EcoSoft - GPS Tracking and Mapping Application

One of the key solutions Intergy has provided for EcoSoft is the GPS Tracking and Mapping Application for the Waste Management Industry, enabling the following main benefits:

• Graphical visibility of each vehicle in real time
• Instant recording of extra bin pickups at locations
• Position, speed and direction of any vehicle at any point in time
• Automatic recording of vehicle stoppages and breaks
• Ability to identify unauthorized vehicle usage
• Flexible data extraction and reporting tools for vehicle speeds, locations, actions, etc
• Operates perfectly for fleets of one to thousands of vehicles
• Secure User Login Access and Password Control

The Solution

EcoSoft’s complete solution for Waste Collection and Recycling consists of the following system components:

• GPS Tracking: Accurate real-time and historical vehicle tracking
• Mobile Data: Dynamic data transfer to and from vehicles
• Reporting and Mapping: Flexible operational reporting analysis
• Invoice Viewer: Powerful online Invoice Image processing
• Collection Manager: Comprehensive operations management software developed by Software Integrators.

GPS Tracking

The mobile devices installed on each truck transmit GPS data to the central GPS Server application. The GPS data packet contains the location, date and time, speed, and direction the truck. Data is collected from each device every 30 seconds (or quicker, if there are bin lifts in between). The GPS Server application parses all this data on fly, performs reverse geo-coding to retrieve the street and suburb of the truck. The GPS Server is compatible with a truck tethered Wavecom hardware device (supplied by EcosSoft partner Peacock Bros. Pty Ltd) containing an inbuilt GPS chip and GPRS modem for communication – it is “plug and play”, i.e. just switch on the engine and it starts transmitting data, making it one of the simplest GPS tracking solutions available.

Reporting and Mapping

The GPS Mapping application is a browser based application that tracks and displays the current location of all the trucks in real time. The GPS data recorded by the GPS Server is plotted using a mapping utility to provide the visual reference of each trucks movement at any point in time. The historical and current route of the trucks is represented graphically on the map showing stops, tips, and direction. Hover over bubbles show additional truck information such as speed / break time.

Various Fleet and Vehicle Activity reports assist management in analyzing all the runs and daily load/activity of the trucks.

Mobile Data

Intergy has developed a Mobile Data solution using .NET (for Windows Mobile Professional 6.5 devices) and Java Midlets (for all other devices) that can be installed on handheld or ruggedized devices and employed in each truck for two way communication with the back office. This allows the driver to complete their daily runs instantly and effortlessly. Drivers receive their daily jobs when they logon to the application in the morning, and are optionally pushed ad hoc jobs throughout the day. Drivers will submit their runs/jobs to the back office system as they are completed.

Technology Used

The website and user interface was developed in Java J2EE and PHP technologies. A MySQL database was used for data storage and retrieval.

Java and Apache POI object was used to output Excel reports.

Reverse geo-coding and geographical mapping components are provided by MetroView (or optionally by Microsoft Bing/Google Earth if requested by the client).

Mobile Data components utilise the .NET Compact Framework and Java Midlets.