GPS tracking helps find employees that were committing fraud against the New Jersey Transit.

The NJ Transit used tracking to catch a total of ten employees that were caught committing fraudulent activity and abuse against their employer. The employees received varied levels of discipline — from suspension and fines, to termination — based on what they were caught doing.

This comes just a month after the transit authority began tracking the vehicles with GPS tracking devices as part of a $500,000 program. The program was intended to catch this very type of abuse, so it has been successful so far.

Global positioning systems (GPS) have evolved over the years, offering a wide range of benefits to various types of organizations. This type of technology uses satellite signals in order to gather information and data. Read the rest of this entry »

Cameron County offers ocelots safe wildlife crossings by using GPS tracking devices.

The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County, Texas was looking for ways to provide safer travel across busy roads for local wildlife, including their endangered ocelots. The first thing they needed to do was discover exactly what location to put the wildlife crossings, based on where ocelots typically travel. They decided to use GPS tracking devices to pinpoint the location and movement of ocelots and use that information for building wildlife crossings.

Ocelots are big cats that frequent this area of Texas. They are also known as the dwarf leopard, since they have the same markings but are considerably smaller. Ocelots are carnivores, eating nearby rabbits, birds, and snakes. In certain parts of southeast Texas, there are about 100 ocelots, with approximately 1 million in the world. They are also nocturnal creatures, remaining in the trees or brush during the day, and coming out at night. Read the rest of this entry »

Airport shuttle companies have a lot of balls in the air at any given time. From driver routing to fielding anxious calls about shuttle arrival times and even enquiries regarding the ability of shuttles to make it to the airport in time for specific flights, suffice it to say they have a lot going on simultaneously.

With so many people depending on airport shuttles, juggling all those balls can be quite challenging at times. That is, for shuttle companies that aren’t yet taking advantage of GPS tracking technology.

There are other benefits to consider, though, when it comes to GPS fleet tracking on airport shuttle vehicles. Here are just a few of them. Read the rest of this entry »

With GPS tracking technology, sharks in Western Australia are able to send tweets out about their location and movements.

Modern tracking technology with global positioning software (GPS) and social media have combined in a study being conducted by government researchers in Western Australia. A total of 338 sharks have been tagged with these GPS trackers in order to monitor their location.

The GPS trackers are programmed so that when a shark is a half mile from the beach, an alert tweet is sent out to let others know about its proximity to the shore. The tweet feed is located under Surf Life Saving Western Australia’s twitter feed, which includes the location and shark breed, as well as the time detected.

The reasoning behind this tracking project is that there have been more fatal attacks in Australia than other countries by sharks since 2011, with six fatal attacks in just two years. Read the rest of this entry »

The Department of Transportation considers requiring a speed limiter to be installed on all trucks over 26,000 pounds in an effort to reduce vehicle crashes.

This new rule is being suggested by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to improve highway safety for truck drivers and others on the road.

The organizations want to institute a rule that requires all trucks over a certain weight to have speed limiters that prevent them from going over a certain speed. As of now, that weight is likely going to be 26,000 pounds or more on roads which have posted limits equal to or greater than 55 m.p.h.

Truck driver safety and road safety are becoming a hot topic lately, with several new rules and mandates being proposed. The FMCSA has already required an e-log and recorder mandate, driver coercion rule, drug and alcohol clearinghouse, and a Safety Fitness Determination rule. In addition to electronic logs proposed to improve safety and efficiency on trucks and buses, the Department of Transportation is proposing a speed limiter rule. Read the rest of this entry »