Accuracy of GPS Tracking Devices

I had a new customer call the other day asking for help troubleshooting a potential problem with their tracking devices. A little background first. The customer is a successful HVAC company with four trucks that the employees take home. The main goal the customer had for the tracking system was to assist them in verifying the employee’s hours which are called in at the end of each day.

Our customer started off the call by stating the GPS vehicle tracking devices were showing up in different places based on the time the employee said they were there. I asked which unit was having the problem. She stated they were ALL having the same problem. Taken aback, initially, I reminded myself our GPS tracking devices lock on to 12 or more GPS satellites. The satellites provide location coordinates, heading, speed and the time (provided by its onboard clock which is synchronized to the GPS Satellite clocks, which are synchronized with the terrestrial atomic clocks) and are extremely accurate. So, there had to be something more than a "problem" with the units.

Together, the customer and I found the problem by looking at the Unit List View report. This report shows the details of every single GPS report transmitted into our servers by the GPS tracking device for a specific time period. Whenever the vehicle comes to a stop and the ignition is switched off, a GPS location report is sent immediately. Then, the device sends a report after 5 minutes and 10 minutes if no movement is detected. So, this provides us with three reports confirming the vehicle is exactly where the system reports. Understanding this, the customer came to realize the guys were padding their times. With the Map It function, we were able to show specific GPS reports on the Map to verify that the employee was not at their Home Base when they called in their stop time for the day. Armed with the knowledge that the GPS vehicle tracking devices are extremely accurate and our reports substantiate the stops that the vehicle makes, the customer can now use our GPS vehicle tracking system to audit her payroll records with confidence.