August 23, 2010 – 11:30 am
When Interwest Construction Inc. wanted to catch the thieves that had stolen one of their trucks before they stripped it, they activated the fleet vehicle’s GPS tracking system and the chase was on. FieldLogix, an industry leading GPS vehicle tracking device and green fleet management system, was successfully utilized to recover the missing fleet vehicle in just a few hours.
According to Kristal Wagner of Interwest Construction, Inc., “We had a truck stolen on Monday during the night. Tuesday morning, when the foreman was panicking & calling the sheriff, I used the the real-time GPS tracking device to pull up the vehicle’s exact location and gave the Sheriff the information. We recovered the truck within a couple of hours. Some small items that weren’t valuable were stolen from the truck, but the vehicle was not harmed at all!”
GPS fleet tracking systems are recommended to all drivers by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to prevent motor vehicle theft. According to NICB, a car is stolen every 26 seconds in America. Nearly half of these are never recovered, and are commonly scrapped for parts or smuggled to another country. NICB’s vehicle protection approach recommends four layers of security based on the risk factors pertaining to a specific vehicle. Vehicle Tracking Systems are one such layer, and are described by the NICB as “very effective” in helping police recover stolen vehicles. Vehicle GPS tracking systems are an important and integrated part of the “layered approach” to protecting fleet vehicles.
August 16, 2010 – 4:02 pm
Fuel prices in Southern California reached beyond their 2010 peak levels of early May in most zip codes last week, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch. According to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego is $3.16, $2.9 cents higher than the week before’s price, $2.6 cents above last month, and 19 cents higher than last year. In the LA and Long Beach area, the price is $3.15 per gallon, which is 2.4 cents above last week, $3.8 cents more than last month, and $10.3 cents higher than last year. On the Central Coast, the average price is $3.22, up $3.5 cents from last week, $4.2 cents higher than a month ago, and $11 cents above last year. In the Inland Empire, the average per gallon price is $3.13, which is $2.5 cents higher than last week, $3.4 cents higher than last month, and 11 cents more than last year.
The average retail price of gasoline in the United States is $2.75 a gallon. Drivers in big cities saw a range of prices at the pump — from an average $2.54 in Houston to $3.20 in San Francisco. In Chicago it cost $2.88 a gallon to fill up, while New York City motorists topped off the tank for $2.73 a gallon. Seattle gas stations averaged $3.10 for regular. Denver drivers paid $2.67 a gallon.
With gas prices this high, it makes sense for fleets to invest in a GPS fleet tracking system. Tracking fleet vehicles can significantly reduce fuel expenses. Lower fleet fuel bills equal higher net profits. For a fleet of 25 vehicles, idling time reduced by only 15 minutes per day can result in fuel savings of 562.5 gallons at a cost of about $1,783 per year at current gas prices. If you reduce idling time by 60 minutes, it would result in a fuel savings of 2,250 gallons at a cost of over $6,000 per year!
August 10, 2010 – 6:07 am
GPS fleet tracking systems are successfully being utilized in the largest cities in America for good reasons. According to Helen Rane Carbone, Chief Programmer and Analyst for the Chicago’s Department of Transportation “Before we implemented GPS, our fleet managers and dispatchers had virtually no real-time information on the whereabouts or activity of our fleet vehicles. We relied on very basic communication using two-way radios and hand-written reports. This was never able to provide the type and depth of information we needed for real performance monitoring, improvement, and accountability, which is expected of all city departments.”
According to Carbone, “before implementing a vehicle tracking system, simply keeping track of mobile resources from a dispatcher’s perspective – vehicle and driver scheduling, routing, call response, location in the case of emergencies – was a very difficult daily task. Truly measuring fleet and mobile employees’ productivity was practically impossible.”
Cities like Chicago are also using GPS fleet management systems to enhance their efforts to go green. Fleet managers are using real-time vehicle location data to optimize routes and reduce excessive idling in an effort to reduce gas consumption, CO2 pollution and other hazardous greenhouse gas emissions. According to Ms. Carbone, telematics plays a big part in many of Chicago’s environmental initiatives in becoming a true green fleet. “Fleet GPS management systems help with everything from the number and type of vehicles we’re using for a particular task, how they’re being used, and the amount of CO2 emissions they’re producing. Everyone is looking to big cities like Chicago to lead the way in this, and remote fleet management has gone from being a valuable tool to an absolute necessity.”
A recent report from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office included recommendations that will save NYC taxpayers an estimated $71 million in fleet management cost over the next four years by streamlining government fleet management, centralizing fleet operations, cutting vehicle fuel use, and decreasing the number of fleet vehicles. It’s part of the Mayor’s overall plan to save taxpayers over $500 million over the next four years by significantly increasing government efficiency.
According to the NYC Mayor’s Office report “the city spends approximately $667 million annually on fleet operations — this includes $283 million on maintenance, $120 million for fuel, $14 million for fuel tank compliance, maintenance, and spill remediation, and approximately $250 million for vehicle and equipment procurement. Maintenance expenditures consist of salary, which includes overtime, differential and fringe benefits; overhead – including building maintenance and rent; and vendor expenditures, including parts and maintenance services. Salary alone represents 70% of the NYC’s expenditures for maintenance.”
Bloomberg’s administration wants to centralize the city’s fleet operations. The report showed high quantity of decentralization across the city’s fleet operations which is not very efficient. The city employs more than 1,500 fleet management people that repair vehicles at 126 shops, each with their own set of equipment, staff, and parts inventory. Based on these numbers alone, it is clear that there is room for improvement in the fleet operations department.
We view a lot of new products as fads because they become part of the national conversation today and disappear tomorrow. Products and services like Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone will certainly go the way of the Rubik’s cube within 10 years. One topic that has emerged over the past few years is being “green”. [...]
Managing fleets is certainly not an easy job. One of the most significant challenges corporate and public fleet managers face is dealing with the effects of legislation on their business. Recently two new pieces of legislation were passed that will directly affect fleet managers over the next few years.
According to a recent annual fleet survey, there has been a significant increase in the number of fleets measuring greenhouse gas emissions. Forty-nine percent of fleets reported measuring greenhouse gas emissions, a significant increase from twenty-eight percent reported in 2008. Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents said they have an environmental goal for their fleets, which [...]
April 23, 2009 – 10:56 am
Field Technologies, the creator of the FieldLogix GPS tracking system, today announced their authorized partnership with Garmin International. The new relationship has allowed them to launch Fieldlogix +NAV, a new product that combines fleet management with turn-by-turn driver navigation.
Field Technologies, the Creator of the FieldLogix GPS Tracking System, Today Introduced FieldLogix+NAV, a GPS Tracking and Navigation Platform That Brings Together the Benefits of Both GPS Fleet Tracking and Garmin Turn-by-Turn In-Vehicle Navigation
January 21, 2009 – 10:46 am
January 21, 2009 – Field Technologies’ revenue has increased by 60% during 2008. The company has seen such a significant increase primarily due to its sales of the FieldLogix GPS fleet tracking system. FieldLogix hardware sales alone are nearly 700 percent higher than they were during 2007.
When Interwest Construction Inc. wanted to catch the thieves that had stolen one of their trucks before they stripped it, they activated the fleet vehicle’s GPS tracking system and the chase was on. FieldLogix, an industry leading GPS vehicle tracking device and green fleet management system, was successfully utilized to recover the missing fleet vehicle in just a few hours.
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