DOT Qualcomm

[Greg]

@FlyingVan "So yesterday with about 25 minutes of driving time left on the clock I went off duty for my 30 minutes break. After 31 minutes I got back on the road, the qualcomm showing that I had 4+ hours of drive time left. Then, after about 5 minutes of driving the qualcomm beeped at me, the red exclamation point flashed frantically that I was in violation. I pulled over and the 30 min off duty break was now only 26 min. How in the world did it get changed? No wonder I was in violation.

Anyone has experienced anything like this before? Messed up unit?"

I cannot reply in Load 1 forum.
After the new update , you cannot move during the 30 minute break. If you leave at the 29 minute mark or less, it will stop the break timer. Unless you move and park for at least 5 minutes. Keep in mind that if you go off duty for your break and the clock goes to 30 minutes, it is best to wait until 32-34 minutes since you may have stopped at 12:05.75 and your timer shows whole minutes but counts in seconds. So at 12:35.25 it sees it as less than 30 minutes, even if it is less than a second.
I hope this helps

 

[TDave]

It will do that sometimes. For some reason it will back up the time. You can do a few things to avoid this. Take a 36 minute break, call your safety department they can see you stopped for 31 minutes, and I also find if you manually switch your time from off duty to driving this corrects the problem too.
I think it has to do with how far you can drive before the qc records. For example Panther sets it at seven tenths of a mile before it records.

 

[beachbum]

It will do that sometimes. For some reason it will back up the time. You can do a few things to avoid this. Take a 36 minute break, call your safety department they can see you stopped for 31 minutes, and I also find if you manually switch your time from off duty to driving this corrects the problem too.
I think it has to do with how far you can drive before the qc records. For example Panther sets it at seven tenths of a mile before it records.

I'm totally surprised that Panther allows any driver on electronic logs to travel over 5mph before driving kicks in. I say this because as of last February there was a Qcomm update to change that per DOT regulations, that's what I've been told by Landstar safety department.

 

[TDave]

I'm totally surprised that Panther allows any driver on electronic logs to travel over 5mph before driving kicks in. I say this because as of last February there was a Qcomm update to change that per DOT regulations, that's what I've been told by Landstar safety department.

I haven't heard anything yet nor noticed it if its changed. I can say I have driven short distances like moving in a truck stop and my status is the same. Normally I just change my status manually so it doesn't back up my time.

 

[Kazper]

Panther states the distance to be 7 tenths of a mile. What isn't stated is the variables in technology based applications.
That "7 tenths of a mile" is NOT measured by physical revolutions of any actual tire.
It is based on where cell towers or satallites 'ping' the truck to be.
How many times have we had a GPS say we were on the road running parallel to the one we were actually on? That is the variable.
7 tenths of a mile can magically become anywhere between 0.2 miles and 2.0 miles. Higher population areas typically produce more accurate location 'pings' because of the abundance of cell towers used for location triangulation. Ahhh.. technology.
There is no way to know what the system believes your exact physical location to be.. so there is no way to try and sneak past detection to get that extra couple minutes we sometimes legitimately need in order to find that elusive perfect parking spot.

 

[Turtle]

There is no way to know what the system believes your exact physical location to be..

Not sure about Panther's website, but in FleetVision you can click you location, then the details, and bring up the Google Map, including the Terran overlay, that shows precisely where the system believes you to be. I've seen mine be as accurate as the parking spot in which I'm sitting.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Not sure about Panther's website, but in FleetVision you can click you location, then the details, and bring up the Google Map, including the Terran overlay, that shows precisely where the system believes you to be. I've seen mine be as accurate as the parking spot in which I'm sitting.

Is Panthers a satelite based Q?

 

[Turtle]

Is Panthers a satelite based Q?

I don't know. It used to be when I was there, with the old Qualcomms. But it's been more than 5 years. Maybe someone who knows will come in.

I really appreciated the sat tracking and communications when I was out in rural Nevada where the closest cell tower was 150 miles away.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

I too remember when "line of sight" was an issue....the J now a loves in Gary In and Temple GA as examples....trees on the south side....now with these new web based systems....no signal on your phone usually means no Qcom either....I liked that extra layer of back up especially like you said....and West Texas...

 

[Kazper]

The previous post mentioning the ability to zoom in to a parking spot?
Sure, I know that NASA can tell you the date stamp on a dime in your pocket from the dark side of the moon, that technology certainly exists.
It all comes down to what each individual or company is willing to pay for however much accuracy they want.
Trucking isn't open heart surgury.
A quarter mile is close enough for Panther and their cell tower based QC.
I'm sure options exist to enable features within the system to revert it to pinpoint satallite tracking in case of emergency.
Truck buried in a blizzard?
Theft of a load? Medical concern?
Wouldn't surprise me if some of the top tier customers demand that level of security for load tracking purposes.
The system is what it is.
The important thing is to know what system is in your truck and how to work with it to stay out of the quicksand of having to debate with dispatchers and safety department people who are often trained to believe the brains of truck drivers automatically explode the moment our drive line goes a single second beyond that 11th hour.
The true irony is.. they are also awake 16 hours a day?
No, I am not advocating noncompliance here. 11 hours a day is plenty of time to drive the miles and make the money.
Nothing is more effective than adapting a load plan towards the end of the driving shift to find a safe place to park (or swap drivers).

 

[Turtle]

It all comes down to what each individual or company is willing to pay for however much accuracy they want.

Yes and no. With Qualcomm everybody gets the same level of accuracy. The photo below is from FleetVision where it shows my most recent location since the last positron update with the orange pushpin. The blue spot shows where I moved over a few feet so as to not be in front of the dumpsters. The combination of terrestrial (cell tower) and WiFi, which is what Qualcomm uses with all of the newer QCs, can be astonishingly accurate.

 

[Kazper]

We are delving into specialized territory that I am personally ignorant of.
That being said, I believe FleetVision is probably an upsell passed on to the end user at a premium rate above whatever the standard cost is to be equipped with lesser technology.
In regards to Panther and the policy of 0.7 miles before the ELD puts the active user on their drive line?
Let's say I know exactly how many footsteps it takes me to walk exactly a half mile from a receiving dock to a safe parking spot..
Then, knowing the unloading process has put me beyond 14 hours for the shift, should I take that chance?
As a team driver, this is not a concern for me.. But, if I were solo, different story.
All of a sudden, when faced with being put on an automatic safety hold due to violating company policy in regards to violating HoS on one side, and blocking the dock of a valuable customer on the other the same coin, is a tough place to be at 6pm on a Friday evening.
I can't send my FleetVision screenshot to the powers that be in order to remain available to drive for the weekend. Even if they were familiar with FMCSA Safe Haven provisions or accepting of my rationalizations and the provided proof that I did not travel 0.7 miles when making the decision to relocate the truck, they all went home an hour ago.
Sure, it's splitting hairs for the sake of debate. But, we are trusted to make those judgement calls every day in this profession.
Besides, isn't that what makes forums fun?
On a lighter note, your posted picture displaying real-time location with that degree of accuracy is cool stuff indeed.
I use Google maps several times a week to get the birds eye view of customer facilities as part of my pre-trip routine.
2 minutes of research often saves 2 hours of frustration.

 

[Turtle]

We are delving into specialized territory that I am personally ignorant of.
That being said, I believe FleetVision is probably an upsell passed on to the end user at a premium rate above whatever the standard cost is to be equipped with lesser technology.

Again, yes and no. The original, older legacy Omnitracs system (the little dome bubble and standard keyboard display unit) that a few carriers are still using uses standard GPS for tracking, and which is accurate to standard consumer-level GPS of generally 0.90 to 1.20 meters.

The new MCP (Mobile Computing Platform) Omnitracs ELDs (Electronic Logging Devices) comes as standard with terrestrial and WiFi installed and active with the less-accurate GPS system not installed and only available as an additional cost. The addition of GPS would be also allow tracking and satelite communications in areas where there are no cell towers or WiFi available, like in rural west Texas, Nevada, Washington state, Oregon and other places where cell phone communications is non existent.

The GPS coordinates generated by either the legacy Omnitracs GPS units or the newer MCP units and passed directly to FleetVision, which overlays those coordinates onto Google Maps. FleetVision will simply use whatever coordinates your fleet tracking system feeds it, no upsell required.

If you want some hyper accurate locations, depending on the phone you have, you can go into the Locations and Tracking settings have the phone use GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth (terrestrial cell tower is always on for cell phones) and you'll get accuracy down to within one foot of your location.

There are free tools available right now on the internet that will let you use WiFi and cell tower data to get the location of a computer using a given IP address to within a foot or two.

All ELDs use the same technology, with the same accuracy, whether they are fed into FleetVision and overlayed into Google Maps or not. And that's how Panther knows you've moved .7 miles or not.

And as for that tough spot to be in at 6pm on a Friday night, you don't need to send a screen shot to Panther, as they can already see your location. One call to Safety regarding having to move half a mile (or however far is necessary) to a safe parking spot is easily confirmed on their end,and they can manually make the necessary corrections.

 

[Kazper]

Now THAT is a very detailed and informative reply. I truly love to learn. Thank you for the education.

 

[beachbum]

Looked at the ELD regulation for location and the reg. says within 1 mile unless you're using the vehicle for personal use. In the case of personal use within 10 miles. That said, the regulation also says the conpany can change the location to anything they want under those to numbers.