People around the world that are enthusiastic about wildlife can now follow the black bears of Yosemite National Park in their daily journey using their smartphones and laptops as the bears cross wide distances and stride up steep canyons looking for mates and food.

The park informed The Associated Press that they launched a website, called KeepBearsWild.org to allow the public to track particular bears that were fitted with GPS tracking collars. The bears’ steps are pinged by the tracking tool from satellites and have already provided wildlife biologists with some surprising information.

Rangers hope the collars will educate the public about the black bears (many are actually brown) and protect them from harm. Guests of Yosemite can lock up their food, drive slowly and keep a safe distance from the bears to help keep them alive.

Dozens of Yosemite bears are hit each year by drivers and some result in death. The red flags on the bear tracking website indicate bears that were hit with a vehicle. Other bears search for food in campgrounds.

This project, according to Yosemite Conservancy’s Frank Dean, will help the public and rangers learn more about the bears that are treasured so much.

The GPS tracking devices showed that the bears were traveling over 30 miles in one day (sometimes two) and were moving up the canyon walls that were 5,000 ft high. The data from the collars isn’t in real-time and delays a bear’s location so that people don’t get tempted to track a bear down. However, the collars can be turned on and off by the rangers and signal them so they are able to keep a bear from entering a parking lot or campground in search of food.

Over the last 3 years, around 20 GPS tracking collars have been used by the park and enabled them to learn that the park bears start mating in May which is one month earlier than what the rangers thought.

Learning more about the habits of the bears through the public website and tracking technology will help rangers protect them better and help them raise awareness among guests about how they can help save the bears.

According to wildlife biologist, Ryan Leahy who is leading the project, it’s their responsibility to help keep the bears wild and it isn’t difficult to do when you know how to do it.

Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Conservancy, and Wharton Media, are raising awareness for the respect and appreciation of Yosemite’s black bears. The park is also encouraging also encouraging park visitors to drive slowly, store their food out of bear’s sight, smell, and reach, and to keep your distance from bears if sighted.

Gourmet food trucks are all the rage today and can be big business for savvy business owners. Like all businesses, there is always room for improvement when it comes to profit and food trucks are no exception. Using GPS tracking for mobile food trucks can not only help you with the obvious things, like saving money on fuel, but also offers a whole host of other benefits you might not have considered, like those detailed below.

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Airport shuttle businesses face many challenges when it comes to increasing profits without sacrificing service. Unfortunately, many airport shuttle operators, feeling they’ve already selected the most efficient possible routes, rule out the potential benefits of GPS fleet tracking, like those listed below, that could save your business a great deal of money, increase profits, and improve customer satisfaction.

Monitor and Alter Driver Behavior

Despite your best route planning, there is no guarantee that your drivers are following their prescribed routes unless you are using some type of system to monitor their routes. More than that, though, you have no way to tell how safely their driving – unless they’re racking up piles of speeding tickets – while they’re out of sight.

GPS fleet tracking changes all that – even going so far as to notify you by text alert or email if drivers go of course, speed, or engage in other specific risky behaviors behind the wheel. These bad behaviors can put your business on the line and risk your reputation – not to mention cost you money in terms of tickets, higher insurance rates, higher labor costs, loss of customers, and more.

Keep Vehicle Maintenance Up-to-Date

Vehicle maintenance is another key element that your GPS fleet tracking system can help you stay on top of. Keeping your vehicles in good running order helps them to last longer, saving you from purchasing newer vehicles, and creates less downtime and fewer schedule interruptions related to unexpected repairs – and saves your business a great deal of money by avoiding mechanically-related accidents and breakdowns.

Keeping up with maintenance also means that you’re planning ahead to accommodate maintenance tasks and schedules so it’s built into the schedule and doesn’t cause disruptions.

Eliminate or Greatly Reduce Route Deviations

GPS fleet tracking services allow you to receive notifications whenever one of your airport shuttle busses deviates from its intended routes. This allows you to respond instantly to determine if there’s a problem and get answers from your drivers. There are times when deviations are necessary. There are also occasions when drivers are using these deviations as excuses to take care of personal business in the midst of your business day. This costs you money and can upset the customers your shuttle busses are carrying to their destinations.

It’s the little things that make a big difference for your bottom line. All of these GPS fleet tracking benefits can help you cut costs, improve profits, and keep your customers happy.

Contact us here at LiveViewGPS to see if GPS fleet tracking can improve your airport shuttle business. Call us at 1-888-544-0494, email us at info@liveviewgps.com, complete our online form, or chat with us live online.