Posts By: JC Strodula

School Bus Fleet Updates Telematics To Enhance Safety

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School boards are under pressure to not only provide a safe, reliable transportation service to school children and their parents, but also to run as efficiently as possible in light of today’s budget restraints. A GPS tracking system can make a school bus fleet more profitable, plus it helps to keep children safe.

Which is why last week in Prince County, Maryland, a local school board voted and approved to upgrade the school system’s fleet of buses with new GPS tracking systems.

The new GPS tracking system will provide several benefits to the school bus fleet. In addition to being able to guide drivers who have gotten lost, the system will be able to track if a bus is speeding and send e-mail updates. Previously, the only way to know would be to do radar checks or rely on complaints. The system can also monitor bus driving patterns to make sure drivers operate their vehicles efficiently, eliminating unnecessary idling, observing speed limits and not taking detours.

Never Lose Your Pet With Qualcomm’s New Tagg Tracking System

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Hundreds of thousands of pets go missing every year, and according to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, only 15 to 20 percent of lost dogs and only two percent of lost cats are ever returned to their owners. Pet owners can now put their minds at ease as they no longer have to worry about their dog or cats getting lost, thanks to Tagg—The Pet Tracker.

Tagg is a GPS-enabled, wireless pet tracking system that enables pet parents to monitor their animals’ location. Tagg provides peace of mind for any pet parent by providing them access to their pet’s whereabouts via a mobile phone, mobile device or computer.

The Tagg pet tracking system uses advanced GPS technology to enable pet owners to know where their pets are and be notified if they wander off. Tagg uses a sophisticated combination of GPS and wireless technology to monitor a pet’s location and quickly notify the owner via email and/or text if the pet leaves its Tagg zone, the area where it spends most of its time—typically the home, yard and adjacent areas.

Facebook Users Beware: GPS Data in Photos Can Reveal Where You Live

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Twitter is the social-media platform that lets users communicate in short posts called tweets. It is very common for Twitter users to snap pictures using their mobile phone and to instantly upload them to Twitter. But users should beware, because you may be sharing more than just a photo. You may actually be revealing where you live, work and play.

Ever snapped a photo with your phone, then uploaded it to post on Twitter? You may have shared more than just an image. ICanStalkU.com was set up by tech consultants to alert Twitter users that their smartphone pics are embedded with GPS data, making it so easy to determine your precise latitude and longitude that “a first grader could stalk someone,” says cofounder Larry Pesce. For its part, Twitter’s image-hosting service strips geotagged data from phone-uploaded pics, but third-party services like TwitPic are still vulnerable. Twitter has twice suspended ICanStalkU’s account, calling the site’s cautionary tweets spam. But Pesce says, “If we thought of it, someone else much more evil and smarter has been using it.”
Did you know that GPS location data can be recorded when someone takes a picture of you?

According to the New York Times, when Adam Savage, host of the popular science program “MythBusters,” posted a picture on Twitter of his car parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser. Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of GPS data providing the longitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Hence, he revealed exactly where he lived. And since the accompanying text was “Now it’s off to work,” potential thieves knew he would not be at home.

Geotagging is when a device such as an iPhone, Android smartphone or digital camera stores your location or geographical information, such as your GPS coordinates, within a photo or movie file (such as .jpg or .mov files). The tricky thing about geo-tags is that they are invisible to the naked eye. Geo-tags are part of the meta-data, or underlying data about the data, that accompanies each file. The problem occurs when you or someone you may know are geo-tagging your photos and then uploading them to the internet – especially social media sites like Twitter. When social media users take a picture or video and upload it to their page, they are probably transmitting far more data than they think.

FCC to Protect GPS System From LightSquared Interference

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LightSquared is currently seeking approval from the FCC to move forward with its plans to build out a broadband wireless network. But the company has been facing fierce opposition from dozens of companies and organizations claiming the proposed network will interfere with GPS system signals.

Construction of LightSquared’s new wireless network is currently on hold as federal regulators wait to make sure the network will not cause interference with GPS system receivers. However, the FCC could not provide a timetable as to when continued testing, design modification, and review of the project would be complete.

In an effort to resolve the issue and make a decision , this week the FCC sent letters to both LightSquared and key members of the GPS industry. Letters were sent to LightSquared’s engineering and technology chief Julius Knapp, and GPS industry members such as Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FCC asked both parties to spell out exactly which GPS devices see interference and how those devices will interact with LightSquared’s newly scaled-down deployment plan.

Gas and Oil Prices Plunge After US Credit Downgrade

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On Friday of last week, Standard & Poor lowered its rating for U.S. debt one notch from AAA to AA+. Following the downgrade, oil fell to the lowest price in more than eight months as investors fled commodities for assets such as Treasury bills and gold after the downgrade. Poor economic news flooded the market and pushed oil prices below $90 a barrel, despite government agreements to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Oil prices had the largest weekly loss since May 6, when the death of Osama bin Laden was announced. Crude oil prices were down more than $3 per barrel Monday afternoon. Further declines in oil and gad prices are anticipated.

GM Launches New Vehicle Tracking System to Monitor Teens While Driving

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General Motors is testing a new tracking system in the US. The tracking system can be used to locate a stolen vehicle, and it can also keep track of family members behind the wheel.

The vehicle tracking system is called Family Link. For parents of inexperienced teen drivers, using Family Link can help to give parents peace of mind because they will be able to monitor their child’s location and know they are safe. The service enables users to log onto a website at any time of the day to find their vehicle’s location.

The Family Link tracking system can send text or email alerts set for specific times. OnStar is planning to expand this to include alerts when a driver arrives at a destination, if a predetermined speed limit is broken or when a navigation boundary is crossed.

In order to use the system you must have a vehicle equipped with On-Star and subscribe to the On-Star service. Even if you don’t drive a GM, any vehicle can use the OnStar system and service by purchasing an aftermarket rear-view mirror equipped with the OnStar telematics-based communication system.

Gas Prices Expected to Drop 35 Cents in Upcoming Months

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The stock market plummeted last week as uncertainty and fear about the economy in the US and Europe spread like wildfire. Another recession, investors feared, could be right around the corner.

Yes, the stock market plunge was disconcerting and downright scary, but there is some good news. Many analysts are expecting gas prices to drop over the next few months. That’s because the same fears that forced a sell-off on Wall Street also brought down the price of oil.

Gas prices usually fall in late summer as families take fewer road trips. But the recent drop in oil should reduce gas prices even further. Experts are predicting the national average of $3.70 per gallon could fall as much as 35 cents per gallon over the next month. US drivers consume about 378 million gallons of gas every day, so a 35-cent-per-gallon fall would reduce daily total US gas spending by about $132.3 million.

“They’ll see a penny or two drop per day next week,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, a consumer Web site that tracks retail gasoline prices around the country. DeHaan said the decline will likely start at stations along highways and other busy areas. Those stations need to replenish their storage tanks every day or so, and they’ll get the cheaper gasoline faster than others.

Survey Finds GPS Tracking Lowers Vehicle Operating Costs

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A new vehicle tracking survey was released last month in the UK. Results of the study showed that businesses using fleet GPS tracking systems are saving money in several ways. The vehicle tracking survey showed that businesses can achieve measurable benefits in terms of fleet performance, service and legislative compliance.

The vehicle tracking study was conducted by CTrack. The company surveyed over 250 fleet decision makers in the UK. The survey was developed to provide insight into the uptake of vehicle tracking amongst UK-based businesses, how the technology is being used, what benefits are being achieved and what barriers are preventing more companies adopting a vehicle tracking solution. When asked about the primary purpose for vehicle tracking more than a third of the respondents using the technology stated productivity was the main reason, whilst cost reduction, asset management and customer service made up almost half of the answers.

Gas Prices Up 15 Cents in Last 30 Days

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Currently a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline is averaging $3.70, up one cent from last week and up 15 cents in the last 30 days, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Diesel gas prices are currently averaging $3.89 per gallon, up one cent in the past week and up 6 cents in the past month.

This was the third consecutive week crude oil prices were under the increasing influence of worldwide debt concerns. Crude has traded near USD 97 for the last few days as investors wait for an outcome of the debt limit talks. Most analysts said that US debt default is still very unlikely but if it happened would devastate the economy.

Habitat for Humanity Selects FieldLogix to Improve Customer Service

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Habitat for Humanity Selects FieldLogix Fleet GPS to Improve Customer Service and Reduce Fuel Usage

Habitat for Humanity Charlotte announced last month that it has installed FieldLogix Fleet GPS Tracking Systems in its entire fleet of vehicles. Since deploying a fleet GPS tracking system, Habitat for Humanity has reported an improvement in customer response times, the amount of job orders completed, and reduced fuel consumption.

Improved Customer Service

Now Habitat for Humanity dispatchers can keep a close eye on the exact location of every vehicle in its fleet in real-time. According to Habitat For Humanity manager, Jon Huffman, “We can make last minutes changes with just a few clicks. If drivers are running late, we can call ahead of time to let someone know. FieldLogix gives dispatchers the ability to assign jobs in a way that maximizes productivity and service, since vehicle stops are constantly being added or changed throughout the day.”

Reduced Fuel Consumption

Jon Huffman also added, “We have experienced significant savings in fuel expenses since installing FieldLogix. We are quite pleased with that. The initial improvements have been so good that we haven’t had time to see everything else the system can do for us!”

Eco-Friendly Driving

Huffman further stated, “FieldLogix is a Green company with an eco-friendly product. It was important for us to choose a company with same core values as Habitat for Humanity.”