Vehicle tracking systems note the mileage, speed, direction and stops of a vehicle using GPS satellite signals. The information can be printed out in a vehicle tracking report or viewed over an animated or satellite map on a remote computer. These vehicle tracking reports can be viewed in real time, or recorded in memory for later viewing.

Used in a municipal setting, vehicle tracking devices will let supervisors know if workers are where they should be during their shifts.

Vehicle tracking solutions help municipalities in the following ways:

·         Cut excessive fuel consumption by reducing repeat trips, overlapping routes, speeding, and excessive idling.

·         Save payroll costs by eliminating personal errands on work time, excessive breaks, inaccurate logging of time.

·         Reduce insurance costs by proving safe driving records, and/or having a vehicle tracking system with theft recovery (real-time vehicle tracking).

·         Extend life expectancy of vehicles by keeping better routine maintenance schedules (oil changes, belt checks, tire rotation, etc.)

·         Run services more efficiently, for example snowplowing, street sweeping or police patrols.

·         Defend an employee or prove innocence with a vehicle tracking report, noting speed, location and time, to conflict with a complaint or criminal charge or moving violation.

·         Show evidence against an employee at a disciplinary hearing.

People may not treat someone else’s asset with as much care as their own. The scratch on the car, the ding in the truck bed is not so tragic when the vehicle belongs to someone else. A vehicle’s lifespan can be shortened as a result of reckless driving or negligence. Vehicle tracking can extend the life of a vehicle.

In a municipality, city property is not the ownership of an individual, or a business man or a corporation. City property belongs to the people and taxpayers. City employees and elected officials are obligated to be responsible and accountable with city funds and property.

In a vehicle tracking system, a geo-fencing feature could be activated exactly at the city’s boundary to ensure that municipal vehicles do not leave the jurisdiction they serve.

Employees can remotely clock in or out to the vehicle tracking system, using a cell phone or laptop.

The township of North Brunswick, New Jersey, (population of 38,000) is considering installing GPS tracking systems in municipal vehicles. The township has 150 vehicles and officials want to equip 50 vehicles with vehicle tracking in the first phase of the project.

Vehicle tracking systems are reasonably cost effective, but they can be pricey when used in a fleet arrangement. North Brunswick is considering a quote of $17,500 to set up the system and about $15,000 annually in service fees for real-time vehicle tracking.

Industry-wide, municipalities that install vehicle tracking systems usually experience a great Return on Investment (ROI). A Connecticut town about the same size as North Brunswick put in a real-time vehicle tracking system last year. The cost was $21,000 and annual fees are about $18,000. The first year of the vehicle tracking system, town officials noticed a $32,000 savings in labor costs, vehicle repair bills and paperwork.

One of the biggest challenges for municipalities is getting employees to support and cooperate with a vehicle tracking program. An individual will naturally resist a vehicle tracking program that captures and documents activities of their personal lives, such as where they worship, where they dine or drink or who they visit.

Some town officials who have witnessed great benefits from instituting vehicle tracking systems, recommend disabling vehicle tracking devices once employees clock out for the day. Another municipality launched an incentive program. Each employee got a $750 monthly bonus when he or she agreed to vehicle tracking and consistently completed assignments on time. As an example: City trash pickup improved over a period of six months from 50 percent on-time to 95 percent on-time.

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1. Vehicle Tracking Installed in All Chicago School Buses
2. Vehicle Tracking For Taxes
3. GPS Tracking in the Workplace Largely Unregulated

As oil and gas prices continue to climb, car manufacturers are realizing that the best way to make a profit is to develop fuel-efficient smart cars that run cleaner, longer, and greener. At first glance this seems like a great thing for consumers and for car manufacturers, unfortunately the tax loving government does not see things in the same light. Many state governments have been drafting legislation to equip vehicle tracking and GPS tracking devices to motorist’s method of transportation for tax purposes. As cars become more efficient and less gas dependent, the tax money generated from gas will decline, resulting in less tax money for the government to “appropriately” allocate. The government’s solution would be to install a vehicle tracking system to every vehicle, calculate the miles driven, and tax each person according to the vehicle tracking system’s record of how many miles were driven.

Vehicle Tracking: Solution or Problem?

Vehicle tracking systems have been commonly used by business to monitor driver’s mileage and other important data. The information provided by a vehicle-tracking system supplies businesses the essential data to enhance efficiency. However, when a person is on the clock working there is an understanding about the enforcement of vehicle tracking or GPS tracking technology.  The vehicle tracking systems not only make paperwork and documentation easier for employees, but the GPS tracking systems can also help in routing and planning. Therefore, employees and employers have a positive and progressive feeling about the vehicle tracking technology.

Vehicle tracking technology being used on company time is much different than vehicle tracking technology being used on personal time, and it has a completely different condonation and begins to cross constitutional rights that every American is entitled. Coexisting with a vehicle tracking system or other GPS monitoring system while on the job most people feel is acceptable and sometimes beneficial. However, when a vehicle tracking or GPS tracking system is being used to monitor an individual’s car on personal time is where the gray area begins to evolve. At first glance, yes it appears that a vehicle tracking system would effectively monitor and tax those who use the roadways more than those who rarely frequent the roadways. Doesn’t it seem like an easy solution? Unfortunately, the vehicle tracking or GPS tracking system would not only be recording an individual’s mileage driven but the vehicle tracking system would also be recording other specifics such as location, date, time, addresses, stops, etc. The vehicle tracking system could record whether an individual was at a bar. The vehicle tracking system could record whether an individual was speeding. The vehicle tracking system could record what church or other organizations a person is affiliated with. This is where the potential problem is with a vehicle tracking system being on every individual’s form of transportation.

GPS Tracking Data Provides too much Information?

GPS tracking systems provide such qualitative data that some people might feel an invasion of privacy if their car or motorcycle had a vehicle tracking or GPS tracking system monitoring it. If the vehicle tracking system records detailed information other than just mileage then there is the potential that the government could access and store the highly sensitive information. What could the government do with the information recorded from the vehicle tracking system? Are vehicle tracking systems the solution to the tax problem? Is there a better solution?

Related posts:

1. Vehicle Tracking Helps Municipalities Large and Small
2. Vehicle Tracking For Vacation
3. Vehicle Tracking – How Vehicle Tracking Works