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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.
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.
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.
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.
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 has two different smartphone models currently on the market – one with AT & T and one with T-Mobile. The less expensive AT& T Garmin Nuviphone, which retails for $49, has the great navigation and GPS system you would expect from Garmin, and the smartphone capabilities are pretty good, too. According to Garmin’s website, […]
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Golfshot is the creator of the No. 1 iPhone app for golf. Today the company released Golfshot: Golf GPS® onto Google’s Android system today. The new GPS iPhone app launch marks an important growth period for Golfshot as the company expands its reach into additional smartphone equipment and providers.
According to a recent press release by the company, Golfshot: Golf GPS® on Android has the same GPS rangefinder and scoring capabilities currently used on the iPhone version. Golfshot uses global GPS positioning to display yardages to any point on a golf hole, acting as a distance rangefinder. To display yardages, the app uses both a List View and Aerial View that auto adjust distances based on a user’s location. Over 30 million holes of golf have been played using Golfshot since its release in July 2009. Golfshot GPS on Android is available in 12 languages spanning 150 countries worldwide.
