Create Performance Monitoring Vehicle Types

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Vehicle parameter types define the performance standard for the vehicles assigned to that type. These parameter settings affect the usefulness of reports and queries. When you first enable Performance Monitoring, the default vehicle type is "Rsv," which does not report data. You need to create a vehicle type and mark it as the default so it is automatically assigned when a new vehicle is created in Performance Monitoring.

Create vehicle types based on differences in road speed setting or over rev settings, not based on actual engine types (for instance, Peterbilt versus Cummins). Recommended vehicle types are:

Engine governor speed
RPM settings
Operation (reefer, bulk, ltl, and so on)

Create a New Vehicle Type

In Performance Monitoring, select Setup.
Select Vehicle Types.
Select Add vehicle type.
Enter a three-character Vehicle Type ID. Keep it simple so you can easily identify the vehicle type later when you assign a type to a vehicle.
Enter a description of the vehicle type to clearly identify what types of vehicles it should be applied to.
Make the following adjustments in each tab:
1. Data Source: Do not change anything in this tab. It applies to older hardware that is no longer in service.
2. Mobile Behavior:
  1. Set the auto extract field to one day greater than your extract schedule. This ensures that if a vehicle does not communicate during the extract schedule, it will attempt to send its data the next day when it powers up.
  2. Leave all other fields unchecked and set to 0.
3. Fault Monitoring: Omnitracs recommends you disable all of these settings.
4. Performance Monitoring: This is the most important tab for creating a vehicle type. Pay particular attention to the settings in bold below as these are the most important settings for helping you gather useful data. The settings listed are Omnitracs' recommended settings.
  Note: The warm-up and cool-down settings set the period of time that does not count against driver or vehicle performance.
  1. Minimum Warm-up: 1 minute
  2. Maximum Warm-up: 5 minutes
  3. Minimum Cool-down: 1 minute
  4. Maximum Cool-down: 5 minutes
  5. Extended Idle Threshold: Initially set to 60 minutes, then adjust later once you have more data and a better idea of what works best for your business needs.
  6. Over Speed Threshold: Set to 1 mph/kph above the engine's governor speed. This setting is based on throttle pressure and is useful for policing the engine's governor.
  7. Excessive Speed Threshold: Start at 5 mph/10 kph above the over speed threshold then adjust as you have more data. This setting monitors actual speed, not throttle pressure.
  8. Over RPM Threshold: This setting varies based on engine specifications. Set this based on the RPM at which point mpg begins to be negatively impacted. Consult your vehicle/engine manufacturer for ideal settings.
  9. Begin Trip Threshold: Leave at default settings. Be aware that this setting has no relation to Hours of Service.
  10. End Trip Threshold: Leave at default settings. Be aware that this setting has no relation to Hours of Service.
  11. Ignition Violation Time: 10 minutes
  12. PTO Enable: This setting requires additional third-party hardware. If using third-party PTO hardware, check this box to set the start-up time, which determines how long PTO has to be enabled before it is recorded as engaged.
Select Save.

Setting Default Vehicle Type

All vehicles enabled for Performance Monitoring pull in the default vehicle type parameters. The first new vehicle type you create will automatically become your default vehicle type. If you create multiple vehicle types, you will need to choose which one should be the default. To change the default vehicle type:

From the vehicle type list on the left, select the vehicle type you want as the default.
Select the downward facing arrow in the upper right of the vehicle type pane.
Select Set as default.

Fleetwide Overrange Parameters

Fleetwide Overrange Parameters are used to specify fleetwide exception thresholds for automatic data extraction. For example, if a driver exceeds your overspeed time or percentage threshold, the mobile unit automatically triggers a data extract. If a setting is set to 0, that disables the trigger. Omnitracs recommends leaving these at the default settings initially until you have had a few extracts and then adjust based on your business needs.

Note: Be aware that an automatic extract does not reset the regular extraction cycle and does not include a performance matrix.

Video Training

Creating Vehicle Types