GPS Tracking ROI

CYCLISTS SET TO BECOME THE FIRST TO BE TRACKED FROM END TO END IN REAL-TIME

Two cyclists hope to become the first to be satellite-tracked in real-time, for the entire 975 mile journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Two cyclists from Reading, Berkshire, are expected to set off from Land’s End on June 9th with the aim of cycling the entire length of Britain while being satellite tracked every minute of their entire 14-day trip.

Olympic distance triathlete, Tony Stevens and fellow cyclist Steve Young, will be carrying GPS tracking devices for their 950 mile journey – allowing anyone, including their sponsors, to monitor their progress via the Internet.

The duo are hoping to raise funds for the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Loddon Ward, and the Bishopswood School for Disabled Children in Reading, Berkshire.

The handheld tracking devices will use satellite and GPRS technology to transmit their location in real time. The cyclists will also use the devices to communicate directly with their mobile support crew and should they encounter a problem, rely on the device’s security features such as SOS alerts or ‘man-down’ notification alerts. The trackers will also automatically notify their family, friends and sponsors by text message when they come within range of their final destination, John O’Groats, on 22nd June….

Recently a good online friend of mine, Brendon Sinclair rode in a 1000 km bike event for charity. Brendon is a web developer and marketer by trade so he did a bit of work with a blog and some mapping websites to help get publicity for the project. It helped.

I suggested using GPS tracking for the riders, both for the safety aspects (especially “Man Down” annunciation) and for the publicity real-time tracking of the riders was sure to gain. For whatever reason, the GPS-side of the project never came off.

Stevens and Young cited here, though, have wisely (with respect for their money-making efforts) decided to go with the GPS “wave” from the beginning.

• It costs them nothing … the GPS vendor, SimplyTrak, is more than happy to provide units for the race, they stand to make a good rate of return too.
• They will be safer
• More money will go to their charities, because the necessary overheads of running a ground support team will be minimized.
• And they get BUZZ!.

An event like this is praiseworthy and even fun … I’ve wanted to go from Land’s End to John O’Groats for years … sad that I didn’t do it while I lived in England … however, “praiseworthy” doesn’t make news. But just some simple mention of their GPS tracking plan in trade publications make sit’s way into the Web’s search engines promptly. While looking up the Bishopswood school’s website, for example, just to make my blog posting complete, I couldn’t at first find the actual site amongst all the search engine results reference this article about two cyclists riding a route that’s been “old hat” in Britain for a couple hundred years. There is no doubt at all in my mind that GPS can create buzz.

If you’re planning an event like this, write me at davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872 and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Many folks report they have trouble finding data they want to refer back to on this blog (and other blogs, for that matter). We recently implemented a full “Archives” page (see title bar just above where your eyes are focused right now).

Here also, is a new feature I have decided to add … a monthly round-up of the previous month’s posts:

31: GPS Tracking And Hours Of Service (HOS) “Swindle Sheets” and why you care about them

30: Pop Quiz … How Many Things Is GPS Tracking, Right This Minute? What GPS really “tracks”

30: Google Has Lost The Bubble And GPS Won’t Find It For Them (Part 2) Why Google is missing the point

29: Google Has Lost The Bubble And GPS Won’t Find It For Them (Part 1) Why Eric Schmidt ought to produce before he brags

28: Finding Your Way Around Tracking ROI …. GPS Not Needed How to find information here at ROI Tracking

28: GPS And Google On The Golf Course? Why men and boys are separated by the price of toys\

7: Bare Skin For The Long Weekend Angelina’s tattoos and GPS coordinates

26: Read Everything Before Doing Anything … Even With GPS How your sage misinterpreted a slick gas location system

25: Overdue Credit Where I get a lot of GPS information and where you can too

25: GPS Doing Something Useful? So Near But Yet So Far How to save gas with your cell hone but not your GPS

24: Thar’s Money In Them GPS Hills How the GPS/GIS business has really taken off financially

23: GPS Fails … Oh Really? Blaming other failures on GPS and how to be smarter

23: I-GPS …The Opposite Of Progress Is Congress? Tell me again why we elect ignoramuses to rule our lives?

21: GPS “Spying” In More Ways Than One Things being watched aren’t always what you think they are

21: Galileo Stubs Its Toe, Again The EU finds out that looking a gift horse in the mouth costs real money

20: GPS For Sport or Exploration … Weekend Eye Candy A lovely system to track your running, cycling and other outdoor activities

19: Using GPS Without Even Knowing Thinks you may not have known

18: GPS Works — Or Does It? Does the system work?

15: Where’s The GPS? And Power Lines To The Sun? Tracking trains without tracking trains and metered “solar” power

15: RFID It Ain’t GPS All “Tracking” is “tracking” but not all “tracking” is GPS tracking

14: GPS Works Stolen Truck Recovered in 60 Seconds How much faster response do you want?

11: In Case You’re Wondering — Everyone Can Use GPS GPS isn’t only for the military, law enforcement and big business

09: GPS Saves More Than Wasted Gas GPS can truly save lives … something to think of when you think it’s only dollars and cents.

08: Top 5 Reasons GPS Tracking Makes Sense Why you should think of dollars and cents saved instead of spent

08: Holy MOLTARS, I Hope This Thing Has GPS! A motar-launched GPS enabled blimp … fantastic

08: I’m Sure It Will Have a GPS Another intelligent Lighter Than Air/GPS teaming project

07: GPS Tracks Emotions GPS won’t make you happy, but it will tell you where the ad folks are

06: GPS for Pets Update Track that dog .. if you can?

02: Another County Tries To Figure GPS Out Reading the excuses the county leadership comes up with is nearly as interesting as wondering what they have against running their country as opposed to letting their county run them.

A post a little off the beaten track here today. Fellow blogger Don Brown is a retired air traffic controller and has been writing quite a bit lately on the deep, devastating and deadly controller crisis that most of you don’t even know you are living through.

Controller crisis? Yep. The Air Traffic Control system in the US … once the standard of the world is broke and it is broke bad. Among many other legacies the “Shrub” in the White House will leave the country when he goes off to his undeserved retirement and three or four book Presidential Library will be the taste in our mouths that lingers long after the present FAA Administrator, Marion Clifton Blakey departs the scene.

You’ve seen the beginnings of the deadliness here. Air Traffic control towers, departure and approach controls and ATC Centers are short, very short of experienced personnel. The existing personnel are overworked, “dicked with” by the current administration … failing to honor contracts and Federal law put in place in good faith … and most importantly OLD, like me. The pipeline of new trainees is barely trickling and in case you hadn’t noticed, air traffic is increasing every day. I would recommend you read Don’s blog post on The Morning After and also this very well-written analysis of why most of our so-called “systems of air traffic collision avoidance are not suitable “systems” at all. Collision Evasion System .

The reason you’re reading these recommendations here. in the ‘Net’s primary resource for GPS Tracking ROI information is that I think it is important that you understand we presently track trash trucks hauling garbage, taxi cabs hauling prostitutes, sex offenders peering up little girl’s skirts and dogs looking for a bitch … but we don’t track airliners at all.

Well we do, sort of. Using an archaic, less than full coverage radar systems we give controllers visual tracking information … not precise location on an accurate map so they can really see where aircraft are, when they can see them. They also can’t track on the ground and give reliable information to prevent accidents like this one or this one … both simplistic mistakes with extremely deadly consequences. The cheapest garbage truck tracking system could have given pilots and controllers the information need to prevent both these accidents.

Many people look at systems like Flight Aware and think that’s a solution … but the info on Flight Aware is al “after the fact” and is useless to provide the high accuracy position data needed to separate aircraft reliably.

Most importantly … none of these systems tracks ALL aircraft and if you don’t track ALL aircraft you can’t assure the safety of ANY aircraft.

Happy? reading … and, as always, comments, emails to davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me at 1-719-423-8872

Offender GPS Tracking that works. Here’s a great article from the Desert News (Salt Lake City area) that explains how one jurisdiction is using offender GPS tracking effectively, making it work and getting a rate of return both in dollars and cents as well as the intangible (but priceless) knowledge that crimes and/or preliminary criminal activity is being controlled.

We’ve written here more than once about a number of these programs, the good, the bad and the downright ugly. (see the category tab or use our brand new and useful full Archives page … tab at top of every page).

GPS tracking of criminals, parolees and individuals on court-order geographic area limits can and does work. When done right it can work very well. But it is no cure-all. It can not be done successfully without planning, investment of the proper amount of resources and hands-on supervision of the program.

If you’re thinking along the lines of implementing offender GPS tracking here are a couple of the most important things to keep in mind:

• Plan: What, specifically are you going to expect the system to do? GPS tracking is a tool, but it is not magic. It can not eliminate criminal behavior, it can’t change the mindset of a sick pedophile and it can’t control a deranged husband’s impulses.
• Publicize: How will you present the project to the average citizen (tax payer) and the specialized law enforcement, correctional custody and probationary experts who will have to use the system if it is to be anything more than a toy?
• Procure: Once you have decided you are going to be entering into this “new wave” off offender management, how will you decide what to buy and how much to pay for it? Hint the company whom you ask for information from is NOT the company to write the specifications for your system. I’ve consulted on many, many GPS procurements … often long after the source has been selected and by far the number one problem area has been that the user wrote a half-baked RFP and got, in return (big surprise) a half-baked product.
• Promulgate Policy: One of the hardest things to mange in these systems is not any of the technical details … it is the differing expectations various users and client hold. No GPS vendor is qualified to write city, country or state policy or the use of a system like this. The policy guidelines should, indeed must, be written by those in authority … they are separate and distinct from technical manuals and user guides that deal with the operation of the system itself. Fail here and the whole system is worthless.
• Program: Who will manage the implementation of the system from the day the first units arrive until all persons are trained and confident in using the system? In my own experience I have seen a lot of government entities handle a GS tracker the same as handling a new overhead door opener contract. You can not expect the vendor to install the system, train a few folks and then walk away. Even with a good vendor you won’t get all you need and with a bad vendor???
• Persevere: None of these systems ate “fire and forget” devices. There must be a local “daddy rabbit”who cares about the system, highlights the good points, takes corrective action on the bad points and keeps his/her finger on the pulse. If you have such a person on board, great. If you don’t, then you have just identified the single most important issue in building and capitalizing on a great system.

It isn’t the money and it isn’t the technology that will make or break your program, it is the people. It has been said that there are “six “P’s” that prevent “Piss Poor Performance”. I just gave you seven, by my count … let me know what you think.

It’s the weekend, finally hooray! Wasn’t that long ago I used to look forward to days off myself, but now every day is a day off for me … part of the time so I can search the ‘Net and find you cool things to look at, GPS and non-GPS. Some years back I did some consulting work with a small company in Oregon regarding some extra vehicle instrumentation that a GPS tracking customer wanted to add on to his GPS tracking system. Even though we should the client a pretty great ROI, the deal never came off, but I have followed the exploits of my friends at http://www.silverleafelectronics.com/ ever since.

This is what that smiling motor coach driver might be watching, rather than the conglomeration of wires and antiquated mechanical gauges we mostly look at today, which haven’t really changed much since the Model A days (that’s an old, old Ford for some of you).

Here’s an example of the kind of things SilverLeaf products let you do without a fancy custom dash panel. A garden-variety laptop, SilverLeaf’s custom designed software and a GPS receiver to keep track of road positions … and presto .. where they are, where they are headed and just about every aspect of the fuel economy and care and feeding of the coach anyone could care about. I know that I’m impressed.

Whet many don’t realize, either, is that the majority of the specialized engine and chassis data that SilverLeaf is “picking off” from the on-board engine control computers of the big rigs is also available, right now, on your passenger car or pickup truck. But no one seems to think you’re worth receiving it. GPS navigation is still pretty much limited to toy-like boxes to sit on top of the dash and give you no info about your vehicle except where it is. Demand better.

Most of my posts are about GPS Tracking simply because it is my main interest and area of expertise. But a great deal of GPS discussion also involves road safety in general and today I wanted to tell you a bit about tire pressure and temperature which has a great deal of relevance to safety and road economy of operation. These figures come directly from huge amounts of data collected from the commercial truck fleet, but they have direct correlations with all road vehicles including your $800,000 motor home or your $8,000 motorcycle.

• Only 44% of all truck tires are within 5 psi of their target inflation
• 90% of all tire failures are a result of tire under-inflation
• Almost half of all emergency roadside assistance calls are a result of tire failure
• 20% under-inflation reduces carcass life by 30%
• 20% under-inflation reduces tread life by 25%
• 20% under-inflation reduces fuel mileage by 2%

Properly inflated tires will provide you with:

• Longer tread life
• Longer tire carcass life and additional retreads
• Improved fuel economy
• Less vehicle downtime
• Improved vehicle and driver safety

With numbers like that you would think you would want to keep your tires inflated properly … and indeed you would. Here’s on3e outfit that produces the technology to manage all aspects of the problem: http://www.smartire.com/cv

Notice there is a very handy Return On Investment (ROI) calculator included on their site. I fault their calculator in the sense that it doesn’t give you ROI, it gives annual savings by vehicle (I guess they want to keep the price of the product secret), but the site mechanics are good and I am truly surprised how many businesses fail to show the most rudimentary savings/ROI calculators on their web pages. It’s poor business and it certainly hurts sales.

Anyway, tomorrow I will have some more on GPS, Tire Pressure Monitoring and some lovely weekend eye candy, as always. Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

A very nice article in the Dallas Morning News today entitled “Zip Codes Paint Portrait Of Dallas” by Cheryl Hall (good work, Cheryl). I suggest you go read it and also spend a little time with the included interactive map on the same page … then come back here and tell me you privacy concerns … or your kudos, for that matter.

You can go direct to the map here

Years ago when GPS wasn’t even a common public access utility and fellow named Jack Dangermond and his wife, Laura formed a little firm in Redlands, California, to do land use analysis studies. Today their company is called ESRI (and by the way, still debt-free and privately held, big props to the Dangermonds for resisting the all to common sell out to venture capitalists who make all the money and stifle all the initiatives) and is the world leader in specialized Geographic Information System (GIS) software. GIS simply means taking a database of, for an example, property ownership records and displaying and analyzing those records visually by plotting the records on a map … tying the geographical aspects of the data to the textual.

When GIS got started there was essentially no competition for ESRI’s products, there was ESRI and everyone else unsuccessfully playing catchup. Software being what it is, ESRI today has many competitors, some very capable. But ESRI saw the proper vision from the early days. They don’t just make the software … they actively find the data to go behind the GIS and integrate it … sometimes for a fee (and a good fee, too, ESRI’s annual revenues are at least 2/3 of a billion bucks) and often for free as well, to get the word out to the world and make the world aware of the “Power Of Place”.

The Dallas example is a great illustration of this principle in action. All the data “behind the map” is available somewhere … often even for free such as the volumes of information collected by the US Census. Individually, though, the data don’t do much. Collected, standardized and, most importantly, displayed on a map by readily understood geographic subdivisions such as Zip Codes the data become powerful and insightful.

But I mentioned privacy at the head of the article. There’s no private information being disclosed here, so why even question it … what do you, gentle reader, care if someone collects non-identifiable data regarding the demographics of your and makes it publicly available?

Tried to buy homeowners insurance in Florida lately? Wonder why your auto insurance costs twice what a friend across town pays? Wonder why home mortgages are hard to get approved on “your side of the tracks” but seem to be nearly given away across town?

You’re looking at the reason, folks. ESRI makes a lot of those millions and millions in profit from firms who decide what they will offer and how much the customers will pay based strictly on where those customers live and who lives there with them. When you talk about or think about privacy and GPS issues, make sure you go a little deeper into your mental review. It isn’t the knowledge of where someone is that might adversely affect their life … it is the knowledge of their location and all the other aspects of their lives gathered together on one computer screen that gives me a little shiver up and down my spine.