Navi­ga­ti­on System

GPS App for logi­sti­ci­ans — Pro­fes­sio­nal rou­ting with a Truck GPS App with Traf­fic for a safe journey

Many trans­port com­pa­nies use Goog­le Maps as a mobi­le app to bring their trucks to their desti­na­ti­on. But at the latest when the truck can­not get any fur­ther on the desi­gna­ted rou­te becau­se of its dimen­si­ons befo­re a bridge that is too low, the dri­ver has a pro­blem. That does­n’t have to be the case, becau­se a navi­ga­ti­on system like Map­Trip Truck, which is tail­o­red to the needs of freight for­war­ders, ensu­res that it does­n’t even get that far.

Time and cost pres­su­re force for­war­ding agen­ci­es and fleet ope­ra­tors to con­ti­nuous­ly opti­mi­ze their logi­stics pro­ce­s­ses. Sto­rage space is expen­si­ve and in many indu­stries just-in-time deli­veries are the­r­e­fo­re a bin­ding requi­re­ment. The goods must arri­ve on time to avo­id dis­rupt­ing pro­duc­tion pro­ce­s­ses — and traf­fic on the roads and the den­si­ty of cons­truc­tion sites are incre­a­sing.
 
A relia­ble truck navi­ga­ti­on soft­ware such as Map­Trip Truck is a valuable aid in get­ting your freight from A to B safe­ly and at the right time. You can even pro­fes­sio­na­li­se the enti­re rou­ting pro­cess by inte­gra­ting our navi­ga­ti­on soft­ware into your company’s own soft­ware.
 
In this artic­le we will intro­du­ce you to the 8 most important rea­sons for using Map­Trip Truck com­pared to stan­dard navi­ga­ti­on systems like Goog­le Maps or other GPS apps for trucks:

  • Rou­te cal­cu­la­ti­on matching the vehic­le profile
  • Solid con­ge­sti­on and traf­fic information
  • Link to popu­lar apps
  • More com­fort on the road: Fil­ling sta­ti­on and par­king space search
  • End-of-con­ge­sti­on warning
  • Update maps easily
  • Pre­de­fi­ned refe­rence routes
  • Inte­gra­te GPS app into your own software
Navigation System
Map­Trip Truck gui­des your trucks only over sui­ta­ble roads.
Pic­tu­re: bluedesign@stock.adobe.com

Distance cal­cu­la­ti­on matching the vehic­le profile

The dri­vers of many trans­port com­pa­nies sim­ply use their smart­phone with the Goog­le Maps appli­ca­ti­on for navi­ga­ti­on. What usual­ly works for motor­ways can quick­ly cau­se pro­blems on off-road rou­tes: For exam­p­le, when Goog­le Maps sends your dri­vers on roads that are not desi­gned for the dimen­si­ons, weight and freight of the truck.

Map­Trip Truck allo­ws you to store attri­bu­tes of your vehic­les — dimen­si­ons such as length, width and height as well as weight and spe­cial fea­tures of the freight, such as whe­ther hazar­dous goods are loa­ded.

Based on this pro­fi­le, Map­Trip Truck then cal­cu­la­tes the best rou­te: this way you avo­id get­ting stuck or stuck with a vehic­le. The rou­te cal­cu­la­ti­on auto­ma­ti­cal­ly exclu­des tem­po­ra­ry pas­sa­ge clo­sures for trucks and rou­te sec­tions that are blocked for the respec­ti­ve car­go, for exam­p­le becau­se the car­go is explo­si­ve or hazar­dous to ground­water. If your dri­ver choo­ses an unsui­ta­ble rou­te, an opti­cal and acou­stic war­ning system alerts him to the dan­gers. In this way, your trucks are gui­ded only over safe roads.

Solid con­ge­sti­on and traf­fic information

Time is money on the road, and the traf­fic situa­ti­on is a con­stant issue. Old navi­ga­ti­on systems usual­ly had the pro­blem that traf­fic mes­sa­ges lag­ged behind rea­li­ty. As a result, one system did not yet know about a traf­fic jam or gave an alter­na­ti­ve rou­te to avo­id an obs­truc­tion that no lon­ger exi­sted.

A modern traf­fic jam expe­ri­ence no lon­ger cau­ses the­se pro­blems. Map­Trip Truck gets its traf­fic infor­ma­ti­on from the estab­lished ser­vices Tom­Tom and Here. While dri­ving, the rou­te is moni­to­red and it is ensu­red that your dri­ver is always on the best rou­te. If traf­fic chan­ges, Map­Trip Truck will noti­fy the dri­ver. Howe­ver, the dri­ver can choo­se to take a dif­fe­rent rou­te and is not dic­ta­ted by the navi­ga­ti­on system.

Link to popu­lar apps

It is prac­ti­cal that our GPS app can obtain infor­ma­ti­on from other apps: The con­tents of the Blitzer.de app are dis­play­ed direct­ly in Map­Trip Truck, and we have also inte­gra­ted the cur­rent fuel pri­ces based on the billigertanken.de app. So your dri­ver does not have to have two apps open at the same time.

More com­fort on the road: Fil­ling sta­ti­on and par­king lot search

Fil­ling sta­ti­on sear­ches have also beco­me part of good GPS app for Trucks. Map­Trip Truck only shows your dri­vers petrol sta­ti­ons that are eit­her direct­ly on the rou­te or that can be rea­ched via a small detour, no more than 100 seconds dri­ving time. For exam­p­le, if your dri­ver is dri­ving on the motor­way, he might other­wi­se have to take a long detour to reach a petrol sta­ti­on.

A very hel­pful fea­ture for truck dri­vers is also the par­king lot search, an important tool in the face of den­se truck traf­fic and often packed ser­vice are­as. In the appli­ca­ti­on, your dri­ver can see whe­re the­re are par­king spaces clo­se to the rou­te and dri­ve to them.

End-of-con­ge­sti­on warning

Map­Trip Truck also has an end-of-con­ge­sti­on war­ning, a fea­ture that truck GPS should have the­se days. If the end of a traf­fic jam is within the next 1000 meters, Map­Trip warns your dri­vers, they can prepa­re them­sel­ves and avo­id the drea­ded acci­dent scenarios.

Navigation System
The Map­Trip traf­fic jam war­ner alarms visual­ly and acoustically

Update maps easily

Even the best GPS app is use­l­ess if the maps are not kept up to date. Becau­se the road net­work chan­ges, rou­tes are clo­sed, road works are added and clo­sed — the map data must be able to keep pace. In stan­dard devices, the map mate­ri­al is usual­ly stored on SD cards and plug­ged into the device. They have to be exch­an­ged for updates. This is time-con­sum­ing, as trucks are con­stant­ly chan­ging their loca­ti­on. Chan­ging the SD cards of an enti­re fleet requi­res con­sidera­ble manu­al and orga­ni­sa­tio­nal effort.

In con­trast, modern GPS apps access maps and rou­tes via the Inter­net. The­se and the traf­fic infor­ma­ti­on are updated via the ser­ver and are the­r­e­fo­re always up-to-date. Local data in the device then only ser­ve as a back­up. This eli­mi­na­tes the need for map updates; system main­ten­an­ce and updates are simp­le and straight­for­ward. Today, dead spots and thus the demo­li­ti­on of the navi­ga­ti­on hard­ly play a role.

Pre­de­fi­ned refe­rence routes

A finis­hed rou­te can be indi­vi­du­al­ly defi­ned as a bin­ding refe­rence rou­te if, for exam­p­le, the truck has loa­ded valuable freight or is depen­dent on a cer­tain rou­te infras­truc­tu­re as a hea­vy goods trans­port. Map­Trip Truck then fol­lows the spe­ci­fi­ed rou­te and the dis­patcher can be infor­med in case of deviations.

Inte­gra­te the GPS app into your own software

You would like to pro­fes­sio­na­li­ze your for­war­ding and truck fleet soft­ware? Then you can con­nect Map­Trip Truck to your own soft­ware with the API inter­face. Map­Trip can then be con­trol­led from your appli­ca­ti­on. Your dis­patcher can see whe­re your vehic­les are via the Map­Trip Remo­te web­site thanks to GPS track­ing and can play back data such as arri­val times. Via Remo­te he can also assign a new desti­na­ti­on to the vehic­les when the next dri­ving job is available. Map­Trip Remo­te offers even more pos­si­bi­li­ties, read more about it here.

If you not only want to con­trol Map­Trip from your appli­ca­ti­on, but also want to cus­to­mi­ze it and inte­gra­te it direct­ly into your own soft­ware appli­ca­ti­on, you can use our Soft­ware Deve­lo­p­ment Kit (SDK)

Con­clu­si­on

A pro­fes­sio­nal navi­ga­ti­on system such as Map­Trip Truck is ide­al for freight for­war­ders and freight com­pa­nies and ensu­res that your freight is in the right place at the right time.

In any case, you should make sure that your new truck navi­ga­ti­on soft­ware meets the fol­lo­wing requirements:

  • Num­e­rous rou­te features
  • I Indi­vi­du­al­ly adap­ta­ble addi­tio­nal func­tions for fleet con­trol and
  • A simp­le inte­gra­ti­on into the work­flow of your tar­get system.

The spe­cial fea­tures, be it the search for a par­king space or a cur­rent traf­fic jam bypass, not only make the life of your dri­vers easier. The con­nec­tion to your own com­pa­ny soft­ware also enables you to moni­tor pre­cis­e­ly and act quickly.

Plea­se cont­act us for more infor­ma­ti­on or con­ti­n­ue to read here, e.g. about Map­Trip Remo­te.

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