Rocky Mountain Tracking

The weather is getting warmer, temperatures are rising and your teen is probably getting more and more excited about the end of the school year.

There are more daylight hours and we all find more excuses for staying outside, especially those of us who are adolescent and dying to get out of the house. Whether your teens summer plans include trips to the beach, trips to the grocery store (by parental command) or trips to a summer job. if they are driving, you’ll want them to be safe.

Rocky Mountain Tracking offers you two ways to ensure your teens driver’s safety: you can track your teen in real time or review data about driving habits after the fact. When you choose the real time tracking option, you will be able to pinpoint where you teen is driving or where the care is at rest at any time. These devices can also be set to monitor details like seatbelt usage and speeding. If you are less concerned with being able to locate your teen and more concerned with knowing how they handle the car when they are on the road, choose a passive tracking option that will let you download information about driving habits. Visit the Teen Tracking section of the RM Tracking website to learn more.

Giving your teenagers the freedom to travel by car doesn’t mean sending them out without a safety net. In fact, your teens will probably never admit it, but they may feel safer knowing that they are not totally alone.

One state university decided to give all first year students a cell phone that has a GPS tracker. After all, most of them carry around cell phones anyway, why not put it to good use. You may wonder what s the school’s reasoning behind giving everyone a phone. To make sure students go to class? Although some schools do use GPS tracking for attendance purposes, this was not the reason.

This school gave new students phones that are equipped with safety features because they recognize the need to keep students safe. An inebriated student can enable the phone’s Guardian feature. This will alert the police station. The police station remains on alert for 15 minutes and the student gets a reminder to turn the Guardian off after that time has passed. If for some reason the student does not turn the Guardian off, perhaps because they have passed out, the police call the phone. Since the phone is equipped with GPS tracking technology, the police will be able to locate the student and see what happened.

It isn’t a perfect system, but it certainly can do a lot to keep co-eds safer on this particular campus.

But you don’t have to enroll in this college to use GPS tracking for safety. For those of you with loved ones whose college days are over or yet to come, Rocky Mountain Tracking has a selection of personal GPS trackers that you can use for safety’s sake. A GPS tracker can help you keep watch over an elderly parent or young child. These devices don’t even require that they activate any special features. Visit the RM Tracking website to learn more.

We hear a lot about GPS tracking being used by people traveling in cars, be they for personal or business use. But can GPS tracking be of any assistance to people who travel by bus?

The answer to that is an emphatic yes. Anyone who has spent time waiting for a bus, be it in the cold, in the heat, or even in good weather knows that is truly an exercise knows it is an exercise in patience.

One city in Illinois has decided to put GPS tracking to use in a way that may increase customer satisfaction with the transit system. Bus riders can track buses on certain routes by logging on to the transit authority website. That way, they will know when they need to get to the bus stop. They don’t have to spend quite so much time in anxious anticipation.

You may not have a fleet of city buses at your disposal, but that does not mean that you cannot use GPS tracking to increase customer satisfaction. Of course, depending on your line of work, you may or may not want customers to actually be able to have access of information on the exact whereabouts of your company vehicles. But you can use GPS tracking to better alert customers to when an employee will arrive. They will appreciate knowing and it will allow them to be better prepared. By using GPS tracking, you can make sure your employees and products arrive promptly, if not earlier. This is sure to make your customers happy and bring many happy returns.

In the past, we’ve talked about how GPS devices can help employers keep track of employees. And we’ve also discussed how GPS tracking technology is being used in the game of golf.

Well, now we can report that the worlds of GPS tracking, employee negligence and the game of golf have collided.

One city in Illinois gave its employees cell phones with GPS tracking capabilities with the aim of improving productivity.  Tracking devices were also installed on city trucks. The city was clear about this being the purpose for providing the cell phones. Even so, employees are apt to forget that they have such a device. Or, they may not be fully aware of how such devices actually work.

One of this city’s superintendents is now on administrative leave because he was tracked to a golf course when he was supposed to be at work. The matter is still under investigation.

As an employer, we know that you certainly are not looking to catch employees being dishonest. However, using GPS tracking devices can help route out unproductive employees. A GPS tracking device can explain why certain things just aren’t getting done in a timely fashion.

On the other hand, the information that you get with a GPS tracking system could be used to find star employee too. Your GPS tracking devices  can inform you about which employees are doing what they are supposed to do and showing up at the right place, at the right time. You probably already know who does a good job, but now you’ll have additional proof.

In the last post, we looked at some of the ways that GPS fleet tracking could improve productivity and save money. There are still even more reasons to use GPS tracking to keep up with your fleet of vehicles.

Asset Protection
Many people use a GPS tracking device as a way to secure their personal vehicle. This same principle applies to a fleet of vehicles used for commercial purposes. GPS devices that were primarily purchased for fleet tracking can provide the same protection to your company cars and trucks as they do for a personal vehicle. If an unauthorized user takes one of your vehicles, you will be able to track it using your GPS tracking system. It is likely that you’ll find it before the police do. Then you can give them the information and let them help you get your property back.

Lower Insurance Costs
You may be eligible to receive Lower Insurance Rates by up to 35%. Many insurance companies offer discounted premiums for vehicles that have a Real Time GPS system. Insurance companies recognize the ways in which GPS tracking systems can improve safety and make drivers more responsible. They are willing to reward companies who put these kinds of measures in place.

Tax Incentives
There are some tax breaks available to businesses that purchase GPS tracking devices and other equipment under the 2008 Federal Economic Stimulus Act. Of course there is a depreciation schedule involved, but it is well worth it to look into what tax breaks you can get. You’ll need to do some research to make certain that your business qualifies.

Although it may seem like everything is computerized these days, this really isn’t the case. In fact, we know that when it comes to technology, some of you are slow adopters. You wait until the very last second to jump on the various high tech bandwagons that come rolling through.

If you are still hesitant to use fleet tracking, you really cannot afford to let this particular bandwagon pass by. Businesses that use multiple vehicles can save time and money by tracking their transportation use. With rising gas costs, this is an important investment. You will be pleasantly surprised to find just how quickly a vehicle tracking system will pay for itself. Once that is done, the money saved goes towards the bottom line.

Fleet tracking can let you know what vehicles are where, and when they are there. If someone goes out of bounds, you’ll know. It will give reports on idling and speeding–two practices that are chipping away at your profits. You cannot alter money-losing practices if you don’t know about them. Fleet tracking can help you plug money leaks such as these.

Even if your employees are very safe drivers, they may not be taking the most efficient routes to reach their destinations. Fleet tracking can help you get an idea of why it takes too much time for some trips. It can also explain why some employees seem to get things done a lot faster. There is a lot that you may not know about how work is getting done.

Visit Rocky Mountain Tracking’s website to learn more about how fleet tracking can help your business.
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GPS tracking devices have many practical applications. You can use them to track your kids, parents, pets and for keeping a virtual eye on employees and assets. Rocky Mountain Tracking has a great lineup of products for those of you who want to use GPS tracking to keep up with what is important to you. With all these practical uses for GPS tracking, is there any room for fun? Of course there is!

Earlier, we mentioned that the National Hockey League is looking into ways that they can use GPS technology during hockey games. Meanwhile, the sport of golf is already making use of GPS tracking.

Individual golfers and golf courses are using GPS to enhance the golf-playing experience. Someone playing golf can use a GPS tracking device that is designed specifically for that game. It can provide them with information on the distances between holes.

For the owners of a golf course, a GPS system is used for the business of fun. Course owners can use it to monitor courses. Golf course owners can provide players with portable GPS systems or have GPS systems mounted on gold carts.If a golf course owner has a GPS system with radio communication capabilities they can use the system’s information to keep in contact with players. For example, if a lightning storm is coming, management can see who is playing where and let them know. Or they can see who is close to finishing a game and ask if they want to order food or drinks.

Recently, the New York Times ran an article about how some schools have decided that they want to track students who are known to cut class. They want to do this out of concern for the students’ welfare. They feel that these students need special attention and more monitoring that the average student who just skips gym class every once in a while. For some students regular attendance keeping is not sufficient and more serious measures have to be enacted.

The article outlines how using GPS tracking units to monitor the students shed light on some problems that went beyond truancy. Some of these students were also getting involved with drugs and were exposing themselves to other dangers that teachers, parents and school counselors didn’t know were an issue.

These school GPS tracking programs did call for the student to be aware that they were being tracked. Still, the knowledge that they were being tracked did not prevent some students from continued truancy and other reckless behavior. Sometimes old habits die hard.

As a parent, you do not have to wait until the school system decides to monitor your child to find out what is going on. You have to option of using a GPS tracking device to keep up with your child to confirm your suspicions or to help you lay aside nagging doubts that your child could be in some sort of trouble.

Rocky Mountain Tracking has a number of tracking devices that can be used to help keep your child or teenager safe. There are personal tracking devices as well as devices to monitor driving habits available. Click here to learn more about these products.

Just today a major news outlet has reported that the National Hockey League (NHL) may include a puck tracking component to its games. This addition to professional hockey may start with the upcoming hockey season.

If these plans go through, the puck will be tracked, but there will be no computer chip embedded in it (at least at first). The puck will be tracked using GPS technology, even though the puck itself will not have a tracking device in it.

The company overseeing this venture will test out the technology first before it is employed in any game. They feel like it is a great way to get into the mechanics of hockey, since it may be possible to learn more about how plays make those winning goals with more precise information about where the puck is going.

Of course there are some people who are not at all excited about this. In their minds, puck tracking will pollute the integrity of the game. They need not worry just yet, since puck tracking is only in the testing stages and it is not an official part of the game.

Outside of the hockey rink, GPS tracking has proven to be an advantage in other arenas. It is useful for keeping up with kids, teens, elderly parents, as well as vehicles and other assets. And this technology is available to you now. It has been tested for years and is constantly being updated and improved.

Visit the Rocky Mountain Tracking website to learn more about how GPS tracking can help you keep sight of what is important to you.

In the last post, we went over some of the advantages of using Rocky Mountain Tracking’s new Smart Track GPS Tracking System. Let’s look at a very specific feature of the Smart Track Tracking System: the geo fence.

This feature is invaluable because it will report each and every time your vehicle moves in or out of a predetermined area from 1/8th of a mile to 300 miles. You set up the geo fence to the exact specifications that fit your needs. If you want to make sure your car does not leave a specific area because you know that you only use it to go certain places, then the geo fence can help. If, on the other hand, you are concerned that someone with use of your car is taking the vehicle where you do not want it to go, you can set up a geo fence to alert you when the vehicle enters the forbidden territory.

A geo fence can be rectangular or circular, so you have a lot of latitude about how to set up these “no-go” zones. Your vehicle will send you an e-mail or SMS message to inform you that the geo fence boundary has been breached, so you are aware right away. You can even decide during which hours to have the messages sent. You can have up to 2 geo fences set up at the same time.

This feature means that the Smart Track is more than an anti-theft car tracking device because as you may know, your vehicle does not have to be stolen for it to be misused.