Category Archives: GPS Tracking -Other Uses

Tourists Think It’s a Gas to Driver Around Town With GPS as Escort

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We’re always looking for innovative uses of GPS technology. So we thought we’d share a fun way to get around three American and two European cities with help from GPS fleet tracking’s first cousin, GPS navigation. And, helpful people that we are, we’ll end with a recommendation for tying the cousins together.

The fun vehicle is called a GoCar. It’s a little yellow open-air vehicle whose operators bill it as “The Cure for the Common Tour.” That’s because each three-wheeled, two-seat, gasoline-powered GoCar is equipped with a GPS navigation device that not only gives voice-enabled directions to major attractions in each city, but also provides voice narration about the most notable sites.

The vehicles are available for domestic rental in San Francisco, San Diego and Miami, and overseas rental in Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal. All the tours are strictly over city streets, so the helmeted occupants won’t be competing for lane space on major highways and freeways. The operators even provide laminated maps of the city being navigated, which is sooo 2007. If a driver isn’t listening closely enough to the navigation device, a quick cell phone call to the rental office gets them back on track.

Speaking of track, here’s our recommendation for GoCar’s operators: They can always know where each vehicle is by using GPS fleet tracking. Since they’re already familiar with GPS navigation, they’ll just need to install a GPS fleet tracking device in each GoCar. That can help them be sure their renters aren’t veering into bad parts of town if they decide to stray from the guided GPS tour. And knowing how adventurous tourists can be, seeing each vehicle’s location in real time on a familiar Google Map sounds like a pretty good idea for the fleet operator. The GoCar people could even use GPS fleet tracking as a marketing tool, letting tourists know that their whereabouts are always known in case of emergency.

Hmmm. Sounds like a company we should get our salespeople to call on. Even if your fleet isn’t comprised of mini-vehicles that escort tourists digitally, maybe you should contact us as well. We’ll always steer you in the right direction when it comes to optimizing fleet performance, cutting fuel costs, boosting employee productivity and much, much more.

GPS Fleet Tracking Has Its Roots in Ancient Ships

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The first time you saw the abbreviation GPS probably was in regard to a navigation unit for your car or truck. And by now you surely know about GPS fleet tracking for your company’s service vehicles. Well, you can thank ancient mariners, the U.S. Air Force and former President Bill Clinton for making GPS available to track your fleet in real time.

GPS technology has come a long way since it was made available to the general public in the early ’90s. The roots of the Global Positioning System can be traced to the mid 1700s. That’s when the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England offered a cash prize to any engineer who could design an accurate clock that could be carried on a Royal Navy vessel as a reliable means for fixing its latitude and longitude on the earth, as well as distance traveled. The scientists at the observatory didn’t know it at the time, but they were on to something big: Accurate timekeeping was the key to creating GPS technology.

Fast-forward to 1993: The U.S. Air Forcelaunched the 24th satellite in its space-based GPS network — the final satellite needed for the system to provide worldwide coverage. Six additional satellites joined the network over the next three years. Three “spare” satellites can be pressed into service if any of the 24 main satellites malfunctions or requires maintenance.

This “satellite farm” is situated 12,000 miles above Earth. Each satellite makes two complete rotations every 24 hours, in orbits arranged so that no matter where it is on the planet, at least four satellites are visible to any GPS fleet tracking or navigation device.

Each GPS device on Earth employs a technique called three-dimension trilateration to determine its position in relation to the three satellites used. Based on the extremely accurate atomic clocks on the satellites, a GPS unit determines how far it is from each satellite by analyzing the high-frequency low-power radio signals they transmit. The signals contain a pseudo-random code that both the GPS receiver and satellite generate daily at midnight.

When the satellite signal reaches the receiver, the receiver factors in the time code vs. the time the signal was received. Then it calculates the difference between the two to determine the unit’s distance from the satellite. It repeats the process with at least two additional satellites to determine latitude and longitude, and even elevation.

The signals broadcast from the GPS network originally contained an unencrypted signal-degradation pattern to make them inaccurate by up to several miles in civilian use. The military, however, employed an encrypted signal that was very accurate. In the 1990s, Clinton was convinced that the technology had many valuable uses in civilian life, and signed an order removing the degradation.

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about how the technology works when equipping your company vehicles with GPS fleet tracking. All you need to know is that it works – to streamline fleet operations, improve driver productivity, keep a lid on fuel costs and assist in vehicle recovery. Learn more.

From Airport to Carport, GPS Tracks Down Stolen Assets

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If you’re reading this on a laptop computer in an airport, watch out. Don’t let it become a statistic. Computer maker Dell found that about 12,000 laptops are reported lost or stolen annually in U.S. airports. And keep an eye on your BlackBerry, too. Like your laptop, it’s full of private and corporate data you don’t want a thief to get ahold of.

Wait a minute. Maybe you’re reading this on a stolen laptop at the airport. Well, get ready to rumble, pal, because you’re about to be busted by GPS fleet tracking-style technology. You will, that is, if the computer is loaded with new software that barks out, “Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen” from the speaker if you don’t enter the right password. Then the message “Stolen laptop” appears on the screen every 30 seconds, along with the owner’s contact information (might not be the best idea unless you want the thief to track you down).

For its final act, the software automatically connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi, so the owner can track the laptop’s location in real time on a website. It doesn’t use GPS fleet tracking yet, but some big names in communications plan to offer it in similar products later this year.

As for the BlackBerry, you can embed it with a chip that not only tracks the phone’s location via GPS, but on command can also start deleting data so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

All of the above sounds like great ideas for tracking your employees’ mobile PCs and phones. But if you need to keep track of the company vehicles they drive, we’ve got a solution that’s better than LoJack: It’s called GPS fleet tracking. All you need is a web-connected computer to view their vehicles’ locations in real time or see where they’ve been as a “breadcrumb trail.”

But wait, there’s more! You’ll be able to monitor drivers’ speeds to help enforce company policies, see if a driver ventures out of any preset geographic boundaries, and receive text or email alerts if a driver exceeds company-mandated engine-idle times.

And if a vehicle should be stolen, you’ll be able to find its current or last-known location so you can start the recovery process. As for the laptop and cell phone inside, tell your drivers to keep them well-hidden…or consider the options mentioned above.

Oh, and if you’re still reading this on a stolen laptop, you better look over you shoulder.

GPS Tracking Gets High Marks in the Air and On the Ground

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Keeping track of vehicles on the road is easy when you use a GPS fleet tracking system. But it’s a bit trickier to manage the highways in the sky, especially if you’re an air traffic controller for the New York City area or an air ambulance pilot in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley.

The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a better way to funnel air traffic in and out of a 31,180-square-mile area from Philadelphia to Albany to Montauk. It’s sort of an airborne GPS fleet tracking system designed to allow pilots to route their planes themselves with less reliance on air traffic control. According to an article on Wired.com:

“Six years ago, Congress green-lit a plan to solve this problem. The Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act calls for a new system, dubbed NextGen, that uses GPS to create a sort of real-time social network in the skies.”

Take a look at amazing illustration that gives a realistic depiction of the 2 million flights that pass through the New York area each year.

In Pennsylvania, a type of GPS fleet tracking system has been installed in Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s airborne ambulances. WGAL-TV says:

“The system uses GPS and an automated, real-time weather tracking system to help pilots take patients directly to Hershey Medical Center in bad weather. The fleet uses a GPS and an anemometer to give pilots in the cockpit a better idea of their landing visibility.”

It’s always interesting to see the innovative ways GPS fleet tracking is being put to use. Your vehicle-management needs are probably on the ground, which means you’re an ideal candidate for continuous real-time fleet tracking. It’s the easy, affordable way to improve routing efficiency, cut fuel consumption by monitoring engine idle time, enforce speed and geographic limits, and ensure that drivers are at specific addresses when they’re supposed to be. See what we mean.

Finding Manholes, Cargo Containers All in a Day’s Work for GPS Tracking

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Just a day after we learned that a Colorado company used GPS fleet tracking-style technology to create three-dimensional views of much of Virginia’s underground utilities, we see that Burlington, North Carolina, is using the same technology to keep track of its “lost” manholes.

According to local online newspaper TheTimesNews.com:

“A $550,000, two-year contract used global-positioning technology to specify exact coordinates of all 830 miles of the city’s water and sewer system, including joints, old repairs and manholes.”

The 100 manholes in question have become “lost” over the decades due to encroaching residential and commercial development. City crews will do their best to unearth them over the next few months. Each manhole’s GPS coordinates will be entered into a database to form a virtual map of the network. If repairs are needed, the crews can use handheld GPS tracking devices to tell them where to start digging.

Meanwhile, in the above-ground world, international shipper DHL has been testing cargo containers with built-in GPS fleet tracking technology – except in this case, the “fleet” is comprised of the cargo containers. Customers will be able to track the exact location of the GPS-enabled containers that carry their shipments in real time. Onboard sensors can report on each container’s environment, including temperature, humidity, shock, vibration and exposure to light.

Since your fleet probably is on wheels, it could benefit from the latest and very affordable advances in GPS fleet tracking. Installing tracking devices is much easier than playing lost-and-found with elusive manholes. You’ll see a real-time “breadcrumb” trail of each vehicle overlaid online on familiar Google Maps, monitor engine idle time to help keep fuel consumption in check, set up geographic boundaries for drivers, view their speeding habits and much more. And if you’re driving through Burlington, it might even help you find a missing manhole or two (just kidding).