The future of GPS Tracking?

So many businesses today rely on luck. Even if they had their yearly projections, deadlines, schedules and forecasts, in today's economy they just might be out of luck - client went bankrupt, bank didn't approve the loan, cashflow went too tight and the list goes on. in these cases you don't have the choice and have to live up with it

The same situation we see in transport business. Except that they have a choice. As it's very management dependent business, it's clearly obvious, that if the company fails in delivering goods, transporting people and offering other logistics services in cost effective and timely manner, we always know whom to blame - management. And of course you will get the same answer from them - lack of time and communication between drivers, lack of information in real time, miscommunicated messages, etc.

Telematics aren't perfect yet - they lack features, that might be very useful - video streaming in real time with coordinates, location recognition without any GSM or GPS signal in case of emergency, underwater tracking that many diving companies are looking for. But they eased our lives a lot. And with internet data costs going cheaper, equipment getting more affordable (only a few years ago many transport companies avoided using GPS tracking widely because of roaming costs nad the tracker was costing around €500.00), we can see the Telematics business booming. Imagine if every vehicle had tracking device built in while in manufacturing process - yes, we know everyone has their privacy rights. But.. Do you have anything to hide? Well if you do, you'll probably find your way to tamper GPS tracking device or any other way to "fool" it, it happens with every new widely used technology (remember laser speed guns and the jammers?)

But just for a second imagine, that there would be worldwide sytem (let's say like Facebook), where everyone can track their friends, companies their employees, insurance companies can track history after accident has happened, and in all cases - police can track anyone. Of course such system would need huge investments, but think about savings in a long term - we would not need expensive speed cameras and traffic police on the road checking speed. The system would automatically send information about speeding and driver gets bill to his address. Insurance companies wouldn't need costly expertise to determine speed before accident. Criminals would be caught on their way home from the crime scene. Transport companies could have their own networks to track each other's trucks and in this way save lots of money effectively managing their loads.

So next time you start bragging about Big Brother watching us, think about all advantages and possibilities the Telematics system can bring to you business and personal life.