MMW learned Tuesday that Motus — the leading vehicle management and reimbursement platform — is expanding its mobile platform.
As part of the expansion, we’re told that the company is integrating beacon technology with its mileage tracking app to “significantly reduce battery drain for field-based mobile employees.”
“Battery drain is a reality for any location-based app, as GPS-enabled technology creates a struggle between location accuracy and battery consumption. The more frequently GPS collects data from the phone’s GPS chip, cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots to determine location data, the more battery is consumed,” said Craig Powell, President and CEO of Motus.
“Motus users expect a highly accurate GPS solution, but want the convenience of ‘set it and forget it’ mileage tracking features without the overwhelmingly high battery consumption found in the vast majority of apps,” Powell adds. “Asking users to remember to complete manual tasks such as starting or quitting the app at the start/end of each day is at direct odds with our promise to streamline their administrative tasks and make work life better.”
Placed anywhere in the vehicle (typically the glove box or center console), the Motus Beacon is a small hardware device that utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to sense whether or not a Motus user’s mobile device is in proximity to their vehicle. When the user approaches, or is inside their vehicle, the Motus Beacon senses their proximity and automatically enables the Motus App for mileage tracking when the vehicle begins moving.
“The beacon-based proximity industry has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, particularly in marketing to consumers,” says Rick Blaisdell, Motus Chief Technology Officer. “We’re proud to have employed this technology in a unique way, but our investment in using beacon technology to solve battery drain is only the first step in developing much broader applications to benefit our end users.” According to Blaisdell, “…beacon technology has the potential to solve a number of the needs Motus users have when driving for work – fuel, maintenance, parking and driver safety, to name a few.”
