December 2010

157 posts
GPS Tracking By Law Enforcement Without A Warrant – Is it Legal?

Several important court battles over the use of GPS tracking by law enforcement without a warrant have been going on during the last year. The courts have returned different opinions recently.

1) In November 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in a five to four split, upheld a lower court’s ruling that law enforcement agencies need to obtain a warrant to use the “global positioning system” (GPS) to track a suspect.

The federal appellate court denied a Department of Justice request for reconsideration of a three-judge panel’s ruling that warrantless GPS tracking violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights as well as the defendant’s “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The case involved a D.C. area nightclub owner who was busted for drug possession after police attached a GPS tracking device to his vehicle. Local authorities had monitored Antoine Jones for a month without a warrant before they nabbed him. In a divided decision the court ruled to re-establish Jones’ 4th amendment rights as precedent over what is essentially probable cause, most likely because there didn’t seem to be probable cause for much of the time spent monitoring the suspect.

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School Bus Tracking System Allows Parents to Track Kids

Starting in January 2011, GPS tracking devices will be installed eight school buses in Columbia Elementary , Madison County, AL. The gps tracking devices will be used as part of a pilot program for a new bus tracking system. The new bus tracking system will enable parents to track the location of the bus their child is riding in real-time.

Bobby Jackson, Administrator of Transportation for Columbia Elementary, said that as soon as students are enrolled in the program, students will use their fingerprints to check in and off school buses. “Parents will know their child is on the bus and where the bus is, but not anyone else,” he said.

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AT&T’s Green Fleet Management Tips, Strategy and Achievements

Less than 2 years ago, AT&T committed to replacing approximately 15,000 of its nearly 76,000 fleet vehicles with alternative fuel models by 2019. Since then, AT & T has deployed 2,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet vehicles, a major green fleet milestone. The company’s 15,000 alt-fuel fleet vehicle plan will displace 2.5 million barrels of oil, reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons, and create or save 5,500 jobs, according to the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute.

The company expects to spend an estimated $350 million over five years to purchase roughly 8,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet vehicles. CNG vehicles provide a reduction in carbon emissions – approximately 25 percent compared with traditional gasoline vehicles. They are also working with natural gas service providers to build up to 40 new CNG fueling stations to provide the infrastructure needed for the new vehicles. AT&T’s green fleet plan includes an approximately $215 million investment to replace 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative-fuel models. The measure will save 49 million gallons of gasoline over 10 years, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

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How to Prevent Theft of Fleet Vehicles

Yesterday CJ Driscolls & Associates released a study of the Latin American GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems Market. The study concluded that today over four million Latin American vehicles are equipped with a subscription-based vehicle tracking solution. By 2014, the Latin American GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems market will expand to nearly nine million units in service, which is more than double the current amount of GPS vehicle tracking devices. Yearly hardware and service revenues are expected to grow to nearly US $3 billion.

The CJ Driscolls Study provides valuable information about the market for GPS fleet management, consumer stolen vehicle recovery and telematics solutions in each Latin American country (as well as Central America and Mexico). The study also provides an overview and data on the addressable market size, market penetration and trends, and projected market growth.

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Longest Operating GPS System Satellite Reaches 20th Year in Orbit

Global positioning system GPS Block IIA-10 (SVN-23) was launched in November 1990, according to the U.S. Air Force. The global positioning system satellite was the first in the series of GPS IIA satellites to be launched with a design life of 7.5 years. To date, the satellite has operated longer than any other satellite and is predicted to last another 12 to 18 months. The GPS satellite has certainly done its job of providing services to the world.

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GPS Tracking Technology Used to Catch Car Jacking Suspect

This week a quick thinking car jacking victim used GPS tracking technology and his laptop computer to lead police to the suspect, according to the North Jersey police.

Stalin Guzman, 24, of Paterson, New Jersey, was walking to his car when he saw a man on the street. They made eye contact and the suspect allegedly pulled a silver-plated gun and demanded that Guzman step away from the car. He allegedly made that same demand several times before cocking the gun’s hammer, according to Lt. Ronald Humphrey.

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Google’s Driverless Vehicle Technology Creates Car That Drives Itself

Have you ever wanted a car that could drive itself? Google’s (GOOG) latest project brings hardware and software together to create a self driving car. Time Magazine Recently Put it on it’s 50 Best Inventions of 2010 List. The vehicle created by Google has already traveled 140,000 miles safely on its own.

Google says the one of a kind vehicle is not meant to replace drivers but to help them. Imagine being able to take your hands off the wheel for a minute to check an email or take a phone call. This would be an amazing feature to have on a vehicle, especially when traveling long distances, or when you are in in unfamiliar areas or have children in the car. An engineer from Google described it as “Super Cruise Control,” a way to drastically improve your driving experience rather than replace driving altogether.

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Fuel Efficient Driving Techniques for Fleets- Drive Smart, Spend Less

The same car or truck being operated by a different driver (or in a different driving style) can have almost a 10 – 15% difference in fuel consumption. Driving smarter means spending less on fuel. “The largest impact on fuel economy is driver behavior. These include speed, road management and driving style,” said Bob Halfyard, director of safety and compliance at Challenger Motor Freight. Fleet management is realizing the value in actively training their drivers to reinforce awareness about fuel-efficient driving techniques.

Fleet management should make sure drivers are aware of their gas mileage. Rewarding drivers for good driving behavior is a good way to encourage good driving habits. Using technology such as the best GPS Fleet Tracking system to monitor driver behavior, gas mileage, and engine diagnostics is very helpful.

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5 Ways Fleet Management Can Save Money and Maximize Efficiency in 2011

To maximize fleet efficiency and determine areas for cost savings on their fleet management investments, this identifies the biggest areas of cost savings for fleet customers during the third quarter 2010, including:

1) Leasing company vehicles vs owning fleet vehicles. Leasing a fleet instead of owning a fleet of vehicles for use by employees saved customers $21 million.

2) Optimizing replacement strategies. Determining the optimal time to cycle vehicles in fleet, given applicable costs can also save millions.

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5 Ways Drivers Can Cut Fuel Costs

Here are a few easy and free ways you can cut your weekly fuel bill…

1 Reduce driving

Try to reduce the amount of time spent on the road. Reducing business mileage completely will be impossible, but substituting some journeys and using conference calls, instant messaging, or video-conferencing means fewer miles traveled, and also less time lost for staff while traveling. The added bonus: Happier staff usually means more productivity.

Although public transportation can’t always offer the door-to-door flexibility of a company car, there may be some journeys where it can offer useful savings, particularly when traveling into urban, downtown areas.

2 Drive fewer miles

If several members of staff are attending the same meeting, could they meet up somewhere beforehand and just take one vehicle instead?

Three members of staff arriving in one car immediately saves two-thirds in travel costs. Car-sharing can also work well with commuters traveling to and from the office.

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Hertz & Enterprise add all Electric Vehicles to Fleet

Two of the biggest car rental companies in the US – Hertz and Enterprise – will be adding Coda Automotive all-electric Sedans to their car rental green fleet in 2011. The Enterprise Rent-a-Car Fleet will be adding up to 100 Coda Electric Sedans to their car rental locations in California. Hertz said it will be adding the Coda electric vehicles to its car rental vehicle fleet at some Southern California locations and in San Francisco next year.

Hertz said its network of more than 8,300 locations would give it a “unique opportunity” to introduce the all-electric CODA to potential consumers. Hertz is working to set up vehicle charging stations at its rental and car sharing locations, with the aim of rolling out a full-scale electric vehicle rental program in the US and abroad beginning in 2011.

“With one of the world’s largest rental-car fleets, Hertz is uniquely positioned to catalyze the adoption of all-electric vehicles and infrastructure supporting electric mobility,” said Mark Jamieson, Coda’s CFO and CEO, in a statement.

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Efficiency Helps Public Fleet Managers Facing Budget Cuts

According to Government Fleet Magazine, the biggest challenge facing public sector fleets in 2011 is budget constraints due to the decline in tax revenues over the past few years. Public entities are funded largely through sales and property taxes — the two areas most devastated by the economic downturn. Successful fleet management for the public sector essentially boils down to revenue versus costs and maximizing fleet efficiency.

Public sector fleets are currently feeling the pressure to lower capital expenditures and reduce operating costs to compensate for tax revenue shortfalls. This is quite a challenge for public sector fleets, as the economic crisis has caused reduced funding resulting in older fleet assets and budget cuts have caused staff layoffs. There is an ongoing push to minimize fleet capital procurements by keeping vehicles and equipment in service longer. All capital expenditures are being intensely scrutinized. Capital purchases are deferred or eliminated completely and in most cases, total capital expenditures are reduced.

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2010 Government Green Fleet Management Awards Winners

he 40 winners of the 2010 Government Green Fleet Awards were announced at the Green Fleet Conference in October. The City of Seattle was named as the No. 1 Green Fleet in North America. Greening your fleet means becoming more efficient – which can result in lowering fleet management costs. A successful green fleet management plan is a win-win for fleet operators and the environment because it will lower costs and reduce fleet emissions.

The Green Fleet Management Awards were judged on the following criteria:

1. Fleet Composition – This category compares your current fleet composition of conventional fueled (gas & diesel) vehicles versus hybrid, electric, and alternative fuels etc.

2. Fuel & Emissions – The fuels criteria determines your use of renewable and alternative sources of energy. It compares your total use of conventional versus renewable fuels such as BioDiesel & Ethanol, and non-renewable fuels such as propane and compressed natural gas. The emissions criteria evaluates what your fleet has done to cleanup your current inventory of on and off road diesel equipment.

3. Policy & Planning – An integral part of any green fleet plan is not necessarily what you do today, but also what you have planned for the future. Green fleet sustainability is the process in which you plan for the future environmental role of your fleet. Will you continue to budget and purchase green technologies, or will you stop your current green efforts?

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75% of Drivers Open to Sharing GPS Data with Insurance Companies

Over 75% of auto insurance policyholders in the U.S. would welcome a telematics-based insurance program, if sharing their driving data had the potential to reduce their insurance premiums, according to the 2010 LexisNexis Risk Solutions Telematics Survey. The Telematics Survey measured auto policyholder receptivity to allowing insurance companies to use data collected from telematics devices in their vehicles to help determine rates.

The LexisNexis telematics survey measured consumer comfort levels around sharing personal driving information compared to other types of personal information from sources including Internet banking, mobile phones and social networking sites. The results showed policyholders more comfortable sharing GPS system driving data with insurance companies than personal information on social networking sites like Facebook.

Additionally the study found that:

* Over 57% of policyholders are comfortable sharing information about events that led to traffic accidents with insurance companies. 57% of policyholders also believe that auto insurance rates should be determined by actual driving data.
* Only 29% indicated they were comfortable with social networking sites storing personal information such as messages and photos posted on websites.

* Policyholders’ main concern is privacy; however they are more receptive to sharing driving data with insurance carriers than they are to sharing personal information with banks, or allowing mobile phone carriers to store text messages.
* 80% of policyholders believe that tailgating should affect rates.
* 59% of policyholders believe that miles driven per year should be used to determine rates.
* More than half of policyholders feel that minor speeding infractions (5 mph over the speed limit) should not impact rates.

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Demand For Vehicle Tracking Solutions Increasing

According to a new research report from Berg Insight, by the end of this year (2010), 4.3 million passenger cars in Europe will contain an on-board telematics system. Stolen vehicle tracking is still the primary telematics application, followed by automatic emergency call, driver assistance and auto insurance telematics.

The Berg Insight report on the European car telematics market was quite positive. According to the Berg report, the global automotive industry crisis is behind us, as the market has been improving. Demand for aftermarket vehicle tracking solutions is now coming back to pre-financial crisis levels. The OEM market segment is showing signs of increasing activity. Many programs that were aborted in late 2008 have now been resurrected as car manufacturers are putting new focus on their telematics strategies.

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Fleet Management System Optimizes Resources and Make Customers Happier

The Best GPS Fleet Management Systems Cut Costs and Increase Customer Satisfaction.

Do you want to save your company money by running a more efficient business? A good GPS fleet management system can optimize your business resources and make customers happier. GPS fleet tracking devices can capture location data every few seconds and transmit it to back-office software for real-time map display and in-depth performance analysis.

Cut Fuel Costs and Increase Customer Satisfaction with FieldLogix GPS Vehicle Fleet Tracking and Fleet Management System. With FieldLogix you can track your fleet vehicles with real-time fleet tracking, and always know where your vehicles are 24/7.

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AT&T Adds to It’s CA Fleet with Unique Alternative Fuel Vehicle

The latest addition to AT&T’s green fleet is a one of a kind fleet vehicle. The custom fleet vehicle is a Ford F-450 truck that has been converted to compressed natural gas (CNG) and contains a hybrid electric system for power. The AT&T corporate fleet is made up of more than 75,900 vehicles.

The all-new vehicle fleet is part of AT&T’s nearly 1,600 alternative fuel vehicle fleet in California. This “green” fleet is expected to reduce over 3,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year and reduce annual consumption of regular gasoline by over one million gallons. AT&T utilizes approximately 2,700 hybrid and CNG fleet vehicles nationwide with roughly 60% in California. Development of this all new fleet vehicle is one of myriad ways the company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint.

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Economic Guide to Greening Your Fleet With EV’s

he Fleet Electrification Roadmap is a guide that provides insight and analysis on the economics of electric vehicles for fleet management. The Fleet Roadmap recognizes the myriad financial and technological challenges for fleet management in converting a gas-fueled fleet of vehicles to electric.

The analysis within the Fleet Roadmap suggests that with targeted policies in place, fleet adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles could reach 200,000 vehicles by 2015. The report includes the results of a detailed total cost of ownership analysis for electric vehicles in fleets for several different industries.

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