Rocky Mountain Tracking

By Greg Bartlett

Few moments in a parent’s life cause more pride and at the same time more trepidation as the first time a teenager takes the car out for a solo drive. Watching your child maneuver the car down the street carefully observing each driving rule he has learned can cause your heart to swell with pride and accomplishment. Yet the knowledge that your teen has only a few hours of driving experience under his belt can also cause you to pace the floor until he returns safely home. Hazards abound, and your teen may not have the experiential know-how to avoid them. Apart from requiring your teen to check in every 15 minutes, how can you put your mind at ease as to his safety and whereabouts? GPS vehicle tracking provides peace of mind for those long nights when your son or daughter is out with friends in the family car.

GPS technology continues to expand in its effectiveness each year. A transmitter placed in the car sends a signal to a receiver which can then verify location. Some car tracking devices can also monitor things such as speed, fuel usage, and travel time—useful knowledge for a parent who wants to verify that his teen went exactly where he said he did.

In the United States, over 4,500 teenagers die from vehicle crash injuries each year. An additional 400,000 teens receive injuries in car crashes. As many as 30% of these crashes are alcohol related. As frightening as these statistics are, they are not inevitable. Many accidents involving teen drivers could have been avoided had a more experienced driver been behind the wheel. GPS car tracking can serve as a springboard for talking to your teen about safe driving habits. If you know each place your teen has been, how fast he has been driving, and how many stops he made, you can formulate a strategy for helping your teen understand the dangers of the road and how best to avoid them.

Teens need to assert their independence. It’s part of cutting the apron strings and making their way in the world. Driving plays a large role in this process and teens need the support of their parents. Being a supportive parent, however, does not mean being a helpless one. A GPS car tracking device allows you to take a more active role in monitoring your teen’s driving habits. It could even save his life.

By Greg Bartlett

Fleet tracking has become a necessary part of running any business that involves numerous vehicles. Any time you use vehicles for your business, you need to be able to protect the investments you’ve made in the vehicles and you need to be in contact with your driver. Management of resources and time is difficult enough in an office setting, but with the added complication of distance, monitoring a vehicle fleet is even more complicated.

Vehicle tracking systems are one of the best ways to effectively manage your corporate fleet. And tracking your fleet is easier than ever with a new alternative, the Informer. The Informer, which integrates CalAmp GPS products with NavIQ software, is an advanced monitoring system which also offers easy programmability and numerous tracking options. It allows companies to monitor their fleets effectively, easily, and efficiently. Furthermore, it helps companies cut costs involved with managing fleets, combining advanced technology options with competitive prices so that you can use the Informer’s management helps without huge expenses.

For instance, the Informer can store thousands of locations on its highly accurate system and can be programmed for individualized rules. Perhaps you want the tracking system to report every hour, or perhaps every five hours. Customized rules such as these are possible and easily programmable with the Informer, allowing you better control over and access to your fleet and drivers.

Vehicle tracking systems such as the Informer can even monitor a vehicle conditions, offering companies a flexible but effective form of management. The Informer also has options for driver identification and messaging systems for added safety and better communication. For the company, features such as satellite imaging, routing programs, alerts, 3D perspective zoom, fly-over routing, and reports and graphs allow the company the best control over vehicles, drivers, and resources. Tracking your company fleet has never been easier or more effective.

Whether your company is small and has just a few vehicles or whether it has hundreds, protecting your vehicle investments and managing your resources is a priority. Vehicle tracking systems can give you the tools you need to accurately and effectively manage and monitor your assets. With its advanced features and increased accuracy, the Informer is superior to other vehicle tracking systems and is the best choice for your company when it needs a way to manage its company fleet.

By Greg Bartlett

Several colleges, including Harvard, MIT, and Tufts University, are adding GPS vehicle tracking to their campus shuttles so that students can make better use of their time and still catch the buses to get from one side of campus to another.

In all of these cases, the buses are supposed to run on some sort of schedule. Yet, students often end up waiting an extended period of time for a bus to arrive for pickup and drop off at another area. Extended wait times often lead to overcrowding on some shuttle buses and not enough passengers to justify the running of others.

If students are able to look at a web site and learn where the shuttle buses are located at any given time, along with the average speed of travel, the students can time their leaving of their dorm rooms to coincide with them arriving at the shuttle stop as or just before the bus arrives. This can provide students with a few extra minutes of study time that they would not have if waiting at a crowded bus stop for the next shuttle.

Transportation problems have been one of the foremost difficulties faced by college students, especially those attending larger universities for many years. In many cases, where a candidate for student government stood on the issue of GPS vehicle tracking to improve the transportation has been the deciding factor that won or lost the election.

Tufts was one of the first to install GPS vehicle tracking device on their campus transportation buses. Other universities are looking at the system they have in place and modeling their own systems based on this one because it has been shown to work. Students are not showing up late for class and blaming it on the shuttle system nearly as often, because anyone can check the location of shuttles and arrange to meet the last one that will ensure timely arrival at the building where the class is located. There are really no excuses for tardiness based on the transportation system at these universities anymore.

Other colleges and universities that operate shuttle buses to carry students from one part of campus to another could do well looking at the models established by these universities for GPS vehicle tracking of these buses. Steady improvements in the transport system can lead to steady improvements in student grades and attendance records throughout the campus.

By Greg Bartlett

Vehicle tracking using GPS technology can now be used to save many more lives in emergency situations. Ambulances, fire trucks, and even police cruisers equipped with GPS tracking devices whose signals are monitored by dispatchers can make the response times in emergencies much shorter than they used to be.

If emergency vehicles are being monitored by dispatchers with vehicle tracking systems, it is possible to send the unit closest to an emergency, provided that unit is not already responding to a call. This could mean that an ambulance that has just dropped a patient at a hospital and is on its way back to its station could be closer to a call than the one still at the station serving that area. In this case, dispatch should send the closest unit rather than the one in the station. This move could very well make the difference between life and death.

Vehicle tracking can also be used for fire dispatch as well. Even though fire districts are drawn out on maps of the city, there are times when one station is actually closer to a fire in another district than the station supposed to serve that area. Dispatchers who are aware of the actual locations of fire trucks can dispatch the nearer units and the station that normally covers the area at the same time.

Under previous systems, the station assigned to an area would be dispatched first, then it would be up to the ranking officer on scene to request assistance if needed. Use of vehicle tracking systems could be used to send the nearest units so that many houses that have been lost in the past could have been saved by a more timely arrival of emergency response units.

Police cruisers are also better dispatched when vehicle tracking systems are used. Like other emergency vehicles, police are often assigned specific areas for patrol. However, there are times when a unit may be on the far side of its coverage area when an emergency arises. If this happens, and another cruiser from a neighboring area is closer to the scene, dispatchers can send in the nearer vehicle to provide for better response time. Depending on the situation, this could save many lives as well.

Vehicle tracking systems that use GPS technology can be used with much success in the area of emergency dispatch to save more lives than was possible before the advent of GPS technology.

By Greg Bartlett

These days it seems everyone is talking about the economy. More specifically, just about everyone is looking for ways to spend less and save more. Unstable fuel prices and uncertainty about the future are strong motivations for businesses as well as consumers to cut back anywhere they can. Companies that maintain a fleet of vehicles to transport goods and services must give economizing an even higher priority.

Unfortunately for business owners, employees aren’t always as conscientious with the company vehicle as they would be with their own. They might take unnecessary detours or leave the engine idling while they unload a shipment. Scenarios like these have prompted many business owners to ask whether there might be a way to keep closer tabs on what employees are doing on their business trips, whether across town or across the country. Increasingly, these owners are looking to GPS vehicle tracking to be their second pair of eyes.

GPS vehicle tracking accurately monitors a vehicle’s location at any given point. A transmitter placed in the vehicle sends a signal to a receiving device that can be monitored by the business owner or designated employee, who can then keep tabs on a vehicle’s movement along its route. Some GPS models include the ability to monitor fuel consumption and idling time, encouraging greater efficiency and conservation on the part of the driver.

The question that probably remains in the minds of most business owners though is “Will GPS benefit my company enough to make the initial investment worthwhile?” Companies already using GPS answer with a resounding yes. One company reported a projected annual savings of more than $70,000 in fuel costs alone, not to mention employees making more service calls in a day, making fewer unnecessary stops, and generally being more efficient with their time on the clock. Knowing that a GPS vehicle tracking device is monitoring their movements is almost like the boss riding shotgun on each service call.

In these troubled economic times, it’s important that at the end of the day, small business owners can rest assured that they have done everything they can to use their resources as wisely as possible. While personal monitoring of each employee’s productivity is not possible, GPS fleet tracking is the best option to accomplish the goal of economizing with fleet vehicle activity. And isn’t it good to know that reducing fuel costs also benefits the planet? It’s an investment well worth the cost.

By Greg Bartlett

For many law enforcement agencies ranging from the Federal government to the local private investigator, tracing the movements of a suspect can be both time consuming and dangerous. Covert surveillance, GPS vehicle tracking eliminates both the time and danger of tracking a suspect.

Prior to the advent of GPS vehicle tracking devices and systems, a suspect’s movement could only be accomplished by following the suspect. This involved the investigator physically following the suspect. There are several dangers inherent to this practice. The first is that the suspect can recognize the surveillance. If this happens, two things can occur. First the surveillance will be blown. The second and more dangerous is that the physical safety of the person performing the surveillance can become compromised.

The traditional method of following the movements of a suspect involves multiple vehicles and a team of investigators. This traditional method requires considerable resources both in manpower and cost. This method can be highly inefficient and even with the resources expended on the tracking may not produce the desired results.

The covert installation of GPS vehicle tracking devices reduces the cost of assets expended by an order of magnitude. The covert installation insures that the subject of the surveillance is unaware of the device and will never observe a team of investigators following them. This produces a sense of security to the suspect who will go about their normal daily activities without any care.

A single agent who has the ability to track the location of the suspect from a remote location can monitor the GPS vehicle tracker. This remote location can be located at a desktop computer in an office or a laptop computer that is in another vehicle. The utilization of a single agent to record movements of a suspect significantly reduces the cost of surveillance.

Many wealthy people employ private agencies that insure the safety of the members of their family. When a member of the family leaves the home, the inclusion of GPS vehicle tracking devices in the family vehicles insures that the security team is never out of contact with the principle’s vehicle in heavy traffic. Should visual contact with the principle vehicle be lost, GPS vehicle tracking devices will tell the security team exactly where their principle is.

Covert surveillance through the utilization of GPS vehicle tracking provides a safe, effective and cost savings way to monitor the movements of a subject. The inclusion of these tracking devices in the inventory of the investigative department is a must have for any agency.

By Greg Bartlett

Tempted to stop for Starbucks? Knowing that one of the many new GPS tracking systems is recording your movements causes you to think twice about it and decide to just go on with the delivery.

Whether in their cell phone or their vehicle, many companies are deciding to track the movements of their employees to ensure that they stay on schedule and keep working. Knowing that they have a system checking up on them will help workers to stay motivated and keep them focused on their work during work hours. Employees often waste time as soon as the boss’s back is turned and these kinds of systems would help companies run more efficiently and save them money in lost productivity.

One kind of system, Xora, even includes “geofences” that notifies the business when an employee visits one of the chosen off-limits areas, such as a bar, while on company time. Keeping mobile workers on task has been a challenge in the past, causing employers frustration that they are unsure of just how faithful their employees are. This new technology will lift that burden from employers around the country.

But it’s not all bad news for employees: these GPS tracking systems can also be used to track work hours, allowing employees to clock in and out from their phones. This will help them keep accurate records and they can trust that on payday they will receive every penny that they deserve for their hours of hard work.

GPS vehicle tracking systems might be resented by employees as an unneeded babysitter and an invasion of their personal privacy, but it is clearly the technology of the future. More and more companies are choosing these systems. Although many employees have loudly protested the switch, soon it will be much more common and widely accepted by employees.

As for their personal rights, while it is scary to know that your boss has the capability to watch your every move, businesses that use GPS tracking systems will have detailed privacy laws concerning them. For example, these devices can be turned off during lunch breaks and after hours to protect the privacy of the employees.

In the next few years, employers and employees from companies around the country and around the world will be coming together to compromise about these tracking systems, and soon it will be a integral part of the mobile worker’s job.

By James Neely

In the world of teen driving accountability is important along with the training that young drivers receive before they obtain their license. The result of these two efforts will bring about safer roads. Who bears the blame when teen drivers are turned out into the streets before they are truly ready? The responsibility for insuring that they are trained correctly ultimately lies with their family because it is those who are with the young drivers the most and can monitor whether or not the student has grasped the concepts and is following through by being putting their training into action.

Once a teen driver is out on their own, a GPS Tracking system can help provide tracking and monitoring for responsible vehicle usage. These systems provide information not just on location, but speed and direction of travel. The accountability factor is built in to the system. The installation of one of these units sends a message that compliance with rule and regulations on the streets is not an option.

With budget cuts and trimmed work forces, local police presence on our streets and roadways is diminished. This means that there are fewer eyes on the roads to help monitor compliance to speed limits and other safe driving practices such as not talking on cell phones and other distractions.

Every time a teen loses his or her life on our streets and highways, we are feel indicted and wonder what could have been done differently. The unknown details of an incident might remain a mystery, but with a GPS Tracking system, at least we have an opportunity to help avoid disaster. Who among us remembers times in our own lives when our youthful inexperience led us to do some inexcusable Things? And if things had been different, lives may have been lost as a result.

Why not do what is necessary to avoid the possibility of tragedy occurring? Why not use technology that is easy to obtain and affordable to help keep our children safe? Whether or not they know of the existence of the system in the car in which they are travelling is immaterial. The GPS car tracking system can be there to help in the event that if something happens, at least a clue to the reasons why will be available to you.

It is up to you to value the lives of your children over the cost of these systems. It only takes a short amount of time to implement one. That short time could be the factor that helps save lives. It is worth it.

By James Neely

A key measure in business is the return you get from the investment of your money into your business and its many processes and procedures. You have to make some investments into your business to not only increase business, but to protect your assets and reduce waste in order to increase profits.

Calculate losses. There are some losses that can be expected in your business. Small things that really do not amount to much in financial terms are not that important. The ones that are important are those that are the assets of your business. These assets are valuable to the operations of the business and need to be protected. That is why a GPS Tracking system should be on your list of items to obtain.

A well-thought through system will deliver satellite tracking of assets like vehicles and other mobile equipment. You can track where and when your assets have been moved and other vital information such as speed and direction. If one of your items is stolen, you can have the authorities recover it quickly with the data that you are able to send to them regarding its whereabouts.

Calculate Insurance. Insurance premiums can eat up the profits in your business. In addition to raising your deductible, you can also obtain lower rates if you have a GPS Tracking system installed. Insurance companies like any kind of procedure or device that helps them reduce or eliminate risk.

Calculate savings. Once you have saved money on insurance premiums and have secured your assets, you will be able to watch your profits move up incrementally. A GPS vehicle tracking system gives you a better handle on your business and secures your assets by giving you the tools you need.

Calculate success. How can you put a price tag on ROI from a system that gives you so much in terms of peace-of-mind and confidence in knowing your business is running smoothly? What price would you pay to be able to run your business knowing that your investment of time and resources is not going down the drain?

No one knows your business better than do you, but you need to also be open to new ways to keep moving towards profitability. You can with a GPS Tracking system. Do not allow yourself to go through one more month without the benefits that one of these systems can bring. You will be glad you did.

By Greg Bartlett

Working dogs generally fall into two categories, hunters and herders. Dogs are utilized to hunt birds, raccoons, hogs and bear. Herding dogs are used to care for and contain cattle, sheep and goats. All too often the dogs are out of visual contact with their handler. A GPS tracker for your working dog will permit the handler to know exactly where the dog is and what he is doing.

The Great Pyrenees breed of dog has been utilized for centuries to herd goats and sheep. These large white dogs are often a common sight when around animals. In the southern states, the kudzu plant has become a major problem for many landowners. Kudzu is a fast growing plant that chokes out native vegetation.

Many land owners use goats to eat and control the kudzu. The Great Pyrenees dogs are left with the herd of goats to control and protect them. While the owner of the dog and goats is away from the herd, a GPS tracker can allow him to maintain contact with the dog and the herd to insure that they do not stray too far afield.

Hunting dogs are often worked in thick dense brush. These brushy areas make visual contact with the dog almost impossible. The dog handler can hear the dogs baying at their prey but cannot be completely sure of their exact location. The utilization of a GPS tracker can provide the handler the exact location of the dog, how it got to its location and whether the dog is in pursuit or has treed the prey.

During hunting season, it is not uncommon for residents of rural areas to find a strange dog at their doorstep. In most occasions the dog has a collar with the owners name and telephone number engraved on it. It is just as common for those residents to see a dog with a collar running wild on their property. These hunting dogs are lost and in all probability will never be returned to their owner.

A good hunting or herding dog is a valuable asset to the owner. The value of the dog includes the initial monetary cost of the dog included with the time taken to train the dog. For a dog that comes from champion blood lines this cost can approach five figures. The dog is a valuable asset and should be protected. The utilization of a GPS tracker will protect that asset and insure that the loss of the dog does not occur.