Well, many readers may be tired with my continual rant about government agencies that refuse to do what they are paid to when it comes to fleet management.
Two pieces of good news today:
PGCPS Leads the State in Advancing Bus Safety; Nextel GPS Tracking System Installed on School Buses:
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/4845/
Prince Georges County Maryland gets a tip of the hat today. Unlike the average school board who somehow think it's cheaper to be sued for failing to monitor their drivers and protect their children than to use technology that pays for itself, here's a group that realizes the time is now.
An additional nugget is hidden in the bottom of the press release .. they'll be using the slick Nextel PTT (walkie-talkie) service to allow dispatchers and drivers to instantly be in touch. One impediment to modern tracking and fleet management technology have been the voice radio peddlers of the world. Persisting in marketing their archaic technology they have used up the budgets of agency after agency selling and expensive, limited utility product. Personally, _if_ I had ever owned any Motorola stock I'd be dumping it like a hot potato. (if you read the article linked above, look around the GIS User site that published it. It's run by a friend of mine who really knows the business and continually finds informative ways to demystify the technology.
More Good News Here:
Snow removal trucks to help pick up the slack :
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-hside24.html
The city of Chicago has had a terrible few months with allegations and proof of mismanagement, bribery and waste showing up in the street department and city fleets. You've heard me rail before of government managers who refuse to manage. To the great credit of Chicago the managers have started to get their arms around the problem.
The headline is at first sight a 'no brainer'. Who would buy trucks to push snow and then let them sit idle for 8 months of the year when there is no snow? Well apparently Chicago was doing that, now they've decided to move away from the sort of 'personal organizational ownership' of the se vehicles and putting them to work through the year.
The best part of the article is at the end .. the city is currently source selecting a contract to provide 3rd party trucks in support of city needs. They had the foresight to put GPS tracking in the SOW as a requirement to insure the city gets what they pay for from the contractors. hat's off.
Tomorrow is Good Friday, I may or may not be posting. If I don't 'see' you before then, Happy Easter and blessings to all.
24 March 2005
23 March 2005
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
Or so, it is claimed, said sports great Yogi Berra. Just a few minutes ago I took the short walk to my mailbox ... on the way I passed a house under construction and there were guys from the cable TV/Internet supplier in our community. I won't call them by name, they're that outfit with a name though that has an 'a' at both ends.
There were three vans and three workers present. Normally it takes only one guy to do the installs but, not being a cable guy, I'll make a guess that three were needed. What caught my attention though, was one of the vans just sitting there idling for no apparent reason. I continued on to the mailbox, got SatViz's mail, stopped to watch an irrigation guy installing sprinkler pipe, and fully 15 minutes later walked back past the A------a vans. Yep, you guessed it, the idling van was still running. By now a guy was sitting in the driver's seat, not driving, just watching the other two installers.
This isn't really note-worthy, I see this kind of wasted time and fuel loss everyday. What is note-worthy, though is the fact that the owners of these fleets just don't care. The company in question has the 20th largest fleet in North America .. more than 8,000 vehicles. If they all idle for not profit 15 minutes a day, that's an hour and 15 minutes per week... 8,000 trucks, time 1.25 hours times 50 weeks times (let's say $2.50 a gallon for gas), that's $1,250,000.00 going out the tailpipe for no purpose at all, just polluting our neighborhoods.
This is a company that's had untold profitability challenges, cries poor mouth often, and seems to be one of the 'sick puppies' of the communication industry. One just has to wonder just how an extra one and a quarter million in pure profit would help them in the profitability trek? Not to mention the labor cost they might recover if they tracked how often all these guys were meeting up and sitting around watching their workers watch each other work. They claim. GPS tracking of their vehicles doesn't make business sense. Do you think the same as they do? Are you sure?
One other thing Yogi is alleged to have said is: "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." Is your route planned out?
Dave
www.satviz.com
There were three vans and three workers present. Normally it takes only one guy to do the installs but, not being a cable guy, I'll make a guess that three were needed. What caught my attention though, was one of the vans just sitting there idling for no apparent reason. I continued on to the mailbox, got SatViz's mail, stopped to watch an irrigation guy installing sprinkler pipe, and fully 15 minutes later walked back past the A------a vans. Yep, you guessed it, the idling van was still running. By now a guy was sitting in the driver's seat, not driving, just watching the other two installers.
This isn't really note-worthy, I see this kind of wasted time and fuel loss everyday. What is note-worthy, though is the fact that the owners of these fleets just don't care. The company in question has the 20th largest fleet in North America .. more than 8,000 vehicles. If they all idle for not profit 15 minutes a day, that's an hour and 15 minutes per week... 8,000 trucks, time 1.25 hours times 50 weeks times (let's say $2.50 a gallon for gas), that's $1,250,000.00 going out the tailpipe for no purpose at all, just polluting our neighborhoods.
This is a company that's had untold profitability challenges, cries poor mouth often, and seems to be one of the 'sick puppies' of the communication industry. One just has to wonder just how an extra one and a quarter million in pure profit would help them in the profitability trek? Not to mention the labor cost they might recover if they tracked how often all these guys were meeting up and sitting around watching their workers watch each other work. They claim. GPS tracking of their vehicles doesn't make business sense. Do you think the same as they do? Are you sure?
One other thing Yogi is alleged to have said is: "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." Is your route planned out?
Dave
www.satviz.com
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