GPS Tracking ROI

Well, you read it here a number of times before, folks.  I predicted this months back and now the French Oops, I mean the European Union (the French are a part of that, aren’t they) is finally letting the cat out of the bag, one paw at a time.

Once upon a time there was a proud country that forgot its heritage.  Instead of being happy (and justly proud) of its long traditions in democracy, world leadership and science the French sat around drinking pernod until they got the idea that they should build their own “GPS” simply because the US invented, built and maintained GPS system didn’t have the proper configuration of bars on its flag.  I have no idea how much this was influenced by the tottering French telecom giant Alcatel, but since they were a big player in this Galileo fiasco (and are now slated to be a big loser … nothing new there, Alcatel excels at that) I would think they had  a pretty important role.  The analysis off Galileo’s coming demise is well worth reading, I have quoted a bit below:

Galileo industry partners were expected to pay for two-thirds of the cost of the system and the EU one-third, with the investment paid back by the sale of satellite navigation services, the BBC reported. The BBC estimated the market for navigational services would hit $650 billion a year by 2025.

Despite the alluring revenue stream, (my emphasis .. I must have missed this at the beginning, there never was a revenue stream that wasn’t alcohol-induced) maybe the industry consortium figured out the obvious: Why would anyone pay for precise location and navigation services from Galileo when they could get the same thing free from the U.S. backed GPS system, which is only going to get better.

The Times of London doubts if Galileo will ever get off the ground when it has to compete with free GPS service. “Europe’s desire to offer a competing system has been stymied by the free service provided by GPS,” the Times wrote in an opinion piece. “How do you persuade a minicab driver to subscribe to a Galileo navigation system when he can get GPS gratis?”

The underlying premise behind my scribbling’s here has been how to get a return on investment (ROI) from GPS.  The first way to get an ROI is not to make wasteful and duplicative investments … I think they teach this at the Harvard Business School, but just in case they don’t you can add my tip to your pending MBA folder.

There are many, many ways to not only get a ROI from using GPS technology, but even to earn a profit from providing GPS services (if you really and truly can’t think of any, I’m available for selective consults).  But I’ll throw out the next increment in your online GPS MBA … don’t duplicate the existing US investment with your own second-rate after the fact copycat system.  The billions and billions of sunk costs won’t be recoverable.  Make a business plan out of what is freely available and you too have a chance to make a profit … but you do need a plan.

Anyway, now that all the PhD’s and industry execs have finally reached my non-degreed level of understanding perhaps, if they think the idea through a little better, something will eventually come from Galileo using a different (and sustainable) business model.  Maybe they could get Airbus Industries to run it for them? (Incidentally … the “Program Name” for GPS, which is seldom used these days is “NAVSTAR” … relatively innocuous.  Did anyone ever research the connotations behind Galileo before they began throwing billion of Euros at the name.  Among other attributes Galileo Galilei is renown for is the fact that his contrary and pugnacious temperament has more to do with his persecution than the actual facts the Church of Rome tried him for).

As is our custom here at the GPS ROI Tracking office we keep our noses pretty tight to the grindstone most of the work week. On weekends we often like to explore the “prettier” aspects of GPS.

My friend Reinier Fleuren over at Trip Tracker SPORTSMATE sent me a nice piece of java code that let’s you see his great GPS tracking site right here in the blog without going searching for it. A nice touch that a lot more blogs that review things out to adopt the technique … thanks Reinier..

We’ve reviewed Reineir’s and several other on line GPS trip tracking visualization tools here before, and I love them. It is time to move GPS technology out of the closet and make it acceable and fun to use for more people.

Explore for yourself, and if you find any other nifty on line applications or come up with any nice uses for these tools, give me a shout, I want more eye candy..

Have a nice weekend.

Tele Atlas today announced the availability of Tele Atlas Historical Traffic Speeds, which utilizes, aggregates and enhances billions of historical data points from real-time GPS probe and numerous other traffic resources to help provide accurate average speeds on individual road segments in the United States. …

“By enhancing Tele Atlas’ current traffic solutions with Tele Atlas Historical Traffic Speeds, our partners will be able to further develop optimized routing capabilities for an array of enterprise and consumer navigation devices and products,” said Jerry Kim, director of global dynamic content, Tele Atlas. “Whether a driver from an enterprise fleet needs an accurate estimation of travel time for a specific route, or a parent wants the best route to their child’s soccer game on a busy Friday afternoon, end users can leverage this content for a more robust, efficient navigation experience.” … Full Historic Traffic Speed release here:

 I love it when a plan comes together Oops, better strike that out, every time Hannibal said that things always blew up, didn’t they?  But kidding aside, this is a good plan and a great idea.  I’ve mentioned it here several times as well, if you are interested in things you could actually put GPS to use for, aside from catching your employees snoozing under a shade tree, you can read more in the archives.

Since I was a boy I have been fascinated by the “driving time” charts in map resources like the Rand-McNally road atlases … putting together trips in my imagination (and, thankfully) giving myself a life-long thirst for geographical knowledge.  Give my little nephew Sami a toy, he’s happy, give me a map, any map, and I am just as easily amused.

I always wondered how they estimated all those driving times.  And, of course, as maps came on line and driving directions and time estimates became more common I noticed huge variations in estimates. 

Now we have an intelligent tool to take all the historical data that’s being collected, hour by hour, day by day, and put it to use for all.  Tip of the hat to Tele Atlas for putting GPS to a good use.

Wonder why I haven’t read more articles like this in US news sources?  If I were a conspiracy theorist I’d suspect a cover-up, but as the man said, “never ascribe to malice what is adequately explained by ignorance”.  read the Xinhua article on why GPS doesn’t work here and then come back to see my conclusions.

 BEIJING, May 18 — A few weeks ago a man turned up at my front door, having been guided there by a GPS satellite navigation system on his dashboard. He was a bit surprised when I told him that the place he was looking for was 10 kilometers away.

    I was less surprised because I have been testing these potentially wonderful devices for nearly five years and have yet to come across a single one reliable enough to justify shelling out hundreds of dollars for something that is often less reliable than a map.

    One still marvels at a technology able to pinpoint your position and guide you to restaurants and hotels nearby - when it is working properly. I meet people who swear by them, though if you probe further they often encounter bugs such as being directed the wrong way down a one-way street or being given instructions on the motorway seconds after the turnoff has been passed….

In most cases what the writer is commenting on here is the “Urban Canyon” effect and other GPS inaccuracies caused or exacerbated by a poor view of the sky.  GPS (or any of its proposed substitutes like China’s own Compass system, the seriously flawed Galileo of the EU, Russia’s GLONASS, etc. must have a good view of the sky in order to produce even their basic specified accuracy.

If you are driving a lot on city streets, depressed highways, in and out of parking garages and under thick forest canopies GPS technology is going to be challenged.  To be sure you don’t wind up 10 km in the wrong direction (6 miles for the metrically “hard of thinking”), here are a few tips:

• Use a system with a separate antenna and mount it where it gets the best view of the sky possible.
• Use a system with an active, powered antenna rather than the cheap passive devices most manufacturers try to palm off as “good enough”.
• Use a system that includes WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) … WASS is another free US Government service that will increase accuracy astoundingly.
• Test and measure under your actual driving conditions before you invest.  A reputable dealer or manufacturer will allow you to test before you buy … if they won’t, you’ll get a better ROI by keeping your money in your pocket.

Just had to put this post together after reading an enticing press release about a pet idea of mine, wide-area outdoor WiFi to provide high-bandwidth integrated communication.  There are many things I like about this project, especially including the reality that came knocking by default … the customer never gave a thought to the idea that they can easily communicate with many disparate agencies using WiFi .. when, in the typical case of Motorola’s strangle-hold on first responders it takes a million bucks and a year of negotiations before a transit agency could talk to a Marine base … just one of the great things being overlooked by the industry-wide tendency to marginalize outdoor WiFi.

But if you read the press release carefully you’ll find a couple strange things to ponder upon.

First, even though this system is implemented for communication with fast moving commuter trains there doesn’t seem to be any provision for accurate GPS tracking of the train’s locations.  Perhaps it is in here somewhere, but the writer surely didn’t think to mention it.

Secondly, I loved the statement tat since the system was 100% solar powered it would have near-total availability.  Influenced by the guidance from our Saudi hand-holding oil entrepreneur President, supported by massive oil company contributors, we, in the US, are seriously under-estimating the value of solar.  Here, I thought, is a great illustration of how we should be doing it.

Then I read the paragraph describing the implementation that including the saga of the team having to invest time and effort in “…that included setting up poles and getting power for the signaling equipment.”   Hello?  Hello?  The sun shines every day, even above the clouds.

Whatever is the point in buying a solar-powered system and then having the safety of the whole venture compromised by commercial power?  Sounds really, really dumb to me … anyone out there familiar with this effort?

Well, Dave, if it isn’t GPS then why do we want to know about it here on GPS Tracking, the world’s most comprehensive repository of GPS trends, facts and trivia? 

Well, I’m really glad you asked that.  RFID is extremely important in the GPS world because of several factors:

• People hear “tracking” they think GPS.  So if you sell GPS tracking, are thinking about using GPS tracking, are a student wanting to learn the technology or just want to win bar room bets, you need to know the difference.
• RFID is “better” than GPS for many tracking applications.  The technologies are both complementary and in opposition to each other … and, as with any high-tech product you can’t find out the difference from typical media sources … even specialized trade publications don’t always do much of a job explaining things. And fast talking salesman? Haa, you just know his technology is best … for him, anyway.
• My last factor borrows strongly from the second bullet.  As the consumer or potential consumer of any high-tech product, you are the one single person who knows your own processes best.  There is no one size fits all solution.  For years I gave a lot of business to a communications technology provider.  I spent more time fighting with their engineers attempting to show them how their product would fit my process than I did with any of the rest of the acquisition process.  Learn the technology at the basic level and you may find you are a lot smarter than any of the “industry experts” who know their “black box” but don’t know your business.

When we talk RFID — Radio Frequency Identification products we are basically talking about a whole spectrum of offerings that need to be carved up into manageable pieces.  The first and most common way to divide and conquer is to split the offerings onto Passive RFID abs Active RFID. 

The Passive RFID designation simply means you use some sort of tag device to identify something you want tracked and the tag is totally passive … it can only make itself known to the world by be scanned or read using some sort of sensor/reader that “excites” the tag and gathers the information.  The key point to take away about passive RFID technology is that it only “works” when someone does something to make it work … kind of like a book on a library shelf … no information flows unless someone takes it down and opens it.

Active RFID uses some sort of device attached to the object of interest that has a power source (typically a battery) and actively sends out information to the world.  Often this information is sent out even if there is no one to receive it … the person who wants to know information about the object being tracked has to set up a method to receive the data … and, of course, make sure no one else is reading it.  Think of active RFID as the opposite of the book analogy … it’s a battery-powered “boom box” broadcasting the contents of the book whether anyone wants it or not

By Paul Rioux
St. Tammany bureau

In a counterpoint to the hit auto-heist movie “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” Slidell police recovered a stolen pickup truck less than a minute after it was reported missing thanks to an assist from the OnStar satellite tracking service. Read the full saga of this crime and apprehension here:

A nice success story to kick off the work-week here.  A fellow had his OnStar-equipped pickup stolen and called the local police.  As they so often do, the OnStar operations center located the vehicle, called the local police jurisdiction to report the vehicles whereabouts, and the Slidell L) police were fortunate in that there was a patrolmen nearly on scene as the report came in.

GM has been offering OnStar for years now.  I’, but I bet this owner ism not sure how many owners are convinced that the service is worth its modest monthly feel but I’ll wager this owner does.

If you’ve ever had a vehicle stolen … either your personal transport or a business asset you full-well know the inconvenience.  And even if you have decent insurance, you are never really “made whole” for the lost time and the effort it takes to get your claim paid, find a replacement, get it re-licensed and back on the road, etc.  If you don’t think GPS tracking is worth it, you will the first time you go to the parking lot and find an empty slot where you parked a few hours before.  Recommended.