GPS Tracking ROI

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” — James Madison

The excellent Telematics Journal website is a daily read of mine.  They cover a lot of important news on GPS tracking as well as the rest of the world of business communications.  They are now running some excellent blogs, worth a read.  One of the better ones is by David Alexander, one of their analysts.  I’ve written about the New York Taxi Strike/GFPS “Rebellion” before, I thought I’d comment on a couple of David’s recent points here.

Some New York taxi drivers are striking to show their unhappiness with the new mandated GPS/credit card systems installed in their cabs. The stated concern appears on the surface to be one of privacy, and one of the large drivers unions is using this as a platform. The other large union however sees no such privacy issue and is not supporting the strike.

The system itself is a computer with a screen that the passenger can use to select information such as weather forecasts, restaurant details, and can follow the taxi’s route through the city. GPS provides the instantaneous position of the vehicle.

And of course there will be plenty of advertisements to entertain the captive audience in the back seat. There is a messaging system for the driver, and a credit card option that can process payments without needing the driver to do anything.

Some drivers have complained that the credit card processing clips about 5% off their income for fees, but they are missing the bigger picture that with credit cards (as demonstrated in many other industries) customers on average tip better and can spend more than just the cash they have on them. For taxi drivers that may mean more of the lucrative trips into the suburbs….

This is the sort of thing I have pointed out for years.  It’s why I stylize myself as the “ROI Guy”.  It isn’t what you “spend” for something in business that counts, it’s what you “make” from something that drives an intelligent business decision. 

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Yesterday in my email I got a notice of  in my former home town, Colorado Springs.  Looked interesting, although wouldn’t be going even if I were there … but the company does a good job marketing both in-person and web-based seminars … since I’m puling today’s subject from them I’ll give them a link: http://www.pryor.com/mkt_info/seminars/desc/DF.asp

The particular seminar they were featuring had to do with dealing with problem employees, and what struck me was the long list of different sorts of problem employees they enumerated looked almost exactly as long lists of problem employees I have helped business owners identify using GPS tracking.  Almost uncanny the way it caught my eye.

After the horror list of the wrong sorts of people to have in your employ, the brochure then listed the benefits you would get from attending … and this really caught my attention.  Seriously I wet back through the ad to see if I had missed some GPS tracking reference because the Fred Pryor “Payoff” is exactly the payoff you would get from effectively implementing and using a GPS tracking system:

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I’m not a big believer in radar detectors.  In general I think we should drive close enough to the speed limit to avoid tickets the ‘natural way”.  But I’m no fool … people will drive as they want to, and I’m no “goody two shoes’ either, I’ve had a few speeding tickets myself, and they hurt, and they aren’t always fair.  Unlike the other 99% of males on the road, i am not the world’s best driver, either.  If you want help, good radar detectors are useful.

In Japan the police seldom use mobile radar but they do have an extensive network of roadside speed cameras that measure a vehicle’s speed, and take a picture and mail a ticket to offenders.  More than 10 years ago one could buy a GPS warning tool to alert when near the location of speed cameras.  What on earth has taken so long for the industry in the US to catch up?

Drivers equipped with the new Cobra Electronics’ wireless remote controlled radar/laser detector with speed and red light camera location alerts will no longer be caught off guard at dangerous intersections. The virtually undetectable XRS R9G is the first radar detector to be paired with a GPS locator in the United States . Read more about the XRS R9G here.

If it will keep you from getting a ticket, and if it will keep you more aware of your surroundings and how you’re driving, who am I to argue. Recommended.

I often write here wondering GPS tracking users “don’t get it”.  It’s a joyful day when I come across the ones that do:

Regional trauma center centralizes real-time tracking of ambulances and aircraft

OuterLink Corporation today announced that North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) is deploying its solution to more effectively manage, track and communicate with its fleet of 15 ambulances and single medical transport helicopter throughout its 150-mile rural coverage area. NMMC is a Regional Level II Trauma Center based in Tupelo, MS.

“The OuterLink solution provides us with a very important tool for managing our medical vehicle fleet throughout our extensive coverage area,” said NMMC Pre-hospital Director Josh Wenzel. “With OuterLink on board, we have established continuous visibility with our crews and we can communicate patient status prior to arrival at NMMC. This improves overall patient care and outcomes.”

OuterLink’s satellite mobile asset management solutions improve the safety and visibility of air medical transport flights, and enables the rapid deployment of aircraft to support medical crisis response missions. The OuterLink solution provides secure, real-time location tracking and two-way communications capabilities that enable voice and data exchange between the aircraft, dispatch and medical facility to improve response time and critical patient care. OuterLink’s flexible solutions offer operators the option to conduct simple flight location reporting or to deploy a centralized solution that allows complete visibility of all mobile assets…. full text here:

This is good news for the people of Mississippi, good news for the NMMC stockholders and good news if you ever need to call 911. 

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As most well understand the primary topic here is GPS tracking, why to use it, when to use it, what GPS tracking equipment to buy, and how to cost-justify it … how to get a positive rate of return on your proposed GPS tracking investment.

H9iwever one important thing strikes me about how I may have been aiming too high on the ROI thing over the past few years.  if you read the little comment exchange Rob and I had about Friday’s post you’ll see that I am not the only one who has found that a great many businesses and government organizations can’t evaluate the ROI of an investment proposal … because they just don’t know what they are spending today.

Now I thought hard and long before I wrote this … because i certainly don’t want to alienate readers … and there is no way to make a statement like that come out sounding very positive.  But the truth is, it isn’t positive, and one thing you are always going to get here .. without fail … is the truth, so far as I know it … even when the truth makes you feel a little uncomfortable.

So here’s my thought to start the business week off with.  If you’ve een thinking about using GPS tracking to augment your fleet operations … if you are considering the idea that GPS tracking equipment could provide you a real return on investment (ROI) … then stop right now!

Unless you have real-world figures that you would be able to put on a tax return and sign your name to, sit back and do an evaluation of where your business is and where it’s going.  If I came by today and offered to give you a new GPS for example, and make it free if it didn’t return 20% savings … would you know your costs well enough to be able to call my bluff?

Be sure that the next time you turn away a good idea with the comment, “we can’t afford it”, that you are making that call based on real-world figures and not using that common answer as a smoke screen to hide the fact you don’t really know what you can and can’t afford.

GPS tracking is a great tool,, but if a business doesn’t know where they are before the slap on a GPS they still won’t know where they are afterward, either.

As always, feel free to leave a comment, write me an email at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com, or call me on 1-719-423-8872, or chat with me on Yahoo Messenger: davestarr(at)yahoo(dot)com.  I’ll be happy to hear about subjects you want me to cover, places you feel I have erred, real life experiences good and bad, or just to toss out ideas you may have.  There is no charge and no catch.

As my regular readers know … and if you aren’t a regular reader, what can I do yo make you one? … tell me what aspects of GPS tracking you’d like to know more about .. on Fridays I like to post something visually appealing that’s map or GPS-related. Well today my friend Rob Donat has done my work for me.

Bob’s company, GPSInsight is now an advertiser here on the GPS tracking ROI blog (thanks, Rob) but I’ve been following his company’s work for some time now. There are any number of suppliers out there who can sell you GPS for your fleet. Some of them even know what they are doing And the nature of GPS tracking combined with the lack of measurement … and thus lack of effective management … that most fleet operations suffer from make sit a cinch that you’ll get a return on investment from almost any supplier with any brand of GPS tracking equipment.

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