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supraTrack Help & Tutorial.

The supraTrack Tracking portal can be accessed by selecting the “tracker” on the navigation menu bar and clicking on the “click here to login/Demo” button.
The login window will slide open to reveal the login fields which will prompt you for your Account login credentials as shown below.

supratrack Login1 supratrack Login2
click to display login window Login window

To experience how the application works without an account, just click on the Demo button
For the purposes of this Tutorial, we will be using the “demo” account.

To begin click the Demo button and the main navigation menu will be displayed as shown below.

supratrack main menu
Main menu

As you can see, the functions are divided into 4 main categories, Mapping, Dash Board, Reports and Administration. Each of the menu items corresponds to the appropriately named category of functions.

Navigation is accomplished in one of two ways

  • From the Main Menu screen as displayed above you can select whichever section of the application that is of interest by clicking on the appropriate button
  • Alternatively, you may use the navigation bar (Mapping, Dash Board, Reports and Administration) to select functions within those specific categories. For instance, from the Reports drop down menu, you can select Vehicle Detail Reports, Fleet Detail Reports, Fleet Summary Reports or Driver Performance Reports
  • Mapping
  • Dash Board
  • Reports
  • Administration

Mapping

For the Mapping functionality, we have 3 submenus which are the

  • Live Tracking Map
  • Vehicle Map
  • Fleet Map

For simplicity we will skip the Live Tracking Map submenu for now and move on to explain the Vehicle Map and then come back to Live Tracking Map.

Vehicle Map

For now, click on the Vehicle Map submenu link from the Mapping Menu as highlighted below and the following screen will be displayed.
NOTE: Your map may be different depending on the date range selected.

supratrack Vehicle Map
Vehicle Map

Here we have the basic map view, with map zoom controls on the left and to the top left of the page (White arrow) is the vehicle/asset selector
On the right hand side, we have the date range controls allowing you to select the period of time for which you'd like to review an activity for a particular vehicle/asset. Currently displayed is the starting date and time or "From" calendar (red arrow). Double click the time ( purple cicle) to type in the time required. It must be noted that the system uses the military (24 hr) clock so to select 11:00 pm, it will be 23:00

The right and left arrows just above the calendar will change the month and then you can select the particular day of the month you want. To select a different end date, follow the same procedure as above in the “To” section (blue arrow) of the second calendar to select an end date and then click the Update button (green arrow) to redraw the vehicle/asset history on the map for the selected date range.

Moving a bit further down the right hand side, you'll notice the word Replay click on the (play button) arrow just to the right of it and it will begin a replay of the timeframe shown on the map, starting with the first point and continuing through until the final point has been plotted. This is a useful mechanism for quickly seeing the path a vehicle has taken throughout a chosen period of time.

The Pushpin Legend in the lower right hand corner defines the colour code of each of the points or "pushpins" on the map. These thresholds are fixed for this demo, but can be set at any level desired at your request from us, or can be keyed off of other parameters in the database such as maintenance status, speed limits of the roads and temperature for refrigerated trucks etc.

One final note about the basic map display - if you look in the white space just above the calendar on the right hand side, you'll notice a line that denotes the Last GPS event, telling you the last time this vehicle reported its position to our Servers. On the left hand side of that white space is a box with the vehicle/asset's name (White arrow). Clicking in the box brings up a list of assets that are in your account, any of which can be chosen just by clicking on that vehicle/asset name.

Zooming in on the data in the left hand portion of the map, you can see greater detail of the map and the individual pushpins.

supratrack Detailed Vehicle Map
zoomed Vehicle Map

Placing your cursor over or clicking on any pushpin will bring up the InfoBox as shown above. The InfoBox includes by default the data point [#19], the device name [EngineManagement (normally this will be vehicle ID/Registration)], its status (InMotion), Date & Time, GPS Latitude/Longitude, Speed & Heading, Location (if available), vehicle Battery Voltage, Fuel Level, Coolant Temperature etc.

As an interesting side note, if you check the InfoBox checkbox before clicking the Replay button, then each Pushpin will have an InfoBox attached to it, as the trail of Pushpins is rendered on the map.
Note that in the centre of the screen, there appears to be a yellow pushpin. Let's zoom in on that area.

supratrack Vehicle Map Show Locations Details
Vehicle Map Showing Distance

Placing the cursor on the yellow pushpin, we see that the status is reported as "InMotion” and Speed is reported as 20.5km/h heading east (E). Additionally, here the system reports a reverse-geocoded street address as Ahodwo Circle.
Another useful feature of the mapping function is the ability to determine the straight-line distance between any two points on the map. This can be useful for determining the distance between a vehicle's current location and any known location on the map

Ideally sticking to straight lines along known roads to maximize accuracy. This function is utilized by

  1. clicking on the starting point
  2. holding down the CTRL button and dragging the cursor to the end point, as denoted by the green arrow

Note that the distance is displayed here as well

We have two ways of delving deeper into the details

  1. The first is obviously to continue to zoom tighter into that portion of the map
  2. The second is to utilise the Location Details, by clicking the Show Location Details link at the bottom of the map.
supratrack Vehicle Map Show Locations Details
Vehicle Map Show Location Details

The values for each of the columns are as follows (reading from left to right)

Pin # Date/Time Event Status GPS (lat/long)
Speed/Heading Location/Address Vehicle Battery Voltage Fuel Used
Fuel Level Coolant Temperature Odometer Engine RPM
Mass Air Flow Rate Engine Load Fault Code Throttle/Accelerator position
Brake Position

Reading down the Date/Time column, you can see that this vehicle/device is configured to report a fresh GPS reading to the server every 15 seconds.

Live Tracking Map

Now that we understand how the Vehicle Map works, we will continue the discussion with the Live Tracking Map that we skipped earlier but before doing so let's pay attention to the red circle as shown in the screen shot below. It appears in all the Mapping pages and clicking on the 3 arrows or any point within the blue vertical strip will expand the map to fill the width of the page.

The Live Tracking Map visually looks, works and behaves very similar to the Vehicle Map with minor but very significant differences.

As its name suggests, as soon as the page is loaded, Live Tracking of the vehicle or asset begins, the system achieves this by counting down 5 seconds and refreshing the page, plotting the last reported location and in addition, other details as described in the Vehicle Map section on the map giving the impression of live tracking. If the vehicle of interest is in motion, it can be tracked “live” complete with “Real Time” engine analysis such as the speed, RPM, coolant temperature, fuel level, fuel used since engine on, Mass Air Flow readings etc. and of course these readings depends on the selected device and service subscribed to

supratrack Live Tracking Map
Live Tracking Map

It should be noted that

  • Unlike the Vehicle Map, the Live Tracking Map does not permit different dates and time selections as only the latest device location is selected by default.
  • Only the current and latest location of the vehicle or asset is displayed on both the Map and “Show Location Details” meaning only one pushpin will be displayed at all times.

Fleet Map

Now that we're done with the individual vehicle mapping and Live Tracking capabilities, let's look at what can be done in terms of mapping Group or Fleet assets

From the Mapping menu, select Fleet Map to display all the vehicles in a given Group/Fleet or the entire fleet. Depending on the manner in which assets are grouped within your fleet (covered later in Administration), it is possible to look at either an individual group of vehicles or your entire fleet on the map. For the purposes of this tutorial, the Fleet Map will display the entire fleet of vehicles. This is equivalent to a Vehicle Group which is the same as the entire fleet, an example of this can be seen in the illustration below, this is the entire fleet but it is actually made up of two main fleet thus the United Kingdom and Ghana group etc. The fleet's pushpins may appear to be a single one but when zoomed in the various vehicles that make it up can all be seen

supratrack Vehicle Fleet Map
Vehicle Fleet Map

All the navigation controls are the same as the individual Vehicle Map and Live Tracking Map. Fleet positions can be viewed in date-specific configurations by changing the calendar and detailed information on any asset, this can be accessed by placing the cursor over any "pushpin" to display. If multiple groups have been defined, then alternate groups of assets/vehicles can be accessed in a pull-down menu by clicking in the field next to "Vehicle Group Map" (blue rectangle)

Dash Board

To enhance simplicity and experience, the Dashboard has in addition the functionalities of vehicle Mapping and the incorporation of speed dials or gauges to simulate a real vehicles' instrument cluster as found in the dashboard. The vehicle/asset selection, date & time selection from the calendar, events replay etc are all the same as the Mapping.
The "Live Tracking Dashboard" also looks, feels & works in the same manner as the "Live Tracking Map" but with the addition of the speed dials.

To simplify this Help/Tutorial, I will not discuss the functions that the "Mapping" and "Dash Board" share in common so the focus will be on the actual dials and features that are exclusive to the "Dash Board"
If you haven't already done so, it will be prudent to familiarise yourself with the Mapping functionalities discussed in the previous chapter before continuing

Displayed below is the instrument cluster as seen in the dashboard with a legend mapping out the functionalities and descriptions of the individual gauges.

1 - Throttle/Accelerator Pedal Position as measured in % 2 - Fuel Used since Engine was started 3 - Vehicle Description & ID or Registration 4 - Mass Air Flow Rate 5 - Brake Pedal Position as measured in %
supratrack Vehicle Tracking Reports
6 - Vehicle Battery Level in % 7 - Fuel Level, Coolant Temp & Date of event 8 - Speedometer & current Mileage of Vehicle 9 - Engine Speed (RPM) & Time of event 10- Engine Load of Vehicle as measured in %
Vehicle Dash Board

From the above dashboard we can see that at 09:43:24 on 13 May 2013 the vehicle “EngineManagement” was in motion and the drivers’ foot had pressed the accelerator pedal down (which has direct correlation with the throttle) thereby opening the throttle just over 30% [0% means pedal is at rest (up) & 100% - pedal all the way down]. A very healthy 12V vehicle battery with current voltage of just over 14V meaning that the alternator is at peak performance. Used fuel since the engine was turned on is zero whilst the fuel level and coolant (water) temperature are 20% and 95°C respectively.
The vehicle is travelling at 49km/h heading south (S) and the Cam Shaft of the engine is spinning at a speed just below 2000 revolutions every 1 minute (RPM) whilst the current mileage on the clock or odometer is at 232312 Km. The Mass Air Flow Rate which is responsible for the air intake (oxygen to fuel mixture ratio) is currently sucking in just over 15 grams of air every 1 second whilst the Engine Load is at respectable 23%. The brake pedal is at a comfortable rest of 0% reading.

Detailed data of this event as highlghted can be seen below and it’s accessible by clicking on the “show Location Details”

supratrack main menu
Show Location Details

All alerts captured by the application or the device will be displayed to the top left above the throttle position and as currently displayed below this vehicle is in violation of the current speed limit

supratrack Speeding Alert supratrack OBD Fault Alert
over speeding alert Diagnostic fault Trouble Code (DTC) alert

If your chosen service includes Engine Management, as soon as an engine fault such as "check engine" is detected it will be flagged up and an alert will pop-up just above to the right of the brake pedal of the dash board as shown above

In the replay of past events if Engine faults were detected whilst the vehicle was in motion it will be displayed at the exact time, down to the second, as it happened, the way & manner the vehicle was travelling (speed, RPM, Engine Temperature etc), giving you an idea what could have led to the failure.
On the other hand if it was an existing fault, as soon as the engine is started, the error fault code will be displayed in the alert pop-up window as described above

It should be noted that only Faults detected are displayed on the top right of the brake pedal position and all other alerts will be to the left just above the accelerator pedal

Reporting

The Reports Menu contains 4 submenus that is Vehicle Detail Report, Group or Fleet detail Reports, Group/Fleet Summary Reports and the Performance Reports. These reports are currently formatted as HTML, Excel, Email etc.

The Detail Reports are vehicle/asset or device specific and are structured to pull information from our database in pre-defined formats that are relevant to the type of report requested. It is important to understand that while the fields (columns) presented in the following reports are what we have found to be most useful for the majority of our clients, they are not cast in stone. If it is necessary to add/remove data fields (columns) to any of these reports, it is simply letting us know and it will be customised to suit your individual needs

It should be noted that any data field that exists in the data table is capable of being added to a specific report.

Vehicle Detail Reports

The Vehicle Detail Reports Screen can be accessed from the Reports Menu and appears as shown below.

supratrack Vehicle Tracking Reports
Vehicle Tracking Reports

Here we have the same nature of controls as on the Vehicle Map screen, allowing us to specify for which vehicle we want the report on, the date range for the report and then which report we want to see.

This particular report menu shows the Event Detail, as well as other possible available reports. Using the capabilities of the report generator, additional report selections may be added.

Event Detail Report

All received events are reported in the Event Detail Report. In this application, the location is reported every 15 seconds and events that are reported are Start, Stop, and InMotion. In a more complex application, other Status indications might include Digital I/O State (such as ignition ON/OFF), Idle, Fuel level or Terminal Arrival/Departure. Each event reports Time, Date, Status, Latitude/Longitude, Speed, Heading, Altitude, Odometer, Total Fuel and Address or Location.

supratrack Vehicle Tracking Reports
Event Detail Reports

You'll notice the small word Map (red arrow) just above the upper right corner of the report. Clicking on this link will launch a sub-window with a Vehicle Map, displaying all of the points shown in the Event Detail Report

Trip Report Detail

Similar to the Event Detail Report the Trip Report Detail gives a breakdown of a particular trip based on when a trip was started to its completion giving you the total driving time, total distance driven etc. Other parameters such as minimum vehicle stop duration, ignition ON & OFF can also be selected

There are numerous reports to be selected on this page and most of them are self-explanatory however if any form of clarification is required, just drop as a quick line and we will happily explain them

Fleet Detail Report

The Fleet Detail Report is very similar to the Vehicle Detail Report with the main differences being the focus is on the Fleet or grouped vehicles as opposed to individual vehicles in the Vehicle Detail Reports

Summary Reports

Unlike Device Detail Reports, the Fleet Summary Reports are focused on either a group of vehicles or an entire fleet. They are not meant for a specific vehicle, as they present information that is only useful when viewed across a group of vehicles or assets.

The GPS Tracking Reports - Fleet Summary Reports Screen can be accessed from the Reports Menu and appears as shown below

supratrack Feet Summary Reports
Fleet Summary Reports

The structure of the report selection mechanism here is identical to that found on the top level Vehicle Detail Report screen. The date selector is the same as what we've seen throughout all of these screen shots and then there's the list of available reports off to the right. Note just above the calendars is the Group Selector field, where either the “All” group can be selected (which corresponds to the entire fleet), or if there are sub-groups defined, these can be selected as well.

As with the Vehicle Detail Reports, additional customised reports based on Vehicle Groups can be added to the Fleet Summary Report list at your request.

Last Known Vehicle Location Summary Report

The Last Known Vehicle Location is designed to present the user with the simple report with current status on each of the vehicles in the selected group. Here the important information contained in the report are Device Description, Device-ID, Date, Time, Odometer, Latitude/Longitude, Address/Location, the Latest tracking device battery level and time Since Last Check-In

supratrack Last Known Vehicle Location Report
Last Known Vehicle Location Summary Report

Last Check-In

The Since Last Check-In field is the amount of time that has passed since the device has last checked in with our servers. This may not necessarily mean that this is the time the device last sent an event, only the last time the device communicated with the server (at which time it may, or may not have sent an actual event). You’ll notice that this sample data was collected some time ago.

As was the case with the Vehicle Detail Reports, we can click on the Map link and get a pop-up sub-window that will display each of these vehicles on a Vehicle Group Map.

Performance Reports

The primary focus of Driver Performance Reports is to provide the fleet manager with meaningful information that pertains to the utilisation of the fleet assets. Are the vehicles being driven in a safe manner (i.e. adhering to relevant speed limits)?

Are vehicles being used effectively or is excessive time being taken at stops?

These are the types of questions that can be answered by reviewing the information available in the Driver Performance Reports

The GPS Tracking Reports - Driver Performance Reports Screen can be accessed from the Reports sub-menu and appears as shown below

supratrack Driver Performance Reports
Driver Performance Reports

The date selector is the same as what we've seen throughout all of these screen shots and then there's the list of available reports off to the right.
Note just above the calendars to the upper left is the Vehicle selector field (red box) where the individual vehicle or asset can be selected.

As before, I'll start at the top of the list on Speeds over [72km/h] and step through the list.

Speeds over [45mph or 72Km/h]

The Speeds over [45mph or 72Km/h] report is designed to give the fleet manager information on a vehicle basis, showing if, when and where the specific vehicle exceeded the selected speed threshold (from the pull-down menu).
The report presents Date, Time, Status, Latitude/Longitude, Speed, Heading and Address/Location in the tabular format.

supratrack Speeds over 45mph or 72km/h Tracking Reports
Speeds over 45mph or 72km/h Tracking Reports

Here we can see each instance when the selected vehicle exceeded the selected threshold. The speed violation reports are useful for determining if a specific vehicle is being regularly operated in excess of safe speeds or speeds deemed inappropriate according to company policy.
With concrete data substantiating the behaviour, it is then possible to effect corrective action with the driver BEFORE an incident occurs on the road.

Exceeding Posted Speed

This report depends on the reverse-geocoding service providing a “posted” speed limit at the location of the vehicle.
Unfortunately this report is not currently supported in Ghana

Driving/Stopped Time Summary

For the purposes of this report, we have selected Device “EngineManagement” as it has made several stops during its trip. There is a lot of information to absorb in the Driving/Stopped Time Summary Report. It is designed to give the fleet manager detailed information (on a vehicle basis), showing how much time was spent driving, how long the transit time was between stops and how much distance was covered.
Additionally, the report shows how much time the vehicle spent stopped, what the duration of the stops were and how many stops there were and what the locations were.

The fields presented in the report are Start Date, Start Time, Driving Elapsed, Driven Mileage, Stop Date, Stop Time, Fuel Economy (if equipped), Latitude/Longitude, Address, Idle Elapsed time and Stopped Elapsed time.

supratrack Vehicle Driving/Stopped Tracking Reports
Driving/Stopped Time Summary Tracking Reports

This report can provide full detail on time spent driving and time spent at stops. This allows the fleet manager to pinpoint where stops are taking longer than necessary or unnecessary stops are being made.
Additionally, by reviewing drive time and distance between known destinations, it can be determined whether vehicles are being used in the most efficient manner.

The last 2 columns in the report are Idle Elapsed time and Stopped Elapsed time. Unless the on-board vehicle device is equipped with ignition sense, the values in these two columns will always be the same but with the ability to determine that the ignition is on while speed is zero, this report can also provide the fleet manager with valuable data on excessive idling. Excessive idling can be a large cost centre, frequently unknown but easy to correct with the appropriate data available. This is just one more piece of information the Driving/Stopped Time Summary provides.

General Administration

The Administration functionality has been limited for the Demo account and most functionality has been disabled but you can view without effecting any changes.
Having said this most of the System Administration will be done by us according to your request but for the purpose of this tutorial I will explain what can be expected.

Account Administration

By selecting Account Adminfrom the Administration sub-menu, the Edit Account Information screen will be displayed, as shown below. This is where account-wide contact information, and units of measurement information and format can be made.

supratrack editing account info
Editing Account Information

After making any edits on this screen, it is important to press the Save button at the bottom of the screen to save those edits (a message should then be displayed at the bottom of the frame to indicate that the information was saved). To cancel changes, press the Cancel button.

User Administration

By selecting User Admin from the Administration sub-menu, the View/Edit User Information screen will be displayed, as shown below. On this screen, you can review all of the defined users in the system.
There are a number of fields that are available in this summary view
-- User ID, User Name, Contact Name, Contact Email, Time Zone and whether the user is Active(ie. allowed to log-in) and date & time of Last Login.

As you can see from the list below, it isn't necessary to populate all of these fields when setting up new users. If all of the fields are not defined, the table in the User Information Summary will just have some gaps.

supratrack creating user account info
Creating User Account

It is possible to access the details that have been defined for any user in either View or Edit mode. All of the details are the same in these two modes, with the primary difference being unable to edit in the View mode.
There's also the ability to add new users using the Create a new user, in the field at the bottom of the screen (green arrow). The new user ID must be all one word and in lower-case (small) letters or can be the staff number but no upper-case (capital) letters.

To edit user information, click the Edit button (blue arrow) to open the Edit window.
Within the View/Edit User Information screen, users are defined as active or inactive, their password is defined (this can changed by the user at later date), all contact information is entered (if desired) and group authorisation assignment is made.

supratrack editing user account info
Editing User Account Information

The user's access to specific functions while logged-in is controlled by the selection of the Default ACL (Access Control List) and the overriding selections in the User Access Control list.
Each individual access-control item typically provides the following selectable levels of access

  • None No access is allow for the specified item
  • Read/View Only Read or View access is allow for the specified item. The user cannot edit or change information related to the specific item
  • Write/Edit The user is allow to Edit and change information related to the specific item
  • Delete/All The user has all access rights to the specific item, including view, edit, and delete

Note: ACL refers to Access Control List. As can be seen in the list above, Default is selected for all visible functions and to the right of the drop-down list, that default access control right is specified.