GPS journey time dilemma - any help appreciated

tinydanceruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 5

Hi everyone, just signed up today and it seems like a good site, so hopefully you'll be able to help me with a query I have.

I run a small transport consultancy and as such we undertake journey time surveys - our client normally gives us a specific route (normally in London) and we identify points along the route - normally give ways, traffic lights, bus lanes starting and ending etc.

We used to undertake this with people using clipboards and stopwatchs who recorded the time as each point was passed and they also noted down how long in seconds the vehicle was stationary (either by traffic light, traffic jams etc).

However I'm looking into the possibility for using a GPS & PDA system that would allow me to identify each point (probably by logging it on an initial walk down the route). I would then hope that at the start of each run in a car, the route could be started as it passes the first point or manually started by an operator so that the time when each point is passed & any delay between points also being logged. From this, I would hope to be able to transfer say 30 runs of a route onto an spreadsheet, so I could then analyse the data.

I hope this makes sense and any help would be greatly appreciated with regards to the equipment and software I would require.

Thanks in advance,

Neil

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject:

I've no experience of it myself, but if you end up using one of the TomTom products there is an add-on program called Tripmaster which might be able to do what you want.
The website is HERE and "roussillat", the author of the program, hangs out HERE

Oldboy · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:02 pm Post subject:

There's an Event Logger Here that might also be of interest.
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robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

It sounds like you have some fairly specific requirements, and no commercial package will do what you need. The question I have (as a software developer) is how often will you do this? If it is a part of you core business, then some custom software developement may be worth while (big $$$), on the other hand, if it is just something you sometimes do, then you can combine a few products to get a solution.

What is avalible on a numebr of commercial products is an Application interface - if you went down the software development route, TomTom is a good option to start with.

I would look carefully at a PDA with Memory map, memory map provides trip logs, which can then be reviewed on the PC. You may then want a Car Nav system, such as TomTom, which provided the route calcuation and Guidence.

Also have a chat to the guys at navtech and TeleAtlas (They are the map data providers) - they may have ot know of something that does the job.

tinydanceruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks folks, I'll check out the links later today, though to be honest I'm a complete begineer when it comes to this but I'll see if I can make sense of it.

robertn - it's quite a core part of our work these days and the cost for a specific package would quickly be swallowed up the savings in costs over a year, so if you know of anyone that might be able to create a specific package, then I'm all ears! I'll also have a chat with navtech and TeleAtlas

GPS_fan · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:05 am Post subject:

There seem to be a few 'tracking' devices around, but it wasn't clear whether you needed a portable unit (ie one which can be moved from vehicle to vehicle) or a fixed one (ie unit stays in same vehicle for multiple journeys.

This kind of thing might be 'ready to use' straight from the box because it tracks and logs where the vehicle is, how long it has stopped and so on.

I also think that such devices are fairly affordable because some companies use them to monitor their fleets.

Here are a few such systems:

Track you

Vehicle tracking

Fleet management
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Skippy

tinydanceruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 5

Hmmm, sounds like I'm getting somewhere now, thanks everyone!

It would have to be a movable device, preferably a Pocket PC to allow interchangability.

It would mainly be a person on a bus, so even the opportunity to have a touch screen palm where they can press a button each time they pass a point (traffic lights, give way etc).

Does anyone know who I could speak to in more depth regarding software development as it's something I would happily have developed to save money in the long term?

Thanks again for everyones time.

tinydanceruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 5

Anyone know? Smile

Skippy · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:23 pm Post subject:

Hmm.

From what I've heard, you can add buttons and functions to TomTom units using their programming API (perhaps a bit like the way POI capture works?). Then you could give your staff a TomTom unit (doesn't necessarily have to be a PDA) with some extra buttons added to the user interface and send them on their way. Battery life will be a problem though.

Unfortunately I probably don't have the time to get involved in such a project at the moment but there must be someone here who knows!
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tinydanceruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 5

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