GPS Tracking ROI

I’ve been having a bit of bother with my archive pages … they don’t display all that is in the archives and the navigation is a bit busted.  I’ll fix it soon I hope … meanwhile here’s a “Brute Force” look at everything that was published in July … In case you missed an article.

Archive for July, 2007

What You Don’t Know Can “Bite” You — FMCSA Hours Of Service Rules Part 1

I’ve used the premise many times that one of the bona fide paybacks (ROI) of using GPS tracking on your business vehicles is being able to know that you’re complying with the US FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) regulations. The ones regarding HOS (Hours Of Service) for drivers are particularly complex … and […]

July 30th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Tutorials | Edit | No Comments

Something Useful For The “Crackberry”

Just noticed the fact that this was a service for Blackberry users.  Sorry to say in the usual meaningless trash bin of mainly ” say nothing” press releases this one almost got deleted.
T-Mobile Austria customers can now receive turn-by-turn GPS-enabled voice and on-screen directions directly from their BlackBerry smartphone through a new service called TeleNav GPS […]

July 29th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

Build a Fleet Management Network You Can Be Proud Of — Installment Two

A few days ago I mentioned the NetworkCar offerings in an attempt to get business owners to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and stop acting like they were powerless to improve their business.  Since then the stock market has taken a nosedive and who knows what sort of fuel price hikes will be […]

July 26th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

You Should Have A Voice In GPS

The GPS Lodge featured this recently. I’m jumping on it because it is just that important, both from a safety and a freedom standpoint::

Spain Considers GPS Misuse Illegal
Wow in a bold move, Spain is considering making it illegal to use/type on a GPS system while driving. The fine would be €300 as well as […]

July 26th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Life | Edit | 2 Comments

Things Are Looking A Little Better Now

Isn’t it amazing how Dollars and/or Euros can “talk”? You’ll recall a number of articles, (samples here, here and here) past and recent I’ve penned about the somewhat ill-advised Galileo navigation system, a big candidate in my book for the Harvard Business School’s top choice in their “how not to build a business” series.
But […]

July 25th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Background | Edit | No Comments

Build a Fleet Management Network You Can Be Proud Of

No secret here that we talk about and recommend to nearly everyone that they use GPS tracking to insure business success and gain a terrific ROI on their investment.  But a justifiable criticism is that we don’t make enough specific recommendations.  Well, let’s get specific.
Siemens is a world leader in fleet telematics products.  their modules […]

July 24th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

GPS Tracking Benefits With Total Privacy

Who among us hasn’t seen a set of routing instructions from some GPS or mapping provider that hasn’t made us scratch our heads? “These guys are dumb” is a usual thought. “I wouldn’t go that way, I’ll hit way too much traffic” is a common fault. it’s one programming task to take […]

July 23rd, 2007 | Posted in GPS Traffic | Edit | No Comments

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? GPS Might Lead You There

Now this is kind of cute. You’re running a casino. The US is staggering under its load of un-ending Iraqi bush self-aggrandizement debt. Foreclosures are shooting through the roof. Outsourcing takes all the good jobs. Gas costs $3 a gallon and Ford keeps rolling out DUV’s. So what’s […]

July 20th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

GPS Tracking Brings In The ROI For Service

Proof that there is money in service and GPS tracking can bring it to the bottom line.
OK, Quick, don’t look up at the top of the page … what’s the title of this blog? GPS ROI, right? I’ve written a lot of times how much money you can bring to the bottom line […]

July 19th, 2007 | Posted in GPS ROI | Edit | 1 Comment

A Mile Is Still Not Always A Mile — But Closer Now

REAL-TIME ASSET TRACKING
03/14/2007
Stemco’s ‘BAT RF’ system has been teamed with the SkyBitz Global Locating System (GLS) to offer mileage readings in conjunction with real-time trailer tracking. They’ll provide a direct interface between the two to enable accurate trailer mileage readings. Availability is mid-year 2007.
Using a wireless module installed with the SkyBitz GLS 200 trailer-tracking unit, […]

July 18th, 2007 | Posted in GPS That Isn’t | Edit | No Comments

GPS Prevents Lightning — Or Something Like That

MONTREAL, QUEBEC — (MARKET WIRE) — 03/13/07 — In the early morning of February 12th a Vigil client awoke in horror to realize his beloved 2003 Toyota Rav4 had been stolen from right out front of his home. Within seconds the client was in contact with Vigil’s ULC approved monitoring center, Protectron. The vehicle was […]

July 17th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Crime | Edit | No Comments

What Parents Ought to Know About Teens, Driving, Cell Phones — And GPS

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
It made national headlines, five cheerleaders killed in a car crash after going out to celebrate their graduation. But cell phone records show the phone was being used for text messaging right before the accident.
Cell phone records show a text message was sent from the phone belonging to the driver, Bailey […]

July 16th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Teens | Edit | No Comments

Who Else Wants A Radius Map?

Everything on the ‘Net is about niches. One subject is dull and boring (a speciality of mine?) and another subject clicks … who can say? But what people search for and read about, I write about.
I’ve mentioned the 100 and 150 air mile radius rules for “local” commercial vehicle operations a number of […]

July 13th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Tutorials | Edit | No Comments

What Do You Bet He “Can’t Afford” GPS Tracking For Company Vehicles

SkyCaddie marries two things I’m really passionate about–golf and GPS technology. Location is a powerful piece of information, and there are lots of killer applications being built around it.
Knowing where you are is very important to knowing where you’re going. In the game of golf, strategically being able to manage your play against the course–where […]

July 12th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Sport | Edit | No Comments

At Least They Are No Longer Claiming They Will Be Better than GPS

David Gow
Tuesday July 10, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Artist’s impression of a Galileo GPS satellite. Picture: ESA/AFP
A fresh Franco-German row over the funding of Galileo is threatening to derail the EU’s most ambitious project, the €3.6bn (£2.4bn) global positioning satellite system designed to rival the American version, a senior executive in the private sector consortium due to run […]

July 11th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Curmudgeon | Edit | 1 Comment

Got A Chuckle When I Shouldn’t Have

I was looking at the web site of a large GPS Tacking organization tonight. Just after I left the business they were doing some partnering with the company whose products I used to handle and I was checking on what they might have rolled out new. They had an excellent little assessment quiz […]

July 10th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Curmudgeon | Edit | No Comments

Some Nations Care About Their Teens

Such technology will let Australians opt for “pay-as-you-drive” insurance, where the cost of premiums go up or down depending on how far and when a car is being driven.
The technology will also have a positive effect on road safety, according to Mr Issa.
“If the car’s driven by a P-plater between 11 o’clock at night and […]

July 10th, 2007 | Posted in GPS and PAYD | Edit | No Comments

Get Rid of Your Unproductive Workers Once and For All

Looking back over a lot of the posts I have made over the past couple years I have come to the conclusion I have been “pussyfooting” a bit about what is really going on out there in the workplace. especially the mobile workplace … employees on the road, with the expectation that they will […]

July 9th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

Here’s a Quick Way to Turn Service Tech Overhead To Profit

OK, I want you to do a little work for yourselves here. Go to this Aberdeen Group link and download the free, authoritative fleet management report. Yes, you’ll have to give them an email address, but you can always give them an anonymous, throwaway one and it will be worth it. A […]

July 8th, 2007 | Posted in GPS Case Studies | Edit | No Comments

Little Known Ways to Profit From GPS Tracking — Part 2

Most employers have established a mileage allowance for work-related automotive travel. The IRS has set the mileage reimbursement rate that employers may pay employees who use their own cars for company business without detailed documentation at 48.5 cents per mile for 2007. Employers that use the IRS mileage rate or a lower rate may deduct […]

July 7th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Business | Edit | No Comments

Little Known Ways to Profit From GPS Tracking

There are more than 24,000,000 Americans living in what the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) determines are “Nonattainment” areas for PM (Particulate Matter ) air pollution standards.  You can read a lot about PM standards and why you, and your municipality, county and state cares here:
http://www.EPA.gov/oar/particlepollution/
What does this have to do with GPS Tracking?  […]

July 6th, 2007 | Posted in GPS for Life | Edit | No Comments

GPS Legalities Series — Part 3

Here’s a couple examples of how a city and a county I have worked with made GPS happen for them, kept it legal and kept their employees happy … well, perhaps not too unhappy.
Important Disclaimer:
I am not an attorney, I don’t even play one on TV, and I can not provide legal advice. This information is […]

July 5th, 2007 | Posted in Intelligent Folks | Edit | No Comments

GPS Legalities — Part 2

Recently I posted a very well-received article on the basics of using GPS to monitor employees. There is certainly a need for more information on this, including some of the “catch 22’s” that may result. From the number of searches I get daily looking for information on this subject there is no doubt […]

July 3rd, 2007 | Posted in GPS Privacy | Edit | No Comments

GPS Tracking Sponsorship — Thanks, Guys

I’ve been a little remiss in the past about acknowledging those who help me make this blog a success. Some pay money, others help for free and I few I even pay, but they’re well worth their modest fee.
First and foremost, since I just renewed my contract for the coming year, let me thank […]

July 2nd, 2007 | Posted in GPS Curmudgeon | Edit | No Comments

GPS Legalities Primer

A lot of searchers recently have been digging around for information on the legalities of GPS tracking, especially for public employees.  It’s a bit amazing to me how little is currently on line on these sorts of issues.  A good place to start looking is an article on findlaw by Daniel R. Sovocool of Thelen Reid, […]

July 2nd, 2007 | Posted in Intelligent Folks | Edit | No Comments

How To Be A Successful Criminal —Learn About GPS

Can’t resist. here’s another “Stupid Criminal” story where GPS (and smart thinking by the police) saved the day:
Investigators in Kittitas County say a stolen car equipped with the OnStar GPS system helped detectives crack theft ring.
Undersheriff Clayton Meyers said that over the last two months burglars have hit many vacation homes in the area, […]

July 1st, 2007 | Posted in GPS Crime | Edit | No Comments

• Recent Entries

• • What You Don’t Know Can “Bite” You — FMCSA Hours Of Service Rules Part 1
  • Something Useful For The “Crackberry”
  • Build a Fleet Management Network You Can Be Proud Of — Installment Two
  • You Should Have A Voice In GPS
  • Things Are Looking A Little Better Now
  • Build a Fleet Management Network You Can Be Proud Of
  • GPS Tracking Benefits With Total Privacy
  • Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? GPS Might Lead You There
  • GPS Tracking Brings In The ROI For Service
  • A Mile Is Still Not Always A Mile — But Closer Now
  • GPS Prevents Lightning — Or Something Like That
  • What Parents Ought to Know About Teens, Driving, Cell Phones — And GPS
  • Who Else Wants A Radius Map?
  • What Do You Bet He “Can’t Afford” GPS Tracking For Company Vehicles
  • At Least They Are No Longer Claiming They Will Be Better than GPS
  • Got A Chuckle When I Shouldn’t Have
  • Some Nations Care About Their Teens
  • Get Rid of Your Unproductive Workers Once and For All
  • Here’s a Quick Way to Turn Service Tech Overhead To Profit
  • Little Known Ways to Profit From GPS Tracking — Part 2
  • Little Known Ways to Profit From GPS Tracking
  • GPS Legalities Series — Part 3
  • GPS Legalities — Part 2
  • GPS Tracking Sponsorship — Thanks, Guys
  • GPS Legalities Primer
  • How To Be A Successful Criminal —Learn About GPS

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I’ve used the premise many times that one of the bona fide paybacks (ROI) of using GPS tracking on your business vehicles is being able to know that you’re complying with the US FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) regulations. The ones regarding HOS (Hours Of Service) for drivers are particularly complex … and thus easy to run afoul of … and enforcement agencies, including State Police are usually well-trained in those laws and quite interested in enforcing them, both from a legal/moral and a financial standpoint. Catch an individual private driver speeding and the state earns a few bucks from the ticket, catch a trucking company in major violations and huge amounts can flow into the sate coffers.

Every one of the 50 states has their own rulers in addition to the Federal rules and you, the business owner is responsible for compliance. I can’t possibly dig them all out for you but the easy part of the task is that the state rules can’t be more lenient than the Federal regs and in most cases are very much a copy.

First you have to understand who is subject to the Motor carrier rules. It is not just the big over-the-road trucker. Those guys are the ones almost all of us think of when Hours Of Service and logbook (RODS — Records Of Duty Status) get mentioned but they are far from the only folks subject to compliance and possible penalties.

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Just noticed the fact that this was a service for Blackberry users.  Sorry to say in the usual meaningless trash bin of mainly ’say nothing” press releases this one almost got deleted.

T-Mobile Austria customers can now receive turn-by-turn GPS-enabled voice and on-screen directions directly from their BlackBerry smartphone through a new service called TeleNav GPS Navigator. The service is available immediately on four BlackBerry smartphones – the BlackBerry 8800 (with built-in GPS), the BlackBerry Pearl, the BlackBerry 8700 and the BlackBerry 7130 (all require a Bluetooth GPS receiver). “TeleNav’s SatNav service means any T-Mobile customer with a supported BlackBerry smartphone can get all the benefits and features of an in-car navigation system, but directly on their mobile device. It’s convenient, it’s easy to use, and it means you’ll never get lost again,” said Robert Chvátal, CEO of T-Mobile Austria.
For just €8 per month, T-Mobile Austria customers can now get unlimited and convenient access. Users key in their destination, or preplan it on www.telenav.eu, and TeleNav GPS Navigator calculates their route. As they drive, they will get up-to-the minute guidance and will automatically be re-routed if they miss a turn. Subscribers can also preview their routes before they begin driving and specify preferences including avoiding motorways and taking the shortest or fastest route. The service includes full-colour 3D moving maps. … full text here.

I’m not a big Blackberry fan … not because I don’t think the device is very useful … it certainly is, but their marketing and sales push has always been aimed so strongly at the big corporate and government markets that I’ve never felt I was invited to join the club.

As a businessman (small) in the US I visited a number of cellular provider sales outlets over the year looking for Blackberry service and what I found was a marked reluctance to sell … salesmen jumping through hoops to switch me to anything else.  Bigger spiffs for another product?  Understandable human reluctance to sell what they were not well enough trained on?  beats me, but it left my bank account intact, at any rate.

I’m not even aware of an analog of this service being available in the US, but the Austrian service outlines here sounds like a gangbuster idea and the price certainly appears reasonable.  Good on you, T-Mobile Austria, now learn how to sell into the North American market.

A few days ago I mentioned the NetworkCar offerings in an attempt to get business owners to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and stop acting like they were powerless to improve their business.  Since then the stock market has taken a nosedive and who knows what sort of fuel price hikes will be announced in the next week or two.  It’s not all that rosy a world for business, but I can make the dark clouds a lot brighter.  What about an investment with a proven ROI that doesn’t depend on a vagaries of the Dow?

You know I always try to provide some eye candy for the weekend, this week I can show you some pictures that are even more interesting than Angelina’s tats or Katie Couric’s legs.  Well, more interesting to someone with their mind on business, anyway.

A reader of the blog, Robert Donat sent me a note regarding some Internet mechanics and in the process tuned me in to his company and the excellent way they have implemented NetworkCar’s fleet offerings for the world of business.  Thanks Rob

 

Click, watch the demos and learn.  The bottom line is, the higher the price of fuel climbs, the more you can save.  And you absolutely will save.  GPS fleet tracking will pay for itself in 6 to 9 months no matter what size your fleet, where you operate or how well you think you are operating today.  There are very few investments you can make that will give you anything close to the ROI that GPS Tracking will.  Buy Robert’s offering, buy someone else’s, it’s all good to me … just don’t sit and do nothing.

The GPS Lodge featured this recently. I’m jumping on it because it is just that important, both from a safety and a freedom standpoint::

Spain Considers GPS Misuse Illegal

Wow in a bold move, Spain is considering making it illegal to use/type on a GPS system while driving. The fine would be €300 as well as three points removed from the driving license. Apparently the lawmakers said that navigation systems and interacting with/typing on them while driving can cause a distraction and that about half of car accidents are caused by driver distractions.
If this type of law gains momentum, expect voice recognition capabilities to become widespread… Read more at the GPS Lodge

I’ve cautioned about this driving distraction stuff here: I don’t know if anyone will listen. When I was involved with a major redesign of a large government GPS tracking system … where voice recognition wasn’t a possible option, I forced the software engineers to burn up a lot of hours (my program dollars) to design the interface so that a driver could acknowledge a text message with just the press of one large key on the mobile terminal … the space bar, and the screen the dispatchers used when sending messages would change color to alert them that when the driver was in motion so they wouldn’t send routine, non-essential messages until the driver was stopped. Seemed to make sense to me. (more…)

Isn’t it amazing how Dollars and/or Euros can “talk”? You’ll recall a number of articles, (samples here, here and here) past and recent I’ve penned about the somewhat ill-advised Galileo navigation system, a big candidate in my book for the Harvard Business School’s top choice in their “how not to build a business” series.

But some good sense, perhaps influenced by economic reality has forced a meeting of the minds, and the outcome will likely be very beneficial for the US, France, the rest of the European Union and the world at large:

Galileo satellites will link with GPS

A combined system will provide more accuracy for positioning systems
Tom Young, Computing 17 Jul 2007

The US government and the European Union (EU) are expected to reach an agreement within a week to provide a service that will use both the US global positioning system (GPS) and the EU’s proposed Galileo satellite network.
EU and US satellites would send information on the same radio frequency, enabling receivers to take signals from both systems and combine the data.
‘The market probably will drive dual-use receivers. We think probably that single GPS-specific or Galileo-specific receivers will phase out in time,’ said Raymond Clore, a GPS-Galileo senior adviser from the US State Department.
The agreement would mean the service being provided by 60 satellites instead of 30, increasing coverage and reliability of the network…. Full article on GPS-Galileo “unity” here:

This makes a heck of a lot of sense, given the the EU seems bent on continuing their project … which, of course, is fine with me. The accuracy of any GPS or GPS-like system is influenced more than anything else by “satellite geometry”. To get any navigational fix, the receiver must “see” a minimum number of satellites. Typically this minimum is 4. The current GPS constellation assures that a receiver will almost always see 4 satellite’s minimum, world-wide.

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No secret here that we talk about and recommend to nearly everyone that they use GPS tracking to insure business success and gain a terrific ROI on their investment.  But a justifiable criticism is that we don’t make enough specific recommendations.  Well, let’s get specific.

Siemens is a world leader in fleet telematics products.  their modules and electronics are first class, second to none.  Although Siemens does manufacturer individual vehicle “black boxes” I don’t recommend them personally because they are not, in my view, properly set up to serve the individual fleet owner.

NetworkCar, on the other hand, is a progressive US company with a strong background in individual fleet service.  they are big enough to do the job and yet small enough to be realistic to deal with.  NetworkCar has offered a nice fleet management system (trade named NetworkFleet) for several years now.  It’s a great value for the money, installs easily, offers monitoring and reporting over a simple web interface (no software and/or server maintenance hassles) and has included a limited subset of vehicle telematics since its earliest days.  But good companies don’t keep selling the same offerings year after year.  And smart companies don’t try to re-invent the wheel by duplicating technology in-house.  Thus a news release I came across today seemed quite interesting:

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