GPS System & Address Validation For Packages
Can you be sure that the package you sent to a client was delivered as promised? If the company you choose for delivery has a GPS System & Address Validation program, you can know for certain. This system is designed to allow a delivery person to use a device that is about the size of a cellular phone to enter the package identification and make a GPS location stamp as well as a time stamp of the package and its delivery. This is an efficient way for the company to ensure that your delivery is always on time.
GPS service allows for very precise location on the face of the earth. Some units are precise enough that they can be used in land surveying. A unit can give a very precise location of the delivery truck when it is in front of a home making delivery or even at the door of the place where the unit is being delivered.
When expensive equipment is being delivered to a customer by a delivery service, this puts an end to a customer claiming to have never received the equipment. The carrier has GPS documentation that the delivery was made to the correct address. If delivery was made to the wrong address, then the carrier can return to that address to reclaim the equipment that was wrongly delivered.
Another use of this equipment is in the delivery of court papers to an individual. In addition to the manual address verification, the person serving the papers can have GPS address validation that the papers were served to the correct address.
The GPS system was first used experimentally by the US navy in 1960. Since that time several other satellites have been launched. These satellites have been used for airplanes and ships in navigation for years. In more recent times hand held units have become popular and today, many cell phones have included a GPS locator. These much smaller units have made it possible to allow GPS technology to be used for such things as address verification.
There are some limits to this system. The greatest one is that in developing the GPS system the US government has built in an error in the GPS system. This error may range from zero to one hundred meters. A location given by the GPS unit could be off by the distance of an American football field. The error is included on purpose to prevent use of this system by terrorists. The unit can give a general location of the delivery and an accurate time stamp, however it is still possible to deliver the package to the next door neighbor by mistake.
GPS address verification is overall a good system, but the driver will still need to use visual clues to make the delivery to the correct place. In addition, the system is very good at giving the driver directions to the next stop.
Overall the technology for this type of system is precise, but a built in error is a bug that will need to be worked out for the system to be as useful as possible.
GPS systems are getting cheaper everyday. It’s not hard to find where you need to go using address validation and spatial data.