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Every car dealership owner or manager shares a common fear – what happens if someone steals a vehicle? How can the valuable pieces of property be recovered and returned to the lot? To solve this problem, more and more dealerships have made use of  the helpful technology in GPS Tracking.

Just like any similar GPS device used for tracking, GPS fleet tracking devices interact with satellites orbiting the earth. These satellites keep track of the exact location of a particular device and notify the user of its location. Specificity of the location often depends on how many satellites the device interacts with. Using one of the tracking units, owners can track down the location of a valuable item, animal, person, or, in this case, a car.

This type of vehicle tracking works on both the personal and corporate basis. Individuals with expensive cars can track down the location of a vehicle should it be stolen. Dealerships can take that same idea to a larger scale and outfit all the cars within their lot with these devices. Should a car be stolen from a dealership, the owner or manager can notify the police who will quickly and accurately track down the car, most likely returning it to the lot and bringing the thief to justice.

Some people may wonder how on earth a single electronic device could accomplish so much; however, for proof, consider this news story. This past year, a Washington dealership experienced a break-in. The property stolen? One 2003 Hummer and 60 keys to cars also sold at the same lot. Had the dealership not outfitted their vehicles with tracking systems, the Hummer would have been lost and the other 60 vehicles possibly stolen.  Thankfully, dealership owners thought ahead and had tracking devices in use. The police tracked down the Hummer and keys, which were easily found within a couple hours thanks to the satellite information available.

We all know the frustration of impossible New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps in this new year, dealerships should consider making an entirely achievable resolution – preventing theft with dealership tracking. Unlike so many of those useless weight loss pills or other products you buy for your resolutions, A GPS system will deliver what it promises – safety for your dealership and its valuable vehicles. If you own or manage a car dealership, don’t pass up on this opportunity. Follow your competitors’ example and keep your merchandise safe in the new year.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett

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Many auto dealerships are now using GPS tracking to solve multiple problems. Before this incredibly useful satellite technology was available, dealerships faced great difficulty in protecting their assets. It could take a lot of time and energy to keep cars from being stolen, either straight off the lot or by buyers who quit making payments and disappeared with a partly-purchased vehicle. Especially for the “buy here, pay here” auto market, these risks posed a huge threat to a dealer’s ability to compete, since a missing car means the dealer, not a bank, has to foot the bill.

Car Tracking to the Rescue

Car tracking is resolving many of these issues and reducing headaches for auto dealers. From the dealer’s side, it’s relatively simple—download some GPS software, place a tracking device on each vehicle, and register each vehicle in your computer system. The devices are becoming less and less expensive to purchase, and you don’t have to worry about batteries running out because the device can be activated only when it’s needed. If a car is stolen from the lot or needs to be reclaimed, it is easy to activate the device from the computer, remotely. Once activated, the device sends signals to satellites, which read the tracker’s latitude and longitude and put it on the map on your computer. No more vehicles dropping off the radar screen—you can watch the car travel through town. With many devices, you can even disable the vehicle itself so that it will stay put, so you can call local law enforcement and recover the vehicle. Compared to the old days, it’s hassle-free.

On Saturday, November 13, a Santa Ana, California dealer’s 2001 black Ford Expedition was recovered after being stolen. The truck had a GPS tracking device which the dealer activated, and police were able to follow the vehicle using satellite technology and arrest the driver. The suspected thief turned out to be Daniel Leon Stalter, a Mission Viejo resident, who had a history of other charges and another warrant out for his arrest. He was arrested at gunpoint 10 minutes after deputies arrived. Stalter’s past record included illegal substance and drug paraphernalia possession, forgery, burglary, extortion, and prisoner escape; the warrant was for hit and run property damage in 2009. Five charges from Saturday’s arrest include buying or receiving stolen vehicle or equipment, receiving stolen property, and possession of burglary tools. Now the streets are safer and a dealer has his car back, thanks to GPS tracking. While all incidents may not be as dramatic as this one, using GPS can stop crime early and even prevent potential crimes from ever happening.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett

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Imagine, for a moment, you’re in charge of a school district with twenty-four schools total within your jurisdiction. You have a fleet of utility vehicles, delivery vehicles, public safety vehicles, and school buses and vans. One day, you realize your fuel costs keep rising and your productivity keeps going down. Perhaps, children aren’t making it to school as quickly, or delivery vehicles don’t make it from school to school fast enough, or maybe public safety vehicles take too long making their rounds. How do you solve this problem? With around 100 vehicles under your supervision, how do you keep your thumb on the pulse of all of them?

The Troubles School Districts Face

What you just imagined isn’t far-fetched at all. In fact, it’s almost exactly the position the Palms Spring Unified School District of the greater San Diego area found themselves in recently. Rather than losing their minds trying to keep the vehicles straight for all twenty-four schools (sixteen elementary, four junior high, and four high schools), they chose an innovative and efficient method of saving costs and keeping everyone safe—GPS Fleet Tracking.

This type of tracking uses the same basic device used for personal car tracking, however, each device is connected with a larger database. Reports for a company are gathered as that company’s vehicles hit the road and do their routes. The company can then see those reports and make adjustments on productivity, down time, idling, etc as needed.

GPS Can Help You Too

Don’t limit this GPS Trackers to situations like Palm Spring’s school district. You don’t have to have a government funded program to use them, nor do you need a 100 vehicle fleet. Private and corporate businesses alike use them, as do small and large businesses. Those with any sort of regular fleet of vehicles should look into the money and time saving benefits of tracking.

Of course, you could always do without fleet tracking and try to stay up to date on your fleet’s movements on your own. But who wants to deal with the hair-pulling difficulties of tracking vehicles from place to place? And, can doing the tracking yourself really provide the same amount of benefits as using GPS? Can you track your workers mile by mile? Unless you’re out on the road with them, probably not! Consider using tracking your vehicles with a GPS system. Let it do the hard, hair-pulling work.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett

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As businesses all across the country have begun using GPS vehicle tracking to promote a green agenda, one field that has lagged behind has been the construction industry. Because construction vehicles operate in much rougher conditions than an average vehicle, fleet managers have been hesitant to incorporate the devices for fear that they could not withstand the heat, dirt, and heavy vibrations that go along with any construction vehicle. Recently, however, more and more construction managers have begun to realize the enormous benefits afforded by GPS technology, and have looked to tracking companies to provide heavy duty devices that can handle tough working conditions.

GPS Is Green

Going green for fleet managers means finding ways to conserve fuel and reduce energy consumption while still accomplishing each job efficiently. GPS tracking has helped numerous companies by enabling managers to monitor the routes their employees take as well as the time they leave a vehicle idling unnecessarily. With this information in hand, they can begin training employees in how to use less fuel by taking simple measures such as choosing the shortest route to a destination and turning off the engine when the vehicle is not in use.

Construction crews in particular can reap the most benefits when they use tracking information to determine how each vehicle is being used. They can build maintenance schedules around actual hours of use for each vehicle, reduce idle times, and base job bids on precise vehicle usage costs. Not only will a strategy such as this reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, but it will also save thousands of dollars each year on fuel costs and engine maintenance.

Protect Heavy Machinery Investments

Another way contractors can benefit from the technology is by using it to monitor vehicles that must be left on the job site overnight. Construction vehicles have become targets for theft due to their high value, low security, and the difficulty of identifying a stolen vehicle once it has left the site. Using tracking capabilities to monitor vehicles, however, places contractors one step ahead of a would-be thief and gives them the ability to locate the vehicle as soon as they realize it is missing.

GPS vehicle tracking enables construction managers to develop strategies for a green work environment and for protecting assets while on the job site. With savings that could pay for the installation of the devices within the first year of use, there’s no better time to invest in protecting the most expensive equipment in the construction industry.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett

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You may have heard good reasons to use GPS tracking devices – for personal safety, theft protection, and other helpful uses – but you can’t help but wonder, “do these devices really do anything, or am I just being sold another expensive product?”

In this age of technology savvy thieves, property owners can’t be too vigilant. We need all the cutting-edge, reliable theft protection we can utilize. We have to fight fire with fire, and GPS tracking is one of the most cutting edge and reliable theft protection devices on the market. Consider the following news story.

How An RMT Tracking Device Saved Thousands of Dollars

On October 6 at 3:30 am, a Rocky Mountain GPS tracking device ived up to the test of real life circumstances when a truck worth $70,000 was stolen from a mechanic’s garage in Delmar, Delaware. The owner of Rantz Trucking had thankfully prepared himself for such emergencies and had a GPS system installed in his trucks. He lost no time in contacting Rocky Mountain Tracking. The car was traced down and recovered by the next day.

Had the company owner relied merely on alarms or other warning systems to protect his property, his property would probably still have been stolen and needed tracing. And had he relied on merely old-fashioned detective methods to recover his property, he would have placed the police at a severe disadvantage. The police may have never discovered the vehicle, or, at best, they may have spent precious time and resources tracking it down. However, with a GPS, the police force recovered the truck speedily and efficiently. They freed themselves to work on other cases and restored the missing property, making everyone but the criminal happy.

So, is a GPS system necessary? If you don’t mind the uncertainty of recovery and possible loss of possessions you may experience over a stolen piece of property, then don’t purchase a system. However, if you want safe and speedy recovery of your possessions, a GPS anti-theft system is likely the option for you. Whether you need one a car tracking system for a business or personal use, a GPS device is one of the best ways to keep your possessions safe.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett

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Cargo loss in North America surpasses 10 billion annually. Not only can the loss of cargo total massive sums of money, but there are additional costs to consider including:

• Trailer Loss Costs ($40,000+)
• Investigation Costs ($5,000+)
• Loss of Customer Confidence (invaluable)

Taking preventative measures against cargo theft can prevent insurance premiums from rising while keeping truckers safe. The best pro-active measure against cargo theft is a GPS tracking device.

Where There’s a Market, There’s a Way

Cargo theft wouldn’t happen if stolen goods couldn’t be sold. Unfortunately, there is now a market for every type of good ranging from pharmaceuticals to baby products. More often than not, truck hijackers are seeking to make a quick dollar by selling goods. In addition, many of these thieves resell trucks to willing buyers.

Truck hijacking is no longer a petty thief’s game. Modern hijackers are often associated with organized crime rings. As a result, the lives of truck drivers everywhere are in more danger now than ever before. The good news is that a driver doesn’t have to protect cargo with his life if a GPS tracker is in place.

Protecting Drivers With GPS

Being a truck driver used to mean risking one’s life in order to keep freight safe. Today, drivers can simply walk away from a load during a hijacking. How is this possible? Even if a driver walks away, a truck equipped with a GPS tracker can still be tracked. Further, in the eventuality that hijackers leave a truck behind in order to steal cargo, this cargo can still be tracked if it has been outfitted with GPS tracking devices.

It is no longer necessary for drivers to risk their lives. Technology has stepped in to take the place of armed guards, and (in almost every instance) GPS trackers have proven more efficient. Trucking companies don’t have to swallow the costs of stolen goods, trailers, and investigations. Even more importantly, companies no longer have to worry about drivers or losing customer confidence. A GPS tracker may be a small thing, but it is also the most powerful weapon trucking companies have against cargo theft.

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Every business owner knows that efficiency translates into dollars, but most businessmen don’t know that GPS tracking can increase profit margins dramatically. In the past, fleet tracking programs were only affordable to well-off companies, and were only worth the cost for extensive fleets of company vehicles. Now, devices and software are easily accessible to the public at large, and people even find them helpful for personal uses such as monitoring teens’ driving habits. It all goes to show that any business, large or small, that owns vehicles can benefit from fleet tracking.

What Is Fleet Tracking?

Fleet tracking is all about knowing where your resources are and knowing how they are being used. First, a GPS tracking device is installed on each vehicle owned by the business. Then, the devices send signals to satellites that read their latitude and longitude and pinpoint their location on the ground. The satellite sends that information to a computer, where software tells the owner what they need to know, such as where a vehicle is, how fast it is traveling, and even what its estimated arrival time will be. All of this information helps the business owner make informed decisions to improve the efficiency of the company.

How Trucking Companies Can Save Money

When most people think of efficiency, they think of saving time. Using GPS fleet tracking can reduce how long drivers spend on the road in multiple ways. GPS maps and software can help to plan alternative routes if a driver gets stuck in traffic. Drivers who might take unauthorized breaks or side trips know that they will be held accountable for what they do on company time with company resources. Regular routes can be analyzed over multiple trips to determine which is the quickest and best choice for company use.

Fuel efficiency is also a tremendous help when it comes to saving company resources, possibly the one benefit most cited by fleet managers. It is much easier to plan shorter routes and reduce idling time when using data gathered from a GPS system. The user can interact with the software and use multiple factors, including current weather and traffic situations, to make the most informed decisions possible about driving routes.

Other benefits abound, including reducing vehicle maintenance by not using vehicles more than necessary and coordinating routes so that vehicles don’t overlap routes. Even a single-car business can find the best way to travel for each trip using GPS technology. This is one investment with huge potential for your business.

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Fleet ownership comes with some very real problems. Aside from the constant possibility of theft, employee management can also be a challenge. Are there any issues with the drivers and bad habits such as speeding? Is time being wasted with stops and idle times? Until now, the fleet owner has basically been in the dark, but GPS tracking provides immediate information that can save time and money and allow better fleet management — as well as theft recovery.

Chicago Relies On GPS

The city of Chicago has installed GPS tracking in city-owned vehicles to improve the accountability of their employees and to better address needs through faster response times. When a night investigator and his crew recently stopped for a bite at Taco Bell, their truck was stolen. The good news is that the truck was recovered near the airport a few hours later. The bad news for the investigator is that he is facing disciplinary action for making the unauthorized 3 a.m. food stop when he was supposed to be working eight hours straight.