Vehicle Tracking in the USA and Canada

Geospatial data analysis is a relatively new, but rapidly growing sector of business and technology that has many applications. Many mobile electronic devices such as laptops, smart phones, and others have tags in them to transmit their locations, and many vehicles have GPS fleet tracking hardware in them. Why might these electronic logging devices be installed into commercial or private vehicles? Vehicle Tracking in the USA and Canada can be used to prevent theft of company vehicles, not to mention how vehicle tracking in the USA, and especially Canada, keeps fleets of snow plows organized. The field of vehicle tracking in the USA and abroad is growing fast, and brings many benefits.

GPS Trackers for Commercial Vehicles

In northern American cities and most Canadian cities, enough snow may fall over the course of a year so the city will invest in a fleet of snow plow vehicles. After all, freshly fallen snow will block the roads and sidewalks alike, impeding traffic. That can’t be allowed, so these snow plows, when coordinated with GPS trackers, can get the job done. In the United States, cities in Maine, Vermont, Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota may make use of vehicle tracking for those fleets of snow plows. But vehicle tracking in the USA is not alone; this is done a lot in Canada, too.

Canada is well known for its snowy climate, and in fact the top 10 snowiest Canadian cities report an average of 55 days each year of snow when two or more millimetres of snow falls. Thus, major cities such as Montreal, Toronto, and others invest heavily in snow plows, and Montreal alone deploys 172 of them to clear roads and 188 to clear up its sidewalks. But without GPS trackers, these vehicles’ efforts may end up uncoordinated and sloppy, and this can result in a lot of waste. No given snow plow operator can see the entire city, and these drivers may miss areas that other plows have not yet plowed, or these snow plows might accidentally get in each other’s way. What is more, uncoordinated snow plows might idle after they finish all work that they can see, and that leads to pollution. Idling snow plows give off emissions and waste fuel, and a number of Canadian s states and cities punish needless pollution such as this.

Fortunately, GPS trackers can prevent such waste. Geospatial data analysts can gather and use data from those trackers in real time, and use this to coordinate the effort of all snow plows involved. Each plow may be assigned an area, and if need be, plows that have finished their work early can be redirected to other areas to keep everything efficient. This allows cities such as Montreal to clear up snow in good time. In fact, Montreal has reported that it can clear away a seven-inch snowfall in under five days, and snowfall of one foot calls for five solid days of work.

GPS can be useful even beyond the context of snow plows. Many companies invest in their own cars or private jets, so of course these companies carefully track where these vehicles go. This prevents employees from misusing company vehicles for their own purposes, and this is also useful in case those vehicles are stolen, lost, or stuck (such as due to weather). Recovery teams can quickly find the vehicle and recover it, no matter where it is. Geospatial data analysts make this effort possible.

Other GPS Uses

As mentioned earlier, many electronic devices have trackers in them that geospatial data analysts can use, and most often, these devices are used to track the people carrying them. This is usually done to enhance marketing strategies, using vast amounts of live data of where people go and when. And as with company vehicles, a person’s private car or truck may also have GPS trackers in it in case that vehicle is ever stolen or lost. And if the car and its occupants are stranded, such as due to blizzards, floods, or maintenance issues, search and rescue teams can use geospatial data to find that vehicle. They can then rescue everyone there, and if possible, also recover the vehicle itself.

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