At Reed College, bike thefts have become a big issue and police have begun a bait bike program to combat the issue.

The bikes are equipped with GPS tracking devices in the hopes that they would be led to whoever was stealing the bikes. What they found, however, seemed too bizarre to be true.

In an abandoned Southeast Portland home, they found a secret room with a chop shop hidden inside.

When this campaign was started by Reed in the 2014 – 2015 school year, and the GPS tracker showed one of the bait bikes being taken off campus.

And Reed’s security officers, with the help of the Portland Police, were able to track the bike a couple miles from the campus to the home with the secret room. An officer said he noticed an odd looking book case and found a hidden door behind it. The hidden door led to a secret room. Read the rest of this entry »

When you manage a business that has fleet vehicles, it is up to you to ensure they are working properly at all times. With all of your other work responsibilities, regular maintenance and upkeep can get lost in the shuffle. This is where the benefit of GPS fleet tracking comes in. You will be able to get alerts when vehicles need routine maintenance and get advanced warning that a vehicle’s performance is compromised and needs to be inspected.

Receive Routine Maintenance Alerts

In order to have flawless fleet vehicle inspections, you need to know when it is time for those inspections. This is one of the major benefits of using GPS fleet tracking devices. You can program it to send you an alert when it is time for routine service and maintenance on the vehicles. This might include a regular inspection, tire rotation, oil change or other types of maintenance. By getting alerts, you get maintenance done promptly and can avoid a lot more serious issues with the vehicles.

Stay on Top of Vehicle Activity and Performance

Some of the more advanced GPS trackers can help you keep track of the condition of your vehicles. You can use your trackers to see what vehicles are driving differently, which is often a sign that their performance is dropping due to needing maintenance or repairs. It can also be as simple as tracking how many miles a certain vehicle has been going before having the tires inspected or the battery replaced. Read the rest of this entry »

One man began using a GPS tracking device when he finally got fed up with the theft inside his community as he watched his trailer get towed away in mere minutes by a red truck.

“It seems like every week somebody’s having a trailer stolen, a work trailer a work truck,” said Jed Bettelon, Owner of Superior Hard Surface Solutions, a business he’s owned for more than three years.

Theft is very common now more than ever and he knows his incident wasn’t the only one around. Bettelon says he’s feeling a little bitter and frustrated.

Bettlelon caught the whole act of theft on camera. A red pickup truck pulled up and thieves hopped out, attached his white trailer to the back of the truck and pulled away with it. It only took them a minute to do this and he was out $20,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Charter bus companies often have busses that run the same route day in and out – or at least that are supposed to. At the end of the day, you’re taking your drivers’ words for it that they are sticking to the prescribed routes and making all the necessary pickups, pit stops, etc.

That is unless you have GPS fleet tracking with real time GPS navigation. Then, there is a whole world of benefits available to you, including those listed below.

Monitor Driver Activities

This goes well beyond ensuring that drivers do not deviate from their designated routes to take care of personal business and more. Knowing how your drivers behave behind the wheel can help keep your drivers on the straight and narrow while reducing your risks of lawsuits related to driver activities including:

• Aggressive driving
• Speeding
• Reckless driving
• Skipping Stops
• Erratic Driving
• Making Unscheduled Stops

You can even set your GPS fleet tracking system so that it emails you when these types of behavior occur. Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian government attempts to reduce fires in a dangerous fire season by tracking arsonists with GPS trackers.

In the last year, there were approximately 600 suspicious fires in Australia, according to government records. This has led Australian government officials to use GPS tracking devices to monitor convicted arsonists who have potential of starting fires

The government officials will track convicted arsonists and hopefully prevent severe fires from taking place. There is also the hope that the arsonists won’t even attempt to start a fire knowing that they are being tracked.

If an individual is fitted with a GPS tracking device, authorities can watch his movements in real time and are alerted whenever he nears an exclusion zone, such as a national park or forest.

Government officials made the decision to utilize GPS tracking technology because of the continued bushfire threats in Australia. With temperatures in the country soaring in the summer months, there’s a bigger risk of brush fires. Read the rest of this entry »