Route4Me GPS Tracking – Tracking Distance & Breadcrumbs

Route4Me uses bleeding-edge technologies and route optimization algorithms that enable you to effortlessly plan and dispatch the most time-efficient and cost-effective multi stop routes. Route4Me dynamic routing software takes care of all calculations and computing processes, giving you user-friendly tools for planning routes where you need to visit multiple destinations with different time windows.

Additionally, Route4Me takes into account all potential variables such as unpredictable traffic in a specific area, technical features, and a number of your fleet vehicles, fuel prices, dynamic road deviations, weather conditions and many other factors that can affect the efficiency of your optimized routes.

Route4Me’s real time GPS tracking options enable you to track the exact location of your drivers and what routing activities they are performing. Moreover, Route4Me also enables you to monitor your drivers’ GPS distance and tracking distance, track breadcrumbs, set up geofences around addresses, and use a route simulation tool.

Furthermore, you don’t need any special tracking equipment, GPS trackers, or OBD devices. You can install Route4Me’s app for tracking distance on your smartphone for free and use it for fleet tracking, driver monitoring, GPS navigation, and much more.

Track a Route with Real-Time GPS Tracking

Route4Me’s real-time GPS tracking app enables you to view the actual geographical location of your drivers on a map at any moment and easily track their routing activities in real-time in order to make corresponding improvements in the future.

The real-time GPS tracking is performed through Route4Me’s iOS Route Planner and Android Route Planner apps. A device with the installed Route4Me app receives satellite signals and sends GPS data of user actions to the Route4Me’s servers at regular intervals (approximately 10 seconds on iOS devices and 1 minute on Android devices).

To track a user in real-time, go to your Routes List from the navigation menu.

In the Routes List, select the route that is currently in progress.

In the Route Editor, hover your mouse cursor over the Tracking tab on the map and select Users.

The truck icon on the map indicates the current location of the user.

Hover your mouse cursor over the truck icon to view the name and email address, latitude, and longitude coordinates, as well as the current traveling speed of the user.

Route4Me allows you to track multiple users simultaneously. To do so, first, go to the Routes Map from the navigation menu.

Select the routes which are assigned to the users you want to track by checking the corresponding boxes. The selected routes will be displayed on the map in different colors.

Hover your mouse cursor over the “Tracking” tab on the map and select “Users” to enable user GPS tracking in real-time.

This action brings up the users’ location on the map, as well as the full list of all users on your Route4Me account. On the interactive map, you can track your drivers and field members and see their current GPS location.

The Users menu displays the current statuses of all users on your Route4Me account:

• Green icon: the user is currently active.
• Dark grey icon: the user is currently inactive but was active within the last 24 hours.
• Red icon: the user has been inactive for more than 24 hours.
• Light grey icon: the user has never been active.

Using GPS Distance and Tracking Distance to Track Route Dynamic Changes

When planning a route, Route4Me computes GPS distance based on the GPS coordinates of each destination on the route and provides turn-by-turn directions for visiting each stop. GPS distance is represented by Estimated Distance in Route4Me’s summary table.

In actuality, there can appear various route deviations caused by weather conditions, traffic jams, clients may cancel deliveries, route planners may exclude certain stops from the route, and many other factors that can affect the tracking distance of the route. The tracking distance is computed based on the actual GPS data received from drivers in real-time while they are out in the field and represents Actual Traveled Distance in Route4Me’s summary table.

With Route4Me dynamic routing software, you can easily share your routes with other users across multiple devices. The shared routes are identical regardless of the device that is used to open them and predefined user type permissions. It allows route planners and drivers to get precisely synchronized data about each stop on a route.

Whenever a driver is out in the field, and a stop cannot be visited or gets canceled by either the route planner or a client, Route4Me recalculates the GPS distance of the route based on the received GPS signals and instantly provides the most efficient solution, preserving the original sequence of stops on the route.

Track a Route – Mobile to Web Route Tracking Synchronization

When changes to a route happen dynamically, and the tracking distance affects the GPS distance, both are synchronized across the devices to provide maximum efficiency of your routing activities on time. Thus, I can easily track my driving route in real-time from a smartphone or computer.

Viewing Tracking History of Your Routes

Route4Me receives tracking data in the form of GPS signals throughout the whole tracking distance of any route and saves it to the servers. Viewing the tracking history of your drivers allows you to get a proper understanding of their routing activities and make corresponding improvements when planning future routes. In this way, I can track my driving route in real-time and using the route history.

To view the tracking history of a route, in the Route Editor, hover your mouse cursor over the Tracking tab on the map, then over the Route tab, and select the time interval for which you want to display the tracking history.

Track Route History on the Tracking Distance App

Route4Me’s track distance app provides multiple tools for tracking the distance on your optimized route. The tracking distance is displayed as a blue tracking trail with breadcrumbs that together represent the distance driven by a driver and GPS coordinates received from Route4Me’s distance tracking app. The blue truck icon represents the current location of a driver if the route is still in progress.

The Tracking Trail in Route4Me’s tracking distance app represents the actual traveled distance on the route. The tracking trail is displayed as a blue line that connects breadcrumbs throughout the tracking distance of the route.

You can use the tracking trail for distance tracking and monitoring your drivers and checking for any deviations from the planned GPS distance, as well as comparing the estimated distance with the actual traveled distance.

Breadcrumbs in Route4Me’s app for tracking distance are the light blue dots that are spread across the route. Each dot represents the location of a driver at a specific time when the tracking signal was synchronized with Route4Me’s servers.

Hovering the mouse cursor over a GPS tracking breadcrumb displays the driver’s speed, date and time when the driver was at that exact location, latitude and longitude coordinates, as well as the device type used by the driver.

To recreate the driving process on the route, you can play a movie. In the Route Editor, hover your mouse cursor over the Tracking tab and select Movie. A player controls panel will appear at the bottom of the map.

Once you start playing the tracking movie, the truck icon will move across the route simulating the driving process. The truck icon also provides such information as the date and time when the driver was at that exact location and the vehicle’s actual speed.

Export Distance Tracking Data from the Track Distance App

Route4Me receives real-time GPS tracking data in the form of GPS signals throughout the whole distance tracking process on any route and saves it to the servers. This data can be exported and used for analytical purposes, making reports, comparing the tracking history of different drivers on different routes and other activities.

To export a file with tracking history from the track distance app, in the Route Editor, click File in the top right corner of the screen, then click Download as and select Export Tracking History as CSV. Alternatively, you can export tracking history from your Routes List and Routes Map in a similar way.

The downloaded tracking history file contains the following data:

Tracking history is exported as a CSV file. You can download a sample file of tracking history in XLSX format below.
route4me-tracking-data.xlsx

Telematics Vendors Integrations

Telematics vendors or telematics providers are third-party companies that provide real-time GPS tracking services. Route4Me provides integration with a wide variety of tracking vendors worldwide to facilitate your route tracking needs. Visit our Telematics4Me page to learn more about tracking vendors.

Depending on your integrated telematics vendor, you can use multiple types of GPS tracking devices. Accordingly, Route4Me can display multiple types of telematics data and GPS tracking information on the map.

The icon that represents a user on the map can change dynamically based on the telematics vendor of the user. The dots that represent breadcrumbs may change color to distinguish between the breadcrumbs left by different telematics vendors.

When tracking a user, hover your mouse cursor over the vendor icon to view the name and email address, latitude, and longitude coordinates, the current traveling speed of the driver/vehicle, as well as the name of the telematics vendor, which is displayed as “Source“.

On our Telematics4Me page, you can find a list of all telematics vendors that are currently available in the world.

1. Telematics4Me allows you to search for vendors based on different filters.
2. Click the Select for Comparison button to compare multiple telematics vendors side by side and find the ones that are the most suitable for you.

Telematics vendors that are already integrated into Route4Me’s system are marked respectively in the list.

If you found a telematics vendor that meets all your needs but is not integrated with Route4Me’s system, you can make a request to integrate this vendor. To make a request, submit a form to our Customer Success Department by clicking on the vendor from the list and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Alternatively, you can use the Contact option in the top right corner of the main page of Telematics4Me.

Tracking Geofence Activities

Monitoring the Geofence Activities of your drivers allows you to get a proper insight into their routing activities. Geofence Activities provide a helpful and visual reference that highlights the event that triggered the geofence and provides a precise location on a map.

Route4Me allows you to set up custom Geofences, which are virtual perimeters for real-world geographic areas. Whenever a driver enters a geocoded location and stays within the geofenced area for a predefined duration of time, Route4Me receives GPS coordinates and automatically marks the destination as visited and when the driver leaves the geofenced area, marks the destination as departed respectively.

To view Geofence Activities, first, open a route in the Route Editor and select the stop that you want to check.

Then, click on the Map Settings and enable Geofence Activities in the Geofence tab by checking the corresponding boxes.

The green circle around the stop represents the predefined geofenced area. The shape and radius of the geofence can be adjusted in the Settings. Geofence activities provide the following data on the map:

1. The green flag shows where the driver entered the geofenced area, and Route4Me automatically created a Detected as Visited timestamp;
2. The red flag shows where the driver left the geofenced area, and Route4Me automatically created a Detected as Departed timestamp.

NOTE: You can also use Route4Me’s geofences for setting up geofence triggered alerts.

Route Simulation

Route4Me allows you to simulate a route before setting it in progress. This feature provides a visual representation of how the planned route will be driven so that you can make corresponding adjustments to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

To simulate a route, first, open it in the Route Editor. Then, hover your mouse cursor over the Tracking tab on the map and select Simulation.

1. The gray icon of a truck represents a driver;
2. Use the player controls for navigating through the route.

During the simulation, the gray icon moves along the route and recreates real driving. It also provides such data as the estimated time when the driver will be at a particular location as well as the estimated driving speed.

Since the simulation provides realistic route driving timeframes, it may take a long time to watch the whole simulation in real-time. Use the player controls to navigate through the route.

1. Use the progress bar for jumping to a certain point in the simulation;
2. Use the playback speed to adjust the speed of the simulation.