Inside HQ there is a feature that allows you to define an area on the map and give it a custom name and colour, these are called Landmarks. Instead of always reading where the vehicle is by a street address (which is also nice), you’ll see the custom name while the vehicle is inside that area (Landmark).

By color coding your landmarks, you can quickly see at a glance where the vehicle has been based on colour alone. Example: Having a land mark labeled Office in Red, you’ll see on your Reports and the Maps page instantly when your vehicles arrived or left the office by just seeing the colour.

Colour code “types” of landmarks: Customers are Grey, Suppliers are Green, and Resteraunts are Orange. Now you’ll see whether your vehicles spent most of their time at Customers location or Suppliers. You’ll even see Restaurants if the vehicle spent anytime inside that coloured landmark.

For the GPS Police account I’ve divided the city into coloured quadrants. Northwest is Blue, Northeast is Orange, Southwest is Green and Southeast is Pink. At a glance I can see where our installers vehicles have been for most of the day. If it was jogging between the NE and SW, or roaming around the in the most efficient way (NW to SW to SE to NE). You can see inefficient vehicle use if the vehicle is constantly moving from one coloured quadrant to another.

But what if the vehicle is barely OUTSIDE the landmark? The vehicle won’t show itself as being in a landmark unless it IS in a landmark. Therefore, you should make the landmark LARGER than JUST the area you want. eg. if you’re landmarking a home, make the square larger enough to encompass several homes (or the whole block) so that if the vehicle parks further than it should, you’ll still see it as being in the Landmark.

Andreas Help Guide to HQ is an initiative to help users get the most of of using HQ to manage their fleets of vehicles. Each week I will publish something related to HQ. Please post comments or email me if you’d like me to explain something here. - Andrea Brightwell