GPS Tracking ROI

The GPS is a world-wide system … yes, that’s what the “G” stands for … Global. GPS was specified and built for one particular purpose … navigation. It can truly be used to locate one anywhere in the world, and no days even in space.

Somewhere in the early days of GPS a sub-industry developed for tracking the location of people or things using GPS to locate the assets and sending the location information back to the government, corporation or individual wanting knowledge of that location. However, the commonly used GPS Tracking term is really a misnomer. GPS doesn’t “track” anything. GPS enables someone or something to learn where it is and that information has to flow back to a user for practical real time (more correctly “near” real time) tracking to take place. For talking purposes, let’s call this link from the asset to the “owner” of the asset the “back haul”.

The GPS tracking market is saturated with a plethora of “black boxes” that use the cellular telephone network as the back haul. For some users this will work, but it only works when the asset is in range of the correct cellular system. The tracking can even be called “global”, provided your definition of “global” means being in cell phone range. If you are shipping, say, a container load of expensive, marketable HD plasma TVs from Taiwan to Texas one doesn’t have to be a communications engineer or geographer to know that huge segments of the journey will be out of cellular coverage areas, so this idea really doesn’t meet my idea of what “Global” should be.

Other GPS tracking solutions offer satellite service as the backhaul. They can give service over whole continents or even, if they use the right communications satellites, the true globe. There are several competing satellite systems that offer coverage over most of the populated globe, and a couple that truly send and receive communications anywhere on earth.

Here’s one that uses the Boeing-operated Iridium system. It’s nice stuff. The terminals are relatively small and in comparison to the cost of a container load of flat screens, it’s pretty cheap … and of course reusable.

The Iridium system has been covered here before … see here and here for a little background. So here’s a company that almost “gets” the global concept. Except for one little detail:

…The D2000M/MD addresses the needs of mobile asset managers including those working with large/small trucks, tractor-trailers, lone-workers, container ships and more. With its lightweight 2.2-pound form factor, it makes the most of limited storage space available on many transportation assets. Additionally, since its battery runs over 24 hours (my emphasis) in a single charge, users without access to electricity can still maintain constant communication with their dispatch offices…. Press release Here: Company Site Here:

Now I’m not knocking Blue Sky, I think they have a heck of a lot to offer. But although we can easily track the ship our mythical container of plasma screens might be on, we sure can’t track the container … not with a 24 hour battery life. Talking up and down to satellites takes power and not many companies have been able to solve that issue. Tomorrow we’ll look at one who has, and who ‘almost” has a global solution … hopefully by looking at some of these real-world examples you’ll be better able to separate fact from fiction.