GPS Tracking ROI

This is aprevously published post from my former blog at www.gpsbus.com.  I’m closing that blog and moving any of the still interesting/relevant articles here.  Enjoy.

Ever since the 9-11 terrorist attacks, airlines have been beefing up security. Now, one local bus company is going high tech to keep its passengers safe by using GPS or Global Positioning Satellite system.

Over a year ago, a woman hijacked a passenger bus in Minnesota, holding the driver at knifepoint and leading law enforcement on a wild ride through two states. Despite a call from a cell phone inside the bus, authorities weren’t sure of its location for several minutes until one of the passengers spotted an identifiable landmark.

But now with GPS onboard as a special passenger, travelers can ride and rest a little easier…. Full Article Here:

It’s been nearly 5 years now since the tragedy of 9/11, yet so many agencies and commercial companies are just now waking up to the fact that it happened, it could happen again, and we need to do things to avoid or mitigate a repeat.  We beat ourselves up deciding if we should allow cigarette lighters or matches on airplanes, we operate under alw so secret the citizens it applies to can’t see it, we label prominent senators as security risks, but we haven’t done a damn thing except put up som eposters to keep city transportation safer.  It’s sad, sad indeed, like “Brownie” emailing about shirt cuffs buttoned or rolled up while New Orleans drowned.

Perhaps the recent excellent wok by the RCMP in Toronto may have woken a few people up. This article, though, seems to have been prompted by a few folks who were already awake. My hat’s off.

A bus is a large vehicle that must, by necessity, must be open to the public. It makes a lot of sense to monitor where busses are, what they are doing, and who’s doing it.  It’s also a concentration point for passengers and avehicle easily capable of carrying heavy weights of explovises into sensitive ares.  It cried out for GPS monitoring.

The part that seems very hard for some operators to realize is that GPS monitoring doesn’t cost, it pays. It pays in at least three ways:

1. Fuel Savings: If you think there isn’t a lot of waste … especially idling in the average transport organization, then you have never looked very closely. City buses routinely idle at stops at the end of the route or when they start running ahead of schedule and need to kill time. Charter busses idle (Personally I have seen an hour or more) while their passengers are off on tours. School buses idle outside school building not only wasting fuel but breaking Federal law.
2. Labor costs: So far I am 100% with installations of GPS tracking technology in finding at least enough mistaken or “phony” labor time charges t pay for the units on time and accounting savings alone. 100%. Think that can’t be the way it is in your organization? Want to call my bluff?
3. Safety and Risk Management. One of the hidden and potentially huge costs in public transpo is liability. No matter what happens that injures a passenger it seems the government agency or commercial company is at fault. GPS can’t stop accidents nor can it eliminate claims but companies in the transportation business have reduced claims to the tune of four times the cost of their GPS systems.
4. 
   

It pays, there’s nothing else to say.

By Allison M. Heinrichs

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Kate Watson was pulling into her Dallas neighborhood three years ago when she looked in the rearview mirror and noticed she was being followed by an old, beat-up car that looked out of place in her upscale community.

Nervous, Watson called 911. A chip in her cell phone allowed a dispatcher to map Watson’s location and direct her to the nearest police station. When she pulled into the station’s parking lot, the suspicious car left.

“I was frightened,” said Watson, now of O’Hara. “It was very odd how they followed me — every turn I took, they turned. It was definitely a benefit having the police know where I was.”

Early next year, Allegheny County emergency officials expect to have a multimillion-dollar system similar to the one in Dallas, allowing them to accurately locate cell phone callers.

About 915, or 42 percent, of the 2,190 emergency calls fielded by Allegheny County emergency dispatchers every day come from cell phones. Several times a month, people calling from a cell phone aren’t able to give their location, forcing emergency officials to listen for sounds such as trains and blaring sirens to find the caller.

A $1 tax on wireless bills will pay for the county’s system….Rest of article here:

An interesting article about Allegheny County and overall issues of privacy regarding cell phone tracking. Well worth a read, although I feel some of the writer’s comments are a bit hyperbolic. It’s overall factual and well-written though.

The reason I say “It’s more than about time” is contained in one of the leading facts presented. More than 42%of the county’s 911 calls are already coming from cell phones. Anyone who thinks that figure is not going to climb rapidly hasn’t been watching the number of drivers looking like idiots while they lean on their cell phone hands, or the number of blue-haired grannies meandering down the middle of the shopping aisle at Wal*Mart with their Bluetooth headsets hanging on the rhi9nstone glasses frames.

(more…)

August 2, 2006

BSM Technologies Inc. and Spectra Inc. have jointly developed a remote air brake diagnostic and monitoring solution for both trucks and trailers.

Brake problems on big trucks and buses are the number one safety and maintenance concern with operators and regulators throughout North America.

The two companies co-developed the remote brake diagnostic monitoring system based on Spectra’s brake sensor technology, coupled with the remote monitoring function of BSM Wireless’ vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions. The combination of technologies ensures that brake problems will be reported to maintenance in real time. In addition to monitoring through the Brake Inspector in-cab display module, the BSM interface will send an email alert in real time to the fleet maintenance department as well as the driver so that the problem can be dealt with immediately.

“The ability to identify a brake problem remotely, anywhere in North America, will allow maintenance personnel to direct the driver to the nearest repair facility and avoid costly roadside fines, reduce vehicle downtime and mitigate potential accidents,” said Spectra CEO Andrew Malion. “We are thrilled to be part of what will be a quantum leap in preventative air brake maintenance procedures.”  Rest of article here:

OK, I like this idea.  It improves maintaince, operations and certainly, safety.  But am I tho only one who wonders how the heck they think this is gpoing to work?  When a company with “wireless” in their name tells you that they cover “North America”, you better be using somewthing more than a terrestrial cell network to do your communication slink from vehicle to data user.  If you visit BSM Wireless’s web site to see how they suddenly are able to give brake performance data over all of “North America” you’ll see a bunch of cartoons showing how their systems work.

My guess?  Unless you are driving full-time in a city, where this is clearly aimed, better forget it … out in the backwoods of Manitoba or on the access road to Fort Sill this things isn’t going tp send anyone anything.