Getting New Position Reports
Vehicles send regular position reports; the frequency is set up at the NOC and usually depends on your type of business. Truckload carriers typically receive hourly position reports, while other carriers may receive more frequent position reports. QTRACS software gets new position reports when it retrieves messages.
The information below your name on the right tells you which assets you are authorized to view based on group membership, and which are currently selected. Click the linked text to change the viewed assets, if you are a member of more than one coverage and/or global group.
To get more frequent position reports from specific vehicles, do any of the following:
- Manually send a request for a vehicle's current position (ping the vehicle)
- Change the MIPR (mobile-initiated position report) settings for those vehicles
- Enable position archiving for the vehicle, which stores historical positions at specified intervals and bundles them with MIPRs to save messaging costs
The difference between the first two methods is that with a MIPR you send one request to reset the frequency of position reports. With pinging, each request results in two messages: one to the vehicle to request the position and the response from the vehicle.
Note: MCP units calculate more frequent positions that are stored on the unit and sent every 15 minutes. The Vehicle Position History page lets you view these positions.
Request a vehicle's current position (ping)
Pinging a vehicle results in two messages, the request for the position and the vehicle's response. Your user role must have permission to ping a vehicle.
- From the Vehicle Directory, click the radio button next to the vehicle to ping.
- Click Ping from the (Select) list at the bottom of the page.
Change MIPR settings
- Click the Setup tab. Set Up Vehicles opens.
- Click the Vehicle ID.
- In the Vehicle Position Reporting section, type the new Regular (MIPR) interval.
- If this is a temporary interval, click the radio button and type the new interval, expiration date, and time.
- Click Save.
You cannot set the MIPR interval lower than your contractual MIPR threshold at the NOC. To see what your MIPR threshold is, an administrator can click Administration at the top of the page. Click Company Settings, then click QTRACS Settings. The MIPR thresholds are listed by comm unit type in the Position Reporting Limitation section.
Set Position Archiving
Your user role must have authority to set up vehicles to change position archiving settings. Position archiving requires OmniTRACS (MCT) firmware version 18.02 or OmniExpress (TMCT) firmware version 21.40 at a minimum. Position archiving is not supported for MCP units.
- Click the Setup tab, then click Set Up Vehicles.
- Click the Vehicle ID, and locate the Vehicle Position Reporting section. If the vehicle's firmware does not support position archiving, the position archiving fields are disabled.
- Check to enable position archiving, and type the new archived position interval.
- Type the hours of operation.
- If you don't want to get position reports while the vehicle's ignition is off, check Suppress ignition-off position.
- Type an expiration date and time that the position archiving setting expires.
- Click Save.