Sales fuel growth and keep your bottom line healthy. One of the most effective tools for bringing in new business is your GPS fleet tracking software.

Here is a look at how GPS tracking for fleets can fuel your company’s growth.

Increase Your Area of Operation

Increasing the area where you offer service opens you up to a new and larger customer base. But it can be a risky venture, involving:

• Different weather conditions like ice, snow and storms, that are unlike your traditional area of service.
• Unfamiliar highway systems.
• Breakdowns miles from home base.

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Buzz Lightyear becomes a real hero when the toy helps track down thieves of local charity donation bins.

In Atlanta, the Mid-Atlantic Clothing (MAC) Recycling center has noticed a severe drop in donations over the past several months. They have several donation bins around Atlanta, in places like shopping centers and churches. People bring clothing, toys, and other items to donate to the organization by placing them in these bins. Unfortunately, donations are up, but the items in the bins are still going down.

What’s up with that?

The territory manager of donations, Tim Peck, told reporters of the issue with their donations:

“Our donations were down, and down a lot, as much as 35 percent. It’s tens of thousands of dollars if not more. It’s a lot of money.”

They believed the severe drop in donations was because of items being stolen from the donation bins. There are often bags of clothing and toys left in the bins overnight, which is when there is little security in the surrounding areas and puts their bins at risk. An experienced thief can easily get into these bins and remove items to later sell on their own. It has become a major problem not just for this organization, but many other recycling bin drop-off locations in Atlanta. Read the rest of this entry »

Delivery trucks are profitable targets for thieves. They are often filled with new products direct from the manufacturer, on their way to market. And the trucks themselves are tempting. These are valuable vehicles that can be repainted and sold or broken up for parts.

Each time a truck is lost, you face the risk of higher insurance premiums. Sadly, many law enforcement agencies are so overburdened with serious criminal acts, it is considered a low-priority crime. Since it gets little attention, it can be tempting to simply turn it over to your insurance agent.

Preventative Approaches to Deal with Theft

A better way is to set up a practical plan to keep your trucks safe from criminal activity, both on the road and in the parking lot.

Here are seven suggestions that should be part of every fleet manager’s program for ensuring truck safety.

#1. Remove the keys.  This seems simplistic, but it’s amazing how often it happens. Since they are parked on the company premises, often away from urban areas with high crime, it seems like a good way to save time by simply leaving the keys in the ignition. But don’t. You’re inviting thieves to steal it.

#2. Put lots of lights in your parking area. This deters thieves, especially when combined with obvious surveillance cameras. Good lighting makes it easier for security staff to keep an eye on truck safety and spot intruders.

#3. Park in lighted areas.  If the truck isn’t returned to the company premises at night, teach drivers to park in well lighted areas, even if he has to drive a few blocks out of his way.

#4. Use GPS fleet tracking software.  Among many other benefits, GPS fleet tracking devices can dramatically cut back on hijacking and break ins. The vehicle sounds an alarm both at the truck and at the security desk. Criminals are leery of any truck that looks like it is equipped with this technology.

#5.  Don’t leave trucks running.  It is tempting to do this while the driver runs in to check with the loading dock or get some coffee. It’s the perfect time for a criminal to take off with the truck. The entire crime takes just a minute.

#6. Put valuables out of sight. Just like the family car, trucks are the target of opportunists who see laptops and mobiles sitting on seat or dashboard. Put them under the seat, in a locked box or behind the seat out of sight.

#7. Keep doors locked at all times. This includes when the truck is being driven and when it is parked. Hijackers are skilled, opening a door and forcing the driver out in seconds. A locked door is a good deterrent.

In an effort to curb the killing of thousands of bird each year from offshore wind farms, scientists have fitted ten Bewick’s swans with GPS tracking equipment in order to map out their yearly migration from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) center along the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border of the UK to their Arctic Russian breeding grounds.

The data collected from the migration study will alert windfarm developers where they should place the enormous turbines in order to reduce their risks of affecting the migration routes of the swans.

Bewick swans are the smallest and rarest of UK’s swans. Since 1995, more than one third of the species has disappeared, dropping their number from 29,000 to 18,000 total population by 2010.

Part of the hope is that with the data from this project, which is being conducted by WWT on behalf of the Department for Energy and Climate Change, that wind farmers can be convinced to at least turn their turbines off during the migratory season and steer clear of migratory paths for these beautiful birds when developing future wind farm locations. Read the rest of this entry »

The terms used in GPS fleet tracking and GPS fleet management may sound like a foreign language. To help you learn the lingo, here are some definitions of some of the common GPS fleet tracking terms.

Business Tracking.  This includes observing employees in the workplace through use of GPS monitoring devices and other tools, including keystroke loggers and hidden cameras. This process helps businesses reduce fuel consumption, monitor social activities, and identify employees who are off task.

Covert Monitoring.  Refers to the act of secretly monitoring the activities of a person. It often refers to the use GPS tracking devices that are used in order to observe the actions of drivers.

Data Plan.  Describes the monthly subscription for transmitting data using certain telecommunication or cellular devices. Mobile communication devices such as cell phones and real time GPS trackers must have data plans in order to operate. The costs of these plans vary greatly from one provider to the next and according to the amount of data transmitted during the plan period. Read the rest of this entry »