Where Are the Air Mile Radius Maps?
If you came here looking to buy an air mile radius map for your business, school, personal use, etc., you may have noticed my order page is missing.
At this moment I am not making maps to order. I am working out a much better method with which to kick-off 2010, with better, more useful and cheaper maps for you … so enjoy the holidays and I’ll see you in January.
However, if you really need a map between now and then, even on Christmas Day (Mmm, maybe not that day), just email at davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll get you/keep you in business.
Thanks to the surprising number of folks who came by and ordered because these maps were very useful to them, and a Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthy, happy and profitable 2010.
Popularity: 71% [?]
Finally a New MapPoint — Better Features
Tuesday – October 2, 2009
MapPoint 2010 Released, MapPoint 2010 New Features and Articles, and More
Welcome to another issue of the MP2Kmag Update. Microsoft recently released MapPoint 2010 with significant new features such as the Map Setting pane. This new pane allows users to control the amount of detail displayed for 17 separate mapping layers and the ability to add more or remove labels from the map. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see examples of the new Map Settings options in action.
Several other very useful enhancements include the ability to Hide a pushpin set, import / export to .gpx files, a lot more Pushpin Symbols to choose from (basically everything from MapPoint 2006 and MapPoint 2009 combined), and of course updated mapping and place data. See Richard Marsden’s article below which talks about and gives an overview of MapPoint 2010′s new features. Also in this newsletter, we have provided a list of the MapPoint 2010 API changes for developers to take a quick glance at all the very welcome additions to the Object Model.
We have also assembled a number of links and resources for MapPoint 2010 on this page on MapForums – MapPoint 2010 Information.
MP2K Magazine is your source for independent news and information about MapPoint and Virtual Earth technologies and we also host the popular web forum for MapPoint users and developers (www.mapforums.com).
This Issue’s Contents at a Glance
- Automating MapPoint with Excel VBA – Tutorial 7
- List of MapPoint 2010 API Changes – New Methods, Objects, and Properties
- MapPoint Consultants and Products Directories
- MP2K Magazine / MapForums Twitter Channel
- Get Published in MP2K Magazine
- An Overview of the New Features in Microsoft MapPoint 2010
- Using the New MapFeatures Collection and MapFeature Objects in MapPoint 2010
Happy Mapping and please forward this newsletter to anyone who would be interested!
Eric Frost, Editor
Popularity: 30% [?]
What Is an Air Mile?
Many of our clients ask for “Air Miles Maps” because they found us through a search on keywords like “Radius maps” or “Circle maps”. But normally only the folks working on FMCSA compliance issues really want “Air Miles”. There are a lot of definitions for “mile” as you can see in the extract from Wikipedia. read the full article there if you really want to know your miles from a hole in the ground 
Types of mile
In modern usage, various distances are referred to as miles.
International and statute miles
The international mile (and before 1959, the statute mile) is the distance typically meant when the word mile is used without other qualifying words (e.g. nautical mile, see below). The international and statute miles are both equal to 5,280 feet, but the international mile is defined in terms of the international foot (0.3048 m), while the statute miles of the various English-speaking countries were based on the national foot of each country. The (mostly obsolete) U.S. statute mile is based on the U.S. survey foot (which is exactly 1200/3937 m) and differs from the international mile by about 3 mm. [8]
The name statute mile originates from a statute of the Parliament of England in 1592 during the reign of Elizabeth I. This defined the statute mile as 5,280 ft or 1,760 yards; or 63,360 inches. Both statute and international miles are divided into eight furlongs (the length generally that a furrow was ploughed before the horses were turned, furlong = furrow-long). In turn a furlong is ten chains (a surveyor’s chain, used as such until laser range finders took over); a chain is 22 yards and a yard is three feet, making up 5,280 ft.
Other miles in Britain and Ireland
Before the statute of the English parliament, there was confusion on the length of the "mile". The Irish mile was 6,721 feet and the Scottish mile was 5,951 feet.[9] Perhaps the earliest tables of English linear measures, Arnold’s Customs of London (c. 1500) indicates a mile consisted of 8 furlongs, each of 625 feet, for a total of 5,000 feet.[10] For other "miles" see the list below.
Nautical miles
On the utility of the nautical mile
Each circle shown is a great circle – the analog of a line in spherical trigonometry – and hence the shortest path connecting two points on the globular surface. Meridians are great circles that pass through the poles.
Main article: Nautical mile
The nautical mile was originally defined as one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth.[11] It is a convenient reference since it is fairly constant at all latitudes, in contrast with degrees of longitude which vary from from 1 NM at the equator to zero at the poles.
Navigators use dividers to step off the distance between two points on the navigational chart, then place the open dividers against the minutes-of-latitude scale at the edge of the chart, and read off the distance in nautical miles.[12] Since it is now known that the Earth is not perfectly spherical but an oblate spheroid, the length derived from this method varies slightly from the equator to the poles. For instance, using the WGS84 Ellipsoid, the commonly accepted Earth model for many purposes today, one minute of latitude at the WGS84 equator is 6,087 feet and at the poles is 6,067 feet. On average it is about 6,076 feet (about 1852 meters or 1.15 statute miles).
In the United States of America, the nautical mile was defined in the nineteenth century as 6,080.2 feet (1,853.249 m), whereas in the United Kingdom the Admiralty nautical mile was defined as 6,080 feet (1,853.184 m) and was approximately one minute of latitude in the latitudes of the south of the UK. Other nations had different definitions of the nautical mile, but it is now internationally defined to be exactly 1,852 meters.
The nautical mile per hour is known as the knot. Nautical miles and knots are almost universally used for aeronautical and maritime navigation because of their relationship with degrees and minutes of latitude and the convenience of using the latitude scale on a map for distance measuring…
So we’ll be happy to make you a map in almost any unit you wish (see our Air Miles map order page here). but if you ask for Air Miles, be sure that’s what you really want … or your map will be “correct” but in “error” at the same time.
Popularity: 37% [?]
State spends millions on rents for paroled sex offenders, sometimes illegally
These guys should have just ordered a radius map from Air Miles map to find out how far these places were from schools and parks before they spent state money illegally.
By John Simerman
Contra Costa TimesPosted: 01/17/2009 04:35:06 PM PST
State corrections officials spent nearly $22 million last year on apartments and motel rooms for hundreds of paroled sex offenders, paying more than $2,000 a month for some parolees and housing others in locations apparently prohibited under Jessica’s Law, according to a MediaNews analysis of bank drafts issued by parole agents and addresses from the Megan’s Law sex offender database.
The housing assistance, which has run for more than two years for some parolees, highlights a dilemma state officials face trying to enforce a voter-approved ban on sex offenders living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where kids "regularly gather." They must either find scarce housing and pay to put them up, or deal with a steeper rise in sex offenders who become homeless and lose the stability that experts call crucial to preventing recidivism.
A top state corrections official acknowledged that parole agents have sometimes spent state funds to house sex offenders in areas that officials later learned were illegal. He was unaware of some local examples MediaNews found using state data and a GPS handset:
In El Cerrito, a parole office has spent as much as $300 a week for sex offenders to live at the Budget Inn on San Pablo Avenue. The motel is within 700 feet of Mendocino Park, a neighborhood playground where small children swing, scramble through play structures and ride tricycles. A corrections spokesman said parole officials realized a few months ago that the motel violated Jessica’s Law and now they only pay for sex offenders to live there who are not subject to the 2,000 law…
We can make maps of almost any radius for most any location in the US or Canada. If one of our standard offerings from our “Order a Map” page isn’t what you need, just send us a note via our “Contact” page or call us at 719-966-4295 and we’ll work with you on your special needs for Radius maps, in air miles, statute miles, meters, yards, feet, you name it we’ll map it.
Popularity: 70% [?]
Some More Clarification on Air Miles maps
We get a lot of questions here at Air Miles Maps Online regarding the finer points of the Federal Motor carrier Safety Administration rules for so-called “short haul” or “local” log book (RODS) exemptions. It’s always best to go to the source:
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/truck/driver/hos/hos-faqs.asp
C-2 What is an "air mile"?
The term "air-mile" is internationally defined as a "nautical mile" which is
equivalent to 6,076 feet. Thus, the 100 air-miles are equivalent to 115.08
statute miles, and 150 air-miles are equivalent to 172.6 statute miles.
Most operators and drivers reading here are OTR drivers and do not operate under the 100 air
mile log book exemption. But for some, this can be a very important exemption for improving your bottom line by eliminating a lot of paperwork requirements.
Remember, this air mile log book exemption doesn’t measure how many miles it takes to drive from A to B, it only measures the straight-line distance, or as the crow flies", from A to B.
.
There are many drivers that think once you cross a state’s border, that is to say become interstate, you cannot use the 100 air mile exemption. That’s not true, that rule went away quite a few years ago. Here are the requirements for using the 100 air mile log book exemption:
100 air-mile radius exemption:
A driver is exempt from maintaining the driver’s daily log requirements of Section 395.8 if all of the following are true:
a.. The driver operates within a 100 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location.
b.. The driver returns to the work reporting location and is released from work within 12 consecutive hours.
c.. Each 12 hours on duty are separated by at least:
a.. 10 consecutive hours off duty for property-carrying drivers, or
b.. 8 consecutive hours off duty for passenger-carrying drivers.
d.. The driver does not exceed a maximum of:
a.. 11 hours driving time following 10 consecutive hours off duty for property-carrying drivers, or
b.. 10 hours driving time following 8 consecutive hours off duty for passenger-carrying drivers.
e.. The motor carrier that employs the driver maintains and retains for a period of six months accurate and true time records that show:
a.. The time the driver reports for duty each day;
b.. The total number of hours the driver is on duty each day;
c.. The time the driver is released from duty each day; and
d.. The total time for the preceding 7 days for first-time or intermittent drivers.
This really seems pretty important to me, now that we are heading into the last quarter of the year and a (hopefully) very busy holiday season … this will help get those store deliveries out there in the shortest time and the lowest possible cost via the use of an Air Miles Map.
Popularity: 77% [?]
Why You Need an Air Miles Map
There are a number of reasons you might need an air mile radius map to keep your business legal, more efficient, or both. A primary reason for many clients are the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) rules regarding driver hours of service rules. I’ve written about them before and I’ll likely write more, but here’s a very useful site I found that explains a lot more than I’ll ever know:
Trucking Compliance, LLC™ is a small business helping small trucking companies to startup, grow, and stay legal. Nothing fancy. Just an easy, direct way for people to start their own trucking or motorcoach businesses.
OUR MISSION is to help you Get Your Federal OPERATING AUTHORITY, establish and maintain required DOCUMENTATION, PASS Federal Inspections, and KEEP MORE of the MONEY that YOU EARN.
Richard Dowdell is the founder and brains behind this site which is what we “Web guru” guys call a “very tightly niched” business. 90% or more of the traffic online just ebbs and flows from site to site, reading little and absorbing less, looking for the next free ring tone or whatever else the trend of the day is … but included in the either 10% are the people making American work.
A huge percentage of the ‘work’ involves wheels in one way or another, and if there are wheels involved there’s an excellent chance state or federal government is involved. You know what that means. paperwork on top of paperwork …. and after you have it all complete, you really don’t know if you even used the right forms for sure.
That’s Trucking Compliance’s “narrow” but important niche … keeping vehicles on the road legally so that commerce can flow. I’m not even in the transportation business directly and I already have learned from Richard’s site … you will too.
Popularity: 72% [?]
Even Better Maps Are Coming!
I started this site because I was getting tons of traffic to my GPS Tracking News and Commentary site regarding Air Mile Maps and various related issues. I am pretty much a one-trick pony in this area, although I worked for years I\on projects in the GIS (Geographic Information Systems field, I am not a GIS practitioner by any stretch of the imagination. I am pretty conversant with Microsoft MapPoint software though and I really feel it is one of Microsoft’s hidden gems … like many other applications MSFT has picked up over the years, they have virtually no clue about marketing it.
They sometimes make it look like an over-priced /next step’ for the Street Maps crowd, and this is wrong placement for sure. They sometimes try to act as if it is a full-fledged replacement for a "real" GIS product such as ESRI’s ArcView, and certainly it is not that. But as a tool that nearly every business or government organization can afford, and that normal bushiness people can use, it’s a great bargain and a very much untapped resource.
The latest version of MapPoint (2009) is getting ready to ship … you can buy it from the convenient link right there in the right-hand column, and you can join a really useful and interesting online resource for MapPoint users.
MP2K — The Magazine for MapPoint Users … all the news that’s fit to print about MapPoint and how to use it in your business, free. Recommended.
Popularity: 70% [?]
You Can Make Your Own Radius map
I’ve mentioned the 100 and 150 air mile radius rules for “local” commercial vehicle operations a number of times … here, here, and here for a few of the more interesting entries. The basics are that commercial, goods carrying vehicles that do not require their drivers to have CDL’s (Commercial Driver Licenses) are still subject to many FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) rules regarding hours of service (HOS) and record-keeping requirements. Depending on several provisions of the law, businesses whose vehicles operate within 100 Air miles of the location where the vehicles regularly return, or 150 Air miles have rules different than the rules for all other commercial vehicles and drivers. These regulations are not road miles, read from vehicle odometers (thank goodness, more on that fallacy here) but should be measured by a radius drawn on a map. How does the average business get a map like this? Well, they can ask me, and I’ll furnish an electronic version (order pager is coming soon, meantime just use the Contact option) … or they can buy Microsoft’s MapPoint, a tool I feel a business shouldn’t be without … 100 mile rule or no 100 mile rule.
How To Make a Radius Map With MapPoint
MapPoint is not a normal part of the Microsoft Offices suite, but it resembles the programs in Office and installs and integrates with them. Open your copy of MapPoint … Your screen should look like this:
Now type the address of the center point of the radius in the “find” box, the upper left corner of the map:
Now click and confirm and you should have a little “push Pin” at the point you want to center on. You 
can right click on that pin, edit the name, color, and other properties as you desire.
Now all that is left is to draw the radius. Make sure you “Drawing” tool bar is open down at the bottom of the map. If it isn’t, select it from the “Views/Toolbars” main menu. The click on the “circle” tool … see the big yellow highlight pointer in this screen shot:
Click on your “Home Plate” map pin and zoom the map out until you make the radius label (bottom right of the circle you are drawing) read “115″ for a “100 Air Mile Map” or “172.6″ for a “150 Air Mile Map”.
Save the map with a file name of your choice, and your’s done?
This isn’t all that MapPoint can do quickly and easily for your business. If you want to know more about how any business can profit from using MapPoint (this is not a sales offer … it’s a no obligation help you learn offer … I like MapPoint that much) just give me a shout.
Now, enjoy your weekend and resolve that next week you are going to do something to make you business more profitable.
As always, I welcome comments, disagreement is encouraged, and you can also contact me via our dedicated, secure, spam-free Contact Page
Popularity: 33% [?]
How Far In Minutes, How Far In Miles?
I often post hints to keep you legal if you operate commercial vehicles under the so-called "short haul" exemptions from the standard FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) HOS (Hours Of Service) or RODS (Record Of Duty Status) (log book) requirements. Wow! How’s that for an acronym-loaded sentence … do you think we have enough rules about trucking in the US, yet?
Anyway, to keep "in bounds" with the mileage restrictions on the local driving issues you only need a simple radios map centered on the place your vehicles will be departing and returning to. I detailed how you can make one quite simply with Microsoft MapPoint. But MapPoint has another very interesting similar function. It allows you to draw a "Drive Time Zone" around any point on the map in virtually a one-click operations. Very, very handy for business planning.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Air Mile Radius Maps
This is a sample, do not use for navigation or rules compliance, please:
Apparently I struck a chord a couple days back when I posted about the 100 and 150 "air mile" commercial driver hours of service rules. People have been searching for an easy utility to make/view radius maps around their business to see if they qualify for these rules, or to keep themselves legal.
I wish there was an easy on-line source, but I haven’t found one. Feel free to let me know if you have.
I’ll make you an electronic map like this, to any radius you need if you just click on our "Orders" page (coming soon)
Popularity: 100% [?]