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Export data from MyGeotab to a csv (or Excel) file to import into the PerformX SQL table of McLeod Software's LoadMaster program.

EvanBastow-1464
Original Poster

We need to schedule a export data from our database to a csv (or Excel) file so that we can import it into a the PerformX table of McLeod Software's LoadMaster program. It is mainly fuel and engine data.

 

What is the easiest way to do this?

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Top Answers

Good day!

 

While I'm not familiar directly with the PerformX table in LoadMaster, I'm going to bet it's based on the PeopleNet PerformX data feed that was originally created and populated through their Link product for engine diagnostics, mileage, fuel, and idle time summaries.

 

We have several customers with TMWSuite who have sought to replace the PerformX data feeds after migrating to Geotab. The data is definitely available in Geotab, but it doesn't source from just one location, so there's no direct Excel or CSV file output that can be used to match it succinctly.

 

Due to the large volume of data needed to replicate the PerformX dataset, I believe the most effective way to accomplish this is to pull Data Feeds from Geotab down to a local source, then aggregate and analyze them into a summary dataset for reporting into the PerformX table as described.

 

There are a few methods of doing this. You can write your own service to pull from the data feeds and save it locally. Geotab has code samples demonstrating this in a pre-built solution that does something like this here: https://github.com/Geotab/mygeotab-api-adapter, which can definitely comprise the majority of the code necessary to do this.

 

We have also built our own polling solution that pre-dates the Geotab solution above, which several of our customers use to mirror specific data down to their local system for advanced analytics. Some of the customers using this solution have built Excel reporting on top of these feeds that mimic portions of the PerformX reporting (particularly around fuel usage and idle time) for their own incentive programs.

 

Obviously your technical comfort level with the API and LoadMaster will heavily dictate what path is most comfortable to you. Happy to share more insights around these processes, or discuss the pros and cons of each approach further. Let me know if I can provide more specific guidance, and have a great day!

 

Scott Applefeld

ASR Solutions

4 Replies

Good day!

 

While I'm not familiar directly with the PerformX table in LoadMaster, I'm going to bet it's based on the PeopleNet PerformX data feed that was originally created and populated through their Link product for engine diagnostics, mileage, fuel, and idle time summaries.

 

We have several customers with TMWSuite who have sought to replace the PerformX data feeds after migrating to Geotab. The data is definitely available in Geotab, but it doesn't source from just one location, so there's no direct Excel or CSV file output that can be used to match it succinctly.

 

Due to the large volume of data needed to replicate the PerformX dataset, I believe the most effective way to accomplish this is to pull Data Feeds from Geotab down to a local source, then aggregate and analyze them into a summary dataset for reporting into the PerformX table as described.

 

There are a few methods of doing this. You can write your own service to pull from the data feeds and save it locally. Geotab has code samples demonstrating this in a pre-built solution that does something like this here: https://github.com/Geotab/mygeotab-api-adapter, which can definitely comprise the majority of the code necessary to do this.

 

We have also built our own polling solution that pre-dates the Geotab solution above, which several of our customers use to mirror specific data down to their local system for advanced analytics. Some of the customers using this solution have built Excel reporting on top of these feeds that mimic portions of the PerformX reporting (particularly around fuel usage and idle time) for their own incentive programs.

 

Obviously your technical comfort level with the API and LoadMaster will heavily dictate what path is most comfortable to you. Happy to share more insights around these processes, or discuss the pros and cons of each approach further. Let me know if I can provide more specific guidance, and have a great day!

 

Scott Applefeld

ASR Solutions

EvanBastow-1464
Original Poster

Thanks for your help... we'll work with this and see if we can get what we need. You are right, McLeod did base it off of PeopleNet PerformX feed from what I've been told.

Absolutely, happy to help.

 

A few quick pointers from our own efforts in this area, that may help you in your endeavors.

 

  • StatusData will provide most of what you need. The StatusData Feed will have various diagnostics that provide insight on mileage, fuel usage, and idle. Be warned, StatusData is every single reading off the ECM, so there will be a lot of data to unpack there.

 

  • Idle Time is the hardest to align with historical mobile comm providers. If you use Idle Time directly off StatusData you're getting every fractional second the engine idles. That's pretty extreme, it will count things like stop lights and stop signs and traffic.

 

  • The best way I've found to align Idle Time is to use a custom rule that measures your own definition for Idle (such as if the Parking Brake is also on) or one of the defaults where you can adjust the seconds sitting still before the idle time rule activates.

 

  • Once you do that, you can then pull the rule the ExceptionEvent DataFeed and total the values for it per vehicle. That will give you idle time that aligns with your definition (PeopleNet used 5 minutes for "Short Idle" and 30 minutes for "Long Idle" in the PerformX report design).

 

  • That still leaves idle fuel use slightly misaligned from Idle Time. Haven't come up with a good answer for that yet, the StatusData doesn't report continually for Idle Fuel used, so you can't simply correlate the ExceptionEvent timing and subtract out the fuel. Know that in this model, actual gallons reported as idle fuel might be higher than the true idling amount by your business definition.

 

Let me know if we can help further in the future, and have a great day!

 

Scott Applefeld

ASR Solutions

EvanBastow-1464
Original Poster

Thanks again. We are moving from Onmitracs units in our trucks to Transflo units, but we have our driver scorecard all situated to work off a feed we currently get from Onmtracs to McLeod's LoadMaster to populate the PerformX table. We don't want to have to re-create our scorecard (or move to Transflo's version yet) so we want to get the data from GeoTab...

 

I appreciate your help,

 

Evan Bastow

Doug Andrus Dist., llc

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