Analyses on spatial-temporal characteristics of commercial vehicle position,identifying operating range, time,speed,and other key parameters of vehicles are significant to spatial-temporal distribution of vehicle locations. Based on characteristics of GNSS systems and related positioning technology,this study compares and analyzes spatial-temporal data of positions and its characteristics from the aspects of computing,geography and transportation.A case study on data of typical operating vehicles:the travel distribution based on taxi traj ectories,and network monitoring of typical vehicles operating on expressways and transporting dangerous goods is used in this study to review theories,meth-ods and key methods on spatial-temporal characteristics of commercial vehicle positions based on GNSS systems.