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By Sherri Middleton
You’ve recently hired a new driver and now your customers are complaining because loads are not arriving on time; or you notice an increase in diesel bills and wonder if a particular driver is idling longer than he should.
GPS and vehicle tracking devices are good ways to monitor the activity of the truck or driver and the technology is good for any size operation, according to Don Weaver, president and CEO of GPSPursuit.
Weaver conceived the idea while working as an engineering technologist in the jungles of Central America. Today the tracking devices help multi-million dollar companies know how the fleet is operating.
“Small and medium companies basically find the same savings,” he says. “You reduce engine idling and that’s on the green side. You stop misuse of vehicles and can monitor off-hour activity. You stop speeding and reduce fuel consumption. Those are the big worries for most fleets.”
By spending about $200 a month to monitor a fleet of tow trucks, a company can save about 20 percent in operating costs by reducing unnecessary idling. “Drivers don’t care whether they let the truck idle for 10, 15 or 20 minutes,” Weaver says. “It’s not their money. But with GPS tracking and monitoring, you can tell where the vehicle is; when it’s idling, how fast the driver is driving and which route he’s taking to the destination. You can locate the vehicle right now so it improves dispatching on the fly and those savings come back to the owner.”
Weaver says many fleets still don’t understand the value of GPS tracking and monitoring because they can’t see the return on investment versus the cost of purchasing equipment. “If you have 10 vehicles and it costs you $4,000 to outfit them with GPS, you can save money on all 10 vehicles and notice a return on investment in three to four months,” he says. “It costs about $35 a month for frequent monitoring and a lot less for infrequent monitoring a couple times a month or week. The system and monitoring pay for itself in a short period of time.”
Weaver says his device is not only used in transportation, but in personal care for Alzheimer’s patients and other ways. “The principles are the same in GPS technology,” he says. “It’s the same as airport security devices using the principle of geo-fencing and many car rental locations and dealerships use the technology to ensure that the vehicle can be located if someone is delinquent on a payment. Once installed on a vehicle, the unit monitors the heartbeat so it can isolate and disable the ignition when problems arise.”
Many tracking devices are hard-wired to the battery to provide a continuous power supply to the device. If the truck is out of area, the owner can trigger a relay to disable the power, unlock the doors or even activate a panic device by pressing a button. The system provides 24/7 monitoring.
“It’s particularly good on monitoring containers that are hard to track,” Weaver says. “They don’t have power and they get banged around a lot. We can install a unit inside a container to prevent theft and illegal entry. So the owner knows where the trailer is. We call these pink or blue devices that are operated by batteries, My Cheating Wife or My Cheating Husband units. The devices can be used frequently or infrequently to monitor a vehicle’s activity. We also have a product called Lasso 911. This was designed to track children.”
Frequent tracking units can be used by commercial fleets to monitor on-the-fly dispatching, restricted areas, excess idling and speeding reports. Personal tracking units are designed for packages, children, covert operations, elderly and small valuable monitoring; Infrequent tracking is ideal for safety and security, vehicle theft, door unlock, ignition disable, covert applications, speeding notification and area restrictions.
Whether it’s a truck, a person or a valuable asset, GPSPursuit has a solution. For more information on the company or the developer, call GPSPursuit at 1-888-244-1777, or email sales@gpspursuit.com or visit www.gpspursuit.com. Take 10 percent off if you mention Code Number TQ09. |
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