System and method for reducing data transfer rates when a quality of the cellular or satellite link (i.e., a long range wireless data link) is poor. Such a concept is particularly well suited to embodiments where the vehicle data being logged or collected includes position data, because consumers of vehicle data that includes position data often desire to have such data exported from the vehicle on frequent basis, so that the physical location of fleet vehicles can be tracked in real-time. In one embodiment, before transmitting data a current location of the vehicle is checked against known bad locations, and no data is sent when the current location is known to be bad. In another embodiment, if successful data transmission is not confirmed during a first time period, additional transmission attempts are delayed for a second time period.