Gas Prices

While crude oil prices have fallen, gasoline prices have moved higher.

Oil fell to the lowest price in six weeks due to reports that U.S. crude stockpiles increased more than estimated. Crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell as much as 95 cents to $96.66 a barrel, the lowest since Dec. 20, reported Bloomberg News.

Euro zone debt concerns and dismal demand numbers is placing downward pressure on oil prices. Meanwhile geopolitical tension with Iran and signs of economic recovery in the U.S. is placing upward pressure on prices.  The net impact has been the price of crude oil prices remaining steady in recent weeks and finally decreasing this week.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz through which 16 million barrels of oil – about a fifth of world’s daily oil trade – passes every day. The Strait of Hormuz is just 45 km wide at its narrowest point, and works as a crucial waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

While crude oil prices have fallen, gasoline prices have moved higher. The current average retail price in the U.S. for a gallon of regular self-serve gas is $3.45. Today’s price is 8 cents higher than one week ago, 18 cents higher than one month ago, and 35 cents higher than one year ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

This increase is largely the product of expected refinery shutdowns — both in the U.S. and Europe — as refiners cut production in the face of limited demand for their product. Last week’s DOE report showed refinery utilization decreasing to 82.2 percent from 83.7 percent the week prior.

This week in Beverly Hills and downtown San Diego, CA I’ve seen gas stations where the cheapest gas is over $4.50 a gallon. Gas is already expensive this year in Southern California.

Gas prices are typically low in January, but not this year. Currently the U.S. average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gas is $3.44, 17 cents more than one month ago, and 35 cents more than one year ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Despite today’s sky-high gas prices, Ron Dunphy, president of Dunphy’s Extermapest in Palm Springs, California has seen a significant reduction in his fuel costs since implementing FieldLogix last year.

Dunphy said, “Before implementing FieldLogix, when gas prices were much lower, I was spending $3,400 a month on fuel for my 10 vehicles. You won’t believe how much I’m spending now. “

“After installing FieldLogix in my vehicles, I now spend $2,700 per month on fuel, even with higher gas prices!”

**These savings total $700 per month (or $8,400 per year!), which is more than double the amount he spends on the FieldLogix GPS tracking system.**

Dunphy further stated, “I no longer have to turn down jobs because my guys tell me they are too busy when, in fact, they are just sitting at home. By knowing where they actually are, I can determine who can take what service call and bring in more revenue for my business”.

FieldLogix is an advanced, yet affordable GPS fleet tracking system that provides real-time location updates for vehicles and construction equipment. It automatically monitors activities such as excessive engine idling, speeding, and personal use of company vehicles.

It has been described as “GPS on auto-pilot”, because users can create operating policies in the system and they will receive e-mail alerts when operators do not comply with these policies. This includes alerts for afterhours use, excessive speeding, and deviations from a specified operating schedule. In addition, it provides real-time location updates for vehicles and equipment and sends maintenance reminder alerts when they are due for service.

Here are some Fleet Tracking System Features that can help you instantly reduce fuel costs:

Closest vehicle
Allows dispatchers to select the closest vehicle to a specific destination and provide turn-by-turn directions for the routes.
Garmin navigation interface
Dispatchers can immediately send new calls to an in-vehicle navigation device to route drivers from current locations to their new jobs.
Idling report
Displays each time a vehicle has idled in excess of 5 minutes. Report displays total time spent idling during a specified time period.
Mileage report
Displays total miles traveled during a specified time period.
Speeding report
Displays each excessive speeding incident during a specified time period.
History replay
Displays entire route traveled on a map. Allows user to determine if vehicles are taking indirect routes to stops.

Fleet GPS Tracking System For School Buses Keeps Students Safe & Makes School Districts More Efficient

For schools, providing safe transportation is always a top priority. School boards are under pressure to not only provide a safe, reliable transportation service to school children and their parents, but also to run as efficiently as possible in light of today’s budget restraints. A fleet GPS tracking system can make a school bus fleet more profitable, plus it helps to keep children safe.

Hundreds of school districts across the U.S. are using a fleet tracking system to monitor their school buses. Sensitive receivers placed inside the buses get readings from a system of 24 satellites in space, then transmit location data by wireless network so that they can be read from a remote computer.

By capturing readings at regular intervals, usually every few minutes, GPS fleet tracking systems illustrate the bus as it progresses on its route. Multiple vehicles can be viewed over a map simultaneously. This is called active tracking.

Active GPS tracking helps school districts be accountable to parents and taxpayers in the event buses encounter mechanical breakdowns, accidents, weather-related incidents or traffic delays. The fleet tracking system can guide drivers who have gotten lost or need to re-route at the last minute.

The fleet tracking system allows the district to track bus locations on a map in real-time, pinpointing each pick-up and drop-off. Tracking buses is beneficial in analyzing fuel-efficient routes, emergency situations or accidents.

The fleet tracking system can also check the travel history of a bus. This feature can be used to help determine if a bus missed its stop. Additionally, they can relay to parents the location of a bus if needed.

Supervisors can also monitor drivers’ speeds and keep the vehicles on a regular maintenance schedule. If the fleet tracking system detects a driver is speeding, it can automatically send an e-mail alert. Previously, the only way to know would be to do radar checks or rely on complaints.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling was an important one for all U.S. citizens, yet the court left many questions unanswered.

The NY Times once dubbed the case, U.S. v. Jones, “the most important Fourth Amendment case in a decade.”  It is the first time the Supreme Court confronted the government’s growing use of digital technology to monitor Americans and ruled strongly in favor of privacy.

The case involved the conviction of Antoine Jones, a suspected drug dealer in the District of Columbia who was arrested after being monitored for 28 days by a GPS tracking device surreptitiously attached to his Jeep by law enforcement agents without a warrant.

Based on the court’s decision, law enforcement must first obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car and monitoring him.

The court was divided, however, as to what level of GPS tracking would require a search warrant. Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking for a five-member majority, said the police erred because they attached the tiny tracking device to the vehicle. He said the 4th Amendment was intended to protect against government searches on private property, reported the LA Times.

“We hold that the government’s installation of a GPS tracking device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search,’” Scalia said. “The government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information,” he said.

Such a search is unconstitutional unless officers obtained a search warrant from a judge. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor joined Scalia’s opinion.

Meanwhile, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said he would go further and rule that the “long-term monitoring” of the vehicle with a GPS tracking device violated the 4th Amendment regardless of whether the device was attached to a car. He took the view that the government violated a motorist’s right to privacy by tracking his movements for weeks on end.

The difference between the Scalia and Alito approaches is important. As both Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out, not every wireless surveillance will involve a physical interference with property. As wireless technology and cars become more sophisticated, Scalia’s test will become more and more irrelevant.

For example, what happens if the police started tracking a suspect from his car’s internal GPS navigation system? Or what if the police tapped into your cell phone’s GPS navigation system and then started monitoring you?

January has been a tough month for drivers, as gas prices have been record-setting high. Gas prices are currently 35 cents higher than they were one year ago. Now analysts are saying there will be no relief at the pump anytime soon due to refinery closures in the US and Europe.

Prices rose after the U.S. Department of Energy announced that gas output decreased 2.8 percent last week, to 8.5 million barrels a day – the lowest since February 2010.  The U.S. DOE said gas prices could jump later this year as two refineries in the northeast and a refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands are taken out of service.

There is very little doubt that more refinery closures will  impact gasoline supplies and prices. The last time gas prices went this high, demand fell to an 11 year low, and now more refineries are closing, which means prices are going to keep rising.

Why are refineries closing?

According to the Consumer Energy Report, in recent years, demand for gasoline has been down due to high prices in the U.S. As oil prices have climbed, refiners have struggled to pass on all of the increased costs of those higher oil prices to consumers. They would like to sell gasoline for a bit more, but the reduced demand keeps their margins low for the most part. Ultimately some are forced to shut down. That will also mean higher gasoline prices for consumer.

Currently the US average for a gallon of self-serve regular gas is $3.44. Today’s retail price is two cents more than yesterday, six cents more than last week, 17 cents more than one month ago, and 35 cents more than one year ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

California’s average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed 2.7 cents to $3.741 over the last week, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of service stations. That was 37.7 cents higher than the previous record price for the week, set a year earlier, and 76.6 cents a gallon higher than the same week in 2010, the LA Times Reported.

The steady increases in gas prices are largely due to planned and unplanned refinery shutdowns, both in the U.S. and Europe, as refiners cut production in the face of limited demand for their product. AAA said prices would be worse if it weren’t for weak demand.

$4 Gas Prices by Spring?

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said he thinks the move to $3.40 gallon in retail gasoline prices is “a bit ahead of itself, but I suspect that we’ll see $3.50-$4 a gallon in March and the top comes in April between $3.75-$4.25 a gallon.”

Even though gas prices are rising, oil prices have been steadily hovering around $100 per barrel. While traders remain focused on euro zone debt concerns and dismal demand numbers, placing downward pressure on oil prices, as well as geopolitical tension with Iran and signs of economic recovery in the U.S., placing upward pressure on prices, the net impact has been the price of crude holding steady in recent weeks.

Technology is changing the way teachers and parents keep track of their child’s school work and attendance in Bakersfield, CA. Last week a web-based student tracking system was launched at select schools in the Kern High School District (KHSD).

The school district is replacing its 25-year-old system in favor of the new web-based student information tracking system.

Parents are using the new student tracking system to see on a computer if their child has been attending all classes, what his assignments are for the week, and what grades he has received  on past assignments and tests.

Smart phone users can access their student’s accounts through a phone application, officials said. And an alert system can tell parents when students are absent or have low grades.

Parents can track their child’s academics and communicate better with teachers, and vice versa.

Teachers appreciate the improved line of communication with parents, and easiness of taking attendance and grades. For more than 25 years, those tasks have been done on paper and through a rudimentary black screen, green letter computer system.

Most teachers, counselors and school administrators agree that the tracking system will be a big improvement over the school’s old system.

“It’s a tremendous tool,” said Castro, mother of a Stockdale High senior on the honor roll. “He knows he has to be more responsible because I’m tracking him.” (Source: Bakersfield News)

Students can choose classes using the online system.

It’s taken this long to update the system because of the costs, officials said, and because the older system still functions fine. The new tracking system allows student data to be transferred from campus to campus, while the old one does not.

The tracking system was created by Edupoint Educational Systems. It will go live at every KHSD campus for the 2012-13 school year. The KHSD has over 37,000 students.

Unfortunately wandering seems to be a frequent occurrence for many Alzheimer’s patients. Several studies have shown that 60% of all patients with Alzheimer’s will become lost at least once. Even more shocking is that nearly 50% of them can die from dehydration, exposure or injury if they aren’t found within the first 24 hours.

The new program will require patients to wear bracelets equipped with GPS tracking technology. The tracking system and bracelet, manufactured by Laipac Technology Inc., will be able to provide real-time tracking information on the patient’s whereabouts.

If a patient wanders off or goes missing, the Halifax police will then be able to use this information to track and locate the missing individual.

The tracking system also has a shock sensor to detect if a patient slips and falls, and it will notify the police immediately if this sensor goes off. The system can help patients make voice calls to up to 14 phone numbers, including 4 quick-dial numbers, in the event of an emergency.

The Alzheimer’s Tracking System is a joint effort between Halifax Regional Police and The Alzheimers’ Society of Nova Scotia.

The pilot program is currently recruiting  participants 55 years and older who suffer from Alzheimer’s or other related diseases. For more information, please go to the Alzheimer’s Society of Nova Scotia.

The NOAA tracking system system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons called PLBs.

In 2011, the NOAA satellite tracking system was critical in the rescues of 207 people who were in life-threatening situations throughout the United States and its surrounding waters, according to a Huffington Post blog. Satellites picked up distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers, and relayed the information about their location to first responders on the ground.

Of the 207 saves last year, 122 people were rescued from the water, 14 from aviation incidents, and 71 in land situations where they used their Personal locator beacons (PLBs).

Other rescue highlights from the year include:

• NOAA SARSAT played a critical role in the rescue of a group of student hikers from a grizzly bear attack in Alaska by directing first responders to the scene.
• In the pitch of night, two people were rescued from a life raft after their boat sank 140 miles off the coast of FL.
• An elderly hiker was rescued 74 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo., during a heavy snowstorm.

About Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs)

For hikers, boaters, pilots, and others who travel to places beyond where cell phone service exists, there are affordable GPS tracking devices called personal locator beacons that can help rescuers find you in the event you have a life threatening emergency. Personal locator beacons can make the difference between life and death.

Outdoor enthusiasts who like to take risks during their adventures should always remember to carry a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).

When activated, the PLB device transmits a message that’s picked up by satellites orbiting the Earth. An alert is then sent to the NOAA who then notifies the proper rescue authorities.

PLB’s start at about $100, and are worth every penny if lost or stranded with no cell phone signal and you are desperate for help. There are three types of beacons used to transmit distress signals, EPIRBs (for maritime use), ELTs (for aviation use), and PLBs (used for land-based applications).

The tracking devices must be registered with the NOAA to work.

According to Santos Recycling in Burley, prices for copper run around $2.30 per pound which creates a lucrative motive for thieves, reported the Cassia Voice. Thieves steal the copper and other metals from work sites and then sell it to scrap and recycling businesses.

In an effort to crack down on the County’s copper thieves, the local Sheriff embedded a load of copper wire with a GPS tracking system and then left it out in the open on private property. It didn’t take long for the thieves to take the bait.

On Sunday night at 5:24 p.m. the GPS tracking system sent an alert to the sheriff’s office saying that the copper wire had been moved. Officers immediately jumped in their vehicles and followed the directions provided by the GPS tracking system to locate the suspects’ vehicle.

Sheriff Randy Kidd and his team found the copper wire along with two suspects who were arrested on suspicion of grand theft. Kidd said the use of GPS tracking technology combined with “good old law enforcement” led to the arrest of Jorge Ernest Castillo, 38, of Burley, and a 15-year-old male whose name was not released.

This is the second time the use of a GPS tracking system has led to multiple arrests in the last couple of years. Sheriff Kidd said the GPS tracking system has been “effective in apprehending copper thieves in the county.”

As sheriff, Kidd said he will continue to deploy as many GPS tracking devices as the department can afford, because it “has proven to be the most effective tool combating and catching copper thieves who are operating in the county.”