IDS 2 App Data Usage

When the IDS 2 App polls our servers, it does this using less than 1 k of data. However, most phone carriers have a minimum session charge of 1 k.

How To control Data Usage

The simplest and most important step your drivers can do, to control data usage, is for them to:

1. Log out of IDS when they are not working.
2. Turn off (or restart) their phones after step 1 above.

Beyond that, you can control how often the IDS 2 App polls our servers by altering the "BB Conn Details" field in the Staff Members screen of the IDS PC Client. (Staff Members Screen Cheat Sheet)

For example:

"15,0,24,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN"

Means that if a driver keeps the IDS 2 App logged in, then the app will:

1. Poll every 15 seconds.
2. From 0 hour to 24 hour, 24 hours a day.
3. From Mon to Sun, 7 days a week.

Changing the first number to a smaller number (in the example above "15"), has the positive and negative effect:

1. The positive effect of a smaller number is New Trips, Trip Updates and GPS Updates are received in a more timely manner. This is because the app polls our servers more often.
2. The negative effect of a smaller number is there is a higher data and battery use for that driver's phone.

Most clients have this first number set to: 15, 60 or 120. 

By changing the 2nd and 3rd numbers (in the example above "0,24"), you can control the time of the day the IDS 2 App polls the server.

1. The "0" means from 0 hour, so 12:01 am in the morning, the IDS 2 App will poll the server. If you change that to a "7", then the IDS 2 App will poll the server starting at 7 am.
2. The "24" means to 24 hour, so 12 midnight, the IDS 2 App will poll the server. If you change that to "17", then the IDS 2 App will poll the server until 5 pm.

Do Note. The driver will not be able to login outside of these times. The positive is you will reduce their data usage, the negative is they will not be able to pick up or deliver shipments outside of these times.

The final part of the BB Conn Details ("MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN") is what days of the week will the IDS 2 App poll the IDS Servers. By removing a day of the week, the IDS 2 App will not poll the servers on the removed day of the week.

Do Note. The driver will not be able to login on a day of the week removed from the BB Conn Details. The positive is you will reduce their data usage, the negative is they will not be able to pick up or deliver shipments.

How to Measure Data Usage

Knowing that most phone carriers have a minimum session charge of 1k, then using the example above of the BB Conn Details being set to "15,0,24,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN", leaving IDS 2 App running in the background, the app will use in a 31 day month, 172800 k or 172.8 Megabyes or 0.1728 Gigabytes of data.

The above number of 0.1728 Gigabytes doesn't include new shipments being dispatched ,nor trip statuses (picked up, verified), PODS and Signatures being transferred. 

Do Note. To help control and reduce data usage, the IDS 2 App, turns a signature into a character string of coordiantes that the server then turns into an image. That means the IDS 2 App does NOT transmit a large image file for a signature. 

Maximum Data Usage.

Tests shows that if a driver handles 130 shipments a day, non stop for 24 hours, 7 days a week, in a month, with a BB Conn Details set to "15,0,24,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN" their IDS 2 App data use will be 3.65 gb/month. Since no driver can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 31 days, delivering 130 shipments a day, we are pretty confident that your usage will be significantly less than 3.65 gb/month. This extreme would be considered IDS 2 Apps maximum data usage.

You can also check the IDS 2 App's data usage on a driver's phone by doing the following:

1. On the Android Phone.
2. Go to settings
3. Go to Data Usage
4. Then scoll down to "Droid2".