being a data collector, monitor, reporting and real time tracking solution.

TB2 is easy to fit thanks to modern Can-bus technology and accessibility to the modern vehicles on-board diagnostic system.

The TB2 unit – about half the size of an iphone and twice as thick – enables a variety of add-on components, including two-way Garmin messaging and navigation, driver panic alert, temperature monitoring and remote disabling of the vehicle in the event of theft.

It is what most would expect of a GPS solution, providing a wealth of information and making it readily available, from viewing your vehicle’s current locations, each vehicle’s location history, detailed vehicle reports and real time alerts specific to each vehicle.

“What we have always had with TB2,” explains Jeremy, “in addition to all of the above, is something we didn’t realise would be so valuable today – Truepath Tracking.”

Put simply, Truepath Tracking is what sets Sensium technology apart from its competition, and with TPT inherent right the way through Sensium’s development of the product – 15 years remember – it has been an integral part of updates to the system, which makes it as robust as any of the components making up the whole.

TPT allows continual polling of the data from the TB2 GPS system as opposed to most systems which poll every one or two

minutes or at specific distance points; 500 metres or so is the norm.

“A lot can happen in 500 metres,” says Jeremy. “TB2 leaves no room for assumption, as it tracks everything all the time.”

You can see how TPT works and is so incredibly useful with a very simple visual display which Sensium ® uses to demonstrate the advantages.

Conventional tracking systems give you what appear to be random ‘pings’ which is great if your vehicles are going through open country roads. Ping the system when its operating in a close city environment though, and the Ping points become an almost meaningless scattering of arrows which can’t even clearly show where the vehicle has travelled from or to.

TPT on the other hand, lays out a structured ‘route’ which is clearly obvious and allows the end user the opportunity to pinpoint with precision, exactly what the vehicle was doing right at any given point on the route in terms of speed, g-force, engine revolutions or braking.

Jeremy highlights the advantages with an anecdotal story from a client who didn’t have TPT as part of his GPS solution.

“A 60km/h speed camera may be triggered at a position 242 metres between point

A and point B, when speeds of 52km/h and 59km/h respectively, were recorded. Was the vehicle exceeding 60km/h at the 242-meter mark? Most likely, but proving it is impossible unless your vehicle has a TB2 system.”

What about a not-serious collision occurring 200 metres after the last ping and 300 metres of the next? The vehicle is still moving, but it may well have damaged someone or something in the meantime. Vehicle returns to its home-base and someone spots a ding in the wing; “Hey! What happened here?” Driver shrugs, “No idea, must have happened while I was parked. Not my problem.” And who – without the advantages of Truepath Tracking – could argue?

TPT eliminates those little ‘black spots’ where no one knows what really happened.

Certainly, TB2 is the poster child for the Sensium ® product range but it’s certainly not the only device on offer. TB3 for instance, is a tracking device for assets which don’t have their own battery to provide power.

These assets are diverse in nature and multitudinous in number, which requires a robust and cost-effective unit with a selfcontained power source.

Such a device would not require constant monitoring and thus its power requirements are not as demanding as they would be for a TB2 system, but the TB3 battery pack would also have to be robust.

Again, the TB3 device is a little larger than an iphone, with the battery occupying up to a third of the inner workings and it is expected to last between three to five years. The

TB3 is also very easy to install and switch between assets as required.

While the Sensium ® products are paving the way in many respects for the future of GPS tracking systems, there has always been the consideration of price as far as fleet users are concerned, and up-to-the-moment products of this nature are always going to cost.

Many ask the question why these products are the price they are? In Sensium’s ® case, the answer lies in one word: quality. While some might suggest that applies only to the hardware or software, it doesn’t. It includes knowledge.

As of 1 March 2013, any device needs

RCM approval Regulatory Compliance Mark to show the device has been checked to determine Telco approval, electrical safety compliance and EMF radioactivity testing. This applies to all devices being retailed.

As with all compliance requirements of this nature, there is a significant cost attached to the process, and that may be why, when Jeremy did some research into this, he found a surprising number of GPS tracking solutions suppliers – astonishingly – lacked the RCM mark.

“No matter which GPS tracking solutions provider you choose to use, it is critical you ask about the RCM mark,” says Jeremy. “If there is no mark, don’t use the system. You – as the user – are liable for a fine, as is the provider.”

While the current selection of product is sufficient to appeal to fleet users looking to harness the inherent advantages of a

GPS solution for increased safety of your personnel, improved efficiency and increase productivity, Sensium ® is looking to enhance its range in the next few years.

Jeremy points out that Sensium ® has near on 15 years of data collected, 10 year’s worth of which incorporates Truepath Tracking. This data can and will be used to implement the next level of GPS technology, which could incorporate AI machine learning, which ultimately will further ensure the safety of professional drivers.

Additionally, Jeremy is looking at partnering with other like-minded forwardthinking companies to enhance product on a shared basis, camera telematics – a telematics solution like TB2 linked to a pair of vehicle external cameras – is high on the development list.

Any company looking to implement a GPS solution for its fleet would do well to ensure their partner provider is being proactive, rather than reactive when it comes to GPS technology.