Note: Maria Seidentop, Head of Marketing at Hivemapper, interviewed David Valenzuela, owner of Nero Digital Holdings LLC. The transcript was edited for readability for this blog post.
Maria: Before we jump into your experience with Hivemapper Fleets, tell us more about yourself and your fleet. To start, please share your story of becoming a fleet owner/manager.
David: I started reading about Hivemapper around September. The whole concept of mapping, installing a dashcam in your car, getting paid in crypto just by doing something you already do got my attention. It looked very similar to the concept of how Helium started. Since I do Helium as well, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I made my first purchase in September. I bought two dashcams. Eventually I purchased more dashcams. I'm now dedicating myself to finding drivers to expand my fleet.
Maria: Great. Tell us more about your fleet. Number of vehicles, type of vehicles, drivers, etc. Where is your feed located?
David: Right now, I have about 10 drivers in my Hivemapper Fleet and I have another 17 pending to send the Hivemapper Dashcams to. I have some drivers in Austin, TX, Huares, Mexico, and my main focus is locally here in El Paso, Texas. That's mostly where my fleet is. Eventually trying to see if I can expand to Mexico City and even Dallas where you know the rewards are really good.
Maria: Wow, amazing plans. So how did you first hear about Hivemapper?
David: I think I heard about Hivemapper first around September and I was just reading an article or I saw a YouTube ad. The ad was pretty funny and it just got my attention. I'm like, hey, sounds pretty easy. So that’s when I started my whole research on Hivemapper.
Maria: Why did you decide to deploy Hivemapper across your fleet?
David: I believe in the vision of Hivemapper. It's a very complex and very complete project. That brings real world application and solves a lot of problems in a decentralized manner. Like building a map by the people for the people and from there I just got the inspiration. Crypto and blockchain are complex but Hivemapper is very easy to explain and convince people to join and it gave me courage to take it to the next level and develop a fleet from there.
Maria: Excellent. How many Hivemapper Dashcams are you planning to deploy across your fleet?
David: At the moment, I'm planning to deploy 30. As it becomes easier to recruit drivers, which I believe it will, I might want to expand the fleet up to 50. It really depends, if things go really well and it becomes easier to recruit drivers, you know, the sky's the limit, probably even reach up to a 100.
Maria: What are you hoping to achieve with Hivemapper Fleets? Share your goals?
David: I’m really excited because besides helping the goal of Hivemapper which is mapping, you get rewarded in crypto. My whole vision besides getting rewarded in crypto and driving, is the whole concept of people actually using the data. Like the next Google that actually has data that actually updates every day and that you can use. And as this technology and this project keeps going, I keep getting more excited because of what can come. Right now it is the dashcam, but what about 360? Eventually, people will be able to use the APIs from Hivemapper for their maps. With the capabilities of Hivemapper, I can imagine it would be possible for hikers to walk, map, and earn crypto.
Maria: It's so nice to see your enthusiasm and excitement for Hivemapper. It’s a very ambitious project. The map is growing exponentially and it’s amazing to see a vibrant community around it. And it’s really thanks to people like you. I'm curious, how have you been onboarding and training drivers to use Hivemapper?
David: I have an outside set-up. I got the experience using Hivemapper myself first and now I can train and onboard new members. I know how to troubleshoot issues. I teach my fleet drivers all the best practices. How to navigate through the app, make sure the dashcam is mapping, and that there’s enough storage on your cell phone. I just transfer my experience to my fleet members and it has been a really smooth experience.
Maria: Do you have one or two tips you can share with everyone who's watching? It seems you have an outside mount. There's a lot of interest in that. What would you do for outside mounting?
David: For outside mounting, I got inspiration from a Discord post about two months ago that someone posted. I saw it and thought I could do that better. A little bit about my background, I’m a civil engineer, so safety is something that revolves around me. If I'm gonna have something outside, if something fails, I need to have a backup, right? So the tip is if you want to provide the best coverage, have a mount outside. Have it secured with good suction cups. I have two suction cups. One that holds the camera and another backup. So I feel really comfortable driving. An outside mount is good for best coverage and best rewards as well because rewards are also based on the quality that you provide. An exterior mount removes the whole reflection thing and you collect really good quality imagery.
Maria: Thank you so much for sharing your tips. Very, very valuable information. What has your experience with Hivemapper been overall so far in terms of the Hivemapper app, the Explorer, the dashcam, and support. Tell us a little bit more about your experience so far.
David: I'll start with the team at Hivemapper. The team has been really great. You guys are outstanding, very knowledgeable. I've received a lot of resources and help. The app. My gosh, great improvements. There’s an update every single week. The app is a thousand percent better than when I first started mapping. Now we can even see what the dashcam sees and how many images are on the dashcam, my phone has, and what has been uploaded. The Explorer is really good especially and the Fleet Management tool that they just developed is pretty straightforward. Previously, it was kind of hard to connect fleet drivers to the Fleet Management tool, but I know the Hivemapper team has been working to get that solved. And now it’s pretty much very seamless. It's a really smooth process to get fleet drivers to join my fleet now and things have been improving. The Explorer has much more potential. Hopefully, in the future, I’ll get to find a username really quickly on the Explorer. I know this is just the beginning. I can't wait for Hivemapper to continue to grow exponentially to come up with all these innovations and improvements within the app. And the Explorer as well.
Maria: Excellent. Well, David, it was just amazing talking with you. I'm really excited by your enthusiasm about Hivemapper Fleets, the Hivemapper Network, and the Hivemapper Dashcam. It's so amazing to see more and more fleets pop up on the network. It's so good for our community, for the network. So, thank you so much for sharing your goals to scale your Hivemapper Fleet with us today. Really appreciate your time.
David: I really appreciate you guys and thank you for inviting me over.
Fleet owner or manager? Want to recruit drivers for your Hivemapper Fleet?
All Hivemapper Fleet owners and managers get access to The Colony, an ongoing, global list of drivers that want to be part of a Hivemapper Fleet.
Driver? Want to join a Hivemapper Fleet as a driver?
If you’re a driver and want to start mapping and earning HONEY rewards, please fill out
this form to be entered into a list (
The Colony) where fleet managers from all over the world with existing Hivemapper Fleets or plans to create one can connect with you. Most of these fleet managers are interested in expanding their fleets, so they are constantly looking for more drivers, not just within their city, but around the globe.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to
[email protected] with the subject line "Fleet Drivers."