[Skywalker]

I can't speak to what the quality level of the systems are....but I will guess that it may have something to do with the level of service they have contracted for. When I was with CFI, and this was about 6 years ago....I made a wrong turn that ultimately had me backtracking, and I got a message asking me why I "turned around" and was headed the wrong way? It took about 10 minutes to get to me.

Now, where GPS's are concerned....the age of the unit is going to make a difference, and who made it is also going to affect the accuracy.

On my trawler I have one Garmin, and two Interphase GPS's.... when I was bringing the boat south ....the Garmin would show me out of the ICW and about 300 yards out in the grass and fields....but my Interphase's would show me right on the centerline of the ICW.

Beyond that, I can only say.... "Discretion is the better part of valor".... So, I wouldn't count on system failures..... I would suggest that keeping logs as legal as humanly possible is what is going to keep us out of trouble.

Oh, the "OP" posted this in two places.....cuz' he could!

[mike3fan]

Originally Posted by Skywalker

Actually Mike, I don't think so.... I saw a print out in one terminal showing all the drivers and there "pings" or whatever you want to call them.....it listed the ones that were wrong versus the right ones.....

If they really going to use this in auditing.....its going to really refine the dame and the rules.
Plus it adds another level of evidence to be used in civil litigation.....

I was commenting on your making the jump to going to jail for logs not matching, not withstanding civil/criminal cases I don't see that happening.

[Flydragon]

Originally Posted by matcat

I do drive for one of those '6 truck' companies thank you very much. But your point of deadly accuracy is completely wrong. Sorry, but given raw NMEA data produced by a GPS receiver, the location swing can easily be in the miles radius! Modern navigation GPS uses very sophisticated and not so sophisticated mathematical formulas to stabilize the signals to make it more accurate, which is also usually suplimented with WAAS to help it out. Devices such as qualcomm more often then not don't even use these stabilizers because those devices do not need the accuracy a navigation device does, it's purpose is solely to give someone the ability to know it's general location. Even surveyors do not use GPS for surveying because they are just not accurate enough! There are special GPS receivers that surveyors use that cost upwards of $5000, but even that is not used for the survey itself, but to give a rough outline for them to make the actual survey quicker using more accurate means.

When I was with swift, they have it programmed into the QC that you cannot send a Macro for arriving at shipper/consignee unless you are within a certain distance, I would say about 30% of the time, I had to send my DM either a QC message or call him to do it for me because the stupid system would not recognize me being there, and his usual response would be, "The system says you are 100 miles away", and that is not exaggerated, it ranged anywhere from 1 mile away to 500 miles away one time. Sorry, but that is NOT accurate enough to really enforce the concept.

I remember the funniest time was I was delivering to Florida, and the QC showed me being in the middle of the gulf!

Now they could make them more accurate if they wanted too however, and I suspect that with this new enforcement method, the device manufacturers will now incorporate a lot of the techniques used by navigational GPS devices.

BTW if you don't believe that solar flares effects technology, I have seen my own navigation GPS tell me I was 150 miles away and trying to route me from there during a fairly minor solar flare about a year ago. Not that long ago a solar flare temporarily disabled a handful of satellites used for communications too.

Before I started driving I sailed the coast of Western Mexico in my 38' ketch for a couple of years. My GPS made it easy to spot currents taking me off my rumb line, but even then I couldn't count on it when I was making landfall at night. I had an amazingly accurate non-electronic instrument for navigation and used it often for measuring the accuracy of my GPS. It's called a sextant, and with it I could pinpoint my location within 1-5 nautical miles. Sometimes it was more accurate than my GPS, but not often.

The point is that as a sailor I couldn't count on the GPS for accuracy since, as madcat said, solar flares and the military mucking around with it could render it useless. Mine was pretty expensive and had all kinds of correctional algorithms incorporated in it. But I still NEVER used it for landfall when I couldn't see where I was with my own eyes.

[sportster65]

Originally Posted by geargrinder

Dude, you crack me up. I can't believe Swift let you go! Take care.

????????? OK?

matcat, you're right GPS is good and I used it alot, but it did have some quirks. I had a pretty expensive and up to date software. I was trying to find a Walmart to shop and shut down for a while in So. Cal. The GPS routed me to the nearest one, in Indianapolis, IN. I thought maybe just something weird, so I shut it down and re-booted. Tried it again, this time it routed me to the nearest Walmart, in New Mexico. Funny thing, I looked for a BofA and it sent me to the nearest one, go figure. I have used it many times to find Walmarts all over and always it sent me to the nearest one except that one day.

I have also had it tell me I was driving over 700 miles away from I was actually located, why, I do not know, but it did and I could not correct it that particular day. Sunspots, yes, it has been well documented that they do wreak havoc on electronics, thats why they are so closely watched by scientists. I believe there is a website where you can go to get up to date information on solar storms that are coming our way. Let me rephrase that, I know there is a site, I just don't remember the address right this minute.

[matcat]

Yeah GPS's can do some wierd things . Don't get me wrong, I love GPS and technology, but they are prone to error, a lot more often then people think. I really think the FMCSA will quickly realize this when they see someone's logbook, then look at the companies QC and see them bouncing around impossibly.

[DDCavi]

The GPS system at my work is deadly accurate. They can tell you right where you are anytime you ask.

[Phreddo]

We use some sort of cell-based computer system. Not AGPS, per se, but cell for communication. We have all electronic logging, and the gps marks our arrivals and departures as well. The system tracks our miles and gives ETAs. The only problems is that it does it as the crow flies, rather than street miles. So it is pretty useless for eta info unless you are familiar with your route. Going from Milwaukee to Detroit shows like 250 miles or somesuch :/ It sure would be nice to just be able to go over the lake.

but, yeah, GPS systems are very much ready for prime-time for log verification and for DOT purposes. I have a 9.5 hour run, so this system is making me -very- lazy.

[DaveP]

Originally Posted by geargrinder

That is strictly anecdotal baloney. The GPS is deadly accurate.

Only if they're ONLINE and working correctly.

[Orangetxguy]

I like to make my Garmin say "Re-calculating".

[matcat]

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

I like to make my Garmin say "Re-calculating".

Man the garmins are so annoying with that. My new truck has one in it, one of the older ones, and it will sit there and say re-calculating 20,000 times as fast as it can until it is done re-calculating.