GPS Tracking ROI

I got a nice note from the owner of this site  a few days back.  Instamapper.com  I’m impressed with what he’s already accomplished and his future goals.  Frankly, GPS tracking of vehicles does not really cost that much when you look at the return on your investment .. I used to sell tracking systems with a promise that they would pay off in less than a year … and I had clients who got back three times their investment in 3 months … a pretty hefty ROI (Return on their Investment).

But those facts aside, it does cost something and if you are a plumber, a garage door service corporation, an independent house cleaner or salesman (you don’t think even a one-man band can profit from GPS tracking?  You haven’t thought it through, yet) then you can not or will not free up the funds to make an investment in something you don’t know by your own experience will pay off.

Also, many companies engaged in selling commercial tracking systems can’t server the one vehicle, two vehicle, five vehicle market … they’d like to, but the systems are becoming more and more of a commodity and it costs as much to sell one as it does to sell 100.

Enter Instamapper and an entirely affordable, complete under your own control, nearly free way to track any small fleet.  You might even own the right cell phone already, if not, you can buy one here, cheap.

Here’s a link to the demo which shows off the site’s features quite well.

Here’s a step by step guide that tells you how to get set up.

All in all, I rate this one pretty highly.  I don’t see a lot of business plan as yet, but I know there is one, and I can see basically all benefit and no real drawbacks.

This is an excellent site to "get your feet wet" and prove to yourself that GPS tracking will work for your business.  Later, you may want to consider several things I have noted from experience:

• Cheap cell phones don’t usually offer very good tracking resolution.
• Very fast tracking rates are good, except that over time the data collected becomes too huge to handle, you should think about graduating to a more sophisticated system algorithm in the future, such as these folks.
• Your data will not stay on the server a long time, especially for tax and liability purposes, you might want to set up a procedure to save it while it is ‘fresh’

However none of these cautions should chase you away from having a look here … a fresh, new useful idea to help you bring home more of the money you earn .. or keep your teen safe.

I came across this report today on a device I’m really happy to see.  Parents have had the option for some time now to monitor teen drivers with GPS tracking and other teen driving safety devices … and they are used far too little.  In the US we still kill far more teen and young 20’s drivers than we can possibly justify.  A teen is safer going off to fight in Iraq than traveling our highways … or so it seems.  At least s/he will have adult supervision in Iraq.

Basic GPS tracking devices are good … they will show where the teen has been and how fast they have been driving, which certainly can help correct driving errors, but it is very rare for GPS tracking equipment to have knowledge of actual vehicle handling built in.  This is a great step forward and I’ll learn more about the US version of this Green Road system.  reading the article, I really got a bit annoyed by the flippant attitude of the writer.

It’s as if she doesn’t really realize the scope of the problem … and the need to progress from the ‘dark days’ of giving a child the car keys and worrying to a more modern attitude of watching over only the bad points of their driving … hey, we all can use a little oversight from time to time … and using this knowledge to not only keep them safe but to become much better drivers for the future.  I guess no one really wants to recognize driving for the skill that it actually is.  People spend a lifetime learning about golf or improving their piano skills, but think they are natural-born driving experts.  Read the article and see if you get the same feelings.

And if you have children or supervise programs that oversee children, do something about it.

A new device is being tested that enables parents to remotely monitor teenagers’ driving

It used to be that passing your driving test meant getting the keys to a whole new kind of freedom, away from watchful parental eyes.

But now a new device is threatening this rite of passage by effectively giving parents the ability to spy on their offspring and check up on their driving, even from miles away.

This gadget that thwarts teenage kicks is called Safety Center, and is made by a US company named GreenRoad. It is about to go on trial in Staffordshire as part of a scheme aimed at reducing the accident rate among young drivers. The system includes a “black box”, containing a GPS locator to calculate speed, plus various G-force and motion sensors to monitor the novice driver’s manoeuvres. The data are then relayed to a website at which anxious parents can remotely monitor their children’s driving.

Dangerous manoeuvres, such as accelerating too hard while going round a corner or pulling out too quickly when overtaking, are signaled in red on a password-protected personal web page. Green indicates good driving and amber points to areas that need improvement.

Another device, which includes two small LEDs, is fitted to the dashboard and will flash red or amber whenever a bad manoeuvre is detected, warning the driver to change their behaviour.

As the system is not hooked up to a database of speed limits, it will not flash if the driver is simply breaking the limit. However, the website will list an average speed for each journey; if the average is 80mph, parents will know their child has been speeding. …

Adrian Hide, head of road safety for Staffordshire county council, says: “People have a tendency to think they are better drivers than they really are.

“The aim of this trial is not to spy on young people then punish them, but to highlight where they are going wrong so they can change their behaviour and avoid accidents.” … complete, anti-safety, pro status quo Luddite article

Thanks to all my loyal readers for visiting, and if you are not yet a subscriber to GPS Tracking ROI may I ask you to sign up here to get the latest articles in your feed reader, or, if you prefer an email notification of new articles, use thus secure link.  You email will never be used for any other purpose except article notifications … and thanks to all for your great support.

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 Goodman, at 10:05:52. A reply was sent to her phone at 10:06:29. Thirty-eight seconds later, someone called 911 to report the accident that killed Bailey and her friends.

“Cell phone records indicate the phone was in use,” Povero said. “We’ll never be able to clearly state that she was the one doing the text messages.” Source: ABC News

We Say: Because there was more than one person in the car, there’s no way to say who was doing the text messaging. We’ve see this before, though, someone killed, though not the driver, because of an accident caused by text messaging while driving. As someone who is connected via email and a PDA phone to his office, I will admit that I have emailed while driving … I will also admit it’s not a smart thing to do, and it should be outlawed nationally, IMHO.

Read Michael Santo’s article here:

Can’t say I agree with Michael’s last sentence … I think we in the United States … and most countries for that matter … already have far too many things “outlawed nationally”. Laws can not replace parental guidance. Laws can not cure the problems of the “hard of thinking” which seems to be the case in this tragedy. But I fully agree with his frustration and horror at the tragedy here. Yes, we adult, experienced drivers have all done things behind the wheel we’re not proud of. And we, too, could have killed people “on mistake”. But we generally think a little longer and harder now before we do, we often don’t repeat the same idiotic maneuvers and we can at least pass on the knowledge we’ve gained to those “coming up”. Do we?

Talk to your kids. Set a good example. Warn them of the dangers when there are more than one in the car … who hasn’t seen 5 teenage girls “carrying on”, laughing, joking, teasing, having a great time, yet oblivious to their surroundings … before another tradegy happens, impress upon them that even though fun is fun, and life is wonderful when you’re 18 and the whole world is spread out before you … one person has to keep their mind on driving.

And put a GPS tracker in their car and use it for it’s best and highest purpose. Go over the records with them every week … praise the good things you see, highlight and give guidance about the places they seem to be straying from your bounds. You are not being an ogre, and you are not playing “big brother” … you’re doing what you should be doing as a parent to protect the great blessing you have been entrusted with. Remember, “Big Brother” was built upon “Big Lies”, GPS and parental love are built on truth.

As always, I welcome comments, compliments, disagreements or clarifications. You can leave a comment or email me direct at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872. If you liked this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed so you get all my news and views.

I’m probably up to 20 or so articles with the general subject of Teen GPS Tracking. I came across a GPS dealer and service site a few days ago who really seem to have most parts of the puzzle put together. I plan to do a full review of the company and its offerings soon but I wanted to get out the word about what I feel is a pretty good value for those parents interested in doing their best to help their kids through perilous times.

This is not a paid review and not a company I am affiliated with in any way, so what you see is my unbiased opinion and you won’t run into any “hard sell” pages, and email “squeezes” or the rest of that Internet marketing crappola.

This is also not one of the plethora of cell phone tracking plans currently getting popular with the major cellular carriers. I recommend none of them, they are not what you need for monitoring kids whereabouts and driving performance. This solution mounts in a car, provides accurate data and gives parents the kind of information they need. It’s a great tool for any tracking customer too, but I though I would devote a future post to the specifics of the business solution ROI.

The company is known as Vehicle Path, they’re located in San Diego, CA and they offer:

• A tracking system that is pretty easy to install … a lot better than most of the competition
• An external (but hidden) GPS antenna that will insure decent reception/accuracy
• Decent web-based reporting service using, of all things, Google Maps, so you get the best mapping, overhead imagery, trip routing, address search, all that good stuff, continually updated
• The data transfer part of the puzzle, provided by GPRS (cellular data) technology is where the majority of these outfits drop the ball. Vehiclepath carries it nicely. Their best plan costs well under a buck a day … and they have cheaper ones as well.

Think this situation through carefully before you click on because you “can’t afford” teen tracking. Death by auto is the number one killer of teens in the USA. This whole system costs less than a high-end cell phone and the monthly costs are less than most cell calling plans. Do you buy yourself a cell phone? Your children? then you can afford a tool that will do a lot to keep them safe. (more…)

A lot of people show up here at the world of GPS tracking ROI looking for ways to track their teens and ways to keep their children safe in other aspects of life. Here is a brand new offering I think many will find interesting:

www.techsavvyparents.com (that’s two “v”s in the name there, not a “w”

These guys are trying to cover a broad spectrum of safety issues with many products under one roof:

• Child Monitoring … with trackers that will help you monitor a child inside a mall, for example.
• GPS Shoes … That should let you see where they are roaming around the neighborhood.
• Computer Tracking … Knowing what they are doing and with whom on line is extremely important.
• Teen Drug & Alcohol Test … No parent wants to admit it can happen, but it does … all the time.
• Teen Drivers … You knew there was going to be a GPS tracking aspect here, didn’t you?

A very worthwhile effort from what I have seen so far. If you are a parent, or someone who advises parents, I recommend you go take a look.

My good friends over at Gizmodo featured this device today under the heading of “Screwing over young drivers everywhere“. Maybe that’s their view … we’re all entitled to a couple opinions or two, but frankly I like this little beast.  It’s business-card size, can use an external GPS antenna (the bane of most of these simplistic, self-install trackers) and unlike the typical offering make use of both the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) of the phone carrier’s system, or the text (SMS-Short Message Service) network.  This greatly enhances the coverage, because, especially in the US, GPRS coverage is not nearly what the cell carriers would want you to think it is, but you can send a text from a lot of the USA.

The reason Gizmodo sounded so negative … coming out in favor of continuing our “do nothing” plan to end the single largest cause of teen deaths … unsafe teen driving … is that one of the features you’ll see on this unit is a microphone connection.  The owner of the device can place a call to the tracker’s SIM (Subscriber Information Module) card and cause it to silently turn on audio monitoring inside the vehicle (if the optional microphone is attached).  This may be overkill for some parents …. but to each his/her own.  It’s an option, not a requirement, and there are times it could be darn useful … so use as desired.

Interesting though that the young guys/gals at Gizmodo (and some other blogs who featured this device) seem to think it’s something new.  Almost every GM car and truck sold in the past 5 years comes equipped with OnStar.  Owners who don’t chose to use the features of OnStar can opt not to pay a monthly fee … but the hardware, GPS tracking And Voice Monitoring capability stay with the car for life.  (OnStar can be removed/disabled, but there’s a whole separate Internet sub-culture on that, OnStar is integrated into other vehicle systems and can’t always just simply be unplugged.)  The OnStar control center can “listen in” on any powered OnStar device, 24/7, anywhere.  So is this a GPS tracking issue, a cell phone issue, or merely an illustration that the super-liner USS Privacy has already ripped its side open on the iceberg?

Here, at random (thanks, www.westportnow.com) is just one of the countless, mind-numbing pictures injury/death crashes caused by teen drivers which kill and main our teens at a rate that makes the war in Iraq look like a picnic afternoon.

Many of the searches that land new readers on this site come from the phrase “GPS teen tracking” and many also are the search questions having to do with keeping parents from tracking kids. It seems like a hard question, but it’s not hard for me. As a parent who raised two teen drivers who survived thanks to the grace of God I wish the technology had been available years ago when my boys were teens. I’d like to think they were good drivers and didn’t speed much and went where they said they were going, etc. If they were, then great, both they and I would have had confirmation. If they didn’t, as a dad, I could have stepped in and done something to modify behavior. Today? Absolutely no question I would have it on the car of any child of mine. (more…)