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Fleet management systems have been around a while and have become so complex that it has evolved into Field Resource Management. This article explores 5 reasons why all fleets need at least a basic Field Resource Management system.
Today the US average for a gallon of unleaded gas is $3.584, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Gas prices have risen 4 cents in the past week. Gas prices are up 74 cents from one year ago. Prices are at their highest level since 2008, in part because of the Japan earthquake and turmoil in the oil-producing Middle East. Gas price reached the highest price ever recorded during the month of March, according to ABC News. The state averages for a gallon of gas topped $4 in California, Alaska and Hawaii.
Oil futures settled today at $103.98 after reaching a high of $105.76 earlier in trading. On Friday, oil futures settled at $105.40 a barrel, the third consecutive day above $105, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group.
Continuing unrest in Libya as well as other North African and Middle Eastern countries has led to the highest crude oil prices since 2008. As a result, the US Energy Administration has raised its forecast for the average cost of crude oil to refiners to $105 per barrel in 2011, $14 higher than its previous price estimate.
Over 200 trucking companies were named as defendants last week in a lawsuit filed over patent infringement for GPS-based vehicle tracking technology by PJC Logistics. According to recent legal documents filed in 8 federal court districts across the US, PJC Logistics LLC is claiming to be the sole owner of the GPS vehicle tracking technology patent, and that other users of the GPS vehicle tracking technology are doing so without legal permission. PJC Logistics is claiming that each of the carriers they are suing either “uses or directs others to use its electronic location-based fleet management and tracking system in its fleet of vehicles.”
211 trucking companies are named as defendants in the lawsuit, but many more companies are reported to actually be using the fleet management technology. No one knows why certain companies are being targeted, while others are not. The legal documents do not disclose the basis for selecting carriers.
Would you like to improve customer service, reduce your operating costs, have more control of your employees and assets, and “go green” by reducing your vehicle emissions? There are a number of cost-effective solutions available to help fleets increase productivity, improve driver safety, and ensure fleet operations run as efficiently as possible.
A telematics-based GPS fleet management system can increase the profitability and productivity of any company with mobile employees, vehicles or other mobile assets. A growing number of fleets are turning to GPS tracking systems as the most cost-effective tool to curb excessive idling and other fuel-inefficient driver behaviors.
Verizon Inc. successfully reduced fuel costs by curbing unnecessary engine idling, according to Automotive Fleet. Verizon estimates unnecessary idling costs the telecommunications company about $20 million annually. Verizon uses a combination of GPS tracking and employee education to curb unnecessary engine idling.
Gas prices have continued to rise all week. On Friday March 25, 2011, the current average for a gallon of unleaded fuel in the US is $3.561. The average for a gallon of diesel is $3.946, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. One week ago gas was slightly less, averaging $3.54 a gallon. One month ago the average was $3.19 a gallon, an increase of over 37 cents.
Gas prices topped $4 a gallon this month all over Southern California – from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and many, many more cities. The current average for gas in California is $3.993 a gallon. In San Diego, many drivers cannot find gas for less than $4/gallon. In downtown San Diego, gas is going for $4.20 per gallon of unleaded regular.
Some experts have said that gas prices in California may have peaked. Others do not agree.
GPS jammers are illegal in the United States and restricted in Europe. However, laws in some other countries are less clear.
2) Jamming devices can easily be ordered online. GPS jammers are marketed and sold online as gadgets to protect personal privacy and prevent someone from tracking your movements. On the internet there are GPS jammers being sold for as low as $33.00 at the Jammer World .
3) Some say that GPS jammers are dangerous to society. “The worry is that factories in China are starting to churn these things out,” says Peter Large, vice president at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble, which develops advanced positioning systems. “If they did start to proliferate, it could have devastating consequences.”
4) Some people believe the devices can be useful and people should have the right to buy them. FOrt example, Michael Kharkovoy, CEO of Jammer-Store, told Fox News that GPS jammers can be stowed easily in a car or a bag and can help avoid spy detection — say, from a spouse who suspects infidelity and plants a GPS tracking device like the Zoombak in a car.
GPS jammers work by disrupting frequencies in one of the often used GPS bands. GPS system signals are pretty weak, so it’s fairly simple for a jammer to interrupt or interfere with receivers such as portable navigation devices.
A recent report by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering on the vulnerability of the GPS system said that jammers are a threat that could affect both individual GPS devices and the GPS system’s basic infrastructure. Although the threat of someone using GPS jammers in a major terrorist attack is quite low, it is possible, and the military is certainly keeping that in mind as it has been trying to protect the GPS system from these types of weaknesses.
But the jammers ability to interfere with individual navigation devices is a much more likely scenario. GPS jammers can wreak havoc when they get into the wrong hands. Criminals and car thieves can use GPS jammers to get away with bad behavior
According to a recent report by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering on the vulnerability of the GPS system, GPS technology has become a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. We are all dependent on the GPS system whether we know it or not. Although the report pointed out weaknesses in the GPS system, most people agree the chances of a successful terrorist attack or interference with the GPS system is quite low.
Professor Peter Sommer from the Information Systems and Innovation Group, London School of Economics, welcomed the report findings but stressed the GPS systemic risk was relatively low. “It is not so unimportant that we should not be doing anything about it,” he said, “but the suggestion that it is going to be easy for terrorists to cause any long term, large scale disruption is entirely fanciful.”
March 24, 2011 – Gas prices this week remain high this week. According to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report, the national average for a gallon of unleaded gas is hovering around $3.55. Diesel gas prices have steadily been increasing, and the US average is $3.94 a gallon. In California, regular gas is at $3.98 average and diesel is at $4.33.
The Chicago Department of Fleet Management is benefiting from forward contracts because the forward contracts set the city’s purchase price for unleaded and diesel fuel before the price of oil and gas shot through the roof. Gas prices have shot up roughly 37 cents in the last two weeks alone.
Forward gas purchase contracts are part of the City’s fleet management efforts to protect their budgets against rising gas prices. The higher the gas prices go, the better the decision to lock in prices looks.
