It might have seemed like a silly prank to thieves that stole a giant inflatable Frankenstein, but the owner of a family Halloween store got the last laugh when he used GPS tracking to help track down thieves who took this valuable emblem of his business and celebration of the Halloween season.

Tricks and treats aren’t always laughing matter – especially when they rob businesses, families, and communities of fun and festive decorations in any season. While no one likes to think about the necessity of protecting symbols such as these from thieves, more and more people are learning the hard way that it is necessary to do.

Not only are thieves targeting the giant decorations outside his business, but there has also been a sharp rise in shoplifting incidents inside the store. He obviously hoped he’d never need to make use of the GPS device inserted inside the inflatable Frankenstein, but was glad he had done so when the blip on his GPS screen began to move indicating that the giant inflatable had, in fact, been stolen.

He was able to follow the inflatable to the location where it had been taken and enlist the aid of the police in securing the return of Frankenstein to its rightful place.

In many cases like this, when the outdoor decorations, inflatables in particular, are stolen, they are rarely recovered. The inserts of tiny GPS tracking devices into the inflatables provides piece of mind throughout the holiday season. Thanks to advancing technologies and long battery lives in the small trackers, it is increasingly possible to use these for long-term tracking and security of inflatable decorations for Halloween and other holidays throughout the year.

The benefit GPS tracking brings to the picture is that it allows owners to be alerted immediately when items are moved from their designated locations. This means you get a head start on locating the stolen inflatable. Add real-time tracking capabilities into the mix and you can aid local law enforcement with precise GPS coordinates for your missing Halloween decorations.

GPS tracking technology is changing the way businesses operate and allowing many business owners to reduce insurance costs, recover stolen merchandise, and stop thieves in their tracks (whether inside their organizations or on the outside). We look to see the many uses for GPS tracking to increase as more home and business owners learn of novel ways to make it work for them, like this.

Cutting costs is a top priority for many fleets as a new year begins — and 2018 is no exception. The more you can cut costs without sacrificing service, the bigger your profits will be at the end of the year. Below are seven changes you can make that will help you cut costs for your fleet throughout 2018 and beyond.

1. Improve Vehicle Maintenance

For many fleets, vehicle maintenance is not the priority it should be. While you do take care of necessary maintenance when required, you may allow a few thousand miles to pass before you get around to it. Staying on top of maintenance will keep your fleet vehicles operating optimally conserving fuel and reducing many preventable breakdowns. Proper maintenance can also extend the lives of vehicles in your fleet saving you more money in the long-term.

2. Reduce Driver Idling Times

Many fleet operators believe that fuel wasted idling isn’t the big of a deal. According to the State of Indiana, this is not the case at all. In fact, not only does idling increase vehicle maintenance needs and costs, but the current estimates are that unnecessary idling accounts for more than one billion gallons of wasted diesel each year, which amounts to more than three billion dollars annually in unnecessary fuel costs.

3. Use GPS Fleet Management and fleet tracking Systems

GPS fleet management and GPS fleet tracking can help you plan more efficient routes, reduce fuel costs, and ensure that your business needs are being met (deliveries, pickups, etc.) with greater degrees of efficiency saving your company an incredible amount of money each year.

4. Track and Analyze Spending

In order to effectively cut your costs in 2018, you need to know where the bulk of your money is being spent and where cuts can be made. This requires diligent tracking of expenses and earnings so that you can make appropriate cuts, consolidations, and a few important operational decisions based on facts and hard numbers.

5. Increase Employee Accountability

Your drivers play vital roles in the expenses your company faces. From the way they drive, adherence to assigned routes, and even time spent taking care of personal business on your clock, when you hold drivers accountable, they take a more vested interest in staying on task and on target.

6. Encourage Fuel Efficiency

This is another behavioral thing, to a degree, for drivers, but one that is necessary for business productivity and cutting costs. Encourage drivers to stick to the most optimal speeds for maximum fuel efficiency, to avoid aggressive driving, and to pay attention to things like idling times, proper tire inflation, and other issues that affect fuel costs. Incentivize if you must, the savings will make up for a few bonuses along the way and instill good habits in all your drivers.

7. Reduce Miles Travelled

The bottom line is that the more miles you travel, the more fuel it takes to get there. Look for ways to consolidate routes, make fewer deliveries, and reduce redundancy in coverage. This will help you cut costs in more ways than you realize throughout 2018.

These seven changes can make a dramatic difference for your bottom line in 2018. Try them out today and see what a change it makes for your trucking fleet.

Give us a call here at LiveViewGPS if you have questions about how GPS fleet tracking can cut your fleet costs in 2018. 1-888-544-0494

As the United States is gripped by bitterly cold temperatures, even sharks are looking for an escape from the frigidity of winter into warmer waters.

How cold is it across the country? According to CNN, all 50 states recorded temperatures below freezing (32 degrees F) on Tuesday, January 2, 2018. It’s not a one-day even either, since 90 percent of the country didn’t cross the 32-degree threshold on New Year’s Day and the nation watched as revelers rang in the New Year wrapped in heavy winter coats.

Records are being broken across the U.S. for low temperatures and it isn’t isolated to one part of the country. Even Florida is feeling the frost with waterparks closing and fountains freezing over from the cold. Which brings us to the story of sharks fleeing frigid waters in search of warmth this winter.

This is the story of Miss Costa. She’s a 12-foot long great white shark whose journey is being watched over by OCEARCH, an organization that tracks and studies a variety of marine species, thanks to GPS tracking. OCEARCH first “tagged” Miss Costa with a GPS located in September of 2016. They track her location because she pings a satellite every time her dorsal fin breaks the water’s surface.

In July of 2017, Miss Costa was hanging out around the waters of southern Nantucket. But she began heading south, making an appearance near Wilmington, North Carolina in early November before heading further south near Georgetown, South Carolina six days later. Her journey didn’t end there, though, as she headed further south, making it to the waters near Key West on Christmas and then showing up off the Sarasota County coast, in the Gulf of Mexico on January 1, 2018.

Unfortunately, some sharks aren’t making it south. Instead, they are washing up on beaches after being frozen to death, like three thresher sharks the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy found washed up on the shores of Cape Cod.

While the bulk of land-faring U.S. residents are shivering in the cold waiting for an end to the brutally cold temperatures, we are finding important teachable moments in evolution taking place in the water. It will be interesting to learn why some sharks, like Miss Costa head south in search of warmer waters at times like these while others freeze in the water and wash up on shore instead. GPS tracking and organization like OCEARCH are making it possible to study these creatures and the lessons they have to offer up close.