GPS- Navigate or track?

GPS. Global position satellites. It is often misunderstood. But GPS can mean either tracking or navigation.

There are 2 totally distinct conversations to have. Navigation would be like using google maps for Blackberry or a Garmin Nuvi to find your way from one point to another. You may just want to see where you are at on a map. You can use Google maps before you leave an office or home to gage your trip. You can even e-mail those directions to your Blackberry before you leave. There really are no excuses for being lost anymore.

Tracking on the other hand comes in the form of vehicle asset management. The goal for a company is to reduce fuel costs, create better customer service, in a nutshell improve the efficiency of the fleet as a whole. What would happen to your productivity or fuel costs is you were riding shotgun every day with each and every driver? GPS tracking is becoming a significant technology. It will be ordinary in 5 years to have this type of technology in a vehicle. The stakes of employee misbehavior and fuel costs are too great for an owner to worry about the politics of being called "big brother". On top of their business seems more appropriate. So the next time you are thinking about jumping in that vehicle and driving down to the beach, or going to the park or even running that extra errand, remember there may be an e-mail arriving in your managers inbox once that vehicle so much as moves. Scary but very useful! Putting one in your wife's car you ask, I am not going there!

Welcome to the future.

Mike