The incident of “Beidou dropped” trucks aroused the attention of the outside world.
According to previous news reports, Jin Deqiang, a truck driver in Botou City, Cangzhou, Hebei, passed the over-limit checkpoint in Fengrun District, Tangshan City on April 5. The car was detained and a fine of 2,000 yuan was imposed. Or because he could not accept the fine, Jin Deqiang committed suicide by taking pesticides, but the rescue was ineffective and died.
What is going on with “Beidou dropped”? The reporter of News (www.thepaper.cn) interviewed the relevant hardware experts of logistics supply chain enterprises and the director of the Technical Equipment Working Committee of Guangdong Logistics Industry Association to analyze the issue in depth from a technical point of view.
Working principle of vehicle-mounted terminal equipment
First look at the working principle of vehicle-mounted terminal equipment. Trucks are equipped with corresponding terminal equipment to receive and transmit signal.
Liu Danhua, director of hardware solutions for logistics supply chain company Yiliu Technology, told reporters that the two core functions of the terminal are positioning and communication.
Among them, positioning actually relies on GPS or Beidou satellite network. That is, the satellite transmits a broadcast signal, and the device receives the signal and converts it into positioning data.
The communication function mainly solves the problem of uploading data to related platforms. That is, after the device receives the satellite signal locally, it converts it into the latitude and longitude of the positioning, and there are other states, and then reports the data to the platform. At this time, communication networks are needed, such as 2G, 3G, and 4G. Both China Mobile Telecom and China Unicom will have corresponding network services.
Three cases of disconnection
First of all, it needs to be clear that from a technical point of view, “Beidou disconnection” is related to the Beidou system itself. Not big.
Beidou positioning system is actually a kind of broadcast signal. After receiving it, the ground terminal equipment analyzes it and turns it into positioning data. So this incident has nothing to do with the Beidou satellite in the sky.
So, what technical factors will cause the so-called “Beidou offline”?
He Guohuang, director of the Technical Equipment Working Committee of Guangdong Logistics Industry Association, said in an interview with reporters that if human factors are excluded, there are three major technical factors that may cause Beidou equipment to drop:
First, there is a problem with the device itself.
For example, the equipment is aging, or a certain component is broken, or the line connection problem causes the equipment to not work.
However, He Guohuang said that often the equipment itself has a set of inspection procedures, and when the vehicle is maintained, it will also check whether there are problems with the connectors and sockets. Generally speaking, the equipment has reached a certain age. Will consider replacing.
Second, there is a problem with the SIM card used for communication.
For example, the device is flooded, the SIM card is loose, etc., or the network environment used by the SIM card is not good, but the location of the on-board equipment is relatively stable, and this problem occurs The platform can know right away, so the probability of such problems will not be very high.
The third is the signal problem.
Because the device itself communicates by means of the mobile network, if the network signal is not good, the device will be disconnected. This involves signal coverage issues. For example, passing through tunnels, corners, and other places where individual signals cannot be covered, or under bad weather conditions, may lead to weak or no signal.
Liu Danhua also mentioned a possibility. For example, in-vehicle terminal equipment uses 2G network. Now that mobile operators continue to promote 2G withdrawal from the network, there is The connection may be dropped. “In the earliest days, eight or ninety percent of Beidou vehicle-mounted terminals were actually 2G networks. It took only three to five years to gradually popularize 4G vehicle-mounted terminals. Guangdong Province requires general cargo vehicles to be converted to 4G vehicles in the first half of this year. Terminal. 4G network is relatively better than 2G, because 4G network is forward compatible, 4G network can not connect, you can connect to 3G network, 3G network can not connect to 2G network.”
However, He Guohuang said that in most cases, the probability of signal problems is not high. Even if there is a problem, it will be in the jurisdiction.Within the management of the district traffic police, even if there is a real disconnection, it can be reasonably explained and provided with corresponding evidence.
He Guohuang said that generally speaking, the probability of the on-board Beidou equipment going offline is not very high. Even if there is a dropped connection, since most of them are now in platform management, After the disconnection occurs, it can be repaired in time.
But Liu Danhua frankly said that, theoretically, it is very challenging to require the device to be 100% online, and there are various complex environments in the process of use, including vehicles. The environment of the network, the environment of the network signal, etc., may cause the disconnection.
Platform management
He Guohuang believes that this incident also involves the operation of the platform management party. If the vehicle is included in platform management, the platform manager itself can monitor the vehicle disconnection problem, even specific to the location and status of the vehicle, so the platform manager should be able to adopt technical measures and management after monitoring it. Means to be resolved in a timely manner.
At the same time, after the driver discovers that the device is disconnected, he needs to contact the platform management or his company as soon as possible, even if he is detained by the traffic police for the disconnection. , There are also channels for appeals.
He Guohuang introduced that although the current requirements vary from place to place, the system control of vehicles has become a standard requirement for trucks by local governments. In addition, Party A has requirements, and the logistics company or the fleet itself also needs to perform a visual management of the vehicle to ensure the safety and efficiency of the vehicle operation.
Regarding the follow-up treatment of possible disconnection, Liu Danhua said that on the one hand, the company will establish a nationwide engineering service system. Once the device is found to be disconnected, whether it is found by the customer or The driver found that when calling the customer service hotline, the relevant customer service personnel will be arranged to handle the matter as soon as possible; on the other hand, the customer will use the platform for vehicle management, and the platform will provide some tools, and some customers will entrust the company to monitor the disconnection. When the company finds a disconnection, it will notify the customer as soon as possible to arrange vehicle maintenance, or directly arrange engineering personnel to do on-site maintenance.
“In fact, cargo owners have very high requirements for online equipment, and government supervision also has very clear requirements for equipment online.” Liu Danhua said, various requirements for equipment ChallengeIn fact, it is very high, so the company may also use some other service methods or system platform functions to increase the online rate of the device as much as possible.
Heavy vehicles have been put under supervision
On April 6, according to the February 2021 road freight vehicle on-board terminal announced by the China Transportation and Communication Information Center The quality statistics table shows that a total of 362 terminal models are registered, of which 283 terminal models are online in related vehicles. It is worth noting that there are 13 terminal models with more than 100,000 vehicles on the line, involving 10 companies. 
Liu Danhua told reporters that heavy-duty trucks of more than 12 tons now need to be connected to relevant regulatory platforms. For example, the national freight platform is a basic requirement. It will also be connected to the corresponding service operator platform and the policy supervision platform in the region where it is located. For example, vehicles listed in Shenzhen must be connected to the Shenzhen Transportation Commission platform. If it involves dangerous goods vehicles or passenger vehicles, there may be some other specialized monitoring platforms.
Asked whether vehicle equipment will be replaced, Liu Danhua said that there will be some policy requirements for replacement or not, and some areas are beginning to make such attempts. First of all, in certain special industries, such as hazardous chemicals and passenger transportation, video surveillance has begun to require active and safe surveillance. Because of this problem, the social impact and economic loss will be even greater. In the field of heavy general cargo transportation, probably since last year, some areas have gradually tried to transition to 4G vehicle-mounted terminals.
He Guohuang said that although the requirements vary from place to place, in general, the current vehicle system equipment must meet quality standards before it can be included in the procurement system, which also guarantees product quality. “The national control is still relatively strict. There are relatively standardized procurement requirements and thresholds. Basically, the equipment that can participate in the bidding is of high quality. And this technology is already very mature, and I have not seen it within the scope of my understanding. I have been in the situation where things of poor quality have been purchased. Therefore, it is unlikely that the supplier’s quality will be poor.”
Liu Danhua also said that Beidou’s vehicle-mounted terminal has a corresponding response. Standards of the Ministry of Transport, “At present, hundreds of companies have participated in the industry, and many batches have passed. After the inspection, the equipment has the corresponding access qualification. “
For the over-inspection of the equipment, Liu Danhua introduced that, on the one hand, the manufacturers of on-board terminals will take the equipment to the relevant testing unit for testing, and get it after the testing. Qualification report. At the same time, the Ministry of Transport also has some related quality supervision agencies, and will regularly conduct random inspections on the company to see if the equipment sold or produced meets the relevant standard requirements. If not, it will also be required to do Corresponding rectification.
In He Guohuang’s view, his own on-board equipment is used to monitor whether the vehicle is overloaded and other safety issues. Therefore, in the future when law enforcement agencies implement relevant systems , Whether it can be more humane. At the same time, it is also necessary to care for the mental health of the truck driver group and see how to provide psychological counseling for this type of psychologically stressed group.
Liu Danhua also said that it is normal for the government to adopt some corresponding requirements for vehicle supervision. But in the process of implementation, whether it can be considered to ensure a certain degree of flexibility in the process of supervision.