Into The Blue

From elementary school on, children and adults alike display a fascination with paper airplanes. There’s something about the ability to build a flying machine with nothing more than two hands and a piece of paper that ignites the imagination, leading to some really fantastic creations. While most people limit their paper plane construction to simple projects constructed during idle moments, some take the hobby much further. One of the most daring paper plane projects is set to launch this summer in the United Kingdom. The aircraft will be carried aloft by a weather balloon with a GPS tracking unit attached and then released remotely, with the intention of setting the record for the longest paper plane flight in history.

The GPS tracking device carried by the Vulture 1, as the plane has been dubbed, will send signals every couple of minutes to a computer, allowing viewers to watch the plane’s progress and also to locate it once it has reached the ground. Dedicated plane watchers can follow the flight in real time via their computers as the GPS unit sends each signal rather than waiting for a complete report at the end of the flight.

The masterminds of the project have already given their GPS tracking unit its first test run by carrying it in a vehicle through some remote parts of the country, with outstanding results. Despite traveling through various terrains, the GPS tracking unit continued to transmit and produced an accurate log of its travels. The technology works by sending a signal from the transmitter to a computer and then plotting the unit’s location at each transmission on a map. As launch day approaches, fans of the project can expect a progress map that reports location at each transmission accurately within a few feet.

While most of us will never send a paper plane launching into the sky with a GPS tracking unit attached, still, almost everyone can benefit from the technology that will be carried by the plane. GPS tracking devices can assist in care for the elderly, keep children safe, protect your vehicle, monitor criminals on parole, and keep an eye on the family pet. They provide a measure of safety and peace of mind that can’t be achieved any other way, since they provide another pair of eyes to watch out for the people and things you care about most when you can’t be there.

Into the Blue is a post from: GPS Obsessed

Performance Of Duty With Gps Tracking

Day and night, police officers defend the public against threats to order, safety, and decency. Knowing that an officer routinely patrols your neighborhood or the streets around your workplace provides a sense of well-being and an assurance that someone watches and follows up on any suspicious activity taking place. But what if that officer sat in his car all night instead of monitoring his assigned route? What if he reported that he performed his duty, but in fact did not? And what if the body of your loved one went unnoticed and unreported because that police officer failed in the performance of his duty?

That’s exactly what happened to a family in Cleveland. When suspicions were aroused that two officers were not doing the work they reported, their superiors took a look at records from a GPS tracking device installed on their car. The device showed that not only did the officers remain stationary for most of their shift, but also that their response to a report of a body proved unsatisfactory. Their assessment of a woman’s body as a deer left a family without information for longer than necessary.

While most police cars have a GPS tracking device installed, not only departments use the information gained from those devices effectively. With the information received from the device, someone can monitor not only the location but also the speed and direction of each car on the road and can determine whether a car sits idle for too long or does not complete its assigned route. With this knowledge, department personnel can keep officers accountable to their superiors and to the taxpayers for performing the duties expected of them to keep citizens safe.

Many companies install a GPS tracking device in each fleet vehicle so that they can monitor their employees’ movements throughout the day as well as determine whether they operate vehicles efficiently. Idle time, speed and routes can all be monitored by the GPS tracking device and can make a difference in fuel consumption. Smart driving can save a company thousands of dollars each year in fuel costs over less efficient vehicle operation.

While most employees on the police force and in other job situations are honest workers, the few bad apples make GPS tracking a good idea for all employers. Even one mistake like the one made by the Cleveland police officers is cause for concern on the part of superiors and citizens. With GPS tracking, managers can make sure repeat incidents don’t occur and that employees are performing the jobs expected of them.

Performance of Duty with GPS Tracking is a post from: GPS Obsessed

Gps On The Job

By James Neely/Guest Author

The word construction brings to mind hard hats, heavy equipment, and long hours spent on the job site as each new project takes shape. While these stereotypes are accurate, building contractors also deal with employee time management, theft protection, and other administrative duties in order to keep the job site functioning smoothly. In the past, some of these issues could be difficult to control, but now more and more construction site managers are turning to GPS tracking devices to solve problems at work.

Theft prevention is one of the primary uses for GPS tracking among construction companies. By equipping vehicles and expensive materials with GPS tracking devices, managers can keep an eye on the valuable equipment housed on the job site. Thieves target construction equipment because they can make a lot of money quickly on each sale. They also steal materials such as wire or metal that has inherent value. One police department in Idaho used a bait technique in which they put a GPS tracker in a roll of wire, left it on a construction site, and waited for thieves to pick it up. When they did, the officers were able to apprehend them almost immediately. Equipping each vehicle and piece of equipment with a GPS tracking device can prove to be a wise decision since it enables police to recover stolen items much more quickly.

Another way that GPS tracking can aid managers on construction sites and at other businesses is by keeping track of employees’ whereabouts in order to determine accurate time clock punches. State and federal regulations demand that accurate records be kept of hours worked, meaning that employers must have a reliable way to determine in and out punches for breaks, lunch hours, and for beginning and ending the day. Software programs allow employees to clock in via smartphone once they reach the job site, but some employers have encountered problems with employees clocking in before they leave home and logging travel time on the clock. To remedy this problem, companies can use GPS tracking technology to determine where the employee is when he clocks in or out, making accurate record keeping much more feasible.

Many companies have already discovered that GPS vehicle tracking devices can save them money by monitoring fuel usage, fleet vehicle routes, and employee time usage. By creatively applying GPS technology to other areas of the workday, they can continue to save thousands of dollars each year and operate their businesses more efficiently.

GPS On the Job is a post from: GPS Obsessed

Gps On The Job

By James Neely/Guest Author

The word construction brings to mind hard hats, heavy equipment, and long hours spent on the job site as each new project takes shape. While these stereotypes are accurate, building contractors also deal with employee time management, theft protection, and other administrative duties in order to keep the job site functioning smoothly. In the past, some of these issues could be difficult to control, but now more and more construction site managers are turning to GPS tracking devices to solve problems at work.

Theft prevention is one of the primary uses for GPS tracking among construction companies. By equipping vehicles and expensive materials with GPS tracking devices, managers can keep an eye on the valuable equipment housed on the job site. Thieves target construction equipment because they can make a lot of money quickly on each sale. They also steal materials such as wire or metal that has inherent value. One police department in Idaho used a bait technique in which they put a GPS tracker in a roll of wire, left it on a construction site, and waited for thieves to pick it up. When they did, the officers were able to apprehend them almost immediately. Equipping each vehicle and piece of equipment with a GPS tracking device can prove to be a wise decision since it enables police to recover stolen items much more quickly.

Another way that GPS tracking can aid managers on construction sites and at other businesses is by keeping track of employees’ whereabouts in order to determine accurate time clock punches. State and federal regulations demand that accurate records be kept of hours worked, meaning that employers must have a reliable way to determine in and out punches for breaks, lunch hours, and for beginning and ending the day. Software programs allow employees to clock in via smartphone once they reach the job site, but some employers have encountered problems with employees clocking in before they leave home and logging travel time on the clock. To remedy this problem, companies can use GPS tracking technology to determine where the employee is when he clocks in or out, making accurate record keeping much more feasible.

Many companies have already discovered that GPS vehicle tracking devices can save them money by monitoring fuel usage, fleet vehicle routes, and employee time usage. By creatively applying GPS technology to other areas of the workday, they can continue to save thousands of dollars each year and operate their businesses more efficiently.

GPS On the Job is a post from: GPS Obsessed