This blog is to help DYFS workers use their personal GPS units more efficiently.
Contents:
Why DYFS workers have purchased personal GPS receivers.
The GPS receiverI use:
DYFS worker’s use of a personal GPS
Why do DYFS workers have personal GPS units? The state of New Jersey has disabled the download capability of state issued cell phones, thus cutting off access to the GPS capabilities of state issued cell phones. The state also does not purchase cars with GPS units built in. Thus, if a state employee wants to have access to the capabilities of a GPS receiver you have to purchase a personal unit. Look in to the deductibility of this business expense and consider filing form 2106 Employee Business Expenses – talk to your tax advisor.
The obvious reason for a GPS is to find client and resource locations, and there are other reasons to use a GPS. We will suggest some of those other reasons and would like to hear from you for other uses that may not be addressed here. The capabilities that can be accessed are very dependant on the make and model. The older less expansive units performed basic functions, the newer – not necessarily more expensive (price has been dropping rapidly) – units have more capabilities and may offer subscriptions to online services can do vastly more than the first units on the market.
The Garmin 260W Nuvi I use:
The Garmin 260W, Nuvi series – relatively low end unit being replaced by higher functioning units with higher model numbers.
This unit does not have Bluetooth, does not integrate with car radio, no subscription capability, does not have FM receiver.
Those are the things it does not do here are some of the things it does do:
1. Navigation configurable for speed, distance or off road (off road gives a straight line to the destination, great for geocaching the Internet treasure hunt)
2. Text to speech capability – speaks the street names and destinations — about 50 different languages and voices
3. Points of Interest, 6 million pre loaded for this model – places to eat, fuel, hospitals, hotels, etc., the 6 million tells you the unit has lots of memory
4. Custom Points of Interest. Special POI files you can download to the unit, some free some for a fee.
Examples of free ones are typically lists of establishment like fast food restaurants, e.g. all the Sonic restaurants in the US.
Example of a fee custom POI file would be NJDOT fuel stops for state employees. The public list with coordinates added by the seller.
Custom Points of Interest feature is only available after you upload a custom POI file. It shows up under the “Extras” icon of “Where to?”
5. Favorites, lets you create your own address book, e.g. client list, resource list, etc.
6. Picture viewer for viewing uploaded images and slide shows or geo tagged images — you provide the coordinates or use a geo tag capable camera
7. Auto, bicycle and pedestrian modes
8. Map “City Navigator North America NT 2009.” Already out of date for the area where I live — Bergen County.
9. Time and World Clock (moving graphic of daylight and night light over the world, great for calling overseas)
10. SD Flash Card for lots of pictures, flash cards – like the ones in cameras — typically have a gigabyte or multi gigabyte capacity depending on what you buy
11. Mini USB port for uploading pictures, custom POI files, and anything else you want to store on the unit or the flash card. Depending on the units capabilities it may not be able to play back a file you loaded. For example I can load an image file and view it. I can also load a video file and this model will not play it back.
12. Mounting hardware which I do not use as I am hopping into a different car every day or sometimes more than one car a day. I use dysum cloth on the dashboard to keep the unit from sliding around.
DYFS worker use of a personal GPS
The first and most used feature of the unit I have is as a picture viewer. I have pictures of my family on the unit and turn it on daily instead of paper pictures. Sometimes show slide show when talking about family with co workers. The pictures are larger than on my cell phone.
Second feature is client and resource addresses to find the locations. I input an address and the unit brings me there.
Third most used feature is the Custom Points of Interest file of State Fuel Stops.
Fourth most used feature is marking a location for future reference, e.g. take a client to a location, a relative, a resource etc. Instead of writing down the location I use the “Where Am I” feature in “Tools” to mark the location. The map will also give me the address if I am on a map. There are times you are not on a map that is in the unit, e.g. you are in a parking lot. Every have the unit tell you to “Proceed to the Highlighted Route.” It says that because you are not on a map.
How do you use your GPS?
NJ State Employee Fuel Stations 