Man with a plan!

cormie

Hey folks,
Over the past while I've become increasingly dependent on Google Maps compared to using my standalone Garmin GPS due to it's fantastic real time traffic and alternative route suggestions, so much so that I'm considering assigning a phone to each van to be used for:

1) Communication with driver
2) Driver communication with customers
3) Live Vehicle Tracking
4) EU Wide GPS/Navigation

For 1 & 2, an unlimited phone/text plan would be best but not that many minutes or texts would be used, international calls and calls while abroad is also important. For 3 and 4, data is important and moreso, roaming data as this would be used in the UK and Europe for navigation and general internet usage. It would also be nice, through an app I guess, to be able to get a live video/image capture, as well as historical and real time accurate tracking and maybe even to be able to point a customer to a link where they can check the progress of their delivery on a live map. I'd like the device always on so if the vehicle happens to be stolen it can be pinpointed and located.

So far it looks like Vodafone red @ €35 a month is probably the best and then it's €2.99 per 200MB of data a day. Plans such as eir who offer 250mb of roaming data a month aren't sufficient for navigation usage while roaming.

If there's any other suggestions for the above and also, for a simple and affordable device that will be able to manage all this happening on the phone at once that would be great.

Any feedback appreciated!


EDIT: Just to add, the lower monthly/yearly costs the better. If I can get all the above on a decent PAYG plan it might even be better, data is the most important, I don't mind paying for calls and texts extra as this wouldn't be as constant as the data usage.

ED E

Be aware this probably constitutes a change of working conditions for your employees and thus as far as I know (NOT a lawyer) they need to agree to a new contract for you to implement it. Some companies get around resistance by agreeing that GPS data can never be used in disciplinary matters.

Rather than pay international rates you might be better off getting a group of VOIP numbers (you could have each van be Ireland 076 XXX XXXX) then get a data only deal from one of the providers. Vodafone are huge across europe so they're a good option, three are smaller. Virgin as part of the liberty group are growing too. Depending on your size you may be able to get a to fit business package, I'd give em a call.

cormie

Thanks for the reply and advice!

I'm not sure what you mean about the VOIP idea though, are you suggesting to do all this through a VOIP provider and not need to worry about calls or texts as I'd be doing it all through VOIP? Interesting idea but I'm not so sure how it would work. I was also with Blueface for my mobile for a few months and it was terrible coverage in Europe for data and voicemail was a real pain in the ass to use. Vodafone red roaming @ 2.99 a day for 200mb is a very good deal.

I was even thinking, if there was any EU networks based outside of Ireland who offered a great data plan that could be used EU wide this could be an option too.

This would be much easier to sort come 2017 with the no roaming in EU law that's coming in, but until then, the goal is to get the highest EU wide data allowance, for the lowest monthly cost, even if it were case where you could get say 20GB on payg that would not expire after a month and you could use it up over 6 months and then top up again and even if you had to pay for calls/texts on top, it would probably work out much cheaper than paying monthly for anything in Ireland over the course of a year.