GPS Tracking

Business Uses of Devices Show the Way

No Longer a Nice-to-Have Technology – Now Mandatory

Technology is being deployed into more places in our society than ever dreamed possible.  In fact, if it were not for some of the uses and implementations, it is not a stretch to say that businesses in our economy would be in worse shape and many more would have closed their doors by now.

Proof is in the Numbers

Farfetched reasoning?  Not if you consider the following ways that GPS Tracking is impacting businesses.

Fleet Operations Management.  Is there a better tool for monitoring and managing fleet operations?  Name one system that has had the kind of impact on this type of business.  Maybe the cell phone, but even at that, it does not provide location information.  Being able to turn your operations on a dime during business hours to better serve your customers is made possible by the use of GPS Tracking systems.

Greater Control over Assets.  It used to be that once your vehicles left the business site, you were in the dark about how they were being used and where they were going.  The effect on control alone has been a great advantage for businesses who are trying to squeeze every possible penny of profit from their business that they can.  Not to mention the ability to be able to recover from theft in a matter of hours rather than days, weeks, months or maybe never.  Insurance companies, too, are throwing their weight behind these tracking devices to by offering reductions in insurance premiums. (more…)

It is unusual that a city the size of Pittsburgh, PA, population 350,000, has not yet adopted GPS tracking systems as standard in municipal vehicles. But what some might see as an oversight might soon change, with the recent actions of Councilman Ricky Burgess.

Burgess wants to see the city turn a corner in the way it manages staff, technologically speaking. He proposes that the city go out for bids on an extensive vehicle tracking system and then to place real-time GPS tracking units in more than 1,000 city-owned vehicles.

Media quotes him saying at an April 12 council meeting, “The city cannot manage what it can’t see.”

City officials admit that they are concerned over the volume of public complaints about services. The fleet of Pittsburgh police cars is already operated with a GPS tracking system, but other departments like streets, public works, sewers, parks and refuse pickup have no modern GPS systems for fleet management.

The conversion is rather late for a large-scale municipality. GPS tracking systems help governments prove that they are responsible stewards of public funds.

Privately-held service and delivery companies were among the first to use GPS tracking products because they make operations smoother and more efficient. Passive GPS tracking systems record all details of vehicle trips and can replay them over a map on a computer. Vehicle speed, exact location readings (latitude and longitude) at regular time intervals, direction, miles driven and location and duration of each stop are logged. This information comes in handy for preparing reports, billing, payroll, scheduling routine vehicle maintenance, verifying driving records for police, accident and insurance purposes and following up on customer complaints, among other things.

A real-time GPS tracking system records the same information as above, and transmits that data via wireless cell modem to computer server so that it can be monitored live as it happens. The benefit of real-time GPS tracking to the fleet management supervisor is the ability of immediate interaction between dispatch center/routing and company drivers.

Pittsburgh’s Burgess favors real-time GPS tracking units, believing that managers should have the ability to see live where the city’s resources are located. He wants all driving activities documented and he wants to ensure that drivers are taking the shortest routes and taking the shortest amount of time to get to their destinations.

Exempt from Burgess’ proposed GPS tracking bill would be certain high-profile, unmarked vehicles (like those used by the mayor), for security reasons.

The issue will probably come to open discussion in a few weeks. At this point, estimated costs are not available for the GPS tracking program.

Already, the labor union representing Pittsburgh garbage truck drivers is speaking out against GPS tracking, saying the money can be better spent on staff and equipment.

Source: Pittsburgh KDKA

Use a GPS Tracking Device to Drive More Efficiently

Earth Day is a call for people all over the world to think about the impact each of us leaves on the environment. It has been 40 years since the United Nations General Assembly declared the international holiday.

Great strides have been made in the last several decades to reduce air pollution, but nature lovers believe that we are worse off than ever before.

One of the biggest culprits is humankind’s favorite mode of transportation: gasoline-powered motor vehicles. Automobile exhaust releases dangerous chemicals into the air, which create ground-level ozone (smog), contribute to global warming, damage human respiratory systems and destroy plant life.

Every effort to drive less, drive more efficiently or use alternative forms of transportation will collectively make a difference.

Mexico City Promotes Pedal Power

In Mexico City, municipal leaders are trying to replace automobile pollution with pedal power. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard supervised the launch this spring of Ecobici. More than 1,000 bicycles have been placed in about 80 pedestrian-heavy hubs throughout the city. Residents, tourists and business people can grab a bike and ride it for up to a half hour absolutely free. They can pick the bike up at one station and drop it off at another.

Documentation and management of the program is accomplished with user cards. Participants register and then swipe the cards at the bicycle rack. After they return their bikes, they have to wait at least 10 minutes if they want to continue with another one.  If a bike comes back late, there is a nominal fee charged to the user’s account.

People have taken up the free offer more than 50,000 times so far and there have been no accidents and no thefts, said city officials.

GPS Tracking Reduces Gas Consumption

Free bicycles are a great incentive, but they will never wean us from more convenient, gas-guzzling vehicles. The solution here is to reduce consumption. We can cut the amount of exhaust that we belch into the air by carpooling and by buying hybrid cars, for example. And we can accomplish the same goal with GPS tracking systems.

GPS tracking systems are used by individuals, and by companies in fleet management, to reduce fuel costs by reducing the amount of gas that is burned. Vehicle tracking systems utilize satellite signals to show someone precisely where, when and how fast, a car, a truck, a van, even a piece of farm equipment, travels. Hundreds of tracking systems can be monitored on a map on a computer at the same time. Users that want to see the travel activity ‘live,’ and perhaps interact with the drivers, use real-time GPS tracking. A more cost-effective solution is passive GPS tracking, where the receiver is retrieved from the vehicle once it returns to home base and the travel data is downloaded to computer.

The fewer trips we take, the less miles we travel, the more stops or errands we can fit into a single outing, the less we speed and idle and get lost and backtrack; the less we visit the pump.

Another way vehicle tracking devices help the environment is allowing owners to keep to a regular vehicle maintenance and repair schedule. Just like with people, when a car gets regular check-ups, fewer problems are encountered down the line. Extending a vehicle’s life reduces the volume of solid waste we dump on the ground through scrap metal, glass, tires and plastics.

It’s a simple effort easily accomplished with GPS tracking technology: buy less gas, spend less time on the road and do your part to extend the life of Mother Earth.

Source: Bikes At Work Inc. , Associated Press

As we pass the four month mark in 2010, many American families are planning their summer vacations. It’s an opportunity to make some memories with that well-used leisure time.

Gather up the camping gear, dust off the suitcases and find the kids’ water wings. And this year, don’t forget your GPS tracking system, so you can properly chronicle your adventures.

Water parks, Las Vegas and Disneyland will never lose their attraction. But perhaps more than ever, people are interested in the earth, their health and the natural environment. The Daily Green thought it might help by putting together a list of U.S. destinations that are “must-sees,” particularly in light of the fact that they are environmentally-sensitive areas and their future may be in question. (more…)

GPS Tracking System New Idea to Tax Road Usage

With so many people driving fuel-efficient cars today, the traditional method of raising money for road maintenance and new construction is just not cutting it anymore.

Paying state fuel tax at the pump is not getting the mileage it once did, leaving the Nevada Department of Transportation to decide on a more fair and accurate accounting of road use.

About $260,000 has been spent on a study and a test tax system based on Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), a growing buzzword in the transportation biz. It would require that all Nevada-licensed vehicles be equipped with GPS tracking systems in the form of little black boxes. The GPS tracking systems would record the vehicle’s travels, including time of day, location, and miles driven per day; possibly even speed. (more…)

Something fishy is going on in the refuse department in Vadodara, India.

An internal investigation by the city’s governing council, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, (VMC) seems to indicate that the independent contractors hired to do garbage pickup are padding their wallets by weighing down their loads. The fleet management supervisor proposes to install GPS tracking systems on municipal trucks in an effort to solve the problem.

Vadodara is one of the biggest cities in the Indian state of Guyjarat. It has a population estimated at 1.6 million, and a high industrial base, mostly in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Garbage pickup is a high priority service in such a densely-populated area. Residents and business owners are not pleased when garbage day passes and their receptacles go untouched. (more…)

People convinced that a battery is a battery, regardless of the brand name or variety listed on the packaging, are probably lacking experience with long-term relationships.

Consumer Reports, a source for objective consumer product information, recently took 17 brands of store-bought AA batteries for a road test, and its staff concluded that, if consumers could afford them, the higher-priced, single-use lithiums have the best staying power.

Consumer Reports is one of the highest circulated magazines in the U.S. It is published by Consumers Union, a nonprofit organized in 1936 to separate fact from hype in advertising. (more…)

There are some among us who are habitually punctual and keep to a schedule with military-like precision. Put one of these perfectionists on the road and frustration ensues. A pokey driver, road construction or rush hour can throw a monkey wrench in a perfectly-planned day.

For even the most easy-going of drivers, school buses are a source of irritation on the roadways. God bless them, we wouldn’t want to hurt a hair on the heads of those sweet passengers. But boy, do those bus drivers add precious minutes to our commutes to work.

Now, a study in Great Britain proves what working folk have been suspecting for years: average travel times are longer when schools are in session. (more…)

We have heard of some businesses that are avoiding the acquisition of GPS Fleet Tracking systems for their fleet operations because of the price tag.  Furthermore, these companies have adopted systems that are based on smart phone technology in an effort to supply additional functionality to fleet operations in the filing and managing of paperwork required in the trucking industry.

While on the surface this seems like a good move, in fact, there is one major problem with the use of technology in this way:

(more…)

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Winter brings with it one of motorists’ biggest fears – a major snowstorm; and one of a municipality’s most labor-intensive chores: snow removal.

GPS tracking won’t make the experience pleasant, but it might make it more bearable.

The Utah Department of Transportation adds its name to the list of government offices that employ GPS tracking systems on their vehicles. UDOT lead technician Jake Brown said the vehicle tracking technology helps state employees keep pace with Mother Nature. (more…)