So many of us have seen the little round domes on the back of the trucks that we have grown accustomed to knowing what they really are, though to the average eye one may think it’s a small flying saucer, it’s actually something to keep tabs on you. Yes, you know what I’m talking about, the dreaded Qualcomm!
I set out on a mission to see if I could find anything about the accuracy of Qualcomm since the “bigger” companies use them to compare driver logs to. I didn’t find much on google (it’s my friend!) other than a bunch of articles on a lawsuit, a ban on the chips that they are using, and what seems to be a feud between Qualcomm and Broadcom.
So how accurate IS Qualcomm? Not very accurate in my book. A good example would be the fact that when my husband called in to get a pickup number that was not sent to him, he was informed he still had 22 hours left before he hit his 70. Funny thing is - by doing an old-fashioned recap (or by using DDL), he was actually a quarter hour away from hitting it. That is a HUGE difference. I wonder if the company would have paid his log book fines based on their “computer” expertise?
I know there has been more than one time when I have been with my husband on the road and he has called in only to have dispatch ask if he was going to make OTD because they showed him being out over 200 miles out from where he was to deliver.
That amazed me. Then there was the time they showed him being in Indiana when he had driven for over two hours in Michigan. And let’s not forget that when he is home - they show him as being in the closest city to us (which is an hour away).
At any rate, since I could not find anything on the internet, I decided to actually go to Qualcomm’s website. What I found was not helpful. Here are a few pulled statements about their accuracy:
accuracy of information is assured(pdf)
Take advantage of Qualcomm Hours of Service, an electronic on-board recording (EOBR) system for electronic driver logs that’s fully compliant with the latest FMCSA rules and regulations. Leverage Hours of Service to help maintain regulatory compliance, reduce the potential inaccuracies and risk of violations associated with manual log systems, proactively manage drivers, enhance operational efficiencies, and ensure compliance through simplified, automated record-keeping.
So I guess that answers my question. “Near real-time” = not accurate times to me. So how can these larger companies tell people they are logging wrong if the times are not accurate? I think it may be good for dispatch - but apparently not very good for keeping an accurate record of HOS.
What do you think?
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Personally, I’ve never had a good experience with any company that uses Qualcomm. In my opinion, it is very aging technology that has seen it’s day. Companies using it show lack of vision and forethought.
You couldn’t find much because there hasn’t been many new revelations with satellite truck communications since the Internet gained enough popularity to post about it. Sure, they’ve tried to update it, but there isn’t much different with the new models compared to the old green screen and the new models are problematic.
Dispatchers and their computer systems rely on data from the Qualcomm. When Qualcomm is inaccurate, so are they. Qualcomm reduced the number of dispatchers, so calling a human creates a real problem. They’ve got one dispatcher so busy with the computer system, that a phone call really throws them for a loop.
There are so many cellular options that are better and cheaper that it baffles me as to why a company would waste time and money with Qualcomm. The only viable reason is that they’re milking all they can out of the investment they made in the Qualcomm systems, which was huge.
For the driver, all you can do is dream about that thing not being there. It causes alot of trouble. Sure it’s better than the payphone days, but a nuisance compared to a good system.
My advice, probably isn’t good advice. I just ignored the problems with it and did the best I could. I got in trouble for violations and things related to the piece of junk. I just took that as my signal to move on to something better.
What was your “something better”?
I found a small family owned company that gets me home on a consistent basis. All we need is a cell phone and I’m smart enough to use my computer for directions. I can do my own log book, not that difficult. Granted, we don’t get some loads because they want tracking, but I make better money than I did with the mega-companies.
I don’t need to use them, but as the other posts stated, there are good cell phone options. I’ve heard Landstar drivers like their system. There are cell phones that really can track you with much more accuracy than satellite. The phone signals the company with the GPS coordinates you are at.
I was getting a physical once and the practicioner doing it was talking about a golf outing that she went to. The Qualcomm saleswoman was a very attractive and very approachable lady that the men were all falling over to get to. Imagine that!
Cell phone companies probably need to invest heavily to produce trucking specific software, so it’s probably a huge investment for them and the customer. My guess is that companies get Qualcomm’s aging system for a lower cost and just stay with the status quo for now.
There is alot more to the entire system than we see as drivers. The data received is pushed to mulitple systems. The driver gets screwed, but most of the companies using it would rather you leave before you mileage pay gets high anyhow.
My husband had a problem with out of route miles with his dispatcher. It was not the Qualcomm’s malfunction, the company entered a similar sounding city name as my husband’s home address. He was hundreds of miles out of route because of it. Once that got straightened out, his out of route miles have been very low. It depends on how the Qualcomm is set up for the driver, if an error like a city is made….things will got wrong. The time issue, at least the way my husband’s company does it, is based on what he puts in.
That is my 2 cents.
Well your two cents is ALWAYS welcome!!
Qualcomm does logging? Really? (Werner has electric logs, and the driver input is the major part of it with some cross checking with qualcomm-derived data.
The 70 hour problem sounds like a run-of-the-mill dispatcher that has no idea how logs work.
Yes I knew about Werner actually using the QualComm for the paperless logs. If you look on the FMSCA’s website you will see where Werner has to file for exemptions from keeping paper logs. So if you were being sarcastic - thanks I like a challenge!
“The Werner Paperless Log System, which is connected via satellite through QualcommTM, assists truck drivers in using their time efficiently. Our drivers no longer have to draw lines or manually calculate their available work hours in their eight-day work period. Our drivers can focus on driving and not on completing paper logbooks.”
So basically it is ALL driver driven.
The 70 hours was based on Qualcomm stats. Please read the post - it is about QualComm accuracy - not the accuracy of a dispatcher who is reading what the QualComm is telling them.
I understand what the post said.
I disagree with it. Without driver’s specific input, there is no way for qualcomm to do logging. No way.
That’s the whole point of it.
That’s why I said “So I guess that answers my question. “Near real-time” = not accurate times to me. So how can these larger companies tell people they are logging wrong if the times are not accurate? I think it may be good for dispatch - but apparently not very good for keeping an accurate record of HOS.”
That’s why I gave so many examples as well. Another good one would be when my husband’s starter went out on the truck and he called in they said “Oh you are in Cityville” (I know not a very original name of a town but you get the point) and he said “No I’m at home” and they said “That’s not what the Qualcomm shows” so Qualcomm showed him being 45 minutes from where we lived despite the fact the truck sat all day. No - in my eyes it is NOT accurate at all. So how can the companies TELL driver’s that they are logging wrong when this computerized system is not accurate? The driver’s can be logging correctly but the companies are relying on a computer to tell them differently.
To many inaccuracies to trust it in my book.
Give me paper logs any day!!
Give me paper logs any day!! I totally agree!!
I so totally agree with you. I love the messages that get sent out at lunchtime and on the weekends “Please do NOT call unless it is an emergency there are only (insert number here) people working today running 3000000000000000000000000000 trucks and we cannot answer everyone’s phone calls use your OBC it is much faster!”
No it’s not. Not when you running against hours or a deadline to pick up and they take an hour to dispatch you. How is THAT more efficient?
I agree with having some things computerized - but I really think QualComm is one thing that needs to go. If it is not accurate - neither will the HOS records be that a company keeps to compare logs to.
As a dispatcher, there is a time and place for the type of message you described being sent out. Drivers call far to often for things they do not need immediately. It really makes it hard to do anything to help anyone when you have 10 guys calling about how to scale a load, what route to take (buy a map, driver) what tire pressure to run, HOS questions they should have learned the answer to years ago and any other basic info all drivers should know before they ever put a truck in gear. This job is like being a professional babysitter. THAT is where the frustration about call volume comes from. Ask any dispatcher how many calls they get in a day like this.
By the way, I drove OTR for 6 years and never once called my dispatcher for anything that dumb.
Um, I can understand not calling in for the “stupid” little things that go on - I am talking about a driver NEEDING to call in and being told to use the OBC and then it taking over an hour to get a response. Like I said before: when you are waiting to get dispatched and you are either pushing your hours OR the pick up time - I have personally experienced this while with my husband. He sent in a message after 15 minutes - no dispatch - sent another one in 15 minutes later - no dispatch - sent another message in - no response in and guess what? He MISSED his pick up because he was told to use the OBC and hung up on. Wow - now I’m sure that was REALLY efficient right?
THOSE are the phone calls I am talking about. Or how about the phone calls that a driver is broke down during “lunch time” - does that mean he doesn’t need to notify someone?
I’ve been in the dispatch position so I don’t need to ask anyone because I have gotten plenty of my own phone calls (even at home at night). Personally - I would rather a driver call and tell me something than to have him/her getting into trouble somewhere down the line because of my lack of attention and caring to a driver not to mention the fact that it would show I do NOT care about driver retention which is hard enough anyhow. .
HOS I would rather have someone call me and ask then to get a violation considering there have been so many changes to it in the recent years. And I have had drivers wake me up at two in the morning to ask me a question - but if it saved them from getting a fine and the company from getting a safety violation - it was a well made phone call in my book.
There is a lot of give and take.
Years ago I was with a large company that used qualcomm and I developed an allergy……to qualcomm.
Just recently I changed carriers. The company I had been leased to for years suddenly decided…you guessed it…to go with Qualcom. It was going to be mandatory for all Contractors by the end of the year. It was going to cost me thousands to purchase and hundreds of dollars a month to operate.
So I changed carriers. The carrier I’m with now uses a two hundred dollar cell phone to do MORE than what the Qualcom can do.I integrated the cell phone with my current on board electronics and now I get dispatch info, permits, directions etc. Right in the truck. The saving’s on fax’s alone have already paid for the cell phone. My total out of pocket expense (and it was an OPTION, not a mandate) was that two hundred dollars, and the CARRIER pays for the service.
So which was a better deal?
Everitt Mickey — I would like to know the cell phone you use, and the program/and or / service you use, and the “on board” electronics that you had in your truck. That sounds like a great way to do it!! And if you don’t mind me asking… which carrier? What a great deal.
Laurie
As with most of us I’ve had a laptop in the truck for years. I have two air-cards, Sprint and AT&T, which I’ve also had for years. East of the Mississippi I almost always have service, one or the other. I have a HP “Three-in-one” Printer/Scanner/Copier. (about $100). I already had all that.
With the new company they sold me a Motorola (Nextel) GPS phone. The GPS function is ALL I use it for,its in a holder on the dash plugged into a power outlet. The GPS phone lets those who need to track me. Had I not already had an aircard the phone can act as a modem. I choose not to do that since my aircards are faster.
I get permits , load assignments, directions, and other company related information(monthly newsletters) via attachments to my email using the company supplied microsoft outlook express. I’d never used outlook express before and am reluctantly starting to respect it if not like it. Oftentimes my “travel agent” and I trade quips back and forth thru out the day. That’s an incentive for him to keep me rolling. I can’t pester him if I’m rolling Outlook express is only for business use as I also have Thunderbird as my personal email client.
Like I said. Total addittional expense to me was about $200 for the phone which was taken out of multiple settlements. I already had all the other stuff. Just a little software jiggling and I was good to go. Most of the fleet has the same.
Total investment starting from scratch is probably about $2000 but then I have quiet a nice laptop. (17 in wide screen gateway)….birthday present from my beautiful bride.
Almost 17 years with a large carrier who uses Qualcomm taught me alot about the system. This is all stuff I dug off the internet over the years, so I’d have to go back and find it again if you want me to prove any of it. First, it’s not ‘real-time’ as most carriers only have it set to update when the truck shuts off-if the truck isnt shut off, it leaves you in your last position when the truck was last shut off. It shows ‘moving’ or ‘not moving’. Even that can be dangerous when carriers get into the trap of letting shippers have your real-time updates. to prove how on-the-ball they are . .not hard to figure out where a truck is at to stage a hijacking if the wrong person gets the info and knows how to use it!
Tracking real-time location takes 3 satelites to triangulate-very costly, as they pay per-action for qualcomm. These carriers dont want to pay for this, so seldom do it unless it’s a dire emergency. The dispatcher just guesses based on last real-time location. Unfortunately, most dispatchers simply rely on carrier lore as to how qualcomm works-have no idea of how it works and tell drivers all kind of BS based on mis-understanding the capabilities. Some are actually smart enough to show your truck is STILL shut off-others arent that smart-or ambitious-and make snap judgements based on the number on the screen. No logic allowed.
Messages can get stacked up on the qualcomm satellites for up-or over-two hours, depending on usage and conditions. They also back up at the software end-and whether there are enough people ‘actualizing’ the messages. Given the hold-time with some dispatchers, it’s still often quicker. Most of the larger carriers have old equipment-and old software it runs on. If there’s a computer glitch, an entire days’ or weeks’ messages and data can be lost, including engine parameters and operating conditions. I’ve seen it happen. They will NEVER admit it!
Location is relative: GPS is based on an imaginary grid system overlayed on the map. Every grid is ’supposedly’ about five miles square. Each grid is named for a location, town or township within the square. You can move within the square without showing movements as long as you dont cross into another grid. But, you have no way of knowing where the grid line is (somewhere, there must be an internet map, but I’ve never been able to find it). Our dispatchers usually tell drivers they can move up to 5 miles before the system shows they moved-then they get popped for breaking their DOT break-because they crossed the grid-line. Dispatchers dont even know there’s a grid-they think it’s magic. Maybe you can move five miles-maybe you will cross the grid if you pull ahead a foot.
The grid ‘drifts’-and resets automatically duing the wee morning hours. So, you can go to bed in one grid and wake up in another-and never have moved. Try explaining THAT to the tech-challenged dispatcher. . .and make them check their ‘facts’ against the actual starts of the truck-something else qualcomm tracks. I’ve saved a bonus because I could prove the truck never started, so how could I have moved?
The most common error of GPS is time zone error-this is a software error. Since qualcomm-and carriers’ systems-depend on timezone to track your actual time on the road, you have to be showing in the correct time zone. My carrier punishes you for driving /moving over 14hrs. But, if I’m on the east coast and the qualcomm software decides I’m in Wyoming, at 12 hours I will get a message commmanding me to stop immediately because I have driven over my 14 hours-the software takes my start time as mountain and 5 am becomes 3 am. Now, on eastern time, I should legally have until 7pm-instead, the software pops me for over-hours at 5pm-because it’s in the wrong timezone. I usually just send a nasty message telling them to fix their software problem so as to cover my butt.
Accuracy depends on antenna strength. Antennas go bad-if you dont have a strong enough antenna signal, all sorts of strange things happen. Location doesnt update right, messages go to Mars, not your truck or are seriously delayed. A bad antenna and bad weather can make for a combination where nothing works right. There is a screen you can bring up in which the antenna signal strength shows. If it’s below a certain level, it should be replaced. Most carriers wont tell a driver any of this-they want to keep you like the proverbial mushroom. Knowledgeable drivers have too much control. Knowledgeable dispatchers have too much control. So the techies-who probably were in kindergarten when the system was put in place-keep their ‘trade secrets’. Since they dont know how the thing works either-all knowledge rolls downhill and picks up all sorts of myths and crap as it goes along. Ask your shop to show you how to get to the antenna screen and keep track of the signal strength if you seem to be having trouble with it.
These are all things I’ve found I had to defend myself against as the qualcomm never lies (joke). For old tech, it’s pretty good, for what it’s supposed to do. In the days before cell phones, it was a God-send. And I’ve sure been grateful it was there when I’ve broken down in the middle of the night in February in BF Idaho on a two-lane. Trouble is, most equipment in use is OLD equipment-carriers re-use the equipment until it wont work at all. A keyboard that malfunctions is just sent to a place that cleans the contacts. If there’s a bigger problem, it will malfunction again. I’ve had to go thru three boxes of refurbed keyboards in the shop to find one that worked. But the major carriers have bamboozled both the govt (who should know better) and shippers that qualcomm is infallible. Actually, it works better than their software does-and they wont replace anything that halfway works. You also have to have people who decide the right information to pull off the software. Because they act like this is all some kind of state security secret, they fall into their own traps as to how well it works. Usually, they’re not real concerned about what a driver needs off the thing-they just want THEIR information and it’s becomming more driver-unfriendly all the time.
I also suspect qualcomm is like radar-has to be calibrated-I dont know this for sure. Anyway, if it has to be calibrated to the truck, you know it isnt happening. Minor electrical voltage variations can screw up a qualcomm pretty bad. Most of the fleet trucks have these voltage variations built in from the factory. I’ve been known to drive 1400 miles with my qualcomm showing I ws ‘coasting out of gear’ with the ‘unit shut off’. Anybody who has lost a bunch of their electronic gadgets due to voltage variations knows what those faulty cheap imported wiring harnesses on Freightliners did a few years ago.
All of the above is why I about had a stroke when I read the DOT was providing qualcomm to Mexican trucks to ‘track them’ for HOS, etc. First, it cant track any driver, just the fact the truck is moving-if conditions are right. Second, qualcomm doesnt do anything except ping signal off an antenna back and forth to the satellitle and to a base. It has to go thru someone’s software somewhere to actually mean anything. Thats where the true ongoing cost ends up-who’s monitoring, sorting and keeping the system info against what’s supposed to be happening with that truck? And who’s paying for it?
Now, anybody got a big coffe can?
Wow, thanks for backing me up!! That’s a lot of good info that’s good to know!! I always wondered how in the heck someone who is in the Central Time Zone could tell a driver to send in loaded/unloaded calls on the Eastern Time Zone and things match correctly.
I guess the big companies think drivers are idiots when it comes to the computerized gadgets. But if they would get a good long look at this site - they would see that there are very intelligent people driving the trucks they like to *track*.