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Thirty years ago Bradford Parkinson had just returned from fighting in Vietnam and was busily leading a Pentagon team as it developed the Global Positioning System, or GPS as it is known today. Little did the team know how widespread it would become and how dependent the world would become on the new technology. Many industries rely on or utilize GPS tracking to some degree for shipments, security, to manage personnel, locate clients, as well as myriad other uses from time stamping financial transactions to recovering stolen jewels. Parkinson calls it a “ubiquitous utility that everybody takes for granted now.”

Three decades is a long time, though, and the satellites are now due for an $8 million upgrade which will greatly enhance GPS capabilities. The Global Positioning System is made up of 24 satellites that are 12,000 miles above the earth; the upgrade over the next ten years will replace them one at a time. Whereas the current satellite configuration is able to determine the receiver’s location with a margin of error of 20 feet or more, the new satellites will have the incredible accuracy of about 30 inches. The number of signals will be tripled for commercial use and to prevent outages.

GPS: A History

The concept of GPS tracking was born with the launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957 as scientists at Johns Hopkins University attempted to track the satellite. By monitoring its radio waves, Sputnik’s location could be determined. Conversely, it was realized that radio waves from the satellite could be utilized to determine a particular position on earth. An early attempt with satellites in the 1960s was not very accurate – only to within 100 feet on a non-moving object – in that case, a submarine. Even though many thought the project a waste of time, the Pentagon moved ahead to develop a better system and 1978 saw the launch of the first of 21 satellites and GPS was partially in operation by 1990.

The Pentagon still operates the Global Positioning System which is shared freely with the world, however, other countries are spending huge amounts to develop their own systems in the event that the United States would ever restrict or prohibit its use. GPS tracking, as well as its many other uses, is here to stay. No doubt many new applications will be developed for it and this multi-million dollar upgrade will greatly enhance its value to the world.

Written by Greg Bartlett

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GPS tracking technology protects dealership assets. Hunting down a hidden car is now a thing of the past. Yet, there are right ways and wrong ways to use a GPS tracking
system.

Things to Avoid While Using GPS

There’s no need to hide the use of a GPS tracking system. In fact, informing your clients about GPS is a good idea. A client contract should include GPS information, and sales people should be able to tell clients about any GPS tracking device. There are also some things to avoid when installing GPS trackers.

1. GPS for All: if you are going to use GPS tracking devices, make sure that you use them on all vehicles. It is illegal (in most states) to only install devices when a buyer has a particularly bad credit record.

2. Additional Client Payments: do not ask clients to pay for a GPS system. Buyers should not have to pay any kind of GPS fee. If you want to buy a large number of GPS trackers, speak with an RMT associate about bulk rates.

3. Avoid the “Miracle Clause”: it is not a good idea to tell buyers that a GPS system can help rebuild credit. While it’s true that making payments on time will help build credit, a car dealership that masquerades as a credit repair outfit may be acting illegally.

4. Hidden Details: if you choose a tracker that shuts down an engine or performs any other tasks, do not hide these details from your clients.

5. Proper Removal: if a client makes all necessary payments, or buys a vehicle, a GPS tracker installed by a car dealership must be removed.

Useful Information for Dealership Owners

Thousands of car dealership owners across the world are now using GPS technology. As long as a car dealership owns a vehicle, this technology can be used. GPS trackers are both versatile and efficient making these devices highly useful. The following information is true for most GPS trackers.

· Movement: a GPS tracker can be moved from one vehicle to another without any extra costs.

· Installation: GPS trackers can be installed quickly. Further, these devices can be placed anywhere on a vehicle.

· Ease of Use: trackers can be used as soon as you install a device on a vehicle. All you need is a computer to begin tracking any vehicle.

Protecting your assets with a GPS tracker is simple. Remember to inform customers about the use of GPS tracking devices, and you’ll quickly discover that the days of tricky repossession are far behind you.

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by James Neely, freelance writer: click | HERE | to inquire about writing services

In the world of businesses that use a lot of vehicles, there is nothing more valuable than control.  Control that allows a manager to look in on the operations at a detailed level helps insure a smooth running business.

Fleet of Delivery Trucks Utilize GPS

Here are the top five reason that GPS Tracking devices make sense for business that have many vehicles in service during a given day.

Responsible Drivers.  Human behavior is such that constant supervision promotes closer adherence to rules and guidelines.  Drivers who know they are being watched are more careful in how they drive.  This means fewer moving violations resulting in fewer tickets as well.  This also cuts down on accidents, too.

Reigns in Operating Costs.  Keeping a tight rein on where drivers travel means fewer miles driven, lower fuel and maintenance costs.  Less wear and tear on vehicles will allow you to be able to keep them longer which stretches your operating dollar further.

Lowers Insurance Premiums.  Insurance companies are advocates of GPS Tracking systems because they provide a cost-effective way to monitor usage and location which assists in loss prevention.  Lower premiums are the resulting benefit to the businesses which make use of them.

Compliance Verification.  Ever need to provide proof of performance but did not have the data to do so?  Now you can do this and so much more with a GPS Tracking device attached to your assets.

Helps Drivers Be Safe.  You no longer have to be overly concerned about driver activities.  Being able to validate location, speed and direction gives you all the information that you need to verify employee performance.

It is no longer just a nice added extra bonus to have a GPS Tracking system in these types of businesses.  It is mandatory.  Any business owner with a clue about how to reduce loss and increase productivity will look into their options today.  It is worth the small investment of money and will pay for itself.

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By Greg Bartlett

Three Hundred sixty pounds of marijuana was discovered by the police department in Massachusetts with the help of a GPS tracking system. The local law enforcement had been following a drug ring in this particular area and was anxious to catch those who were involved. After obtaining a search warrant they searched the building where they thought the drugs were hidden. They found the crate and discovered the contents. However, instead of immediately seizing the drugs, they placed a GPS tracking system in the crate of marijuana.

The waiting game didn’t take long. Soon, the real time GPS tracking system that they had planted was showing that the drugs were being moved. Police returned to the building and started following the man who was driving away with the crate of drugs.

The local police followed the man for 24 miles as the crate of drugs was moved from Framingham, MA to Norwood, MA. The drugs were finally unloaded at a warehouse. The police found three men who were loading the smaller boxes of drugs that had been inside the crate into a van.

Although the men fled the scene, they were later arrested. Now the three men involved are facing long prison sentences.
This is just one example of how law enforcement officers can use a GPS tracking system to catch criminals. This technology allowed them to easily catch the people involved in the drug deal. Because the police used a GPS tracking system, they did not have to post police officers to monitor the drugs, which endangers the police officers as well as risks tipping off the criminals.

Another way that police officers have used these tracking systems is to monitor the vehicles of suspects. This allows them to take note of any suspicious activity on the part of the suspect, helps them keep track of the suspect’s location at all times in case they decide to make an arrest, and could help them catch the suspect committing another crime.

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By Harriette Halepis

If you’re going to be in Las Vegas, Nevada, this September 15-17^th, then you might want to head over to the SuperZoo. Positioning Animals Worldwide Inc. plans to reveal its SpotLight GPS Pet Locator to a crowd of onlookers.

The SpotLight GPS Pet Locator is a device that will be directly linked, 24 hours per day, to the American Kennel Club Companion Animal Recovery System. This is the only GPS tracking system in the world that will have around-the-clock monitoring attached to it.

Anyone wishing to see a demonstration of this GPS tracking system is invited to attend the unveiling at SuperZoo. Those that do attend will gain a discount on a SpotLight GPS Pet Locator. In addition to the existing features of the SpotLight Pet Locator (including a rescue button and a beacon light), the new device will also include a new battery management system, and mobile phone applications.

This new innovation by Positioning Animals Worldwide Inc. will help pet owners to track their animals in real time. This system will become especially useful when pets wander away from home. With the help of constant monitoring from the American Kennel Club, a pet owner will be able to find an animal that has wandered. The American Kennel Club will contact a pet’s owner when a pet begins to wander outside of set parameters.

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By Greg Bartlett

A little over a year ago, paintings by Van Gogh and Monet valued around 200 million dollars were stolen from the Zurich museum. In spite of the museum’s security guards and surveillance equipment, these art thieves were able to steal four very valuable pieces of Impressionistic art. After this devastating loss, the Zurich museum security and other museums around the world are concerned that their current level of security is inadequate.

Although the museum was eventually able to track down and return the priceless paintings, they certainly need to beef up their security. Art museums around the world need to take a look at GPS tracking. Protecting an art museum with a GPS tracking system may be a bit pricey and it may not prevent another robbery, but it will no doubt be the best way to locate the stolen goods. Equipping the most valuable pieces of art with tracking devices will insure that they can be located if they are ever stolen. Most art thieves are experienced enough to know which paintings are the most valuable.

While they might not automatically go for the most expensive pieces, if enough of the artwork is monitored with a GPS tracking system, the museum can rest at ease that at least one of the pieces stolen will have a tracking device in place.

A GPS tracking system makes the return of stolen property a cinch for the local authorities. Knowing the exact location of the stolen items will save them time and money. And the quicker the authorities locate stolen artwork, the less likely it will be that the robbers have had a chance to damage the paintings.

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by James Neely, freelance writer: click | HERE | to inquire about writing services

One of the key drivers in businesses today is what is known as Change Management. This is a set of business guidelines that helps businesses and the people that work in them understand and accept change so that the business can operate better and be better prepared to change with business climates.

So it is that because of the need for attention to change, you should be opened to new ideas and concepts that will help your business grow with changes.

Get Ready for Change

This means that you need to be flexible for whatever comes around that affects your business. And, keeping a mindset that looks for opportunities to perform better and at a higher level. It could be that you need to integrate an 800 number and automated attendant into your business to help you with communications. You might also have significant money tied up in assets that need to be monitored on a regular basis. This might call for you to change your security strategy and include GPS tracking as a means to protect those assets.

Discuss Change

Openly talk about change and how it might affect what your business is doing or will do in the future. If you have employees, draw them into the discussion and get them comfortable with the concept of change so that when it happens, it is not a surprise to them. They will be better able to handle the changes and will avoid having changes affect their productivity and attitudes, too.

Expect Change

Everyone needs to expect change to happen. Even in the course of doing business daily, change is a part of business environments. Being expectant of changes helps you cope with and mold your business to the changes.

Watch Change

Take a proactive approach in monitoring changes so that you can benefit from them will go a long way to helping you become good at making money when other businesses might be failing.

As we discussed earlier, adding a GPS tracking system to your business can help you manage change. If you have something stolen that has one of these devices, you can recover it within hours, not days, weeks, months or maybe not at all. Protecting your assets will help you be able to keep using them and making a profit from them. This is especially essential if your business depends on using vehicles to make money (deliver services, etc).

Making change a welcome participant in your business means you are more likely to succeed and profit from your actions.

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by James Neely, freelance writer

Whether you are a homeowner or a lawn maintenance business operator, you need GPS Tracking devices attached to each of your pieces of lawn equipment.  This especially makes sense for those units that are in high demand and are targets of thieves.

Does the name John Deere mean anything to you as a lawn care professional?  Sure, they make some of the best mowers and lawn care equipment in the world.  Even homeowners recognize the quality and reliability of the name.  What’s more, these are some of the most sought after equipment by thieves as well.

That is why GPS Tracking devices are a must for your expensive outdoor lawn care equipment.

Watch Your Equipment

Keeping an eye on your equipment is important.  Being able to locate it in an instant helps you be able to find it quickly if it ever becomes stolen.  That is invaluable because there is nothing like being in a serious jeopardy of not being able to run your lawn care business if an item is stolen.  You can turn over the location to local police and have your lawn equipment back in a matter of hours, vs. days, weeks, months, or maybe never.

Police have many important serious cases that they follow up on every day.  And, unfortunately, your stolen lawn equipment is not at the top of the list.  They would rather know where thieves have taken an item so that they can recover it quickly and bring closure to the case so that they can move on to more important issues.

Watch Your Use

If you have a lawn care business, you can map out the use of your equipment to get a better handle on how long it takes you to complete jobs and how you can better schedule them in order to be more efficient.  This is valuable information to have for customer satisfaction purposes.

Watch Your Maintenance

Do you track the maintenance on your equipment closely?  Now you can with a GPS Tracking device.  Maintenance must be performed at regular intervals in order to help make sure that it operates at peak efficiency with fewer break-downs.

Once you have completed a season, you can view reports that will allow you to study the data from your jobs and equipment to provide you a better idea of where you worked and how long it took to complete jobs.  This way, you can use the information next season to deliver even better service levels.

Want a better way to gain control over what you do in the lawn care business?  Keeping track of your assets and managing your fleet are immensely easier with a GPS tracking system.

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By Greg Bartlett

The fifth annual M2M Magazine Value Chain Awards was an exciting and profitable time for those associated with the production and use of machine-to-machine technology. The awards ceremony was held in Chicago on Thursday June 11, 2009. Among the awards recipients was Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc. who received a Bronze Award for their role as a leading GPS tracking system provider.

Essentially, the Value Chain Awards exist to recognize the most productive corporations which have implemented the use of machine-to-machine technology such as GPS tracking systems and other uses of multiple combined technologies. An independent panel of machine-to-machine technology experts determines the companies that are recognized at the Value Chain Awards. The list of criteria by which the participants are evaluated includes the total business value held by the company, the strength of the company’s product development, and the innovative standards of the company.

Editorial director of M2M magazine, Peggy Smedley commented that “those involved in M2M are facing a pivotal time in the industry’s growth. There are now millions of machines communicating with each other. However, there are still millions that do not. It won’t be long until other companies see the value and take advantage of the opportunity that can come from implementing this technology. This year’s Value Chain Award winners have recognized what M2M can do for them in both a wired and wireless world, and they are now being honored for that insight.”

“The recipients of the 2009 Value Chain Awards have truly found a way to implement machine-to-machine technology to its fullest potential, using all parts of the value chain to achieve their goals,” said Mike Carrozzo, chief editor, M2M magazine. “We hope that other adopters see the benefits of M2M implementation and strive to find the same success, becoming future Value Chain Award winners.”

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by James Neely, freelance writer: click | HERE | to inquire about writing services

One of the busiest places to be during the day is at a large airport in any of the major metropolitan cities in America. There are so many things happening all at once that one wonders how there are not more disasters on the ground. However, behind the scenes there are incidents and near-incidents that are never reported to the public. Not necessarily involving aircraft either. Consider just the number of small motorized vehicles that are buzzing around the airport at all hours.

If an airport operation wants or needs to get a better handle on their operations, the best way to do it would be with a GPS tracking system. The benefits of incorporating one of these systems are undeniable:

Managing Vehicles

What better way to manage your vehicles that are used in the service of airport operations than a GPS tracking system. You will be able to see where your vehicles are and make changes to their location in an instant. Moving your vehicles where they are needed most puts you in better control and able to better complete tasks before and after flights come and go.

Managing Schedules

Being able to manage the schedules with a closer watch, means that you can make changes in scheduling based on need. Sometimes the best plans do not always work, so being flexible by using a GPS tracking system helps you know where and when you need to adjust schedules.

Locating Assets

With a large fleet of assets (vehicles and other large moving units), a GPS tracking system is mandatory. Otherwise, how do you make sure that all of your assets are on-site and are accounted for? Taking inventory on all of your assets is a breeze. And, if an asset is not being used or is in a location where it does belong, you can know it in a minute and get a resolution before you lose track.

Recovering Items

Should one of your items become stolen, you will be able to track it to its location and provide the location to local authorities in order to recover it in a matter of hours rather than days, weeks, months, or maybe even not at all. Knowing that your assets are under close control gives you peace of mind and helps you avoid being caught short of assets when you need them during the busiest times during the year for air travel.

Never will you be sorry that you implemented a GPS tracking system into your business. The benefits are well-documented and your operations will run smoother with fewer problems. It is worth the time and effort to obtain a system and you will be glad you did.

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