Category Archives: Automotive Diagnostics

GPS Vehicle Tracking Data: What Do I Get?

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By Ken Sink

What information is provided by GPS vehicle tracking systems? Here is a summary and examples of how you could use data provided by GPS tracking devices:

Location data: Latitude and longitude provided in degrees, minutes and seconds. It is accurate to 33 feet, which is as accurate as any commercial GPS device. A vehicle’s location is updated at intervals of between 2 – 15 minutes. The standard update interval varies between manufacturers or can be set by the owner (optional).

* Who is closest to the customer that just called? See where all your employees are by checking the map. Never again call an employee just to find out where they are!

Speed calculation: Rate of movement in miles per hour. Movement in excess of a preset speed (standard) or owner-set speed (optional) triggers an alert, sent to the owner.

* Are employees routinely speeding? Speeding causes excessive wear and wastes gasoline. Your vehicles represent your company to the public; what kind of an image is presented by a speeding or recklessly-driven company vehicle?

Present direction: Compass direction the vehicle is traveling, expressed as north, south, east or west.

* Is employee ‘X’ en route to the customer or leaving their location?

Geofence use: A ‘virtual’ geographic boundary, created by the owner. Crossing this boundary triggers an alert which is sent to the owner. The alerts are usually e-mail messages or automated telephone calls from the system to the user, including the vehicle identification, date/time of crossing, location of crossing and more, depending upon the system. A Geofence can be 1/4 mile to 20+ miles in diameter.

* Is a delivery truck approaching the warehouse? Is the gate open?

Alerts: An automatic e-mail, sent to the owner, with the date, time, location, identification and other details related to some event which has occurred and deserves your attention. Alerts are triggered when a vehicle exceeds a preset speed or crosses a Geofence boundary, for example.

* Email alerts can be sent to your Blackberry or portable device. You can monitor your company while out of the office or away from your desk.

Fastest speed report: A daily report of each vehicle’s fastest speed.

* Why was employee ‘Y’ driving 80 m.p.h.?

Historical data: A record of all data related to each vehicle, maintained for 90 days.

* Which vehicles averaged the most miles driven each day? Export vehicle data to an Excel Worksheet to compare productivity between employees.

Ignition on/off: Time, date and location of each instance where a vehicle’s ignition was turned on or off.

* When was Hooter’s restaurant put on employee ‘Z’s route?

Idle report: Time, date, location and duration of each instance where a vehicle remained motionless while the engine was running. Owner can adjust the duration of idle allowed before a report is generated.

* Idling the engine wastes fuel and causes unnecessary wear. Employee ‘Z’s vehicle idled twice as long as employee ‘Y’s vehicle; perhaps employee ‘Z’ should shut off his vehicle’s engine when making deliveries.

Accumulated mileage alert: An alert sent at 3,000 miles, 5,000 miles or at an owner-set interval (optional) as a reminder to perform preventative maintenance.

* Email: time to have the oil changed on vehicle ‘A’.

Location on demand: The ability to locate and display location info when requested, regardless of when the last scheduled update occurred.

* Where is employee ‘Y’? I need to find him right now!

Map detail: Vehicle location is displayed on a street map, which the owner can enlarge or reduce to see more or less map detail.

* Employee ‘A’ says Main Street is closed for construction, what is the next street West?

Landmarks: Reference points which may or may not be visible on the map created to designate locations important to the system user. Landmarks could be customer locations, the user’s shop, warehouse, satellite offices, etc.

* Who has been to the warehouse today?

Breadcrumbs: When requested by the owner, a trail of points can be displayed on the map, indicating a vehicle’s route during a certain time period.

* Do routes overlap between vehicle ‘A’ and vehicle ‘B’?

Many GPS tracking system providers offer additional information, but, as I hope you can see, even this list of basic data will give you all the info you need to manage your vehicles.

About the Author: Ken Sink, owner of My Vehicle WatchDog, is a veteran with 20+ years of transportation experience, including fleet management of over 800 vehicles. Visit http://www.MyVehicleWatchDog.Info for more information about GPS vehicle tracking systems from Fleet Management Solutions, Networkfleet and Sprint/Nextel.

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Don’t Rent A Vehicle Until Your Read This

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By D Ruplinger

If you are renting a car or other vehicle, the process will be the easiest and smoothest if you have a credit card to use for the transaction. Some car rental companies won’t even rent you a vehicle if you don’t have a credit card for payment. If the car rental company does allow you to rent without a credit card, you may have to pay a large cash deposit to cover any potential damage to the vehicle you are renting. If you are using a travel agent and do not have a credit card, ask your agent about using pre-paid vouchers to pay for your vehicle rental. A voucher is typically easier to use than cash when renting a vehicle.

Be aware that a large part of your credit line on your credit card may be tied up while the rental vehicle is in your possession. The car rental company may place a certain amount of money on hold on your credit card for possible additional charges such as late return fees and damage fees. The charge won’t be processed unless you incur those additional expenses. But because that money is on hold you won’t have it available to you for other purchases so you may want to use for other purchases such as your hotel.

Your driving record may be a factor when you rent a vehicle. Not all car rental companies check driving records but some do. If your driving record doesn’t meet the car rental company’s standards they will not let you rent from them. To prevent this from happening check with the car rental agency to see if they check driving records and what their standards are.

Twenty five is the magic age when renting a vehicle. If you are at least twenty five years of age you will not incur additional fees to rent a vehicle. If you are between the ages of eighteen and twenty five you will likely be required to pay more money for renting your car than a twenty five or older driver. If you are under 18 years of age you will not be able to rent a vehicle in the US. Although those rules may not seem fair, it is just the way it is in the car rental industry

Rental car companies will offer you various optional insurance and waiver options, but you may already be covered. Before you go to rent a vehicle, check with both your personal auto insurance agent and with your credit card company. You may already have protection if you have an accident, lose, or damage your rental vehicle. If you do have protection, you shouldn’t need to purchase the collision damage waiver or CDW offered by the car rental company because it will be a duplication of coverage you already have.

If you do purchase a CDW, keep in mind that it is not insurance but an agreement between you and the car rental company stating that you will not be liable for loss or damage to the rental vehicle as long as you comply with conditions stated in the agreement. Those conditions are common sense ones such as not driving while under the influence of alcohol, not driving the vehicle off-road, and not allowing an unauthorized person to drive the vehicle. A CDW will almost always not cover you though for personal injuries or damage to personal property sustained while using the rental vehicle. If you are renting overseas though, you may not have a choice of whether or not or purchase a CDW. Some countries require you to purchase it.

If you are renting a vehicle overseas you may need to obtain an international driving permit. Check on this before you show up at the overseas rental car counter.

After you get to your rental vehicle walk around the outside of it and inspect it for any possible damage. If you notice damage such as a dent or noticeable scratch report it to the lot attendant right away and get it noted on your rental agreement so you won’t be liable for that damage. I learned this lesson the hard way. On one of my first rentals I noticed a dent in the vehicle, told the lot attendant about it who told me not to worry about it. I didn’t insist he write anything on my rental agreement stating the damage was already on the vehicle when I picked it up. When I returned the vehicle the rental car company wanted to charge me for that dent. I eventually got my money back but it took time me quite a bit of time and frustration to get those charges reversed.

If you find you are going to return your rental vehicle more than 4 hours late, call the rental company and arrange for an additional day’s rental. Although most companies allow you a one hour grace period before they start to charge you additional money, the hourly rates can quickly add up to more than the cost of an entire day’s rental. Usually when you get to the 4 hour mark, renting the vehicle for an additional day is cheaper than paying the hourly late fees.

About the Author: D Ruplinger is a featured writer for http://www.autorentalpro.com. For more information about vehicle rentals visit http://www.autorentalpro.com.

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Recreational Vehicle Ownership

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By Terry Lowery

The joy of recreational vehicle ownership hasn’t been dimmed by rising gas prices. As late as August of 2005 recreational vehicle sales were seeing only a very small affect of rising gas prices. Sales of recreational vehicles in 2004 were the highest see in twenty five years. The popularity of recreational vehicles doesn’t seem to be waining at all. In fact, there is an RV and MV (Manufactured Vehicle) hall of fame located in Elkhart Indiana.

Today’s motor homes or recreational vehicles have all the comforts of home, and then some. With luxury leather recliners, granite floors, washers and dryers, plasma TV’s and looks of professionally designed spaces recreational vehicles are a stylish and comfortable home away from home.

There are several different types of vehicles considered “RV’s”. The first is a truck camper which is a unit affixed to the bed or chassis of a pickup truck. Then there is the folding camping trailer, or pop-up trailer. A travel trailer is a unit that is towed by another vehicle. A fifth wheel travel trailer is designed to be towed by a pickup truck. A motor home or what is frequently called a Winnebago which resembles a bus.

The process of purchasing a new recreational vehicle is somewhat like purchasing a new car. A recreational vehicle dealer will sometimes take advantage of an uniformed customer. There are huge markups on recreational vehicles by all dealers. The only way to come out with a fair deal is to do your homework before you buy.

There are several fixed prices when you are looking at new recreational vehicles. The dealer price, the taxes and any motor vehicle fees. As with a car, the only option left for the dealer is to play with the profit margin. As recreational vehicle dealers sell way less than car dealers do they must make a much higher profit margin per vehicle. As it is widely known that used recreational vehicles have a huge depreciation you don’t want to overpay for your vehicle.

About the Author: This article courtesy of http://www.rv-home.com

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Traveling With Vehicle Tracking

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By Shawn Davis

Vehicle tracking is not just for anti-theft purposes anymore. It used to be that vehicle tracking was mainly put into cars by the wealthy who could afford to buy such high-tech devices. However, with the increasing affordability of technology, it is possible for more people to make use of tracking devices like Lo/Jack and the Spy Matrix GPS in order to prevent long-term loss of property. Now, however, vehicle tracking is a popular thing to use when doing regular travel. With it you need never stop and ask for directions.

Vehicle tracking for use with tourist functions is fast becoming popular because it is a great way to learn an area, and a great way to quickly find destinations. Most tracking devices make use of GPS and interact with satellites in order to give you your current locations. Many of these devices can also help you find other locations in relation to where you happen to be at the moment. All you need to do is type (or sometimes even speak) an address into the car’s on board computer and a map appears to show you where to go.

The amazing thing is that vehicle tracking does not simply show you where to go. GPS systems on cars can be hooked into computers that turn the data into voice signals. It is possible for such programs to interact and for you to actually hear directions such as “turn left on First Street” or “proceed straight through the light at Main Street.” That way you do not have to be worried about looking at a computer generated map. It is still available, if you like to see where you should be going, but the audible directions can help you focus better on driving.

Vehicle tracking can help you track where you are. It can also help you figure out where you have been, so that you can find your way back. And with vehicle tracking standard on many rental cars, you can take advantage of it even when you are away from your own vehicle. When you go on a trip with a properly outfitted car, you will never need to ask for directions again, thanks to vehicle tracking.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com.

About the Author: To learn more about Spy and Surveillance Products visit http://www.spyassociates.com Read other related articles at http://spyassociates.blogspot.com/

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The Best Way to Keep Your Vehicle Reliable

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By Chad Slayton

When you get a new car from your Fort Worth ford dealer there is something important you should have in your mind. The car will need regular maintenance to ensure that it is always reliable. Just like your body needs a regular health check-up from your doctor, so does your car. History has taught us that prevention is always better than having a cure. Hence maintaining your car will protect it from regular breakdowns. Even with hard economic times, there are certain areas regarding vehicle maintenance that you cannot ignore.

The first thing you should do to ensure your vehicle stays in good condition is by changing the engine oil at the appropriate time. How long the oil will last for depends on the oil type you are using. There are three oil types available in the market namely synthetic, conventional and full-synthetic. If you are using conventional oil, you need to replace it after 3,000 miles. For a synthetic oil blend, you have to change your oil after 5,000 miles and in the case of full-synthetic oil, you can go for 10,000 miles. Failure to change the oil when the threshold is reached can lead to complex problems such as oil seal problems and engine sludge. Oil sludge is the main cause of engine damage that leads to leakages. It will also add extra costs for having your engine flushed. Sometimes a problem that could have been prevented with a simple oil change will lead to complex problems that require the vehicle to be tied down in the auto repair shop for weeks.

Another area that should be properly monitored is the fuel system. Although newer Ford vehicles do not rely on in-line fuel filters, older models still use this system. If your car uses this system, you should replace it after 19,000 to 29,000 miles. Replacing the fuel filter in time ensures the fuel pump lasts longer. There are also fuel injector cleaners available in the market that you can use to clean your filters. For better results, replace the filter before using the cleaners. You should also check the fuel type you use since fuel injectors usually clog due to regular use of cheap gasoline. Cheap gasoline contains waxy oilfins which, when accumulated, leads to clogging. Good quality gasoline contains detergents that prevent deposition of the oilfins.

Another area that should be properly maintained is the cooling system. Before going for a cooling system service, be sure of the type of anti-freeze your vehicle uses. Most of the new cars in Fort Worth have long lasting anti freeze compounds that last up to five years if the vehicle is used only for normal driving. However, these compounds are expensive compared to the ordinary anti-freeze compounds. Your car manual should indicate when it is best to go for the replacement.

Finally, the belts and hoses should be replaced at least once every two years. This however does not mean you have to wait until the two years are over and they are showing signs of wear. The best time to replace them is every 100,000 miles regardless of their condition since most belts start fail at this time. If you keep these points in mind, your car will remain in a good condition for years.

About the Author: SouthWest Ford is the #1 Fort Worth Ford Dealer offering exclusive internet only discounts on new cars Fort Worth as well as used cars Fort Worth. Visit http://www.southwestford.net/ now for great deals on all Ford vehicles.

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