GPS Tracking ROI

I’m probably up to 20 or so articles with the general subject of Teen GPS Tracking. I came across a GPS dealer and service site a few days ago who really seem to have most parts of the puzzle put together. I plan to do a full review of the company and its offerings soon but I wanted to get out the word about what I feel is a pretty good value for those parents interested in doing their best to help their kids through perilous times.

This is not a paid review and not a company I am affiliated with in any way, so what you see is my unbiased opinion and you won’t run into any “hard sell” pages, and email “squeezes” or the rest of that Internet marketing crappola.

This is also not one of the plethora of cell phone tracking plans currently getting popular with the major cellular carriers. I recommend none of them, they are not what you need for monitoring kids whereabouts and driving performance. This solution mounts in a car, provides accurate data and gives parents the kind of information they need. It’s a great tool for any tracking customer too, but I though I would devote a future post to the specifics of the business solution ROI.

The company is known as Vehicle Path, they’re located in San Diego, CA and they offer:

• A tracking system that is pretty easy to install … a lot better than most of the competition
• An external (but hidden) GPS antenna that will insure decent reception/accuracy
• Decent web-based reporting service using, of all things, Google Maps, so you get the best mapping, overhead imagery, trip routing, address search, all that good stuff, continually updated
• The data transfer part of the puzzle, provided by GPRS (cellular data) technology is where the majority of these outfits drop the ball. Vehiclepath carries it nicely. Their best plan costs well under a buck a day … and they have cheaper ones as well.

Think this situation through carefully before you click on because you “can’t afford” teen tracking. Death by auto is the number one killer of teens in the USA. This whole system costs less than a high-end cell phone and the monthly costs are less than most cell calling plans. Do you buy yourself a cell phone? Your children? then you can afford a tool that will do a lot to keep them safe. (more…)

Ever have a huge project to manage … especially one with tremendous public interest like rebuilding a heavily traveled highway bridge? In addition to the thousand and one technical details on your plate you have to manage you have to take into account the public’s need to know the progress. Keeping your customers in the loop is “good business” whether you’re a public entity or a regular commercial company.

But there’s a tremendous workload involved in handling myriad inquiries and requests for information. The traditional method of handing out press releases is time consuming and doesn’t work well … often the media may interpret the information in their own way and then you have to run around correcting misconceptions, if you can. (more…)

A lot of people show up here at the world of GPS tracking ROI looking for ways to track their teens and ways to keep their children safe in other aspects of life. Here is a brand new offering I think many will find interesting:

www.techsavvyparents.com (that’s two “v”s in the name there, not a “w”

These guys are trying to cover a broad spectrum of safety issues with many products under one roof:

• Child Monitoring … with trackers that will help you monitor a child inside a mall, for example.
• GPS Shoes … That should let you see where they are roaming around the neighborhood.
• Computer Tracking … Knowing what they are doing and with whom on line is extremely important.
• Teen Drug & Alcohol Test … No parent wants to admit it can happen, but it does … all the time.
• Teen Drivers … You knew there was going to be a GPS tracking aspect here, didn’t you?

A very worthwhile effort from what I have seen so far. If you are a parent, or someone who advises parents, I recommend you go take a look.

This is a sample, do not use for navigation or rules compliance, please:

Apparently I struck a chord a couple days back when I posted about the 100 and 150 “air mile” commercial driver hours of service rules. People have been searching for an easy utility to make/view radius maps around their business to see if they qualify for these rules, or to keep themselves legal.

I wish there was an easy on-line source, but I haven’t found one. Feel free to let me know if you have.

Meantime, I’d be happy to make such a map, electronically, for any reader who wants to see one. Just leave a comment, email me at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on: 1-719-423-8872. To save us both some time, be sure to include the street address you want the map centered on, ok?

One of the things some GPS system purveyors mention in their “how you’ll save money” sales copy is fuel savings via control of excess idling. I was stuck in traffic for a bit yesterday and I got to thinking about idling and why it’s kind of important that people keep it up higher in the business consciousness than it normally is.

Many of the “save fuel” suggestions and technologies revolve around a zero sum game. You can save gas by slowing down, but of course you also take longer to do your tasks, running the risk of overtime, late deliveries, unhappy drivers and irritated customers.

You can save fuel by using a smaller vehicle for deliveries. But then you wind up running into capacity problems, possible increased maintenance because the vehicle runs at or over capacity more often, and for some vehicles, you just can’t substitute .. there are no suitable smaller alternatives.

You can save fuel by driving less. Sometimes this is a good option, but suppose you’re a delivery company with trucks on the road and you decide to save 20% per week by not making deliveries on Fridays? Hmm, let;’s think that through. You won’t save 20% of your mileage because you’ll have to make more trips on Monday through Thursday to get the orders out. You will certainly annoy customers who will (rightly) perceive this as a win for you, lose for them situation. And what will you do with the drivers on Friday? Pay them not to work? Cut their weekly pay 20%? Neither one sounds like a very good option to me. Of course in the special case of a school bus operation you can always put out a notice to the parents that they have to “do their bit” to conserve fuel (for you) by driving their kids themselves on Fridays. Ought to be good for a heck of a laugh … for the few minutes it will take for the superintendent to prepare your pink slip

But there is one technique that will absolutely save and will not hurt your business in any way. Educate your drivers, enlist their aid in improving the business’s bottom line and install a GPS system that is optimized to measure and report on idling. You drive the same routes the same days. Your drivers keep driving whatever speeds are legal .. or you know about it. And the savings are real.

I never equipped a fleet where we didn’t find an hour or more per week excessive idling. Often there were some much more egregious waters in the group of vehicles. An hour is a gallon or more of fuel … not to mention the extra wear and tear on the engine, which many now agree is substantial.

Reducing idling is one of the easiest changes you can make in your fleet operation … or even in your own driving. The much sought-after hybrid cars have a lot of jazzy technology, but one of the biggest gas saving techniques they use is so simple it’s almost a “Homerisim”. Turn off the engine when the car is sitting still more than 30 seconds or so. Yes, even at a long traffic light. Those minutes add up and the “extra, optional equipment” is already bought and paid for … you thumb and forefinger turning off the key.

This may have been a random thought, but it wasn’t an idle one.

There are times when I get quite tired of the number of searches that land people here at the world of GPS tracking that contain the words “keep the boss from spying on me” and phrases to that effect. I welcome all readers, and all points of view, and if you absolutely hate the technology and consider using technology to boost performance and profitability a sin, as some do, great, you’re entitled. But stop for just a minute and consider what is going on here and consider the “big picture” of what Tiger Contracting is doing to improve their bottom line and ensure their profitability to keep skilled, well paid machine operators on the job and living a decent lifestyle:

Tiger Contracting is using GPS technology on a new motor grader and a new dozer to complete site work on a 178,000-square-foot Lowes Home Improvement Center project in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. The project also involved demolition and recycling of concrete on the site.

“Productivity is the name of the game on this project,” noted project manager Scott Smith, adding that the company added a new LeeBoy 685B motor grader and a Cat D5G dozer to assist with the site work on the 15-acre site. Both machines were outfitted with Trimble Model GCS900 GPS machine control systems. The Trimble system uses the MS980 smart antenna — an integrated GPS receiver and antenna — mounted to each end of the machine blade, and can operate in a stakeless environment to an accuracy of 20 millimeters to 30 millimeters (0.1 foot).

“Technology, power and maneuverability are the factors that make it happen for us on this job,” Smith said.

Moving dirt is a mundane task to many people. Not very “sexy” like an IPO of a new Internet company or a new car that runs 200 mph. But moving dirt is what built America and the rest of the world and building businesses on the newly prepared ground is what gives people the money to buy that stock or earn themselves that speeding ticket.

There are a lot of companies most anywhere you would care to check who will move your dirt for you. Obviously the largest single differentiator between one company and another is price … because dirt is dirt. So if you are a dirt moving contractor and you have employees with mouths to feed, how do you win a contract to move dirt?

Well, obviously you submit the lowest possible bid and hope you’re selected. You can’t submit a bid that guarantees a raise in salary for your machine operators because hey, if you do, some other dirt mover is going to win and your men and women won’t even get the money they are getting now.

But if you are a smart contractor, you leverage technology to let you move the dirt at the lowest possible price. so you get the work, keep people employed and even get more jobs because of your reputation for good work at a fair cost. This process, and only this process is what keeps people employed.

Does this sound simplistic and “preachy”? Well maybe it does to some, but it needed to be said, because it amazes me how many people just fail to understand that if their employers don’t take advantage of technology and techniques that improve performance they just won’t be able to be employers any longer.

Here’s a quote from a recent “convert” to GPS fleet tracking:

“I trust my employees, but I elected to enhance my fleet with a GPS Tracking System. GPS tracking isn’t about doubting my employees — it’s about running our business more efficiently and offering our customers the best service possible.” With fuel prices on the rise, the benefits of this technology are evident. “On the whole, the system has increased our productivity significantly and reduced our fuel consumption. This system definitely delivers in terms of ROI.”

Now, is this just some made-up PR type hype or can you believe this business owner?  Well the statement wasn’t made to me, but dozens of owners have made similar statements to me, personally, as they looked over the results and the Return on Investment (ROI) from their new GPS tracking systems.  Many folks seem to close their eyes to this opportunity because of vague thoughts about spying and privacy … but make sure you consider everything a system can offer you before you turn away:

• How much time are my drivers’ spending at customer sites?
• How much time and how much fuel am I losing from idling engines?
• Are my drivers speeding and where?
• How long and how far are my vehicles traveling i.e. am I making full use of expensive assets?
• How much is asset abuse really costing my company?
• What time are my drivers starting work and what time are they completing their shifts?
• How many minutes of pre and post trip time are there?
• Are my drivers arriving on time for their deliveries?
• Are my drivers making unauthorized stops?
• Are my drivers running on time throughout their scheduled routes?
• How productive are my assets?
• Is there abuse in my staff overtime claims?
• Are my sales representatives keeping to the required calling rates?

Relax now, I don’t sell this technology any longer, so you don’t have to quick jump to another page ;-)  But I want you to think this Monday morning about how much longer your business can run on autopilot?  If you are having a hard time with gas at $3 a gallon, what will you do when it hits $4 or $5?  It will, you know, sure as God made little green apples.  Will you be able to mage by measurement, or by guess and by gosh?