What information is provided by GPS vehicle tracking systems? Here is a summary and examples of how you could use data provided by GPS tracking devices:

Location data: Latitude and longitude provided in degrees, minutes and seconds. It is accurate to 33 feet, which is as accurate as any commercial GPS device. A vehicle’s location is updated at intervals of between 2 – 15 minutes. The standard update interval varies between manufacturers or can be set by the owner (optional).

• Who is closest to the customer that just called? See where all your employees are by checking the map. Never again call an employee just to find out where they are!

Speed calculation: Rate of movement in miles per hour. Movement in excess of a preset speed (standard) or owner-set speed (optional) triggers an alert, sent to the owner.

• Are employees routinely speeding? Speeding causes excessive wear and wastes gasoline. Your vehicles represent your company to the public; what kind of an image is presented by a speeding or recklessly-driven company vehicle?

Present direction: Compass direction the vehicle is traveling, expressed as north, south, east or west.

• Is employee ‘X’ en route to the customer or leaving their location?

Geofence use: A ‘virtual’ geographic boundary, created by the owner. Crossing this boundary triggers an alert which is sent to the owner. The alerts are usually e-mail messages or automated telephone calls from the system to the user, including the vehicle identification, date/time of crossing, location of crossing and more, depending upon the system. A Geofence can be 1/4 mile to 20+ miles in diameter.

• Is a delivery truck approaching the warehouse? Is the gate open?

Alerts: An automatic e-mail, sent to the owner, with the date, time, location, identification and other details related to some event which has occurred and deserves your attention. Alerts are triggered when a vehicle exceeds a preset speed or crosses a Geofence boundary, for example.

• Email alerts can be sent to your Blackberry or portable device. You can monitor your company while out of the office or away from your desk.

Fastest speed report: A daily report of each vehicle’s fastest speed.

• Why was employee ‘Y’ driving 80 m.p.h.?

Historical data: A record of all data related to each vehicle, maintained for 90 days.

• Which vehicles averaged the most miles driven each day? Export vehicle data to an Excel Worksheet to compare productivity between employees.

Ignition on/off: Time, date and location of each instance where a vehicle’s ignition was turned on or off.

• When was Hooter’s restaurant put on employee ‘Z’s route?

Idle report: Time, date, location and duration of each instance where a vehicle remained motionless while the engine was running. Owner can adjust the duration of idle allowed before a report is generated.

• Idling the engine wastes fuel and causes unnecessary wear. Employee ‘Z’s vehicle idled twice as long as employee ‘Y’s vehicle; perhaps employee ‘Z’ should shut off his vehicle’s engine when making deliveries.

Accumulated mileage alert: An alert sent at 3,000 miles, 5,000 miles or at an owner-set interval (optional) as a reminder to perform preventative maintenance.

• Email: time to have the oil changed on vehicle ‘A’.

Location on demand: The ability to locate and display location info when requested, regardless of when the last scheduled update occurred.

• Where is employee ‘Y’? I need to find him right now!

Map detail: Vehicle location is displayed on a street map, which the owner can enlarge or reduce to see more or less map detail.

• Employee ‘A’ says Main Street is closed for construction, what is the next street West?

Landmarks: Reference points which may or may not be visible on the map created to designate locations important to the system user. Landmarks could be customer locations, the user’s shop, warehouse, satellite offices, etc.

• Who has been to the warehouse today?

Breadcrumbs: When requested by the owner, a trail of points can be displayed on the map, indicating a vehicle’s route during a certain time period.

• Do routes overlap between vehicle ‘A’ and vehicle ‘B’?

Many GPS tracking system providers offer additional information, but, as I hope you can see, even this list of basic data will give you all the info you need to manage your vehicles.

Ken Sink, owner of My Vehicle WatchDog, is a veteran with 20+ years of transportation experience, including fleet management of over 800 vehicles. Visit http://www.MyVehicleWatchDog.Info for more information about GPS vehicle tracking systems from Fleet Management Solutions, Networkfleet and Sprint/Nextel. Submit your info for a quick, no-obligation system quote. Quantity discounts for volume purchases.

When people ask about my business, I tell them, “My company offers GPS vehicle tracking systems.” Their response lets me know whether they are an employee or a business owner.

The first words out of the mouth of an employee is: “Sounds like ‘Big Brother’ to me.” Oh no, not ‘Big Brother!’ Visions of mind-controlled drones working like slaves come to mind and they quickly walk away.

‘Big Brother?’ What is wrong with a business monitoring their vehicles? Or making sure their employees are doing what they’re being paid to do? Who owns these vehicles, anyway? Does the owner have a right to know how they’re being used?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe employees should be trusted and treated as adults. But, if you’ve ever driven a rental vehicle differently than the car you own, then you understand how an employee may mistreat a company vehicle.

Take the speeding employee, for example. Employees who drive too fast waste your gasoline, wear out your vehicle prematurely and sooner or later, drive up your insurance rates.

A GPS vehicle tracking system can alert you when someone exceeds your pre-set speed limit. It’s your vehicle, your fuel and your insurance premium; a tracking system helps you regain control of them.

Who uses your vehicles after hours and on weekends? Is an employee using your vehicle to moonlight? Is he using your gas to move his brother-in-law into a new apartment? You’ll know if you install a GPS vehicle tracking device in your vehicles.

How do you verify overtime claims? Maybe you can verify the work was done, but when? With a GPS tracking system, you can cross-check a vehicle’s location with the time of day it was there.

Have you ever been tempted to take an extended lunch hour? Think your employees might be tempted, especially if they’re out of the boss’s sight? A GPS tracking system records how long each vehicle remains at one location; use it to keep them honest.

Another benefit of GPS vehicle tracking systems: you’ll never make another phone call to find out where your employees are—you can just look on the map displayed on your computer screen. Also, your GPS tracking system will remind you when it’s time to rotate tires, change oil or perform other scheduled maintenance. And, many insurance companies offer discounts of up to 30% for vehicles protected with GPS tracking systems.

The employee also benefits when their company vehicle is equipped with a GPS vehicle tracking system.

1. Hand-written driver logs are replaced with data from the tracking system.
2. Using info from the gps tracking system, each employee’s productivity can be quantified and compared; an employee’s performance can be more objectively measured.
3. Your dispatcher can look on a computer screen and locate all your vehicles immediately.

Customers also benefit from GPS vehicle tracking systems. Businesses can provide precise arrival or delivery estimates, because the estimate is based upon the actual location of the tracking device-equipped vehicle at the moment they call. If a customer questions when your employee arrived or left –prove it to them using data from your tracking system.

Still think GPS tracking systems are tools of ‘Big Brother?’ I guess it depends upon your point of view.

The concept of ‘Big Brother’ never comes up with business owners. The business owner will say: “How will tracking my vehicles help my business make more money?” They want to know what GPS vehicle tracking can do for them.

Are GPS vehicle tracking systems ‘Big Brother?’—You tell me.

Ken Sink, owner of My Vehicle WatchDog, is a veteran with 20+ years of transportation experience, including fleet management of over 800 vehicles. Visit http://www.MyVehicleWatchDog.Info for more information about GPS vehicle tracking systems from Fleet Management Solutions, Networkfleet and Sprint/Nextel. Submit your info for a quick, no-obligation system quote. Quantity discounts for volume purchases.

It is natural for a business to have its ups and down. Since everything is beyond your control no matter how you strive of putting all things into its right place, sometimes it still fails. Sometimes you just assume that everything is fine though it’s not.

Forget about all your worries because with GPS tracking, all will turn into proper places, everything will easily be tracked. The GPS tracking system has helped reduce cost in both personal and professional life of a person and the benefits have been huge.

GPS tracking isn’t for every business, but if your company employees drive company vehicles, it is best suited for you. With active GPS tracking technology, you can monitor a driver’s speed and location in real time. That’s how convenient it is. A unit in a car or truck records the vehicle’s speed and location, sending the information back to your office instantaneously. Or consider the cheaper passive GPS tracking technology, which records a driver’s speed and location on an onboard unit, which can be accessed later when the driver returns to the office.

The GPS tracking system is designed so that you can track your trucks, containers, trailers, and other vehicles easily. By the use of fleet management you will know when your assets stop, sit idling and the road they are on. With the latest GPS Tracking systems, you can monitor the activities of all your vehicles.

A GPS Tracking System works this way:

You may have heard of GPS technology as a navigational tool. 24 satellites constantly emit signals to be received by handheld computers, such as the GPS Magellan units. A microchip then processes the signals to determine the user’s location. Many then display this information on a map, so you can see exactly where you are and how to get to your destination.

GPS vehicle tracking works in a similar fashion, with a couple extra steps. As in GPS navigation, a GPS tracking unit, stored in a vehicle, uses satellite signals to calculate the vehicle’s location. It then calculates the vehicle’s speed and stores or transmits this information to be accessed by a third party.

As of now, there are already some technical support teams that function, focusing on user-centered design and usability applications. To improve its range and provide for different markets, many GPS services have many add-ons to enhance the performance.

Since the foundation of any company is to stick on their philosophy that in order to maintain long term business relationships, it must be based on reliable service, high quality and strong industrial design and information technology support to adapt to the rapid changes in the markets and the business world.

These companies have dedicated themselves in the use and development of GPS products and applications, including Bluetooth GPS Receiver with SiRF Star 3 chipset, GPS Car Tracking System (Integrated GPS with mobile communication technology), Personal GPS Burglar – proof Tracker, GPS Data Logger, GPS Post-tracking System (off-line tracking). Many companies have invested so much to manufacture products designed to flexibly and rapidly customize their GPS to meet market demands.

These GPS vehicle tracking products are designed and built to provide precise information so that the services of the company who uses them can monitor their fleet as well as enhance the quality of their services.

S. Stammberger is the owner of GPS Navigation Systems. For more information on GPS and GPS Tracking Systems visit http://www.gps-navigation-systems.net.