Why GPS Is A Productivity Booster And Liability Reducer For Vending Operators

As reported by Vending Times: Owners and managers in the vending industry are aware that it's essential to monitor and manage their fleets. In an industry that relies on drivers servicing their routes in company vehicles, operators know that overseeing those vehicles and drivers is a necessary task. Fleet and asset tracking are becoming more common than ever, as fleet managers look to increase efficiency and cut back on costs in their fleets during a tough economy.

Vending operators today are using a range of new information technologies to improve efficiency and boost profit in a tough economy. State-of-the-art automated vehicle location can contribute substantially to this effort. Less "windshield time" makes drivers more productive while reducing fuel expense, and the ability to monitor route trucks remotely can enhance security, improve safety and cut maintenance costs. The global positioning system (GPS) is the key to deploying a versatile set of tools for intelligent vehicle tracking.

While a GPS fleet-tracking solution can go a long way toward doing that, managers are often reluctant to employ such a solution because of concern over employee resistance. Just as with route drivers asked to use data-retrieval devices instead of their familiar manual route cards, securing employee "buy-in" by explaining the benefits to them and involving them in the implementation of the system can go a long way toward overcoming this.

And it is worth doing. A comprehensive GPS fleet tracking solution is an essential business tool for fleet-based route delivery companies as it cuts back on costs and liability in a number of ways.

FUEL COST SAVINGS

In an industry that relies heavily on vehicles, fuel costs are a major concern for vending operators. A GPS fleet-tracking solution can assist in reducing these costs in two ways: efficiency and vehicle reporting. According to AAA's 2013 Your Driving Costs study, the cost of owning and operating a vehicle in the United States has risen by 1.96% from 2012.

Additionally, fuel costs have increased 1.93%, on top of a 14.8% increase in the previous year. All these rising costs affect a business's financial performance, and controlling them directly bolsters the bottom line.

The routing feature of a GPS fleet-tracking solution not only ensures your driver arrives at the next stop on time, but it also ensures that he or she has the most direct route to the location, reducing fuel consumption and saving time. Some solutions integrate with personal navigation devices (PNDs) such as Garmin. The ease of use of these consumer systems has encouraged their adoption for fleets. 

A GPS fleet tracking solution that integrates with a PND can offer advantages besides a quick adoption rate. Integrating these technologies can cut down on unnecessary driving in a fleet by providing voice-guided turn-by-turn directions. By taking advantage of this integration's routing feature, vending fleets are able to increase driver productivity and reduce fuel costs and wear and tear on trucks.

In addition to increasing route efficiency, a comprehensive GPS fleet tracking solution can reduce costs by providing detailed reports on vehicle usage. These can contain a wealth of information about how and where a vehicle is being used, through idle reports and detailed activity reports. This information allows fleet managers to analyze fuel use and identify fleet inefficiencies or incidents of fuel slippage, which directly affect operating costs. A comprehensive GPS fleet-tracking solution can provide actionable data based on these reports, showing managers clear ways to improve processes.

A study conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that trucks left idling for long periods of time waste approximately 960 millions of gallons of diesel fuel each year -- and commercial vehicles left idling often invite complaints about air pollution. Variable costs, such as idling, can be monitored through the real-time data collection and alerts provided by a comprehensive GPS fleet-tracking solution. Companies are increasingly tracking their fleets so that they can report on key metrics, including idling time, fuel consumption and driving speeds.

MAINTENANCE ECONOMIES

When selecting a GPS solution, it makes sense to choose one that offers reports on vehicle status and provides the option to implement maintenance schedules. These features offer two major benefits: extending vehicle life and reducing repair costs, both of which contribute to cost savings. Proper vehicle maintenance keeps assets running with optimum fuel efficiency.

AAA's Your Driving Costs reported that the costs associated with maintaining a vehicle showed the single largest percentage increase from 2012 to 2013, growing by 11.23%. With the increasing cost of maintaining and operating a vehicle, fleet managers should consider a solution that can help bring that cost down. Automated vehicle maintenance reports allow fleet managers to decease the frequency of major repairs, saving money not only on the repair itself, but also on loss of productivity from vehicle downtime.

SAVINGS FROM TRACKING ASSETS

In the vending industry, companies own and manage a number of expensive vehicles, assets and equipment. If an asset is stolen or lost, the cost of replacing it is a major concern -- as is the effect on productivity. A fleet-management solution that provides GPS-asset tracking features enables the operator to monitor, track and recover assets quickly, returning operations to normal as soon as possible.

A solution also can ensure that vehicles and their associated assets are being used appropriately. Drivers using their vehicles for personal errands unrelated to the job concern fleet managers. A comprehensive package includes a provision that can send an alert to the manager if a vehicle is moving after hours or on the weekends. Advanced solutions also can allow managers to place "geofences" around specific areas to monitor vehicles within them and alert the manager if a vehicle leaves its designated area. And drivers are glad to know that if the truck is stolen, it is easy to locate and coordinate a rescue with the police.

REDUCING LIABILITY

Fleet-tracking and vehicle-maintenance reports can also have a very positive effect on cost and company image by reducing liability. By knowing where their vehicles are located and how fast they're going, fleet managers can be confident in both the driver and the vehicle, should an accident occur. A GPS fleet-tracking solution allows operators to ensure that their employees are obeying the rules of the road, that accident risk is reduced, their liability exposure is less and their trucks are improving their companies' professional image in the community.

Google Ad Patent May Offer Consumers Free Cab Rides To Businesses

As reported by Red Orbit: Technology giant Google has acquired a patent for a free (or highly discounted) taxi service that would provide transportation to an advertiser’s business location. This could include restaurants, shops and other entertainment venues, and could possibly encourage consumers to respond more often to location-based special offers.  

The technology is based around algorithms that would determine a customer’s location, find the best route and desired form of transport.

The search giant described this patent as a “Transportation-aware physical advertising conversions.” It was actually filed on January 11, 2011 and received publication on January 14 of this year. Luis Ricardo Prada Gomez, Andrew Timothy Szybalski, Sebastian Thrun, Philip Nemec and Christopher Paul Urmson were listed as the inventors. These same individuals were among those previously responsible for Google’s patent for a driverless car and numerous other innovations.

“The present invention relates generally to arranging for free or discounted transportation to an advertiser’s business location,” Google noted in the abstract on the company’s official patent website. “More specifically, the invention involves automatically comparing the cost of transportation and the potential profit from a completed transaction using a number of real-time calculations. For example, the calculation may consider various factors including a consumer’s current location, the consumer’s most likely route and form of transportation (such as train, personal car, taxi, rental car, or shared vehicle), the consumer’s daily agenda, the price competing advertisers are willing to pay for the customer to be delivered to alternate locations, and other costs. In this regard, the customer’s obstacles to entering a business location are reduced while routing and cost calculations are automatically handled based on the demand for the advertiser’s goods and potential profit margins.”

Google has found that for many brick-and-mortar shops the most difficult part is getting people to their actual physical locations. Google’s invention could help bring those customers in. According to the patent this technology in essence works by determining a user’s location, the route and potential forms of transport to an advertiser’s business. It also looks to determine the price that advertisers might be willing to pay for the customer to be delivered to a particular location.

To accomplish this could involve advertisers calling upon databases that record people’s various habits, including likes and preferences so that the ads could be more highly targeted. It would combine that information with location data that could be gathered from Wi-Fi, cellular and GPS tracking that would in turn enable businesses to truly tailor very specific ads and special offers to customers. This could also be based on the daily habits of would-be consumers so the time of day and schedules are taken into consideration.

Those in the ad game seem to believe that this invention has merit.

“This is trying to turn advertising into a utility and remove barriers for consumers,” Gregory Roekens, chief technology officer at the advertising firm of AMV BBDO, told BBC on Sunday. “It’s a really interesting idea.”

The key part is ensuring the offers come when people are closer to the business trying to lure them in.

“Travel takes a huge amount of people’s time,” Roekens added. “So if people can use this time more productively and interactively while in the vehicle, there’s another opportunity for advertisers.”

Testing Drone Beer Delivery on the Frozen Northern Lakes

As reported by GIS User: What’s a beer company to do when it realizes its customers are located in isolated ice fishing shacks miles away from the nearest liquor retailer… and they’re thirsty?

Most beer companies would give up. But not Lakemaid Beer, the Fishermen’s Lager. Having recently launched its new Lakemaid Frosty Winter Lager, the perfect beer for ice fishing season, Lakemaid Beer has turned to new technology to meet the needs of its thirsty customers.

The answer: the Lakemaid Beer Drone.

Inspired by Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, which has been testing the drone delivery of its products, Lakemaid Beer has been testing a new drone delivery system on some of the top ice fishing lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Below is a video from their web site:

“Amazon faces a lot of obstacles,” said Lakemaid Beer Company’s president, Jack Supple. “Dense urban locations present a host of problems to drone delivery. But our tests are on vast, wide-open frozen lakes free of trees and power lines. Our drone can fly as the crow flies, straight to our target, based on GPS coordinates provided by an ice angler. Fish houses are very uniform in height, so we can fly lower than FAA limits, too.”

“It’s the perfect proving ground for drone delivery,” said Supple, “Our initial tests on several mid-size lakes have been very successful. We’re looking forward to testing the range of our drones on larger lakes.”

“We’d be happy to share our research with Amazon,” Supple added.

It may be awhile before Lakemaid Beer can officially deliver its beer by drone. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently restricts the commercial use of drones by small businesses, and remote verification of the legal drinking age of ice anglers will need to be addressed. The FAA is expected to issue new regulations governing the commercial use of drones by 2015.

“Our customers, distributors and retailers appreciate the extra effort we’re willing to go to get Lakemaid Frosty Winter Lager to them,” said Supple. “Even if our customers are located 4 miles out in one of the 5,500 ice shacks on Lake Mille Lacs (one of Minnesota’s largest lakes).”

To learn more about Lakemaid Beer, the official beer of Rapala, visit http://www.lakemaidbeer.com.

When A $65 Cab Ride Costs $192

As reported by NPR: I was in the car for about an hour, rolling around Manhattan in the middle of a snowstorm. The ride normally would have cost me $65. But when it came time to pay, my driver, Kirk Furye, was concerned for me.

"Are you going to get in trouble with NPR?" he asked. "You are almost at three times the [normal] amount."
Final cost of a one-hour cab ride: $192.00.

I had found Furye through Uber, a company that makes an app that connects cabs and cars with people who are looking for rides. One thing about Uber: When there's a lot of demand — like, say, in the middle of a snowstorm — the price goes way up.

Uber calls this surge pricing; a lot of people might call it gouging. But Uber drivers aren't employees with hourly schedules; they choose when and whether to drive. And, Uber says, raising prices when demand is high is a way to get more drivers on the road to meet that demand.

Uber tracks customers and drivers down to the street level, and even in normal weather there can be brief price surges in neighborhoods when demand spikes.


"When I first started out, I used to chase the surge," Furye said. "But that became exhausting, because it would always go somewhere else by the time I got there."

In other words, the surge system was increasing the supply of drivers to busy neighborhoods so quickly that, by the time Furye got there, prices had fallen back to normal.

But even if it works in the short run, surge pricing could hurt Uber in the long run if taken to extremes, says Richard Thaler, an economist at the Chicago Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Other industries that raise prices when demand is high, like hotels, put limits on their own surge pricing in order to keep customer loyalty. Hotels will rarely charge more than three times the normal price, even though they could charge far more at peak periods, Thaler says.

US Lab Developing Technology For Space Traffic Control

As reported by Network World: Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they have tested technology that could eventually help them monitor and control space traffic.

The driving idea behind the project is to help keep satellites and other spacecraft from colliding with each other or other debris in Low Earth Orbit. 

Recently the Lawrence Livermore team  said they used a series of six images over a 60-hour period taken from a ground-based satellite to prove that it is possible to refine the orbit of another satellite in low earth orbit.

Specifically, the Livermore team refined the orbit of the satellite NORAD 27006, based on the first four observations made within the initial 24 hours, and predicted NORAD's trajectory to within less than 50 meters over the following 36 hours. By refining the trajectory of NORAD 27006 with their ground-based payload, the team believes they will be able to do the same thing for other satellites and debris once their payload is orbiting earth, the team stated.

The technology used to redirect NORAD 27006 and refine its orbit are being developed for Livermore's still developing Space-Based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris (STARE) mission.  Ultimately STARE will consist of a constellation of nano-satellites in low earth orbit, that will provide data and work  to refine orbits of satellites and space debris to less than 100 meters, the team stated.

According to the Livermore web site, "Each nano-satellite in the constellation is capable of recording an optical image of space objects (debris or assets) at various range and relative velocities as scheduled by the ground infrastructure based on their closest approach distance (typically less than 1000m). The ground infrastructure processes the data received from multiple observations of the objects and reduces the positional uncertainty on the probability of collision to a level typically less than 100m, warranting taking actions such as moving assets. For an 18 nano-satellite constellation, STARE has the capability to reduce the collision false alarm rate by 99% up to 24 hours ahead of closest approach."

In a 2011 paper about STARE, the Livermore scientists wrote: " STARE is a proof-of-concept mission whose goal is to improve upon the orbital ephemerides [the position of astronomical objects] obtained by ground based instruments for a small population of satellites and debris to the level where a predicted collision is actionable. To do this, two Cubesat satellites will be launched into a 700 km polar orbit where they will image other satellites at optical wavelengths during closest approach. The images will then be processed along with Global Positioning Service (GPS) data to refine the position and trajectory of the targets. If successful, the mission will pave the way for a small constellation of similar satellites capable of refining ephemerides for all of the satellites and debris pieces involved in close approaches."

According to Livermore scientists, accurately predicting the location of a satellite in low earth orbit at any given time is hard because of the uncertainty in the quantities needed for the equations of motion. Atmospheric drag, for instance, is a function of the shape and mass of the satellite as well as the density and composition of the unstable atmosphere. These uncertainties and the incompleteness of the equations of motion lead to a quickly growing error in the position and velocity of any satellite being tracked in low earth orbit.

To account for these errors, the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN) must repeatedly observe the set of nearly 20,000 objects it tracks; however, positional uncertainty of an object is about 1 kilometer. This lack of precision leads to approximately 10,000 false alarms per expected collision. With these large uncertainties and high false alarm rates, satellite operators are rarely motivated to move their assets after a collision warning is issued, the team stated,

The STARE mission aims to reduce the 1 kilometer uncertainty down to 100 meters or smaller, which will in turn reduce the number of false alarms by roughly two orders of magnitude, the Livermore team stated.

Google’s Open Automotive Alliance Faces Competition From Apple And Microsoft

As reported by Business Car Manager:

AFTER recent rumors that Google was planning to bring a new level of Android connectivity to cars, the company has officially announced that it will be teaming up with Audi, Honda, General Motors, and Hyundai to form an Open Automotive Alliance. This OAA will also include the graphics chipset company, Nvidia, to provide greater integration of the Android platform in today’s cars.

More specific details of this alliance were announced with the 2014 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in full swing, stepping up the competition with Apple’s recent efforts to launch an in-car iOS platform.

With this announcement and others related to the future of the fully connected car, the Vegas Consumer Electronics Show has been a strong reminder of just how intersectional the tech and auto industries are becoming.

Chipset vendors, automakers, and platform companies are teaming up in alliances like Google’s to create new machines that will combine different technologies for a fully integrated, connected driving experience. Google’s Open Automotive Alliance will use a common platform and development model, with the first Android connected cars available later this year.

Yet Google’s not the only company racing to provide smartphone connectivity built into the automotive dashboard.

Hyundai, General Motors, and Audi have already announced that they will also be working with Apple.

Apple’s iOS in the Car project has been in full swing for some time now, providing direct competition for Google’s Android connectivity project.

Microsoft also has a hat in the ring, with versions of its Windows software already embedded into vehicles that you’ll find listed in showrooms and on automotive sites like Carsales.

Manufacturers including Fiat, Nissan, Kia, and Ford all use the Microsoft embedded automotive software. Furthermore, Microsoft launched an alliance of its own back in 1998 called the “Auto PC” initiative, with Citroen, Hyundai, Nissan, and Samsung all on board.

Both Google and Apple must play catch-up with Microsoft’s existing connectivity, but are primed to do so this year.

Apple’s iOS in the Car project will embed its popular Siri system into cars, along with GPS and telephone functions. A number of auto manufacturers have already signed up to participate in this platform, including those mentioned above as well as luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

It’s unlikely that auto manufacturers will have to choose one platform or the other, as they will want to provide the widest range of options to customers.

As a result, Audi, Hyundai, and General Motors are all taking part in both Apple’s and Google’s alliances. Google also stated in its announcement that the Open Automotive Alliance is open to future participants, so more may come on board to provide Android connectivity within their 2014 models and beyond.

In addition to Google’s announcement, the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show has showcased other ways in which cars will become more connected in the near future.

GM announced vehicles that will be enabled with the LTE network, and Qualcomm announced a new chipset that will be able to support Bluetooth, LTE, and Wi-Fi within the car. This new chip will also be able to support Android and Blackberry systems.

All of these advancements and the competition between Google, Apple, and Microsoft point to car connectivity becoming a major focal point over the next year. The future car will become a mobile computer, with full hi-tech integration.

Tech Watch: Supreme Court Rebukes Patent Court Judges (again)

As reported by GigaOM: There are many explanations for the sorry state of the U.S. patent system, but one that comes up on a regular basis is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The pro-patent proclivity of the court, which hears every patent appeal in the land, has given it a “rogue” reputation and forced the Supreme Court to reverse its decisions again and again. This week, the Supremes did so once more.

In a 9-0 unanimous decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the appeals court botched things anew, this time over the level of proof that a licensee must bring to challenge a patent. The nuts-and-bolts of the decision turn on procedural issues, but the gist is that it’s now easier for those targeted by patent lawsuits to file a preliminary challenge to accusations of infringement. (You can get a full run-down at Patently-O and SCOTUSblog.)


The procedural issue is important because, under the current system, patent holders — including trolls — can simply file a bare-bones lawsuit without explaining why their target is infringing the patent. Now, under the new Supreme Court ruling, the patent holder will at least have the burden of showing infringement. Congress, meanwhile, is also attempting to tighten up pleading requirements as part of the Innovation Act, a new law expected to pass this spring.

As patent reform advocates point out, this week’s ruling is just one in a series of unanimous reversals of the Federal Circuit’s patent positions. Meanwhile, the patent court’s recalcitrant judges could receive another scolding this spring when the Supreme Court hears a key case over what can and can’t be patented.

Finally, the new boss of the U.S. Patent Office this week published an inaugural blog post that expressed support for Congress’s efforts to reform “abusive patent litigation tactics.”