GPS Tracking ROI

Well you have the idea that GPS tracking can do a lot for
your business. So, you start evaluating the markets and seeing what’s available.
Suddenly you come across some snags. It
looks like you can’t use GPS for your application because of one or more of the
known GPS accuracy problems:

1. Basic Accuracy: The standard signal is good, at best, to 15 meters.
2. Urban Canyon: If your vehicles are constantly on city streets, in the shadow of tall
   buildings, they won’t attain 15 meter accuracy at all times.
3. People or Vehicles Indoors: If a GPS receiver is under a roof, accuracy is significantly degraded

As I wrote not long ago on my interest in GPS for the blind, as marvelous as
the GPS is, like any system it has its limits.

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Hi fellows and gals. I’ve been a bit tied up in more ways than one. Normal posting should resume RSN (Real Soon Now). In the meantime. let me make acouple things perfectly clear.

If you don’t like this blog, then don’t read it. If you care to, write me a line to say where you feel I missed the mark, or just stop coming without a word. No foul no problems, that’s what the internet is all about.

If you feel I said something wrong or too outlandish, leave a comment … that’s why I have comments turned on.

If you like the blog, great. No need to say or do anything. My daily page counts and my advertising income tells me that many people do like it. Absolutely no need for any ‘ego building’ posts like ‘Great Blog’. Especially if you have a lot of web site spam attached.

All my comments are ‘no follow’, so you are not getting any ‘link love’ from any comment, pro or con … but you penis enhancer, porn, debt erasing, vitamin pyramid scheme folks have got to stop filling the inbox with your crap. It’s worthless, it won’t be seen and I may have to turn off comments … or take action with your ISP’s if this pollution continues. I would make a guess that most of you are normal people following the advice of some brain-dead ‘net guru’. Well, I’m a net guru too … since before there was a web. So stop wasting your time and the time of others, please?

… However, there’s more to global positioning than finding your way in strange territory. The technology already exists to monitor the movements of people sentenced to confinement at home instead of in prison. In the works now is the idea of equipping kids with bracelets, cards like bank cards, or even implants to keep track of where they are. If Junior heads into the woods at a family picnic, Mom and Dad can quickly zero in on his exact position. It would be a boon, too, to locate confused Alzheimer patients wandering away from home … (read Martha’s Column here

I came across this well thought out column from Martha Morgan this morning … courtesy (as are most of my news references, of Google News. If you want to follow a subject just plug it into Google News and everyday a treasure trove of info from around the world will show up).

Martha’s paper titles her opinion pieces “Over The Hill”, apparently a tongue in cheek reference to senior life, but she’s certainly not over anyone’s hill in my book. (more…)

BETHESDA, Md., April 17 (UPI) — Iridium Satellite, KDDI Network & Solutions, and Pioneer Navicom have completed air trials of a helicopter tracking system in Japan.

Developed by Pioneer, the automatic helicopter tracking system automatically transmits GPS position coordinates to ground stations and uploads destination point, routes, and text messages to the aircraft through Iridium’s satellite network… Full article here:

More of that Banana News today. I just mentioned tracking helicopters and here is some news that makes me even happier. There are a lot of companies who try to offer GPS tracking with the wrong technology and expect the user to take up the slack. When you track something critical and mobile, like Medivac helicopters or fire and rescue helicopters you have to have a communications link that will work, no matter where the aircraft may have to fly. Especially when you have a company who does large part of their business with cellular or other earth-bound “wireless” technology, watch out. (more…)

System lets authorities monitor offenders and helps free up jail space.

By Chris Parker
Of The Morning Call

He was serving a three-month sentence for forgery in Lehigh County. But instead of being behind bars, he moved freely within a miles-wide area while working as a salesman or doing everyday tasks such as food shopping. Still, authorities knew precisely where he was at every moment.

That’s because the man, who agreed to talk for this story under the condition he not be identified, wore a Global Positioning System cuff on his ankle that constantly transmitted data to authorities.
The ankle device — a rigid plastic ring — ”isn’t the most comfortable thing,” he said. And he said he’s glad he served much of his sentence in winter, when he could hide the ring under pants and the tracking box that goes with it under his jacket.

But he’s also glad he could be at home with his family… Full Article Here:

I wanted to put this success story out this morning because it’s one of the first ones I have seen where a news reporter did a good job at reporting on both the new GPS tracking technology and the old-fashioned monitor at home tracking technology.

It’s also one of the first articles I’ve seen that reports from the offender’s point of view. There are many who might say, “Who gives a care about the offender”? Well, I’m not soft on crime, I think any crime from the most minor ones like failing to register or insure your car (yes, people do get sent to jail for that) to the most heinous sexual predator crimes need to be punished. And in many cases the law has determined that the proper punishment is a period of confinement. (more…)

The Wichita-based air ambulance service receives certification for its equipment and training program
BY PHYLLIS JACOBS GRIEKSPOOR
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita-based EagleMed has become a leader among the nation’s approximately 650 air ambulance service providers with FAA acceptance of its Air Ambulance Flight Coordinator Training and Certification program.

EagleMed’s enhanced equipment for flight following and training program for communications personnel were certified this week by a Federal Aviation Administration official as fully compliant. Full article here:

Here’s the kind of story I like to post. Instead of a company whining and complaining about how much safety costs and why the government shouldn’t impose regulations and on and one, the leadership at EagleMed stood up to their responsibilities and not only met, but exceeded requirements. realizing they get paid to lead rather than complain the demanded excellence from their folks and they got it.

When I talk here often about GPS tracking unit’s I am often referring to simple units in the few-hundred dollar range. They work fine for delivery trucks but they won’t do the job, particularly in accuracy that’s required for aeronautical missions. Especially air ambulance missions and most especially helicopter air ambulance work. To properly equip a medevac helicopter is going to run $15,000 or so, and as this article points out, it’s going to require training and changes in corporate work flow to make the best use of the system.

But just stop an think for a moment what this company gains. No long are their expensive aircraft and priceless crews of on their own depending solely on pilot’s judgment to always know where they are. No longer would there be any doubt which aircraft is closest to an emergency situation. It takes time for people to learn, but Peter Drucker’s (RIP, Professor Drucker) phrase from 50 plus years ago is as true now as it was then.

Those of you who are both Internet and Aviation savvy may already know of any of a number of sites like www.flightaware.com that already ‘track’ aircraft in flight … in some cases, for free. So why should an aviation company spend a lot to equip their fleet with duplicate technology?

An excellent question. The Internet sites we’re talking about track the radar transponder returns from in flight aircraft as recorded (and filtered) through the FAA’s network of ground stations. In addition to the fact these public sites are required to be time delayed by law, they won’t work worth a darn for aeromedevac helicopters flying up mountain canyons and flying at nap of the earth altitudes a hundred and fifty miles from the nearest radar site. You have a high value asset … you, not the Federal government on a whim needs to track it.

(Reading Eagle (PA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 14–Clarence McKee has seen some bad truckers in his 38 years driving the big rigs.
And, he said, truckers driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol pose a greater risk to other motorists than the average driver.
So McKee, who lives in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, said Thursday that he supports the creation of a statewide database to compile employer records on truckers’ drug and alcohol test results. Rest of article here:

Here we go again with the privacy issue. I avoided getting into it too deeply during the past few posts on kid and teen GPS tracking. Many folks not involved with the commercial transport industry don’t know that even today, nearly 5 years after 9/11, most states still don’t know who the “bad apples” are who regularly wheel 80,000 pounds of hazardous cargo across the nation’s highways at 80 miles per hour. I advocate GPS tracking of all cargoes, not just hazardous cargoes. But my God, if we aren’t keeping track of the drivers themselves, my technology is essentially useless.
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