Just about every type of consumer technology is good for a laugh now and then. OK, maybe more often than that. GPS navigation is an easy target, what with those cheesy voices and terrible street-name pronunciations.

Maybe the writers should learn something about the history of the technology. 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 Air Force launched 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 deploying a GPS fleet tracking system across your fleet. 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.

We’re pretty experienced at installing GPS fleet tracking devices on all kinds of vehicles. And we know that all kinds of animals and some fish have been adorned with GPS fleet tracking technology to follow their migration and mating habits in an attempt to preserve their species.

But we have to give props to whoever’s tagging great white sharks far off the California coast. According to ABCNews.com, Stanford University researchers lure the beasts to the surface with the silhouette of a seal. Then they use a pole to attach devices that let the research follow the shark’s long-distance movements using a GPS fleet tracking system, This allows the team to track the shark’s migratory pattern during the colder months, from areas near the coast all the way out to the deep ocean.

The GPS fleet tracking-style technology showed that the great whites congregate at a so-called “shark café.” Because there isn’t much to eat way out there, the team thinks it’s the area where the sharks mate—especially because the GPS patterns show the females weaving in and out of the males.

Another recent use of GPS fleet tracking (GPS school tracking?) is off Australia, where biologists have managed to monitor the foraging habits of the huge, lumbering sunfish. They’re tracked only near the surface because a salt-water switch only turns on the GPS fleet tracking-style device when the fish swim to the top.

We applaud those brave researchers who get as up-close and personal as possible with great whites. While we literally wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole, we have no problem stealthily installing GPS fleet tracking devices on beasts of the highway.

GPS fleet tracking has a low startup cost and a proven return on investment of just a few months. As part of the deal, you’ll be able to see exactly where each vehicle is with just the click of a mouse. It’s an ideal system for vehicles such as police, fire and emergency vehicles, snowplows, sanitation and recycling trucks.

But wait—as they say on TV—there’s more! With GPS fleet tracking, you’ll also be able to trim fuel costs by remotely monitoring engine idle times. If you detect a pattern of excessive speed, the GPS fleet tracking system can give you a printed report, which you can use to discuss the problem with an offending driver. You can reiterate your company’s speeding policy and possibly offer incentives to reward drivers who stay within your limits over time. We’ve found that using GPS fleet tracking can reduce excessive speeding by 50% and significantly reduce accident rates.

Another area where a GPS fleet tracking system increases employee productivity is timesheets. When your drivers know that you can tell how long their vehicle was at a specific address, they’ll be more motivated to turn in accurate timesheets and knock off the extended lunch breaks.

You also can receive alerts on your cell phone or by email when a driver is speeding or leaves a geofence (a geographic boundary you don’t want a driver to enter or exit). The alerts will tell you the speed limit that was exceeded and the geofence boundary to within 50 feet, along with date and time of day.

Employees who know they’re being monitored are less likely to drive off route for personal errands, take long lunch breaks and report incorrect work hours. Installing a GPS tracking system is an affordable, easily executed solution for monitoring all three of those issues and more.

And as for the great whites? We hope the researchers don’t become too “chummy” with them.

Here’s a recreational idea for fleet dispatchers or anyone who uses a GPS fleet tracking system at work all day: geocaching.

As a writer for The Southland Times in New Zealand discovered, this high-tech activity can be a real challenge for body and mind. It involves using a GPS fleet tracking-style locating device to find a small “treasure” hidden in all kinds of places—often out in the woods, possibly in a public place or maybe in plain view.

The finders rarely get more than bragging rights. While the treasure or “cache” may just be a trinket, deciphering the clues for finding it is often the most rewarding part of the hunt. Each cache is mapped by its latitude, longitude and other coordinates, which helps would-be finders track it down.

In more serious form of geocaching, a Colorado company is using a GPS fleet tracking to create three-dimensional views of much of Virginia’s underground utilities. And 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 are doing their best to unearth them using the GPS fleet tracking-style devices. Each manhole’s GPS coordinates are 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.

In the above-ground world, international shipper DHL has been testing cargo containers with built-in GPS vehicle tracking technology – except in this case, the “fleet” is comprised of the cargo containers. Customers can track the exact location of the GPS-enabled containers that carry their shipments in real time, much like fleet operators can view their vehicles’ locations online. 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, GPS fleet tracking might even help you find a missing manhole or two. Maybe some geocache enthusiasts nabbed ’em. In the first place!