Does GPS Tracking Have to Involve Crooked Dealing?

May 22, 2006 by Mr. GPS · 3 Comments
Filed under: GPS Help or Hurt, GPS for Business 

City consultant on taxi GPS hired by GPS firm

Not illegal, but move seen as ‘improper’

By DAVE DAVIES
daviesd@phillynews.com 215-854-2595

A Philadelphia Parking Authority consultant who helped choose a company to install a $3.5 million GPS system in taxis has now taken a job with the company.

David Boonin, who was paid $584,000 over the past three years as a consultant to the authority, is now working for Taxitronic, the Long Island City, N.Y., firm that won the bid to install GPS units in city taxis… Rest of Article here, If You Can Stomach It

I posted about this good idea, but very poorly implemented Phiasco in Philly a few weeks back. At the time the mistakes seemed to be that the city was paying for technology that business’s should buy and was doing a terrible job educating the drivers about the business advantages they would gain, rather than the expenses they would bear. Now, I see a little more as to why this was going so badly.

Let me start by explaining for new readers that I have been working operationally with the GPS since there was only one satellite up there … I served 38 years with the USAF. I have also specified, refined designs for, implemented and trained on a number of GPS systems for specific military functions. I earn my living now as a business owner, selling and servicing commercial GPS tracking systems. I’ laying this out so you can understand I am not just shooting from the hip when I comment on the blot on Philadelphia’s escutcheon.

I guess first, and most importantly, I have no idea what a Parking Authority has to do with taxis. I’ve never seen a city operate parking facilities better than private enterprise and Philadelphia, especially (I was there through the Rizzo years) is the least likely candidate I could think of. This entire enterprise should be moved to the private sector and moved quickly. It’s D-U-M-B for the city to by buying and forcing technology on the cab companies. I can easily prove that GPS technology will offer such significant savings that it will drive the Luddite companies out of business. In my view the city’s role should be to campaign for, support, and give licensing or tax breaks to GPS adopters. It’s by far the smarter way to operate and it eliminates a lot of temptation.

Second … and I hope that Mr. Boonin (is his family related to the Boondoggles?) doesn’t take this personally (but if he does, tough titty), paying a consultant nearly $600k over a three year period is just plain stupid (refer to paragraph one, above, give city employees with no subject matter knowledge a checkbook and this is the kind of nonsensical waste of public funds that occurs). The city made the decision to decree that 1600 taxis be equipped with GPS tracking and r=that different taxi company’s dispatch systems be integrated with the GPS. This is a non-trivial project but one that hundreds of reputable GPS tracking vendors could undertake. It’s ludicrous for the city to pay $200,000 a year to an individual to help commercial companies make a profit. I would have been happy to submit a proposal for this job as would have many of my worthy competitors. Why would I charge money to generate the proposal … I would stand to gain my legitimate profit on the transaction. You don’t need a consultant to design a common system that is in use in hundreds of cities already. Request proposals, rank them and select the best proposal … exactly what the city’s purchasing department is equipped to do.

Third, I really hope the City Controller wakes up and get the rules in place that should have been in place long ago. One might ask who’s been awake at the Controller’s office for the past 200 year or so. It certainly hasn’t been Mr. Butkovitz and his staff. As Mr. Boonin brags, as he laughs all the way to the bank, the law did not prevent him from legally partaking of this windfall, but his conscience certainly should. When I was involved with government purchasing for years a boondoggle like this would have sent me to federal prison. I can’t even discuss many source selections I was involved with, let alone accept work from the companies I was instrumental in selection. I’d really be surprised by this whole mismanaged affair, except that it happened in Philadelphia. What a sad commentary on what should be one of America’s exemplar cities. Mr. Rizzo died years ago but his spirit certainly lives on… beat them into submission

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  1. Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics — Making GPS The Goat | GPS Tracking says:
    03/06/2006 at 13:27

    [...] Mr. Weinberg seems to have some valid concerns. The problem is, someone has fed him so much nonsense about GPS that most of his issues just don’t exist … at least as far as GPS is concerned. In the brief letter it’s very hard to see if Mr. Weinberg is a malingerer or if the Parking Authority has fed the drivers nonsense or whether the overpriced, ethically challenged consultant the Authority has been wasting their money on is just helping stir the soup so that he can make people feel the project is sooo difficult that he has to keep sucking up the money tat ought to go to the public good. [...]

  2. Is GPS a Tool Of The Capitalists To Enslave The Workers — Or Is It Just Easy To Fail To Communicate? | GPS Tracking says:
    26/06/2006 at 19:07

    [...] This week we’re going to do something a little different here at the SatViz GPS Blog. A few weeks back I blogged a couple entries about a GPS tracking project being implemented in the city of Philadelphia. See here: And here: And here: Two things seemed noteworthy about this project: [...]

  3. GPS Tracking and the Rights of Government and the People | GPS Tracking says:
    29/07/2006 at 18:47

    [...] Independent third party consultant(s) (NOT a “consultant” who will later profit from the system sold … see here for a glaring example of what NOT to do) [...]