The FMCSA, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, rules for Hours of Service, usually referred to as HOS, are making a major impact on the trucking industry. The rules are aimed at reducing driver fatigue and the accidents it causes.

What the Rules Require

The HOS rules limit drivers to a 70-hour work week in an effort to make sure they get sufficient rest to drive safely. Studies done by the FMCSA predicted the new rules will save 19 lives and prevent 640 injuries due to 1,400 crashes each year.

Drivers can’t resume their work week after the 70 hours are up unless they take off for 34 consecutive hours. In addition, each driver must take a break at least 30 minutes long within the first eight hours of his work day and not work

The penalties for trucking companies who don’t comply are stiff:

Trucking companies can be fined $11,000 per offense

Drivers can be fined $2,750 for each offense Read the rest of this entry »

Car robberies in broad daylight are angering Odessa, Texas residents. Their response has been to install GPS tracking devices in their cars. Police are happy because it makes it easier for them to find the cars and make arrests.

The GPS tracking device is not itself an anti-theft solution, but it helps after the car is taken. Vehicles that are stolen and don’t have GPS units are extremely difficult for the police to locate.

Many of the robberies have occurred on the weekends, five and six each weekend, according to police. For an area that isn’t a metropolis, that’s a lot of thefts.

Vehicle Recovery Systems

Several automakers have started installing them on vehicles, like GM’s OnStar. This system will actually slow the car down if the thief tries to lead police on a chase. Other models that have factory installed theft tracking include BMS Assist, Toyota Safety Connect, Lexus Enform and Mercedes-Benz TeleAid. Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t get paid until you bill the customer. Anything that speeds up the billing process is going to improve your company’s cash flow. GPS fleet tracking is helping speed up the billing process by improving job documentation and making calculating and reporting faster.

Here is a look at how GPS fleet management systems can help you get your money more quickly.

Simplify Billing

Record keeping is time consuming and tedious. Without these records, invoices are only guesses, not based on what happened during the actual job. That’s why so many companies have come to rely on GPS. It simplifies record keeping and calculating invoices.

With the statistics provided automatically by your GPS tracking system, you get more accurate reports. These detailed records let you determine how much to invoice each customer.

The necessary statistics are recorded automatically, making billing almost effortless. There is no more math to cross check or invoices to be rewritten. Read the rest of this entry »

Worried about transporting your dog or cat on an airline, stowed away in the cargo section? You can now track how he’s doing if you use Delta Airlines’ new with GPS tracking for pets service. It provides up-to-date information about location, spikes in temperature and if your pet’s crate is right-side up or not.

The tracking device costs owners $50. The data is accessible online at the Delta website from a GPS tracking unit that is attached to the pet’s crate. It sends updates before and after the flight, but not during due to restrictions on cell communication. This isn’t seen as a problem because most problems occur when the pets are waiting in the cargo area or are being loaded aboard the plane.

10 U.S. Cities

Right now GPS tracking is available and on 10 U.S. flights, including Los Angeles, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Cincinnati, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and New York.

You must take your pet to the cargo loading facility in order to arrange the service. Read the rest of this entry »

As an elevator repair company, you have a lot of ground to cover on an average day, which is why GPS fleet tracking can be a huge benefit to your business. These are just a few of the ways GPS tracking can help you build better customer relationships, while seriously boosting your bottom line.

GPS Provides Fastest Route to Destination

While it’s true you want to go the most fuel efficient route, when one of your clients has people stuck in an elevator, it feels like an emergency to them. The faster you arrive, the happier they are. You want to have your technicians there as quickly as possible so they can get busy making the necessary repairs and making for happy clients.

GPS Systems Can be Designed Pull Up Past Repair Records by Elevator

Older buildings often have repeat offenders are far as elevators go. You can troubleshoot potential problems more quickly by pulling up the elevator history and identifying changes that need to be made, as well as to eliminate repairs that have been made recently as less likely problems.

Provide Customers with Ability to Track Your Drivers

Since it always feels like emergencies when elevators are down in apartment buildings, hotels, and high-rise office buildings, your customers are a little anxious about when your repair technicians will arrive. Read the rest of this entry »