Here’s a great article from CleanTechnica (recommended) that points up an issue I have been talking about for years now: GPS tracking and GPS mapping isn’t “just for the other guy”. You can make your own ROI.
When we mention GPS tracking most people think of three major areas:
- Tracking commercial fleets for safety and savings
- Tracking public transpo like buses and taxis for public convenience and compliance
- Tracking prisoners/paroled offenders to save corrections costs and make the pubic safer.
But driving to work? How lame is that, of course each one of us knows best about how to drive ourselves, right?
Well, perhaps not so. Read this article and think to yourself, “How is it that even though I know I one of the world’s best drivers, I somehow know traffic conditions on streets I can’t even see”?
Talent is one thing, Reliable clairvoyance is something else yet again.
NAVTEQ Announces Use of GPS Can Reduce Emissions by 21%
Written by Beth Graddon-Hodgson
Published on September 8th, 2009
Many commuters have GPS installed in their cars, or have purchased portable devices to try to get them where they’re going. A recent study by NAVTEQ, a data provider for navigation systems has demonstrated that using a GPS device can not only save drivers time spent in traffic, it can also reduce emissions from vehicles by up to 21%. … there’s a lot more in the article on the value of personal GPS tracking and the study it references. Recommended.
Two nights ago I watched a show on the National Geographic channel about commercial logging. Yeah, I’ll be the first to admit I watched due to the “boys with big yellow toys” syndrome … it was really interesting to watch these guys showing off the high tech world that logging has become.
But a big part of the “profit puzzle” in that business is moving the raw cut logs to the proper mill at the proper time. Mileage and routing is a huge factor in determining if each day’s work made a profit or a loss. (no wonderment there from the fleet managers of the world or independent owner operators reading this, now is there?)
When issues came up about discrepancies between what a certain mill was paying for mileage allowance and the mileage delivery drivers were recording, the transportation manager/truck fleet owner called the drivers over for an impromptu meeting and outlined the routs available and the routing her wanted the drivers to use … with a stick, scratching in the mud. Millions in technology for cutting, trimming and loading the logs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for each truck trailer rig to haul the timer, thousands of dollars per load, making the difference between profit and loss on each individual day … and these guys managed their mileage with a stick in the mud?
Why, oh why, are so many otherwise smart business people such CPS Luddites? If you want to work your way out of this recession (and you had better work your own way out, government handouts can’t do it all), then start putting cheap, effective and PROFITABLE GPS tracking to work for you and throw away the stick you have been scratching out your business with.
