GPS Insight offers several services based on queries. You can use these services from any standard cell phone with SMS service, use the same syntax from an attached Garmin device or an authorized email address. Each of these is based on a message from your device to our service (query) and a response from our servers to your phone (response).

*Standard text messaging charges may be applied by your cell service provider. GPS Insight does not charge an additional per-message fee.

You must authorize your phone with the GPS Insight username and password for your user account. Your phone will remain authorized for that account until you log in with a different username and password. GPS-GPS (477-477) is our short-code service #.

1. Text “gps login [your username] [your password]” to the 6 digit number 477-477.
   • Change [your username] to the actual username on your account.
   • Change [your password] to the actual password on your account.
2. You will receive a confirmation message that you are logged in.

The response features the vehicle name, speed, and location. If the vehicle is moving, the current speed is displayed in Miles-per-hour, otherwise the response shows how long the vehicle has been stopped. If the vehicle is at a landmark, it will give that landmark, otherwise it will give the current address.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle you want to query. You can use a partial vehicle name and the response will contain all vehicles that match.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone.

Here are some example responses for the query for “gps rob”:

• “ROB: Stopped for 6 hrs., 13 min at JoeHouse”
• “ROB: 49 Mph (Max) at 7142 E. Pinnacle Peak Rd, Phoenix, AZ”

If the vehicle is located within a landmark boundary, the landmark name will be returned instead of the address. If you find the address more useful, you can override this behavior.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] address” to 477-477.
   • Address can be shortened to ‘add’
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone with the street address instead of a landmark name.

You can copy the reponse to another address if you need to notify someone else of a vehicle’s location.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] cc [recipient]” to 477-477.
   • You can use ‘cc’ or ‘notify’ as keywords for this action.
   • Change [recipient] to an SMS number or email address you want to copy on the response.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone and the copied address.

You can also view vehicle locations on your smart phone or mobile device using Google Maps for Mobile. See How do I view my vehicles using Mobile Mapping?

If you have a web-enabled phone and want to track your vehicles through your web browser see How do I view my vehicles on my phone's web browser?

Query an entire vehicle group at a time. The response is similar to the *Current Location* query but returns the full vehicle group.

1. Text “gps [group name] group” to 477-477.
   • Change [group name] to the vehicle group you want to query.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone.

Create a landmark at the current location of a vehicle.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] landmark [new landmark name]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle whose location you want to mark.
   • You can shorten ‘landmark’ to ‘lm’.
   • Change [new landmark name] to the label you want to give the new landmark.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone.

The response is a confirmation that the landmark was created at the current location of the specified vehicle.

Here is an example response for the request for “gps rob landmark market”:

• “LANDMARK: Market created at lat/lon: 33.70119, 111.99814”

Make sure you have logged in with the correct username in the ‘One-Time Setup’ stage. If the vehicle you are trying to mark is not available to the current login, this service will not create a landmark.

Get the driving distance and estimated time from a vehicle to another vehicle, landmark, or street address.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] distance [entity]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle whose proximity you want to measure.
   • You can also shorten ‘distance’ to ‘dist’.
   • Change [entity] to a full or partial name of a vehicle or landmark. Use commas between address parts if you want to use a street address.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone.

Here is an example response for the request for “grant distance trent”:

• Grant (Stopped 9 days) is 30.0 mi. drive from Trent (about 46 min)

The response will have five parts:

1. The vehicle name
2. The vehicle’s current status. (speed or stop duration)
3. The vehicle’s distance from the other entity.
4. The second entity. (vehicle, landmark, or address)
5. The optimal drive time from the vehicle to second entity.

Find other vehicles that are close to a specified vehicle.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] close” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle whose location you want to test for close vehicles.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone.

The response is a list of vehicles whose last reported location is close to the specified vehicle’s. The number of vehicles returned is limited to the ten closest.

Here is an example response for the request for “gps rob close”:

• “ALENA 17yds N stopped”
• “GRANT 409yds N 34mph W -41sec”

There are up to four parts to each vehicle’s response.

1. The vehicle name
2. The vehicle’s location relative to the queried vehicle. In the example response: Alena is 17yds north of Rob, Grant is 409yds north of Rob.
3. The vehicle’s current status. In the example response: Alena last reported as ‘stopped’, Grant last reported going 34mph west.
4. The vehicle’s relative report timing. (moving vehicles only) Keep in mind that each vehicle is reporting every two minutes. This value is the number of seconds difference in the times at which the two vehicles last reported. A positive value means the queried vehicle reported before the response vehicle, negative means the response vehicle reported first. In the example response: Grant reported 41 seconds before Rob did so the 409yds difference and the speed of 34mph may have changed in the last 41 seconds. If Grant kept moving at 34mph west for those 41 seconds, for example, he may be more like 1300yds WNW of where Rob is.

Associate a default phone number with a vehicle. It will allow you to send SMS messages to the driver from 2D or 3D Current maps or from the GPS Insight dashboard. It’s also used for Stop Notes.

If texting from the phone you are associating with the vehicle:
Text “gps [vehicle name] driver” to 477-477.

• Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle being associated.

For example, a driver texts from his/her own phone number 9876543210:

• Request: “gps truck 01 driver”
• Response: “9876543210 was assigned to ‘truck 01’”
  

If texting from a different phone:
Text “gps [vehicle name] driver [phone number]” to 477-477.

• Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle being associated.
• Change [phone number] to the phone you want to assign to the vehicle.

For example, someone in the office texts from their own phone to assign the driver’s number 1234567890 to the vehicle:

• Request: “gps bus 4 driver 1234567890”
• Response: “1234567890 was assigned to ‘bus 4’”

From the GPS Insight web application:
This assignment can also be made from the Admin section of our website.

• From the main menu, go to Account → Admin → Vehicles
• On the ‘Manage Vehicles’ page, find the subsection ‘Additional Vehicle Options’ and click on ‘Update contact info for vehicle alerts’
• On the ‘Vehicle Contact Info’ page, click in the ‘Phone/SMS’ column to edit the value for that vehicle.

These services are designed so drivers can log their activity while in their vehicles.

Note: unlike other SMS Query functions outlined on this page, a driver does not have to be explicitly logged in to submit Stop Notes. The driver can be implicitly logged in by associating a SMS number with their vehicle. See instructions on how to do this through our web interface in the ‘Assign Phone Number to a Vehicle’ section on this page.

Record a fuel purchase consisting of cost, gallons and odometer (optional). Cost, gallons and odometer can be put in any order.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] fuel [cost] [gallons] [odometer]” to 477-477
   • Change [vehicle name] to a vehicle you want to update. (optional if SMS number is assigned to a vehicle)
   • Change [cost] to the “gross dollars” spent on fuel. Must put a $ in front of the number
   • Change [gallons] to the total number of gallons purchased. Must put ‘gal’ or ‘gallons’ after the number
   • Change [odometer] to the current odometer on the vehicle; this will do an odometer update. (optional) must put ‘odo’ after the number

Here is an example response for the request for “gps fuel 12.697 gal $45.19”:

• “Fuel Purchase Recorded”

Set a vehicle’s current odometer value via text message.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] odo [odometer value]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to a vehicle you want to update. (optional if SMS number is assigned to a vehicle)
   • Change [odometer value] to the vehicle’s current odometer.

Here is an example response for the request for “gps rob odo 30000”:

• “Odometer for ‘Rob’ was updated to 30000”

Set a vehicle’s current runtime value via text message.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] runtime [runtime value]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to a vehicle you want to update. (optional if SMS number is assigned to a vehicle)
   • Change [runtime value] to the vehicle’s current runtime (in hours).

Here is an example response for the request for “gps rob runtime 300000”:

• “Runtime for ‘Rob’ was updated to 300000”

At the stop the driver uses SMS messaging to log a Stop Note. If your vehicle is moving when the note is received, it will be saved with the previous stop point. Those notes are then accessible either through a 3D History map or a Stop Notes report. Stops with notes have an envelope icon. Click on the stop point to see the note. See Stop Notes (SMS Driver Notes) to learn more about Stop Notes.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] note [text of note]” to 477-477
   • Change [vehicle name] to a vehicle you want to update. (optional if SMS number is assigned to a vehicle)
   • Change [text of note] to a note you want associated with your vehicle’s current stop.

Here is an example response for the request for “gps note got new order from our biggest client”:

• “Your note was received”

These *Alert Monitors* are different from standard queries in that you won’t your alert response right away. A monitor is set up on the GPSI servers to look for your alert conditions, then alert you when the conditions are met.

Set up a monitor on a vehicle so you are alerted when that vehicle starts moving.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] parked” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle you want to query.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone indicating the vehicle is being monitored.
3. Within 1-5 minutes of when the vehicle’s ignition changes from ‘off’ to an ‘on’ position, a text message alert will be sent to your phone.

NOTE: This monitor is for a one-time-use. It will check on the vehicle until it starts moving, but once the alert has been sent, it will not be sent again until another parking monitor is set on that vehicle.

Set up a meeting monitor on a vehicle so you are alerted when two vehicles come within close proximity.

1. Text “gps [vehicle 1 name] meet [vehicle 2 name]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle 1 name] to a vehicle you want to query.
   • Change [vehicle 2 name] to another vehicle name.
2. Within 5-30 seconds, a text message response will be sent to your phone indicating the vehicles are being monitored.
3. Within 1-5 minutes of when the vehicles are within one mile of each other, a text message alert will be sent to your phone.

You can specify the distance at which the two vehicles are considered ‘close’. You should specify this value after the second vehicle name and it should be a number (of miles) only. You can use decimal values.

1. Text “[vehicle 1 name] meet [vehicle 2 name] [number]” to 477-477.
   • Change [number] to a number of miles proximity within which you want the alert to be generated. (Default is 1 mile)

These functions relate to GPS Insight’s Garmin integration. You must be using GPSI Garmin services and have Garmin PNDs attached to your GPSI devices.

Dispatch a vehicle with a Garmin-attached device to a specified location. The vehicle will receive a dispatch notice on their Garmin device.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] dispatch [location]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle you want to dispatch.
   • You can also shorten ‘dispatch’ to ‘dis’.
   • Change [location] to an address or landmark name. If using an address, use commas to separate location name, street address, city, state. If using a landmark, do not use commas.

Send a message to a vehicle with a Garmin-attached device. The vehicle will receive a message on their Garmin device.

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] garmin [message]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle you want to send a message to.
   • You can also shorten ‘garmin’ to ‘gm’.
   • Change [message] to the full message you want sent to the vehicle.

These functions relate to GPS Insight’s USPS integration. You must be using USPS web services and have a valid CRID to utilize this function.

Get a listing of all the USPS contracts you have set up in our system. This is not a setup procedure, just a reference to which contracts are already configured. Only these contracts will be available for assignment to vehicles through this interface. You can manage these contracts through the web interface once you give us your USPS CRID.

1. Text “gps usps contracts” to 477-477

Here is an example response for the request for “usps contracts”:

• ConID: 123XYZ (trip ID: 101,102)

The response will have two parts:

1. The Contract ID from USPS (ConID)
2. The trips available for assignment within this Contract ID (required for assignment)

Assign a vehicle to a USPS contract. Assigning a vehicle with a ‘DE’ or ‘ER’ action will initiate a data feed about this vehicle to the USPS. Assigning a vehicle with a ‘AR’ action will terminate the data feed after sending a final ‘Arrival’ notification. USPS contracts should be set up ahead of time by Support. Use ‘usps contracts’ query to test for available contracts

1. Text “gps [vehicle name] usps [ConID] [action] [trip ID] [date or NASS]” to 477-477.
   • Change [vehicle name] to the vehicle you want to assign.
   • Change [ConID] to the USPS contract id for the route.
   • Change [action] to the USPS action for the route. Must be one of the following: AR (arrival), DE (departure), ER (en-route)
   • Change [trip ID] to a valid trip_id for the contract.
   • Change [date] to the date the segment was scheduled. (optional, defaults to today)
   • Change [NASS] to the NASS code of the source or destination on the trip segment. (optional)

Example 1: gps Truck5 usps 4562 de 4

Example 2: gps Truck5 usps 4562 de 4 11/11/2011

Example 3: gps Truck5 usps 4562 de 4 7031

Here is an example response for the request for “Veh23456 usps 123XYZ DE 101”:

• ‘Veh23456’ has been assigned to contract ‘123XYZ’ and data is being sent to USPS
• Messages sent from Garmin can be reviewed in the Garmin page (Custom > Garmin > Open)

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