Tomtom for mobile business

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Please help me choose the best option for my business.

I own a mobile pet grooming business that operates 4 vans. Each van driver thru a metropolitan area and makes approximately 6 stops per day in different addresses. Throughout the past few years I would purchase whichever gps I would find without much thought involved, but I have come to the realization that Traffic data can really optimize my business and make it more efficient. Once I started researching this field, I concluded that TomTom is the king of life traffic which is my goal. So here are my questions:

1)is go 600 much more sturdy than go 60s?
2)can the 4 units that I purchase be under my single company user name and passwords?
3)can all my employees input my user name and password in the my drive app in their phone and use them at the same time (using separate units).
4)after each appt, do they have to log back in to the my drive app, or does it run in the background all day?


My hope is that each employee would pair the phone to the gps in the morning and not worry about it the rest of the day, without any additional work (after each appt which usually lasts 2 hours. is that realistic?

Thank you so much for reading this! Any thoughts will be much appreciated!
 
Quality traffic service can certainly make a difference -- huge in many metro areas.

1) There's no difference in 'sturdiness' between the 60S and 600. The 60S is a resistive style screen, and the 600 is capacitive, so the 'gestures' one can use are different to access menus, pan, zoom, etc.

2) No! Each unit uses its own login name and password. That allows the TomTom server to keep straight which map subscription belongs to which unit. Maps are keyed to each unit individually.

3) I've never tried using the same login on a phone before. I'm not sure what would happen. I use the same GMail account for the unit that I use on the phone. Keeps things simple.

4) The MyDrive app runs all day on the phone. Once in a while, it might goof and ask for another login, but not if it is behaving correctly.

_) Yes, that is realistic. That's how it is expected to operate.
 
Thank you for your reply!
If I understood your answer to the 2nd question, then it probably means that the my drive app would not suite our purposes.
The reason is that we have multiple vans with multiple workers.

For example, tom might use van #1 on monday and van #3 on tuesday. So he would need to change the user and password every day depending on which van it uses. Isn't there a simpler way with a universal user and password for all my gps units that I can give to all my employees?

On a seperate note, according to my reaserch, any other traffic method such as HD traffic is pretty bad in relation to Live traffic. Is there any company or GPS device that is actually good at that without the need to connect the phone (and having to create and remember 4 separate user names and passwords)?
 
Let me see if I can straighten out some confusion here. There is a PC application that is used to update these units that has an email address and password AND there's the phone app that grabs traffic for these units, and that has an email and password, too. When I answered #2, I was doing it in the context of the PC application that is used for updates. So I may have mucked up the whole conversation since I don't know which you meant.

Then there's the process of pairing phones to GPS units via Bluetooth, a separate issue.

Can you explain your use model better for me? Do you expect different phones and GPS units to be swapped around, or ???
 
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The 4 gps units would be installed on 4 different vans and each would stay there unmoved.
My groomers, who drive the vans, would pair their phones with the units when they are working. Having said that, sometimes a groomer may use van #1 and then, the next day, he may use van #2.
My hope is that once they download the tomtom my drive app, they can all use the same user name and password to pair to any of the 4 gps units without a hickup. That way, when a groomer work on Monday on van #1, his phone will links the exact same way as when he links up on tuesday on van #2.
Does this makes sense?
 
Ah, OK. There is no reason that any given GPS can't be paired with multiple phones in advance, so that would not pose a problem for you. I have not yet tried to see whether the connection to a different phone is automatic or whether the GPS needs to be told to connect with a different phone than the 'last' one. I have only one smart phone here, so I can't test that! Does one of our other moderators have the ability to do so?
 
Two things:
1) Tomtom has a centralized fleet management and dispatch service called webfleet, that allows what you are looking for regarding centralized management. Go to tomtom Telematics at business.tomtom.com and request a sales call.

2) Google has surpassed Tomtom in USA traffic accuracy. Tomtom is very good and still as good as it was since 2012, but Google has become much better, especially in congested cities and rush hour. However I am unaware or a centralized fleet management system that uses Google traffic currently.
 
Does one of our other moderators have the ability to do so?
Only one smart phone, but that is (was) recognised immediately by my GO 930, GO Live 1535 (and Via 1535).
That, of course, is the same phone that establishes the Live connection on the GO 600.
 
We need to try it the other way around, Arno. We need multiple phones as viewed by one GPS. If two different phones have been paired with a 600, for example, does it auto-connect to whichever one pops up within range?
 
@Trevor
I am asking this question in a different forum where we may find someone who can answer on our behalf. I'll be back with an answer to all of the above as soon as some can confirm how this would function.
 
1) Tomtom has a centralized fleet management and dispatch service called webfleet, that allows what you are looking for regarding centralized management. Go to tomtom Telematics at business.tomtom.com and request a sales call.
For as small an operation as we're talking about, that's a pretty expensive solution, don't you think? Not sure the OP is looking for 'fleet management' with a web interface, etc etc. Just a handful of GPS units that will allow phones to be readily swapped between them.
 
OK - some good news from a couple of folks who have had more than one phone paired. We still don't know the maximum number, but we do know that if you have two phones already paired with one of these newer units, it automatically connects to whatever one it encounters. Still waiting for info about whether those phones can be using the same account. That said, it wouldn't matter if each of the phones was using its own account -- the GPS doesn't care.
 
Now, let's deal with question #2 more carefully. Understand that this is entirely apart from the issue of phone connections -- this relates to connecting and updating TomTom units in general.

There will be times when you will want to connect these units to a PC in order to get them updated with new features and new maps. Each device needs its own account for that purpose since this is how TomTom (why?) identifies them. Serial numbers, which are communicated during connection, would make more sense, but that's how it is. So for each unit you own, you provide a different email and password. Note that the email address doesn't even have to be real, it just has to be different than any other email address ever used to register a TomTom. So you could just register them as (e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed) etc etc. The reason all must have unique registrations is that things like map updates are keyed to specific units, and the server needs to send the right map to the right unit.

A good bit of news about that, though... if it is found that a map has already been downloaded and cached on your PC, only a very small amount of additional data is sent for each successive unit that needs the same map. Saves a good bit of time.
 
I don't know the business pricing, so I'm not sure if it is cost competitive or not. The business models do have better centralized management, updates can be done via SD card on current models instead of dealing with account/fuss, etc. The latest generation can even update ota wirelessly.

That said, for such a small operation, I would recommend telling employees to route using Google Navigation, it has much better traffic avoidance than Tomtom in the USA, and is free on any Android/iOS phone.
 
OK. Nobody should buy TomTom if they need traffic etc etc etc. Use a phone. I get that. I don't agree in most cases (works just dandy for traffic avoidance in most metro areas), but I get that. Where seconds count, and all that...
The OP is in the Coral Gables area, and I've had quite good luck with TomTom Live traffic in the Miami area.

Meanwhile, are you suggesting something from the Pro series or a Bridge unit (you mentioned OTA updates)? The MSRP on a Pro7150 is $330. I haven't seen the Bridge units offered for sale in North America yet, though I would think they'd get here soon, but no idea of price. I don't think the OP really needs the Pro with its full fleet management package for the small number of vehicles we're talking about here.
 
PRO 7250 is out and based on the GO500 (5" screen). PRO 8270 is out and based on the Bridge (7" screen).

Both can pair with a Tomtom link (modem) which can be permanently installed in the vans, preventing the need for account management to smartphones, etc. The 8270 probably updates OTA, too.
 
And both appear to be considerably more expensive than the 7250's counterpart 500 (or 600, for a bigger screen). If these units will connect to whatever phone the OP's employees bring into proximity, I think those will serve well at a lower price. Then you've got the additional expense of the modem hardware (TomTom LINK). For a small operation of the sort the OP seems to be interested in supplying, I just don't see the value proposition of moving up to the Pro series.

Where have you seen either the PRO 7250 or the PRO 8270 (or any Bridge unit) actually offered for sale in NAM? I've been watching for these, but nothing so far .. only in Europe. I need to be able to point to these when they a really are required for a solution, but see nothing but a single east coast distributor address that may / may not actually be stocking them, and no NAM prices to be found anywhere.
 
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The only info I have is product listings on business.tomtom.com, and the sales callack request form. I don't run a business, so have not tried contacting them.

As a driver, Tomtom in 2012 had traffic that was far better than anything else at the time, It was the only engine that was pretty much perfect outside of rush hour. For some reason, however, they have a problem with really slow traffic, as if they discard or decrease delays where the road speed is under 10mph. Google upgraded its traffic system a year or so back, and is basically the same as Tomtom without the <10mph bug. In cities like Boston, they give entirely different directions/routes during rush hour, and Google routes are typically 20-30% faster than Tomtom routes.
 
@Trevor
I am advised by someone who knows with real certainty that one of these new units will pair with up to 4 phones. If you pair with a 5th, the 1st is forgotten.
That's not a huge issue - it takes less than 30 seconds to pair a phone with one of these devices - but it's only going to remember 4 at a time. From the 4 it will remember, it will automatically connect to any one of them that appears within range.
 

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