Category Archives: GPS Fleet Tracking Government Use

FMCSA to Propose Changes in (HOS) Rules

Posted on by
Reply

This is certainly a topic that will be getting attention by fleet companies and drivers alike over the next couple months. The often delayed changes by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to the trucking industry’s hours-of-service (HOS) rules are again causing controversy with yet another proposal that would revise hours-of-service (HOS) requirements for commercial truck drivers.

The FMCSA has set out to amend the rules governing the working conditions of commercial drivers with a reduction of an hour from the 11-hour drive time limit in effect under the current rules.

Driving hours are regulated by federal HOS rules, which are designed to prevent commercial vehicle-related crashes and fatalities by prescribing on-duty and rest periods for drivers.

Commercial truck drivers who violate this proposed rule would face civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense. Trucking companies that allow their drivers to violate the proposal’s driving limits would face penalties of up to $11,000 for each offense.

Fleet management solutions such as Vehiclepath play a vital role in asset management with a variety of powerful management tools that can be used to accurately control and monitor fleet vehicles. With features such as the driver history playback, record of driving hours, excessive idle hours, and the drive fatigue alert.

The agency is not making any final decision until it receives all the comments from the ongoing “listening sessions” it is currently conducting, and is proposed to reach a decision by July 2011.

A copy of the rulemaking proposal is available on FMCSA’s Web site at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/HOS.

Huge Trucking Firm Migrating to GPS Fleet Tracking From Logbooks

Posted on by
Reply

When one of the nation’s largest trucking firms decides to switch to GPS fleet tracking to log the work hours of its 13,000-plus drivers, you know it must have pretty good faith in the technology.

Schneider National Inc. is making the switch to GPS fleet tracking before, they predict, a government entity mandates one. The type of system Schneider is going with could spell the end of easily falsified logbooks, since it keeps a real-time record of a vehicle’s whereabouts.

Schneider’s move seems well-timed because in December 2008, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates the industry, gave a new tool to its enforcement officers: checking logbook entries against information from carriers’ GPS fleet tracking systems.

We think the company and its drivers will be more convinced about the cost savings they can achieve with GPS fleet tracking once they learn how it can be used to modify driving habits—excess engine idling, for example.

A GPS fleet tracking system tells fleet managers exactly how long a vehicle has been idling—in real time or via minute-by-minute reports. Once you determine that a driver is leaving the engine idling longer than you require, it’s easy to implement a “no idling on surface streets” rule because drivers know you can enforce it. But to make it a more positive experience, some fleet managers offer bonus incentives to drivers who meet their fuel-saving standards.

We hear excuses all the time about why it’s hard to break drivers of habits like excessive engine idling. But fleet managers who do the math will be very pleasantly surprised.

One of our newest customers reduced idle-time costs by 53% after their 35-truck fleet idled away $97,720.70 in just one year. The company used idle-time reports to save more than half that amount, $51,791.97, in their first year using our service.

We love to hear success stories like that because it tells us fleet operators really have no excuse for not installing a GPS fleet tracking system if they’re truly serious about reducing fuel costs. Such a system will give you an ROI in just a few months. Not only that, but a GPS tracking system also can help you recover a stolen or missing vehicle in just seconds. You’ll be able to track it immediately on a PC to find out where it is or its last known location—really helpful information for law enforcement.

Those are just a few benefits Schneider and you can expect from GPS fleet tracking. View some sample GPS Fleet Tracking Reports on our homepage.

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Resourceful, Growing India City is Adding GPS Fleet Tracking

Posted on by
Reply

The city in India that is home to many of the outsourced customer-service calls you make is deploying GPS fleet tracking for all of its police vehicles, including jeeps and motorcycles.

Gurgaon is, according to a press release, going with GPS fleet tracking “In a bid to keep pace with the increasing demands of a growing metropolis.” Continuous real-time tracking of all those police vehicles will be displayed on a theater-size projection screen, with colored icons indicating the location of vans, motorcycles and senior officers. The system will help dispatchers find the nearest available patrolman to respond to an incident.

Like other GPS fleet tracking systems, Gurgaon’s will keep track of kilometers traveled by each vehicle to help rein in fuel costs. It also will help senior officers determine if patrol staff is spending too much or too little time at each incident.

The police department’s adaption of GPS fleet tracking shows the versatility of such a system. Monitoring patrolmens’ incident times could just as easily be checking on the amount of time a service technician sends at a specific address. Not only that, but the system also can reveal if the tech is at the right address or at a burger joint, pinpointed on familiar Google Maps.

Using a digital video projector on a large screen is a great idea that can turn any dispatch office into a command center. Dispatchers can assign icons to different classes of vehicles and view their daily route either in real time or historical modes.

Any good GPS fleet tracking system also will:

  • Monitor the speed of each vehicle at any time during the day, so violators can be counseled on appropriate limits
  • Set “geofence” boundaries for any driver; if the driver leaves a specific geographic area, a cell phone or email alert can be sent immediately to the responsible supervisor
  • Report how long a vehicle is parked at any address
  • Monitor patrol vehicles’ engine-idle times to help reduce fuel consumption

Gurgaon sounds like a city that will reap many benefits from having a GPS fleet tracking system. Hmmm. Wonder if the PD will reach an outsourced customer-service call center?

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

Posted on by
Reply

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).