GPS Tracking ROI

Lesson of the day: Some opportunities may be better left un-seized.
A Riverhead man with a felony record learned it the hard way when he jumped in an idling Suffolk County-owned van and took off, only to be arrested minutes later. Turns out the vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking device…

Actually, there are two lessons here … for Mr. Davis … a life of crime is not for you, dude!  What does this make, arrest number 18?  You better just stay straight after you get this case resolved, because you have a large target painted on your back.

And to those reading and wondering about GPS savings … the prime cause of this mini-drama was a city employee doing what we have all been told not to do … leaving a vehicle unsecured, inviting theft and, certainly in this case, wasting precious $100 a barrel fuel.  Commercial and government vehicle theft and idling fuel waste are no small matter in today’s world.  trust but verify and do your job … protecting assets rather than just hoping the police will be able to do the job for you, after the fact.

Islip officials used a hidden GPS device to catch Long Island MacArthur Airport’s operations manager using his Islip Town vehicle for personal use, and found him ducked down in the backseat of his car, idling in a hotel parking lot on his day off, town sources said.
Islip sources said the town concealed a second global-positioning system device on the underside of Emery Dicey’s town car after Dicey bragged that he could circumvent the town’s vehicle monitoring system. He told airport employees that he could beat the system by removing the GPS device from his car and leaving it at home in his garage, town sources said….  more here

Oh this one comes under the heading of ‘told ya so’.  I get dozens and dozens of searched here at GPS Tracking ROI under the subject of "defeat GPS" or "hide from GPS" etc.  One always wonders how many of these queries are from people with perhaps legitimate privacy concerns and how many are from employees who just want to steal from their bosses.  Face it people, a job is a deal where the employer is supposed to pay you and you are supposed to give a day’s work … and follow the rules.

here’s a guy who has been milking the government for 30 years … probably ready for retirement … who not only has decided he doesn’t have to follow the rules, but can’t resist bragging about it to peers and underlings.  Another Darwin Award candidate .. what a bullshit artist.  If you read the story between the lines he might (just my speculation here) be both a philanderer and a cheap skate … took his girl friend to a motel but did it in the back seat instead and then hurried home to dear old momma.  But maybe he was in the back seat by himself, we’ll probably never know.

Lessons here:  Employee vehicle use abuse is endemic.  And many municipalities actual enable bad behavior by assigning and monitoring vehicle use by miles traveled … nothing an errant employee would like better than driving around to the bars just to build up miles for the sake of miles.  (You might like to read my tales of November 4 series)The second lesson?  Portable GPS units, particularly cell phone units are no good for real-world tracking.  Ner-do-wells leave them in fixed locations, hand them to confederates, etc.  When you make the investment in GPS tracking, be sure the system you buy is permanently mounts … a hidden mount is even better.

Students Debate Cell Requirement

A school-mandated purchase of a GPS-enabled cell phone has stirred cries of “Big Brother” from some students, but in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre last spring others find it comforting that their whereabouts can be tracked., reports the Associated Press…. read more here.

This is a pretty well-balanced piece about an innovative program at Montclair State (New jersey, alma mater of Bruce Willis and Carmela Soprano).

It points up one of the big problems in any sort of system designed to protect young people … everyone is invincible up until age 25 or so … it can’t happen to me, therefore I have no use for it.

On the other side of the coin I like the idea behind the system … rather than trying to monitor the location of everyone, all the time … which may have too many privacy concerns but is without a doubt an administrative nightmare, this system attempts to use the GPS tracking feature only when it is needed, and under the control of the user … which I think is a refreshing and intelligent idea.

There is a grave tendency to ignore the amount of data that GPS tracking units collect.  This can be an advantage for data mining purposes, but if the developers of the system don’t carefully plan, in advance, what they are going to do with the masses of data and how they can be analyzed, stored and recovered in the future a GPS tracking system may turn into a huge millstone around the originator’s neck, rather than a tool to help.

I couldn’t resist the picture of the pretty girl that was in the article … whatever is she made up for?… I get the idea we don’t have to worry about her safety in a dark alley, but rather the safety of anyone who went down the alley with her … thank God I didn’t have to raise any daughters ….

Here’s a few links, tools, comments and tidbits I found interesting this past week … I see a lot happening in the GPS train world this coming year … if you aren’t onboard already, get on the train.

Tim Flight at GPSReview,net has an interesting and very useful post about reading the satellite information screens on many popular GPS navigation units.  GPS is never more accurate than the location and geometry of the satellites let it be, so this is a good learning tool.

GPS Insight has released an interesting map book tool into the ‘wild’.  Many people with delivery, service, taxi or emergency service vehicles operate with map books in the vehicles … a paper map book is still one of the most practical tools to help a driver find a location.  So how to tell a driver which page and area on the map book page shows the address of interest?  GPS and GPS Insight to the rescue … pretty darn useful tool.

Things I’m not really sure are worth it department.  In August, 2007, I included kudos to Lock-Mart, their contract partners and the government team involved in a flawless upgrade of the GPS Control Segment at Schriever (formerly Falcon) AFB, Colorado.  A great deal of this upgrade was long overdo, but let’s not forget that this is not as complex an installation as some might think … the gist of GPS Control is, the Ground Segment monitor stations send signals back to Control, computers in the Control segment parse data for necessary corrections and the Control Segment uploads corrections.commands to the ‘birds’ … the Space Segment.  Do we really need all this replaced yet again?  Not sure, since I am no longer part of the program, if this is great news or yet another testimony to the power of lobbying.

Unlike about 98% of my fellow Americans, I’m proud that I have had a life-long connection with agriculture.  I’ve even been a Colorado cattle owner and had cowshit on my boots and fixed fences that bordered on Falcon AFB..  So if the agricultural community is happy with this turn of events, I wish them well.  I do, however, want to go on record that I think spending money that would go directly to promoting agriculture is, instead, diverted to funding one of the greatest jingoistic political boondoggles known to man, is stupid, wrong, and uncaring of all the people in this world who aren’t as fat as Frenchmen, Germans and even us Americans.  GPS certainly helps agriculture and will help even more in the future.  Funding a competitor system that does exactly the same thing just because there’s an EU logo on the side rather than a Stars and Stripes strikes me as being very sad.

I’ll be back next week and this time I won’t be so afraid to speak my mind.  Peace.

I’m not absolutely sure this one is for real but there have been too many recent similar reports for them all to be a hoax:

GPS steers driver into path of train

Silicon Valley geek led astray

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 04 Jan 2008

A computer technician from Sunnyvale is facing a bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars after his GPS system caused him to collide with a train.

Bo Bai claimed that he was driving a rental car in Bedford Hills, New York when his GPS system directed him to drive down a railway track.

The car became stuck almost immediately and Bai abandoned the vehicle shortly before it was hit by a commuter train travelling at 60mph.

"As the car is driving over the tracks, the GPS system tells him to turn right, and he turns right onto the railroad tracks," Dan Brucker, spokesman for train company Metro-North told the Lower Hudson Online. …

It’s the start of a new year here at GPS ROI Tracking, so let’s take a moment to review the bidding.  I was brought up in a day when you didn’t have to put warning labels on hot stoves, and long before Bill Engvall made a career of handing put signs to stupid people.

Most of the time I’m happy with my age and the aging process, sometimes I feel bad that I wasn’t younger just so I could be around to see some of today’s great inventions mature, but there are times, when I see how frickin’ stupid some people are getting, and how society props these dingbats up and makes excuses for them, that I just want to throw up my hands and say, "Lord, I’m ready now".

Folks, GPS navigation units are built to calculate your position and either report that position back to headquarters or show you that position on a map.  The map-style GPS units typically have address finder and driving directions built in … and that’s, of course, a handy feature.  But as a driver, you and nobody else is responsible for your vehicle.  I am so sick of people coming up with every excuse in the book to cover up their mistakes and their failure to accept responsibility for their own actions that I could just SPIT.

But I hate spitting and also hate losing my temper, so I’ll just leave you with this thought for a better 2008 … as Sgt Jablonski was famous for saying for many years, "be careful out there".

When I saw this picture on my my colleague Rob Donat’s blog I just knew I was going to republish it.  Rob is very good at making GPS tracking visually appealing … and he’s much better than I am at remembering to wish his loyal readers a Merry Christians and a Happy New Year.  Actually, I’m not late, just consider this an early Christmas wish for 2008.

As Bob pointed out in his article I am very grateful to those across the country who work through the night, every night, to keep us safe, fed, informed and even entertained.

In a control room where I used to be able to "hang out", but as a civilian can not any more, there are many thousands more vehicles being tracked … across the "Northern Tier" of the US on their way to and from missile silos, in Afghanistan, Iraq and a thousand other places around the globe, driven by mainly young men and women,far from home, family and even safety.  My heart goes out to them as well as my snappiest military salute to my former brothers and sisters at arms.

And there’s one other special group we ought to think of as the light of 2008 begins to color the sky in the east … a dedicated group of military, US Civil Service and defense contractor personnel who sit deep inside Building 400 on Schriever AFB on the empty Colorado Plains where it’s pretty darn cold tonight.  They are the men and women of the 2nd Space Operations Squadron who sit at consoles, 24/7/365 and "fly" those NAVSTAR "birds" that make this all happen.  You see GPS isn’t brought to you by Larry and Sergey, or Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoc, or any other of the rich and famous … it’s brought to you by sergeants and lieutenants and colonels and ‘workaday" engineers and technicians who don’t get rich and don’t get much recognitions … they just make it happen for the USA and the entire rest of the world’s population … hat’s off.

Nice little “Mommy van” sort of care, isn’t it?  You probably were behind one very similar today on your track from “Black Friday Sale” to “Black Friday Sale”.  An ideal car for a catering business … big enough to hold supplies and a few staff, small enough to be economical and go fast! 

A contract caterer has been banned from driving after he was caught speeding at more than 113mph in a people carrier.

Ian Duguid, 48, of Croft Road, Kelso, claimed the Ford S-Max was too powerful and told the court that he had now sold it and replaced it with a smaller car….

He was banned from driving for four months and fined £1,000 after he admitted the offence on 8 September.

Duguid told the court he had not realised he was traveling so fast on the Perth to Edinburgh road.

“It was a moment of stupidity and I should not have been so stupid,” he said.

“I have since sold the vehicle because the car was too powerful.

“It gave a false sense of what you were doing and you did not realise what speed you were traveling at.” … read the rest of Ian sad story here

1,000 GB Pounds is a bit over $2000 USD at today’s rate (oh, how my poor dollar has fallen).  Is your little company, just getting to the point it will start showing a profit, got an extra $2,000 lying about to feed the court … I just had to throw in the picture of the Perth (Scotland) Sheriff’s Court building … looks like it hasn’t changed much since Robin Hood’s day.  I’m sure the business can afford to chauffeur Ian around during his suspension too … that’s really a partial loss of two employees … but you have employees to spare, don’t you?

Half of the driver’s “excuses’ sound like the ordinary human BS we manufacture when we are caught with our hand in the cookie jar … but I sympathize with Ian on many of the things he says. 

When your  mind is busy with work and family issues you just may be driving much faster than you intended.  I’m sure a number of the company drivers I helped management spot with GPS tracking weren’t driving that fast intentionally. 

But intentional or not, dangerous driving can wreck a small business in one easy lesson.  In this case it was merely a fine and an inconvenience … it could have involved deaths and injuries too.  A top-quality GPS tracking system, complete with management speeding alerts and other important measurement tools would cost maybe $500 USD or so … can you do the math?  Saving just one conviction like this per year would give a 4 to 1 ROI on a GPS tracking equipment investment … I didn’t graduate from Harvard Business School but I think I can figure that one out for myself … can you?

My friend Yuga recently wrote on something that’s becoming big business here in the Philippines … in-cab ecommerce. Interactive business opportunities while stuck in airport traffic. This has been a big bone of contention in the US for years … in some cities cab drivers have even gone on strike… forgoing all their income in a (so far) vain attempt to keep from making more income. I’m an American and a capitalist by birth and education .. I find this picture a lot harder to understand that the screen cap included in this blog post … even though it has a lot of Pilipno words in view.

The Philippines’ reputation is that of a ‘third-world” or “developing” nation … and as a permanent resident of the Philippines I guess I can agree that by many socio-economic standards this assessment may be true … but if you’re in the US (as most of my readers are) I would be really careful not to hurt myself patting myself on the back too enthusiastically.

the “SmartBro” offering in the picture is an internet service provider subsidiary of one of the country’s largest cell phone carriers. Both major carriers are part of a business family tree that traces to PLDT (Philippines Long Distance Telephone company), the former AT&T of the Philippines (and interestingly enough a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (PHI).

Is your Internet Service Provider (ISP) listed on the NYSE? Didn’t think so. If it is, is it currently carrying a Zachs “Buy” rating and paying $1.31 a share? Not likely.

(more…)

V-Sol has been working closely with Eco-Power, The emission reduction specialists, tracking vehicle usage in tests to meet Euro 3 emissions standards for London Taxi’s.

The test procedure, which was managed by the EST, required 3 back to back emissions tests at a VCA approved emissions laboratory which had to pass a Euro 3 drive cycle test. The next part of the procedure was to carry out a 10,000 mile durability test. Previously this test had to be conducted over a 6 month period but in order to accelerate the procedure Eco-Power agreed with the PCO and EST to install a comprehensive real time tracking system.

V-SOL installed a state of the art tracking system on the taxi which was closely monitored by the EST and PCO. The system allowed real time online monitoring by giving password protected access to the relevant officials who were able to establish the exact movements of the taxi and therefore confirm that it was covering the 10,000 miles in a normal London Taxi drive cycle in and around London (and not doing laps around the M25 just to cover the miles!) full article on making the world greener with GPS Tracking here.

A couple days ago bloggers all over the world participated in Blog Action Day, a day for everyone to talk about helping the environment. I have to confess I was working other issues and didn’t get around to it … but better late than never. There were many interesting posts and ideas, one that I particularly liked was from my friend John Chow (GM, who built a very credible electric car the EV-1, which they essentially killed with their own horrible marketing) is now taking orders for a much advanced electric car, one which can extend it’s range indefinitely with gasoline. Let’s see how they manage to screw this one up).

Anyway, here’s some “green thoughts” from me … I’ve written pretty much continuously on the green aspects of GPS, which essentially come from:

• Speed Management: Decreasing peak speeds and average speed increases safety and saves gas.
• Distance Management: I’ve shown here before how even on short mileage days you can save 20%+
• Time(Labor) Management: You may easily save on employees. An employee is costly to the environment just by breathing

OK, I hear you, but I’m not buying GPS tracking … what other ways can I save? Easy:

• Slow Down: It will save you a lot in a year and even improve your health (less stress).
• Use Public Transport: I know, in North America we seem to think of public transpo as something people are banished to … but it saves, big time … and just because you prefer a car doesn’t mean you should use it.
• WALK: (especially up and down stairs … you think elevators and escalator’s don’t consume?) Waistline an cardio benefits guaranteed as well.

As always, I welcome comments, constructive criticisms, disagreements, questions or just plain talk. You can leave a comment to this article or email me direct at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872. I’m usually on Yahoo messenger (davestarr) and will be happy to chat there. If you liked this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed so you get all my news and views.