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FieldLogix announces the release of its guide for creating a company policy for dash cameras. The guide discusses all of the factors involved when creating a dash camera policy and how to make the policy driver-friendly in order to minimize driver resistance. “In todays’ litigious world, fleets are often targeted by unscrupulous motorists for insurance […]
The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) conducted a study recently to determine which vehicles were most often stolen in the US. The study results show the Cadillac Escalade is the most popular choice for car thieves
The study, based on insurance claims made for model year 2008 through 2010 vehicles, showed that the Escalade is six times more likely to be hit by thieves than the average vehicle, and its overall theft losses are more than 10 times as large. Matt Moore, a vice president at the institute, says the Escalade gets hit more often because “It’s so wildly popular as far as pop culture goes. Watching the TV you see professional athletes coming in and out of them and other celebrities too. It’s a status symbol.”
HLDI, which is part of the Arlington, Va.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, calculated the rankings based on the number of thefts per insured vehicle on the road. The rankings are based on vehicles that were stolen, had parts such as stereo systems taken or had other property inside the car snatched. The data doesn’t include uninsured vehicles or those covered by the 20 percent of insurance companies that don’t report their numbers to the institute.
Gas prices have been fluctuating up and down recently. Drivers were hoping gas prices would continue decreasing but yesterday prices reversed directions and actually increased slightly.
The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas on Thursday $3.58, up one cent from one day ago but down 11 cents from one month ago., according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. One week ago, gas prices were the exact same price.
Two weeks ago, the gas prices were averaging $3.63 per gallon, down from $3.70 the week before, and $3.95 in May. As anticipated, gas prices continued inching downward, hitting $3.56 on Monday, before creeping back up to $3.578 on Thursday.
Though the increase at the pump was less than a penny, it’s noteworthy because the experts predicted prices would steadily decline throughout late summer. No one knows if this will happen or not, but many experts are expecting gas prices will fluctuate over the next couple of weeks and then begin a continuous decline after the Labor Day holiday weekend. Several experts are predicting that the price of gas will likely fall to about $3.50 per gallon on average by the end of September.
According to Jessica Brady, a spokesperson for AAA Auto Club, “No matter how optimistic investors try to be at this time, they can’t ignore the sluggish economy seen both here in the U.S. and abroad. Retail gas prices have consistently decreased throughout the past few weeks and are expected to continue the decrease into the Labor Day holiday.”
Garmin Nuvi GPS 2012Yesterday Garmin revealed its 2012 line of Nuvi personal navigation devices (PNDs). Garmin is simplifying its entire product lineup down to three tiers, plus the company is upgrading its navigation and traffic engines.
Choosing the best nuvi for any given lifestyle has never been easier as the 2012 models are categorized as Essential, Advanced and Prestige. New to the 2012 line are the advanced Guidance 2.0 and 3.0 navigation engines for a faster, more intuitive user interface and enhanced features that result in Garmin’s most capable navigators yet.
Many people have the notion that a cell phone-based GPS system is cheaper and just as effective as a vehicle installed GPS system. However, GPS tracking via cell phones is unreliable for business purposes. A cell phone GPS system may be good for providing directions occasionally, but it doesn’t perform the way an in-vehicle GPS system can.
In addition to providing navigation and optimal routing, a vehicle tracking system can save business owners time and money in numerous ways including: cutting fuel costs, increasing business efficiencies, improving asset management, optimizing vehicle maintenance, improving customer service and reducing your carbon footprint. Cell phone GPS will not help with any of these issues.
Here is list of some of the primary differences between a cell phone GPS system and a vehicle installed GPS tracking system:
Yesterday firefighters found a woman and her three young children who became lost while hiking Meriden Mountain at Camp Sloper in Southington, Connecticut. The mother of three ultimately helped rescue herself and her family using the GPS tracking system on her cell phone. Good thing there’s a cell phone signal up there!
The woman and her three children, aged 6 to 9, began their hike around 6:30 p.m on Monday evening. They hiked up the mountain and became lost after stepping off the trail, according to Fire Lt. John Folcik. The woman called 911 around 8 p.m. and remained on the phone while Southington and Meriden firefighters searched for the stranded family.
Gas prices have continued to decline in recent weeks. The average retail price for a gallon of unleaded regular gas in the US is currently $3.56, down 3 cents from one week ago, and down 13 cents from one month ago. This is the third week in a row that gas prices have declined, following five weeks of increases.
A gallon of diesel gas is currently averaging $3.87 per gallon, down 2 cents from one week ago and down 8 cents from one month ago.
Oil prices, which account for about 65 percent of the cost of making gasoline, closed Monday at about $84 a barrel.
The FBI says a robbery suspect managed to get away with cash from a suburban Chicago bank, but he also got something he hadn’t bargained for — a GPS tracking system. The robbery suspect was arrested after police monitored his movements through a GPS tracking system hidden with cash he stole from a bank, according to officials.
After a man walked into a local Chicago Bank of America branch, he spoke with a bank teller and then handed the bank employee a note that said he wanted her to hand over a bag of cash. Not wanting to escalate the situation, the bank teller placed a bunch of cash into a bag and handed the money to the bank robber. However, the quick-thinking bank teller also placed a GPS tracking system in the bag, allowing police to follow the cash in real-time.
The fight between LightSquared and the GPS industry is heating up again. LightSquared is accusing the GPS industry of failing to follow US Department of Defense (DoD) GPS filtering standards, and the GPS industry saying in return that LightSquared clearly doesn’t understand the technology it is trying to sell.
LightSquared is proposing to create a nationwide satellite-based voice and Internet data service. It received conditional approval to do so from the FCC in January as long as the company could show that its operations wouldn’t interfere with existing GPS systems, a fear expressed by GPS device manufacturers and users alike. Tests completed this spring demonstrated that GPS systems would indeed be interfered with by LightSquared proposed operations. LightSquared said in June not to worry, though, since it had developed a technical solution to the interference problem.
LightSquared asked the FCC why it needs to change its operations when the GPS interference problem clearly resides with an irresponsible GPS industry that is only interested in “squatting for free on someone else’s licensed spectrum.”
Stop Wasting Money on Excess Idling With FieldLogix Fleet GPS
Did you know that each year fleet vehicles burn 8.9 billion gallons of fuel annually due to unnecessary idling and speeding? Chances are each of your vehicles burns up to 800 gallons of fuel per year due to unnecessary idling alone, which costs an estimated $2,864 per vehicle annually based on current gas prices of $3.58 a gallon.
Excessive idling is a tried and true fuel waster and is extraordinarily common in truck fleets, where frequent stops and starts are common.
The FieldLogix Customized Green Report identifies which vehicles are wasting time and money on excessive idling and speeding. The Excessive Fuel Report calculates how much money this is costing and shows how much CO2 is being emitted due to these avoidable driving habits. The green reporting features give each vehicle a Green Score and ranks each driver by who is most efficient.
FieldLogix Fleet GPS can you exactly how long a vehicle or group of vehicles has been idling – in real time or via minute-by-minute reports. You can see online where a vehicle was parked at each idling session, overlaid on familiar Google Maps. When enabled, idle alerts can be requested over the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 minutes, or set to alert you every 10 minutes via cell phone text message or email.
