Asset and Trailer Tracking

Historically, Trailer tracking with GPS required expensive satellite tracking devices and service. While there were many positive aspects to this type of tracking, the drawbacks of cost and the requirement for a clear line of sight to the satellites was often a problem.

Now, there is another option. There is now a GPS tracking device which is battery powered lasting up to 3 years. This type of trailer or cargo container tracking is quite reasonable in initial and subsequent costs.

At only 6 x 3.5 x .75 inches, the device is easily hidden. A further benefit is that the GPS tracking device for trailers and containers is not required to have a clear line of site to satellites. If the device cannot get a true GPS fix, it uses the cellular network to get a good fix on the current location.

It is great to have options in GPS tracking for assets and trailers. Trailer Tracking Device

Steven Van Ooyen

GPS Tracking Mathematics

What does it cost to procrastinate? That all depends.

If you procrastinate on your taxes, it costs a lot. If you procrastinate at Valentine's Day or anniversaries, that can cost a lot.

But what about procrastination related to your business fleet. That can be incredibly expensive.

Last week, I spoke to one customer who estimated problems that might be resolved with GPS tracking were costing him as much as $480,000 annually. Another business owner estimated that GPS tracking could save her 1.5-2 hours of labor per person per day. This morning, I spoke we spoke with another individual who estimated current losses due to issues that could be resolved with GPS tracking in excess of $50,000 annually.

So, how much would you spend on GPS tracking to resolve your issues? If you estimated the cost of GPS tracking was 20% of the cost of fuel and labor losses, would you make the purchase?

It is a simple question, but many business owners put off purchasing GPS tracking because of the cost. This never ceases to amaze me and I see it everyday.

Today, a concerned spouse dared to purchase GPS tracking for a spouse. This person wants to know the truth and has the guts to do something to learn. A lot of business owners can learn from this bold move.

I hope you never have to be concerned about your spouse, but you should definitely be concerned about those who have never pledged their love to you.

GPS tracking can save time, money, and give peace of mind.

Take care,

Seven Van Ooyen

Chief Executive Officer

Track What Matters

Can't we trust them?

The question came up today, "do you think so many people are untrustworthy that every fleet needs GPS tracking?".  This is a fair question, and I understand why people would think that GPS tracking is an expense that doesn't need to be made.  The problem is the facts.  

There are people wishing there was a different president elected - today and 8 years ago!  But, either way, there is reality and blind hope.  

The facts are simple.  We talk to employers daily who tell us stories of why they are adopting GPS tracking.  For instance, one customer we spoke to told us how his landscaping employees in North Carolina decided they deserved a 20 minute detour between landscaping jobs.  

Other customers have had their company vehicles stolen while other customers have had employees steal business by taking side jobs.  

How does GPS tracking fix this?  Well, knowing the location, speed, time on site, and idle times gives customers the knowledge they need to effectively manage their fleets.  Fleet tracking has saved these regular people thousands of dollars in a very short period of time.  

So, should we trust employees with our fleet vehicles when they are away from the office?  I wish we could.  

Every employer must accept the facts, especially in this difficult market, that their employees are fallible.  So, it only makes sense to use GPS tracking to mitigate your potential losses.  

Take care of your resources.

Steven Van Ooyen

CEO - Track What Matters

www.SchoolBusRoster.com

Old Fashioned Road Trip

The new year has been extremely busy for us in the GPS tracking world.  Thus, I haven't had the opportunity to blog about our family trip from Texas to Florida where we tested different cellular providers with our GPS tracking devices.  

This old fashioned family vacation offered me a great opportunity to drive side by side with the truckers we monitor with GPS tracking and to test GPS tracking devices and antennas.  We tracked our vehicle with two GPS tracking devices through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida all the way to Disney World.  

For the most part, our travels tracked through commonly traveled roads with great cellular service.  What I was most interested in on this trip was how the GPS tracking worked in rural areas off the main highways.  The great news is that our GPS tracking device with a new cellular provider worked fantastically reporting every 2 minutes without a single lapse in coverage.  Our second GPS tracking device performed almost as well.  The only lapse in coverage was in the most remote part of Louisiana.  

Normally we fly when traveling this far.  However, this one time, we wanted to let the kids see the coast, military bases, and to test our GPS tracking units.  It was also a good time to be in the field where our customer vehicles travel every day.  During this trip, I observed the professionals behind the wheel of big trucks who shared the road very courteously.  I also observed others for whom GPS tracking is a great idea.  

So, keep it safe on the highways and byways.  

Steven Van Ooyen

CEO - Track What Matters

SchoolBusRoster.com

8 Ways Small Businesses Can Save Money

The world market is tough right now. Small businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and maximize efficiency. Demand is down and revenues lower. But, that should not mean we are all doomed to accept a fate common to the big auto makers or financial institutions.  

No Way!  

We are small and mid-size business owners and managers. We are actually responsible for making wise decisions in the midst of difficult times. And, no one is coming to bail us out.  

So, what can we do?  

How can GPS tracking help your business?  

We need to improve our knowledge of our own business and take advantage of every tool, including GPS tracking. We have to maximize efficiency and minimize loss and waste.  

Here are 8 ways small businesses can save money in tough economic times?  

1. Look for inefficiencies in your organization. Are your workers wasting time surfing the Internet or playing Free Cell when they could be generating new business? Install tracking software to find out. Are your workers wasting time in the field? Add GPS tracking and let them know you are monitoring their activities. 

2. Cut back on "nice to have" perks. Employees might feel ripped off for a short time when the free soft drinks or snacks are taken away. But, when weighed against the loss of a job, they get over the initial slight.  

3. Ditch bottled water. A report by ResponsiblePurchasing.org says that filtered water is 750-2,700 times cheaper than bottled water! 

4. Stop the printing madness! Almost anything can be held electronically and read there as well. So, do your best to avoid the printer. Save yourself a ton and save those trees as well. 

5. Reduce fuel costs. If you have a fleet of vehicles, you should put policies in place to reduce idling, personal stops, and demand direct routes to locations. GPS tracking will help with that. 

6. Enforce your fleet vehicle use policies. It is one thing to have a Vehicle Use Policy, but you must enforce it. The Track What Matters GPS tracking system will help you ensure your employees are adhering to the policies you set. 

7. Watch out for employee theft. In the past couple of months, our GPS tracking customers have reported at least 2 thefts of vehicles by employees! In each case, because they had our GPS tracking system installed, they recovered the vehicles, with the help of the police, within a couple of hours. 

8. Be certain you are receiving your full pay for the jobs your employees perform. A GPS tracking customer of ours recently reported a $1,350 loss of revenue that he was able to determine by using our GPS tracking system features to know when certain equipment was being used.  

The Track What Matters GPS tracking system can be setup to let you know when fleet equipment is in use and for how long. Successful small and medium sized business owners will tell you that greed and irresponsible management was the downfall of the corporate giants in the financial and auto industries. And, since no one is giving them a bailout using the tax money they are paying, it is their responsibility to ensure success in their businesses using tried and true methods.  

The trained eye can see opportunity when others see chaos.

Steven Van Ooyen

CEO - Track What Matters

SchoolBusRoster.com

IFTA Requirements for Trucking

There is nothing easy about owning a business or running one.  This is especially true for trucking firms.  Though organizations like the ATA work hard to minimize government restrictions on trucking, the federal government annually adds additional restrictions to haulers.  Many people might think this doesn't matter to ordinary citizens.  Unfortunately, restriction on fleets affect us all.  For every extra penny it costs fleet owners to deliver goods or services, they must raise our prices by that penny.  

This past year, hundreds of trucking firms have been forced out of business.  This is partly because fleet owners are being hit by a troubled economy.  But, this is also attributable to fleet owners being strapped by government regulations.  I am not saying that all restrictions put on fleets are excessive or overbearing.  But, I am concerned about the costs associated with additional restrictions placed on trucking fleets.

IFTA, or the International Fuel Tax Agreement, is one example of an added restriction that adds to costs.  IFTA requires fleets whose trucks travel across state lines, to track the miles traveled in each state by trip and even what roads were traveled.  As you can imagine, this is a huge headeache for truckers and administrative personell.  

In an attempt to combat the hassle placed on trucking fleets by the federal governemnent and other governing bodies, Track What Matters has begun offering state by state mileage reporting.  These reports will streamline the process of IFTA reporting for trucking fleet administrators and allow them to spend more time working on revenue generating projects.

Fleet tracking with GPS has a great number of useful features.  IFTA reporting is just another in that long list of GPS tracking features available for fleets.

I've had about enough

This morning, when recounting stories of how our customers have saved money by gaining further knowledge of what their fleet vehicles and employees were doing while away from the watchful eyes of their managers and owners, I actually started to get a little miffed. One of the first things I hear from employees is that fleet GPS tracking invades their personal privacy or that this is just Big Brother watching over them. So, as I was recounting several stories of employee theft of vehicles, payment for jobs, labor, and fuel, I realized that no employee has a right to privacy with company property and that the idea of monitoring a fleet with GPS is the only sensible way for an employer to protect their investment.

The problem I have with employees who cry foul for fleet tracking is that most of these employees have, at best, inefficiencies to hide. At worst, they are stealing and embezzling from the very company that employs them to drive and work on their fleet.  The employees miss the fact that the job is not a right, it is a priviledge to be employed to drive the vehicle they drive.

As for Big Brother, let us remember what George Orwell's book, "Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)", was truly about. In "1984", Big Brother was a tyrannical government that monitored every area of the citizens' lives and forbid them the basic joys of life. There was no place that was free of the eyes of tyranny. This included restrooms, bedrooms, and the like. Big Brother was a forbidding menace to basic freedoms. You can read a synopsis here. 

This is a far cry from an employer, who owns his trucks, cars, vans, etc... and lets employees drive those fleet vehicles to make a living, putting a GPS tracking system on the fleet. Further, GPS tracking for a fleet is actually less intrusive than a number of monitoring activities that are employed throughout industry. Employers regularly monitor workers for their computer use, they monitor using cameras and recorders, they check and double check money in sales registers, and they monitor time cards and employee movement with the use of ID badges.

In the last 6 weeks, I have heard from customers who had their fleet trucks stolen, had employees steal $1,350 from them on a single job, had employees take joy rides between jobs, had employees use their vehicles and tools for personal jobs, and had employees use their fleet vehicles for personal errands.

So, I ask, if this is going on regularly, how should any employer who has a fleet responsibly act? Should they ignore that employees frequently steal time, money, fuel, and more? Should fleet managers and owners assume that people are basically good when the evidence is that employees, when unsupervised, "goof off" and cheat?

I would like to pretend that things were better "back when", but the truth is that this kind of thing has gone on forever. Individuals might be honest, but people, as a whole, steal and lie.

I wish this weren't the case, but it is true. So, the next time someone says that their employer is infringing on their rights by putting GPS tracking on their fleet vehicle, which is owned by the employer, I will probably beg to differ a bit more sternly than I have in the past.

Thanks for reading,

Steven Van Ooyen

CEO - Track What Matters