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FieldLogix Blog
Student Finds FBI GPS Tracking Device Secretly Placed in His Vehicle
A 20-year-old college student in California recently found a GPS vehicle tracking device belonging to the FBI that had been secretly attached to his car. The FBI even showed up to his apartment a few days later and took the GPS tracking device back!
The student, Yasir Afifi, had taken his car in for a routine oil change when he and the oil change technician noticed wires hanging from a black box underneath his car. Neither one of the men knew what the device exactly was, so they immediately removed it from the vehicle.
Shortly after, not knowing exactly what the black box was or who had put it there, a friend of Afifi’s posted images of the GPS tracking device online. Next thing you know, about 48 hours later, 6 FBI agents showed up at Afifi’s apartment in Santa Clara, California, demanding that he immediately returned the GPS vehicle tracking device. The GPS tracking device was identified as a police-issue-only Cobham Orion Guardian ST82 vehicle tracking system.
GPS System Cuts Fuel Use By 1,100 Gallons in Under Two Weeks
GPS Fleet Tracking System and Green Fleet Management System, FieldLogix, can help fleet managers to reduce fuel consumption and increase operating efficiency right away. Most clients start seeing positive results from using the GPS fleet management system within 30 days. Because of this reason, FieldLogix offers a trial program so fleet managers can try out the fleet management system for for nominal fees and no obligation.
At first Keil Southworth of Albertina Kerr Centers was unsure whether the FieldLogix GPS fleet tracking and management system would really help him to cut costs. So he decided to start with a few trial units to evaluate the product. He quickly realized how valuable and useful the system would be for his fleet. Once the trial period was over, Mr. Southworth purchased 88 FieldLogix GPS fleet management devices for his entire fleet.
According to Keil Southworth of Albertina Kerr Centers, “Our fuel usage dropped by 1,100 gallons the first two weeks after installing the FieldLogix GPS units. The following two weeks our usage went back up 400 gallons but still was 700 gallons under our average.”
Chrysler Launches New Electronic GPS Vehicle Tracking System
GPS vehicle tracking system just launched by the Chrysler Group will likely be the company’s first step toward establishing a competitor for GM’s OnStar and Ford’s SYNC systems. The new system is a Mopar-branded Electronic Vehicle Tracking System.
Chryler’s new Electronic Vehicle Tracking System offers different levels of service. The basic plan is aimed primarily at protecting owners from vehicle theft. Using GPS fleet tracking technology from Guidepoint Systems, the Mopar device includes a GPS integrated stolen vehicle tracker that can provide real-time information on the vehicle’s location and includes a $1,000 “theft-protection” warranty from Chrysler. The good news is the basic level Electronic Vehicle Tracking Systems do not require a subscription fee. This is useful to customers who want to avoid the hassle of ongoing fees while still taking advantage of the GPS stolen vehicle tracking system capabilities.
Child GPS Tracking Systems Give Parents Peace of Mind
Keeping children safe and secure is a top priority for good parents. There are uncountable ways to do this. More and more parents are using child GPS tracking devices for this exact reason. These GPS tracking systems utilizes cutting-edge technology and are becoming more popular all the time. The child GPS tracking industry has advanced greatly in the last few years and is a fairly new use of gps technology.
Are you wondering if you should use a child GPS device for safety? If so, then you should consider the benefits that they have to offer. A parent’s life is a constant juggling act. Keeping track of your children at all times can be difficult. There is a certain peace of mind in knowing exactly where your vehicle is located in real-time 24/7. Which is why so many of these GPS tracking devices are invaluable to parents.
These GPS tracking devices can 1) let you know when your children arrive at school safely; 2) locate your children when they are not at home 3) locate your child quickly in a crowd if you lose him or her. The stress and panic associated with losing a small child or teenager can be tremendous. When it comes to children, you can never be too safe – which is why you should have a child GPS device for safety.
City Fleets Use Eco-Friendly Oil Filters to Reduce Expenses
Two cities in in Southern California – Culver City in Los Angeles County and Westminster in Orange County – have been using Pure Power oil filters in an effort to reduce waste and maintenance expenses, according to a press release from the company, PurePower. According to Kelly Tidwell of Pure Power!, use of the company’s cleanable, reusable oil filter can extend oil change intervals two to four times longer than traditional filters. Reducing waste is good for the environment, reducing expenses is good for fleets.
The Culver City Fleet is ranked # 7 on the 2010 100 Best Fleets listing. The city fleet has been using Pure Power! oil filters for the last year. According to Paul Condran, equipment maintenance manager, the filters used in the city’s fleet of vehicles never have to be replaced and can be retained and reused as fleet vehicles are replaced. “They are providing us with an excellent way to clean the oil, especially in our expensive heavy- and medium-duty natural gas engines,” he said. Condran stated the City will eventually have the entire fleet converted.
Garminphone Combines Garmin GPS with Smartphone
When you think about Garmin (GRMN), the first thing that comes to mind are GPS systems. Here’s something you probably don’t relate with Garmin: smartphones. Garmin has two different popular smartphones on the market right now – one with AT & T and one with T-Mobile. According to CNet, the T-Mobile Garminfone is a huge improvement over the AT & T Nuvifone G60, proving to be a capable smartphone just as much as it is a reliable navigator.
The Garmin GPS fone is built on the Android™ platform. It is a full-featured smartphone combined with proven Garmin GPS satellite navigation. Whether you’re making a call, sending a message or simply surfing the web, Garminfone puts everything you need right at your fingertips. You’ll get access to the Android Market, similar to the the Apple iPhone app store, giving you thousands of apps to choose from. Android Market is where you’ll find apps to truly customize your smart-phone.
Garmin GPS Navigation
With Garminfone, you can find addresses, get both on-screen and voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions that speak street names, know your arrival time, and automatically reroute if you have to detour. Garminfone also supports junction view with lane assist¹ in many metro areas — so you can know the right lane to be in at the right time. In addition, Garminfone comes preloaded with millions of points of interest so you can look up restaurants, fuel stations, hotels, ATMs and more, get phone numbers and addresses, and navigate right to your chosen location.
GPS Tracking for Taxi Cabs Fleets Vital for City Transportation
Taxi cabs are crucial to a city’s transportation system. I realized this recently after trying to get a cab after a Charger’s game in San Diego and during a taxi cab strike in Atlanta. Having access to cabs 24/7 is something that we all take for granted. Taxis are vital people movers and cities cannot function properly without them.
Taxi cab fleets in major cities range from approximately 5,000 – 10,000 vehicles. For example, the city of Chicago has a fleet of about 6000 cabs. Chances are, fleets this large owe their flow and easy operation to GPS fleet tracking systems. That is because without them, too much is left to chance. Drivers and consumers are wandering about rather aimlessly hoping to hook up at the right place and the right time.
GPS tracking is a preferred method of taxi cab fleet management. Companies dispatching taxi cabs know that a tracking system will tell them where their fleet is exactly, so they have better control of their resources, and as an extension of that, better control of their operating costs and profit margin. GPS tracking systems are used to: record on-duty trips; to keep an electronic record of mileage and location, eliminating the need for manual trip sheets; and to better dispatch the closest available vehicle to trip requests.
Garmin NuviPhone Combines Phone, GPS Navigation, and Mobile Search
Garmin has two different smartphone models currently on the market – one with AT & T and one with T-Mobile…. Read more »
Awesome New GPS Devices – Snow Goggles with a GPS Dashboard
The World’s First Direct-to-Eye Communications Display in a Snow Goggle, Integrating GPS Technology, State-of-the-Art Sensors, and Superior Optics: Rincon/Zeal’s Transcend Snow Goggle. Described as the most technologically advanced goggle in the world, it features advanced optics and Head Mounted Display technology, showing real-time data in a heads up display inside the goggles themselves. The Transcend GPS-enabled goggles, available from Zeal Optics in Fall 2010, features GPS & vertical odometer technologies, and provides real-time access to performance statistics including speed, altitude, temperature, and time.
Skiers, snowboarders and any other action sports lover are going to love this new GPS device – GPS enabled goggles by Recon. The ability to see video of what you just did is one thing, but to see it on an interactive map that displays speed and elevation is something that has never been done before.
This new snowboard technology will in essence be a ski and snowboard goggle where you view your cellphone screen, your speed and altitude on a small display on the inside of the goggle lens. The GPS system enabled goggles will feature a 15mm diagonal micro display will provide you with your real-time speed, jump hang-time, vertical gain/loss, altitude, temperature and will even include a stopwatch and GPS tracking capability for rescue situations – which is a great safety perk.
Never Forget Where you Parked with the Park’n Find App
GPS tracking technology is exploding with new uses and applications….Wasting valuable time searching for your car in parking lot is never a fun experience. It can be quite frustrating as it often happens at the worst moments – when it’s raining or when you’ve got a handful of heavy items. Well thanks to the Park’n Find iPhone App, it will never happen again.
The Park’n Find iPhone app obtains the users position using the iPhone’s GPS tracking capabilities approximates the vehicle location to a street address. Users are guided back to their parking locations with a GPS satellite image of the parking lot showing where their car is parked relative to their current position. The map keeps the area between the user and their car in focus with automatic map zooming and panning as the user moves closer to or farther from their parked vehicle. Additional guidance is provided by an arrow that shows which general direction to walk.
Safer FMCSA Trucker Regulations Reduce Deaths by 20%
This month the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that the number of truck driver traffic fatalities had declined 20 percent in 2009, dropping from 4,245 in 2008 to 3,380 in 2009. The reduction in large truck-related deaths is the lowest level in recorded Department of Transportation history. The results also show a 33 percent decrease in fatalities since the stricter Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hours-of-service regulations became effective in January 2004.
In addition to the 20 percent reduction in crash fatalities involving large trucks, the number of truck occupant deaths decreased 26 percent in 2009, from 682 in 2008 to 503 in 2009. The number of truck occupants injured in truck-related crashes also declined 26 percent. Those are the largest declines among all vehicle categories.
Want an Insurance Discount? Install Fleet Vehicle Telematics Devices
According to a recent study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), implementation of driving behavior management systems using in-vehicle telematics devices can result in a significant reduction in the number of risky driving behaviors. Based on this research, Travelers (TRV)is paying its customers in the form of insurance discounts of up to 15% to educate their employees in safe driving by using data obtained from fleet telematics devices.
Similar to global positioning systems (GPS), fleet vehicle telematics go beyond navigation and positioning by storing and sending data on how a vehicle is operated. Fleet telematics devices can help reduce fleet maintenance costs, improve vehicle efficiency and result in insurance discounts. Recently Travelers (NYSE: TRV) announced a potential discount of up to 15 percent on certain auto liability insurance premiums for qualifying businesses that effectively use vehicle telematics technology to monitor their company owned commercial fleet vehicles and driver behavior.
Travelers Insurance is one of the world’s largest insurance companies. Traveller’s Insurance announced this week that it is now paying fleets in the form of insurance discounts if the fleet installs fleet telematics systems. According the a TRV press release, the fleet must install vehicle telematics technology “in a sufficient number of their fleet vehicles and that they are actively incorporating safety information from the devices into their ongoing safety feedback to drivers, at least on a quarterly basis.”