Alerts

What is an Alert?

Alerts are in-the-moment notifications that go out via text or email (depending on the recipients). These cover items such as Excessive Idling, Entering or Exiting Landmarks, Speeding, etc…

Alerts are an excellent method of keeping managers, dispatchers, etc…  informed of vehicle events without the need to constantly check the tracking platform.

Where are Alerts Created?

Alerts are accessed through the bell icon in the upper right hand corner.

All of the Alerts are created here, with the exception of Geofence and Maintenance.

How is an Alert Created?

To add an Alert, click the manage button and then on the plus (+) button in the upper left corner. After clicking the plus (+) button, a series of Alert triggers will appear for selection.

After choosing a trigger, more fields will appear. Each alert will need a unique name in the Title field. After entering a name, choose a severity level. The severity levels are quite useful for ‘triaging’ and sorting alerts as they come in. Most alerts will also ask for specific parameters and thresholds. For example the Idle alert will ask how long the unit should show Idle for the alert to be triggered. For a complete list of which Alert is which, please Click Here.

An optional element for each Alert is to ‘evaluate current Landmark before triggering the alert’. This adds an additional layer to the trigger, whereby the not only must the trigger parameters be met but that the target units must also be either inside or outside chosen Landmarks. For example: Setting an Idle Alert for 15 minutes inside a landmark, to ensure vehicles aren’t excessively idling in a parking lot.

Step two is the Scheduling & Frequency for the Alert. This allows for customization of how many times a day the alert is triggered, the days of the week the Alert is active and even if there are times of day the Alert should or should not be triggered. All of these features combine to prevent an overwhelming amount of alerts, allowing the most effective utilization of the Alerts as possible.

The scheduling option has several choices. Everyday, which results in the alerts being triggered 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Weekdays restricts the alert to only being triggered Monday through Friday, going out 24 hours a day. Weekends would be the reverse of this, having the alert only trigger on Saturdays and Sundays, 24 hours a day.

The final choice is Custom. Use Custom to choose the exact days of the week to have the alert trigger as well setting times that the alert should be active. For example, only needing the alert active on Mondays from 8 am to 6 pm and Tuesday from 7 am to 5 pm.

Select the day by clicking the button to the left of the entry. Then use the dropdowns to select the times. To apply the same timeframe to all the day, use the ‘Apply Monday’s times to all’ toggle button.

The Plus button to the right of each day allows the input of multiple time frames for each day. For example, the alert needs to be active on Mondays between 8 am and 10 am, then again from 4 pm to 6 pm. Use the plus button to add an additional time slot for a particular day.

Alerts are incredibly useful, however receiving too many of them can negate their value. When creating an alert a limit can be set on numbers of times total per day that it’s triggered. Click the Yes button and use the slider to choose the limit.

Clicking ‘Next’ leads to Subscribers. This section is to determine who the Alerts should be sent to when triggered. Use the ‘Select’ dropdown to make the choices. To receive an Alert, the recipient must be listed as a Contact. 

For a Driver to directly receive an alert, use the Current Driver option. This will send the triggered Alert not just to selected Contacts (such as managers or administrators) but to the actual Driver of the vehicle. This feature is particularly useful for behavioral items such as speeding or excessive Idling, notifying the driver directly. For Current Driver to work properly, the Driver tool must be used.

Having input the triggers and the recipients, the final step is to apply the alert to the appropriate units. To apply the alert to all the units at once, select the All button.

If more specific choices are needed, use the Units button. Units are organized by Tags. Selecting a Tag will apply the alert to all the units within that tag. 

To expand a Tag and select specific units, click the arrow to the left of the Tag. Click ‘Add New’ to save the Alert.

Existing Alerts can be edited or deleted whenever changes are needed. To delete an alert, click the box to the left and then the trashcan icon to the upper left. For edits, hover the mouse over the alert to produce a 3-dot button. Clicking this button will then show the edit option.

Alerts that are sent via SMS will come from this number: [phone].

To prevent Alerts from becoming overwhelming, GPS Trackit places a daily limit on unique alerts per unit, per day. This means for every Alert that is created, each unit within it can trigger the alert up to 50 times per day. This 50 message limit applies to each individual unit.

For example: 

An Alert has been created for 40 vehicles, set to trigger when any of them travel more than 5 MPH over the Posted Speed Limit. 

Truck #1 has a driver that consistently speeds. After the 50th alert sent for this particular unit, no more of this particular alert will be sent for this particular unit for the rest of the day.

The other 49 units under the same alert will continue to trigger and send their alerts as normal, until each unit reaches its own 50 message limit.

GPS Trackit does not limit the number of Alerts that can be created on the platform. The 50 message limit does not carry over from one alert to another. In the example above, Truck #1 reaching their limit of Speeding Alerts would NOT have any effect on a separate alert, such as Idle. The Idle alert would continue to be sent until it reached the 50 message limit as well.

Can Alerts Be Accessed from the Cloud Mobile App?

Alerts management is available within the GPS Trackit Cloud Mobile App. To get started, tap Menu.

Then select Alerts.

To create new Alerts or manage existing ones, tap the wrench icon in the upper right corner.

Each existing Alerts can be edited or deleted as needed using the icons on the right side.

To build a new Alert, tap the plus (+) button.

Now select the Alert Type. For a full list of available alerts, please Click Here.

Then provide a unique Alert Name and set the Severity Level.

The selection of certain Alert types will prompt additional fields to appear. For example, selecting the Stopped Reporting alert will produce options regarding how long the unit must have ceased reporting for the alert to trigger.

Next, set the selections for when the Alert should trigger, if a Total Daily Limit is desired, which Units to assign the Alert to and which Contact should receive the Alert.

Now set a Total Daily Limit (if desired), which Units to assign the Alert to and which Contacts should receive the Alert. To CC the alert to the assigned Driver, make sure the Current Driver checkbox has been selected

Press Save when complete.