Solar Trax devices are self-charging which makes them the perfect asset tracker to support long-term remote deployments without the need to replace the battery. The devices use a highly efficient solar cell to continuously charge the battery and maximize operating life. With Solar Trax devices you can track your assets under extreme weather conditions, they are IP67-rated for resistance against water, dust, and impact. All firmware updates are done over-the-air, so there is never a need to remove the device from your assets.
Benefits of Solar Powered Asset Tracking
Advanced GPS TrackingKnow the exact location of your assets and protect them from theft; devices are manufactured with an embedded and integrated GPS receiver.
Energy Harvesting Highly efficient solar cell to continuously charge and maximize operating life of the internal (and rechargeable) Lithium Ion battery.
Multiple Applications & Cheaper Alternative The solution is suitable for tracking dry containers, non-powered assets, heavy equipment, trailers, among many other items. It is also a much cheaper alternative to other asset tracking solutions.
Automatic Firmware Upgrades Upgrades to firmware are carried out over-the-air, automatically, eliminating the need to ever remove devices from assets.
Built to Withstand Track your assets under the most extreme weather conditions. The weatherproof case of Solar Trax is IP67 certified.
Extensive Inputs and Outputs Multiple inputs allow for interfacing with various sensors to further enhance the solution to be utilized in unique applications.
Useful Asset Information
Solar Trax provides real-time tracking for large and small assets and makes it easy to create geofences around job sites or other areas. There is no limit to the number of assets the system can support. You can easily run reports around your assets using Geotab Exception logic and identify how long assets have been stationary. Generate custom reports by filtering via asset group and date range.
Customers who require frequent data for location, health, and monitoring of their remote assets can be assured that our solar power GPS solution will provide more frequent data for longer periods compared to other asset tracking devices in the market today.
This year was the show’s 20th-anniversary edition and welcomed 13,370 buyers – roughly on par with the last show in 2015.
“We were pleased to once again break 13,000 attendees. It speaks well of the state of the industry. Business is coming back. And we’re very excited about the next show in 2019, which is sure to be even bigger and better!”
– Mark Cusack, National Show Manager
Show attendees this year included a mix of industry professionals with leaders of construction, land improvement, infrastructure, and road building industries – along with students, job seekers, and those training for specific trades. We even saw some families come through with young children who were in absolute awe of the massive equipment.
One of the big highlights for us? When we showed up to the show we realized we were right next to one of our awesome clients – Joe Johnson Equipment!
These days most people are constantly followed by GPS wherever they go, whether the tracker is in a phone or installed in a vehicle. This, of course, creates some privacy concerns, but if used correctly the GPS data can also create amazing maps.
Volkswagen and Mobileye Combine Efforts
Some of these efforts are aimed at making money. For example, vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen announced a partnership earlier this year with Mobileye, a company that develops technology for computer vision, machine learning, data analysis, localization, and mapping. Mobileye’s main product is a mapping service called Road Experience Management, and it will be installed in all new Volkswagen vehicles starting in 2018. The devices will collect real-time data on road conditions that is aimed at giving autonomous vehicles more information to help them better navigate the road.
The Road Experience Management devices have front-facing cameras that collect information on things like lane markings and sign placement, and that data is then used to update maps. Eventually, Mobileye hopes that virtually all vehicles on the road will be collecting this type of data and that will create incredibly accurate maps built on passive uploads from everyday drivers. Autonomous cars rely on redundancy created by maps. They have sensors looking forward to ensure a clear path but they are also simultaneously reviewing map data to make sure the path forward is expected to be clear. If a map is outdated, perhaps by not showing a road closure, then the sensors on the car become the only thing telling the car that it needs to stop and the redundancy is gone. Crowdsourced data can improve both the underlying maps for autonomous car purposes and also provide a stream of road condition information, like updates on traffic congestion, that can be used for drivers today.
Nonprofit Crowdsourced Maps
Crowdsourced maps are not all about making money, though. OpenStreetMap is a nonprofit organization made up of a community of mappers who built an open source map that allows people from around the world to add information about roads, trails, cafes, railway stations and more. Anyone is free to use the map for any purpose so long as it is appropriately credited. Financial support to make it possible has come mostly from a number of universities and technology companies. Another example is Missing Maps, a nonprofit built on OpenStreetMap that uses crowdsourcing to map out roads and other features in vulnerable places in the developing world so that aid workers can respond better to crises.
Geotab Helps You Find Fuel
Hundreds of thousands of Geotab devices are on the road collecting GPS and other data every day. One particularly interesting piece of data that many Geotab users collect is fuel fill-up information. Geotab collects this anonymized data on about 60,000 fillups each day and can correlate that information with GPS coordinates. This data can help mapping services to locate fuel fill-up stations that have not already been incorporated into their maps. It can also help companies tinker with their fill-up policies to allow drivers to spend the shortest amount of time possible at the station.
The trucking industry appears to be slowly moving closer and closer to due date for trucker compliance with a new regulatory burden requiring them to use electronic logging devices (“ELDs”). Some companies may have thought they received a reprieve when new U.S. President Donald Trump issued a “regulatory freeze” memo. That memo contains an exemption for regulations related to “health” and “safety” issues, so there is some disagreement over how it should apply. There is also some additional uncertainty because Congress has also acted in recent weeks to rescind many regulations installed at the end of President Barack Obama’s term.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration now appears set to move forward with the December deadline. This ELD rule is all about the federal government moving beyond piles of handwritten records into more reliable, automatically-generated data. ELDs will ensure trucker compliance by generating computerized records. Many trucking companies are already using electronic logging devices, as the federal government has been accepting ELD certifications since early 2016. If you want to learn more, download our whitepaper entitled Understanding the FMCSA’s Final Rule on ELDs. The paper explains the ELD equipment requirements and time-frame for trucker compliance.
The 2019 ELD mandate need not be seen as just a regulatory cost by trucking companies. A high-quality ELD can capture a great deal of information and that can be used for multiple purposes. One example would be collecting data for International Fuel Tax Agreement (“IFTA”) compliance. IFTA is an agreement between most of the United States and the Canadian provinces to help address the tax disparity between the two countries. Basically, when a trucker fills up at the pump he or she is paying some fuel taxes. The trucker may fill up in a state or province with a very high tax, but then actually burn most of the fuel in a low-tax state. In order to clear up the disparity, the trucker files a report showing how much tax was paid and how many miles were traveled in each jurisdiction. The trucker will basically calculate how much tax should have been paid to each jurisdiction and then the trucker will either have to make an additional payment or receive a refund to pay the correct amount of tax.
Geotab Drive can easily ensure trucker compliance with IFTA by using GPS data to automatically track the truck’s route. That means that instead of logging odometer readings at every border crossing, a driver can simply drive on while the onboard sensors collect the miles logged in each state. This is simpler for the driver and his or her company, but perhaps more importantly, it is also more accurate. Automated systems are less likely to have errors and less likely to be audited by regulators. Our add-ons can also track fuel purchases and automatically populate tax forms to further ease trucker compliance. Our wide variety of solutions can go much further to help simplify maintenance records and more.
Icy storms were upon us this year making roads quite dangerous to drive on! With one of the biggest threats being slippery and hard-to-spot black ice, it became harder for drivers to gain control causing repair expenses to become a nuisance for fleet organizations. Along with bad weather came the inability to control negative driver behaviours due to negligence. According to Marty Roberts from the Classic Accident Repair Center, the average repair cost this year hovered around $3,900 per vehicle. Proving to fleet management companies that it is important to prepare for hazardous driving conditions and implement solutions that look after you!
GoFleet is designed to help operational managers maximize fuel savings and manage driver behaviour effectively. The added benefit of this fantastic solution is the ability to coach drivers in real time, promote preventative maintenance and measure fleet performance all at once. Although the solution is equipped with other benefits, driver coaching and preventative maintenance are two key examples of maintaining operating expenses when driving in hazardous winter conditions.
In-Vehicle Driver Coaching:
Driver coaching makes it easier to immediately improve on road driving behaviour through in-vehicle audible alerts. The in-vehicle beeps will notify drivers of potentially risky driving habits encouraging them to fix their behaviour immediately. The beeping feature can be customized based on your fleet operating manager’s preference as shown below. Fleet managers can easily develop a fleet-wide safety program that works without intervention.
Enable Speed Warning: The device will beep constantly when the vehicle reaches the speed set in Start Beeping, and will not stop until the vehicle slows down below the Stop Beeping speed.
The software solution is also capable of showing management information about how well the drivers are performing with the help of Driver Score Card reports.These reports can be set up to be emailed immediately if need be allowing management to compare weekly/monthly/yearly safety improvements.
Preventative Maintenance:
It is evident that some vehicle preparation is required to avoid making outdoor checks in the cold but if that is never off your check list then our solution might just be right for you. With GoFleet’s tracking solution, management can keep track of scheduled maintenance by recording fault codes and engine diagnostics. Managers will have every bit of information needed so, when complications do arise, they will have immediate access to the problem to take immediate action.
Remembering when to perform oil changes, rotate tires and other minor vehicle services can be time consuming if you manage more than one vehicle. So, to help with this process the software allows for recurring reminders to be created letting you know when a vehicle is due for service.
Organizations often struggle with rising vehicle maintenance costs due to behaviours that could have been avoided if corrected immediately. Monitoring driver behaviour and being able to correct negative habits are two different approaches to management. With our software solution you can view negative driver behaviours and also fix them in real time; allowing your company to maximize savings through reductions in fuel usage and accident liability as a result of improved driver behaviour.
It is difficult to absorb unforeseen expenses due to uncontrollable factors such as, frigid winter conditions causing many companies to avoid outdoor routine checks. Gofleet’s management software is designed to help stop engine issues before they turn into costly repairs or lead to vehicle down-time by managing your engine fault code information. These vehicle codes explain the engine issue and where to locate it, helping you save on vehicle inspection time and costs. The solution is also future proof with maintenance reminder features to help lower expenses on any vehicle breakdowns. Preventative maintenance helps maintain the health of your vehicle, identify core problems immediately and also offers a higher resale value once a fleet has completed its service life.
Keeping track of activity on a busy site can be a challenge for any manager, but GoBeacon asset tracking tags can be easily attached to pretty much any asset or worker to track locations and other relevant data. Together, a cluster of asset tags and data collection points can paint a picture for a manager of what is happening on the site.
Meet the GoBeacon Asset Tracking Tag
Each beacon is a small flat tag that is just over an inch long on each side (32 mm by 32 mm). It collects data from a variety of onboard sensors, including a GPS location tracker. It can also measure temperature, light exposure, and impact. The GoBeacons have a battery of two years and broadcasts their signal via Bluetooth over a radius of about 650 feet (200 m). That signal can be collected via a GoFleet Asset Tracker, a Bluetooth WiFi Hub, or any common Mobile Device. The information is then collected into the cloud where it can be easily accessed through the GoFleet software system from a computer or mobile device.
Attach The Small, Rugged Beacons Anywhere
The beacons can be attached to almost anything you need to keep track of. Common examples are trucks, trailers, and other vehicles. This can allow fleet managers to know exactly where the vehicle is and be alerted if it leaves its work area. Major pieces of equipment or expensive tools can also be tracked by the GoBeacons. Perhaps the greatest value of the beacons, however, is for field worker management where they can be use for employee location tracking. The small beacons can easily clip onto a shirt, clipboard, cell phone, keychain, or any other number of places that allow a worker to easily carry the beacon without constraining his or her work.
GoBeacons Have a Variety of Uses
GoBeacons can help with field worker management by monitoring personnel on a construction site or similar location. The beacons are weatherproof and they can easily provide notifications when a worker enters and exits the site. That data can be used to track work time and the beacons can also help rapidly locate a particular employee if needed. We also offer various integrations to help optimize scheduling and communications related to deliveries to the job site, and a man down system that can ensure managers become aware of injuries on the work site.
The beacons are also an inventory-management tool that can drastically reduce losses due to theft or simply misplacement of tools by field workers. Managers can set a geofence around a worksite and then set up alerts so that they are notified if a tool leaves the site unexpectedly. The beacons can also measure proximity to a smartphone and give off light or sound signals, and that allows field workers to find a missing tool if it has been tagged. This can result in huge time savings.
Employers have a very important role — and responsibility — to help reduce the number of injuries and deaths related to vehicle collisions. Putting a stop to speeding requires action. Employers can positively influence driver safety both on and off the job through safety-focused leadership.
Speeding is not a more efficient way to get from point A to point B, in fact, it has been mathematically proven. For example, on a trip in the city, any time saved can be easily added back if you run into traffic or get a string of red lights. Therefore, allowing your drivers to speed is a false economy — any time saved is marginal as compared to the indirect accident costs and increased risks. Additionally, speeding is illegal and the related fines are highly expensive for companies. For everyone’s safety, there is no need to speed. Getting to your destination safely, without breaking the law or being involved in a crash is the best goal.
Companies need to take a stand on whether or not speeding is worth the increased risk of crash and the related potential for legal cost and bodily injury. Launching a company safe driving campaign for employees is highly recommended by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) and others.
The Opportunity for Employers: Reduce Speed and Save
Employers can significantly save (on fuel, other related costs, and most importantly save lives) by introducing an initiative to reduce speeding in their company. A speed reduction campaign can support a company’s overall fleet safety program and enhances driver protection and productivity. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that a safe driving program can “protect your organization’s human and financial resources” and ward off “potential company and personal liabilities.”
With many companies, fleet costs take up a large portion of the total operating budget. A safe driving campaign presents a new avenue for cost savings, and is a win-win for everyone.
Three Reasons to Launch a Driver Safety Program for Speeders
Reason 1: Fuel and Emission Savings
These fast fuel facts below make a convincing argument for a no speeding campaign:
Reducing speed can add up to significant cost savings for employers — money which could be redirected to more important areas.
Using 118 gallons of fuel per year at an additional cost of $.70 per gallon = $100 extra per vehicle per year, plus wear/tear and risk. $100 over 500 vehicles = $50,000 annual savings opportunity!
Total fleet average collision repair cost is $2,300 = $230,000 annual savings opportunity, just for physical damage (BusinessFleet.com/NETS).
If we use half ($8,250) of the industry average ($16,500) which includes liability, workers comp, etc., = $825,000 annual savings opportunity (NHTSA).
Reason 3: Reducing the Cost of Crashes
In the U.S., traffic crashes cost employers $47.4 billion in direct crash-related expenses including medical care, liability, productivity losses, and property damage (NETS).
Speeding alone resulted in $8.4 billion in crash-related expenses for employers. Distracted driving resulted in $8.2 billion (NHTSA).
Speeding is a top contributing factor to traffic crashes. In 2013, speeding was linked to 29% of all fatal crashes, and 9,613 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes (NHTSA).
Here’s how it can be done.
How to Launch a Successful Driver Safety Campaign
Set a goal.
Identify a campaign manager and find a sponsor.
Create a plan.
Promote your campaign.
Evaluate the impact.
In this case, the goal would be to reduce the upward trend of speed violations and vehicle accidents. Assemble a team of people who will champion the initiative. Be sure to include employees on the campaign committee. Plan activities and communications to promote the campaign. Posters with facts and visuals can be very effective. Communicate regularly throughout the campaign to keep interest and enthusiasm going.
Using Telematics Data to Manage Speeders
A telematics-based speeding report can tell fleet managers who has been speeding and how often. For example, the Top 5 Speeding Violations report displays the top 5 drivers or vehicles with the highest number of speeding events by day, week, or month. Whether the fleet manager has received complaints about speeding drivers or simply wants to improve overall fleet safety, this report helps identify which fleet drivers have the most dangerous driving habits.
Sample telematics based speeding report
Stop Speeding and Save Money
Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. In addition, speeding increases fuel expense. Therefore, targeting driver speeding is a truly worthwhile effort for employers.
Implementing a “No Need to Speed!” initiative can save a company thousands of dollars (and that’s a conservative estimate). Protecting employees from motor vehicle crash injury can be a profitable investment of resources and time. Also, it helps companies underscore that they truly care about the well-being of their employees.
Your life can change in seconds — and someone wants you home tonight, so why wouldn’t you choose safety?
Original Article: https://www.geotab.com/blog/driver-safety-for-speeders/
Written By: Susan Miller, Senior Fleet Account Manager at Geotab
The Section 179 Deduction is an important tax benefit that may allow you to fully deduct from your taxes the cost of GoFleet equipment purchases. This is important because, In general, when a company buys new equipment it must write off the equipment’s cost over a series of years in “depreciation.” The theory is that when a company buys new equipment it does not necessarily lose money immediately. Instead, the new equipment becomes a cost over time as that equipment slowly wears out and gets closer to needing replaced.
Section 179 has been deployed repeatedly in recent years as a way to stimulate the economy. The deduction has been a part of the tax code since 1958, when companies were allowed to immediately deduct up to $2,000 of the cost of newly-purchased equipment. In the 1980s and 90s the allowance was raised to $5,000, then $10,000, then $19,000, and finally $25,000. At that point, the deduction became popular as an economic stimulus tool. President George W. Bush included a temporary increase from $25,000 to $100,000 in his 2003 tax cuts that were aimed at boosting the U.S. economy in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
President Obama extended the deduction and added a bonus depreciation in his 2009 Stimulus Bill. A subsequent bill in 2010 raised the expensing allowance to $500,000. It was extended again in 2012 and 2014, and by that time businesses had become so used to the “temporary” increases in expensing allowance that it was difficult to let the deduction expire. So, at the end of 2015, Congress made the increased Section 179 expensing limit permanent. Congress touted the “certainty” in making the tax break permanent and representatives of the business community called it “easily the most positive thing Congress has done for small business in the past several years.” There is mixed evidence about the effectiveness of the tax break in stimulating the economy, but there is no doubt it can be beneficial to individual small businesses.
The current law gives companies in all lines of business the option to expense the cost of new and used qualified equipment in the tax year when that equipment is put into service. The maximum deduction allowed is $500,000. The deduction is subject to two limitations. First, if deduction is phased out based on overall investment by the company, so that if a company invests more than $2 million in equipment in a year it will not be able to take the Section 179 deduction. Second, a company may not deduct more than its taxable income. Additionally, the ability to carry the deduction forward into subsequent years is very limited.
At GoFleet, we encourage all our US customers to consider the Section 179 Deduction. Our small business customers should all be able to deduct the full amount of all our hardware products. You should confirm your eligibility with your own tax advisor, but the experienced professionals at GoFleet are always happy to discuss our tools and the financial arrangements that best benefit your company.
Mobileye is an Israeli company launched in 1999 from academic research that was building collision avoidance technology using cameras and software algorithms to sense other vehicles on the road to make driving easier and safer. Today, the company has its technology in 15 million vehicles around the world and it is helping make autonomous driving a reality. Mobileye says that autonomous driving has three “pillars,” and that is where the company is focusing its efforts. First, the company produces software that fuses data from both cameras and radar to detect objects ahead with over 99% accuracy. Second, Mobileye uses crowd-sourcing to maintain rapidly-updated, high-definition maps. And finally, Mobileye has developed software with driving “policies” that controls how vehicles will behave on the open road alongside human drivers.
What is Mobileye’s Collision Avoidance Technology?
Until fully-autonomous vehicles becomes a reality, Mobileye’s technology is being used to help make human drivers be more safe with collision avoidance technology. Fleet managers can utilize Mobileye to help their drivers avoid collisions. One of its most popular products is the 5 Series. The product includes a strategically-placed camera on a vehicle’s windshield that faces forward and acts as the driver’s “third eye.” The devices uses Mobileye’s sensing technology to recognize vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists around the vehicle. The system also has a display called an “EyeWatch.” This gives visual warnings as well as measurements to the obstacles ahead. In a way, this is similar to the “heads up display” setups that fighter pilots use.
How Does Mobileye Work?
The Mobileye system will provide drivers with warnings about impending collisions. This is incredibly important because a driver’s reaction time is a huge factor in car crashes. Studies have found that drivers with faster reaction times may have a better track record of avoiding crashes. It follows that one way to dramatically improve the safety of a fleet of vehicles is to equip each one with technology that can improve driver reaction time. The Mobileye 5 Series can improve reaction time by warning drivers of problems before drivers can detect the situation on their own. The collision avoidance technology warns drivers about potential collisions with cars, pedestrians, and bikers. Drivers can also get a warning when they are drifting out of their own lane (lane detection system) or getting too close to the car in front of them. The display can also warn drivers about their speed and automatically control headlight high beams.
Mobileye’s collision avoidance system integrates with our fleet management technology. In addition to providing drivers with immediate warning, longer-term safety can be improved by providing drivers with feedback on how often they had near collisions, got too close to the car in front of them, or drifted out of their own lane. If necessary, the system can even be set up to be tamper proof and track any attempts to disable or alter it. This data can be used to coach drivers for better fleet safety, or if necessary the reports can be used to take action against an unsafe driver.
One of the world’s leading psychologists, Anders Ericsson, says that deliberate practice is the best way to master a skill. That can be difficult to apply to drivers, or really to most jobs. Deliberate practice involves setting goals outside an individual’s comfort zone, reviewing performance, and adjusting to fix mistakes. In other words, endless hours of driving experience may not make a driver better but a driver will improve if he or she is carefully monitored and is then given specific ways to improve.
For fleet managers looking to improve the performance of their drivers, the best thing may be to install dash cameras as part of a telematics system that can track performance and give impartial feedback to drivers. Dash cams have long been in almost every car in Russia, largely to overcome lax or even corrupt accident investigations. This has led to an incredible volume of accident footage on YouTube, but the cameras can do way more than just explain what happened in an accident. Dash cams can change fleet driver behavior in order to prevent accidents.
The key is reviewing driver performance and providing feedback, and this can be accomplished by pairing dash cams with a device that can track speed, acceleration, braking and other basic information. That allows the system to know when a driver shows poor behavior and then pair that information with dash cam video. For example, the system could be set up to flag every time a driver exceeds the speed limit. A good dash cam system could then send the driver (and his or her manager if necessary) a series of links to video of those over-speed incidents. Reviewing the incidents can help pinpoint why a driver sometimes speeds and that can allow the driver to improve his or her behavior. Many systems can also offer real-time driver corrections, such as an over-speed warning light or noise.
Many dash cams can also be integrated into a multi-camera system with a microphone. This can give fleet managers a very complete understanding of a driver’s situation. Fleet managers can see if a driver is using a cell phone or distracted by the radio. Multiple cameras can help show how quickly a driver recognizes a problem and then reacts. A rear view camera can show how a driver practices defensive driving to handle other aggressive drivers. This information can often be provided immediately back to fleet managers, viewed by drivers on a tablet, or collected and then distributed in a report for each trip or for a certain time period.
ZenduCAM will capture instant footage during an accident that you can use to either exonerate yourself from fault or to train your drivers on accident avoidance without ever having to remove the camera from the vehicle. Wireless connectivity capability via wifi or cellular network allows you to access data anytime, anywhere.
