GPS Tracking ROI

Times-News (Burlington, NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 2–In a quiet heist Saturday night, thieves pulled out of Mebane with four tractor-trailers and a cargo of hot cigarettes worth $6 million.According to a police report, 4,727 cases of cigarettes were packed into trucks at the L.J. Rogers Trucking Company on Oakwood Street Extension. On Sunday afternoon an L.J. Rogers employee called officers to report the rigs were missing. Rest of article here:

There’s a series of commercials popular on TV lately that really chaps my hide whenever I see one. A big name-brand insurance company has a guy going around and spotting hazards like a banana peel on the sidewalk. Does this do-gooder pick up the litter and protect people? Nope, he puts a traffic cone down near it in the hope someone will see the peel and avoid slipping on it. Doing extra work and expense to actually avoid fixing the problem. Once upon a time a poem was written that pretty well sums up where we are today when it comes to safety and crime prevention:

Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed.
- Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant,
But over its terrible edge there had slipped,
A Duke and full many a peasant.
The people said something would have to be done.
But the projects did not at all tally.
Some said “Put a fence round the edge of the cliff”.
Some, “An ambulance down in the valley”.The lament of the crowd was profound and was loud,
As the tears overflowed with their pity,
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day
As it spread through the neighboring city.
A collection was made, to accumulate aid,
and the dwellers in highway and alley.
Gave dollars and cents - not to furnish a fence
But an ambulance down in the valley.

“For the cliff is alright, if you’re careful!”, they said;
“And if folks ever slip and are dropping,
It isn’t the slipping that hurts them so much,
As the shock down below - when they’re stopping”
So for years (we have heard), as these mishaps occurred,
Quick forth would the rescuers sally,
To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,
with the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one, in a plea, “It’s a marvel to me,
that you all give so much greater attention,
to repairing results than to curing the cause;
You had much better aim at prevention.
For the mischief, of course, should be stopped at its source;
Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally.
It is far better sense, to put up a fence,
than an ambulance down in the valley!”.

“He is wrong in his head!”, the majority said,
“He would end all our earnest endeavor,
He’s a man who would shirk the responsible work
But we will support it forever.
Aren’t we picking up all, just as fast as they fall,
and giving them care liberally?
A superfluous fence, is of no consequence,
if the ambulance works in the valley.”

The story looks queer, as we’ve written it here,
but things oft occur that are stranger,
more humane, we assert, than to succor the hurt,
is the plan of removing the danger.
The best possible course is to safeguard the source
by attending to things rationally.
Yes build up the fence, and let us dispense,
with the ambulance down in the valley…

Well possibly because of the tremendous power we’ve allowed insurance companies to develop in this country and the lack of individual responsibility … “What’s the government going to do about the problem” … prevalent attitude, you’re going to see more and more stories like today’s amazing cigarette theft linked to above.

One and a half-million dollars worth of cigarettes in one trailer. Four trailers, $6.000.000 worth of attractive, very easy to fence product. On the tractors of the tractor trailer rigs, each worth only a small fraction of the value of their cargo the owners had modern GPS tracking devices. But then who would have thought that thieves would actually steal the whole vehicle and drop off the unprotected trailers?

Well, I sure would have, because when I talk to trucking executives it’s absolutely amazing to me how many of them just don’t give a damn about where their trailers are and how their customer’s cargo is protected. Each of the trailers in this case could have had a simple, under $500 GPS tracker that could have lead law enforcement to the unit even before the cargo was spirited off to parts unknown .. $500 to protect $1,500,000 … even Homer could do that math.

Why not? “Oh the cargo’s insured, let the insurance company worry about it.” Well you better believe their worried now, and next time you buy something with the cost of shipping buried in the price … which means next time you buy almost anything, you’ll worry too.

A fence at the top, or an ambulance to pick up the pieces at the bottom?