How GPS Tracking Can Protect Construction Fleets Against Theft
Equipment theft can make a huge impact to a construction fleet’s bottom line, so it is important for fleet executives to look into options to protect expensive vehicles and assets. According to Construction Business Magazine, equipment theft for the construction industry is approximately $1 billion annually in the United States. Before your fleet is forced into the expense of replacing stolen equipment, it might be time to look at GPS tracking to protect your fleet and recover stolen property.
5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Relationship With Your Boss (And Your Next Boss)
As offices across the country close out a week marked by celebrations of “Boss’s Day,” now is a great time to consider your relationship with your current boss–could it be improved, or maximized in some way?–or what kind of notes you might want to strike with your next one.
“The most important driver of employee engagement is the relationship they have with their immediate manager,” says Piera Palazzolo, Senior Vice President of Dale Carnegie Training. She says the most successful relationships are those where bosses and employees really get to know one another.
READ MORE to get the details
5 Things Effective Driver Safety Programs Do — And Do Well
By Alesandro Trani, AlertDriving Global Safety Writer
The first step to eliminating workplace hazards is recognizing them. For environmental health and safety (EHS) professionals, safety interventions are more straightforward in production facilities, where hazards can be managed in relative isolation. Unguarded machinery, vapors and fumes, dust, and frayed wiring are just some of the severe—and isolated—dangers companies can identify, mitigate and monitor directly with strict engineering controls.
But what if the road is an employee’s workplace?
In many countries, particularly emerging markets, EHS professionals have few, if any, reasonable safeguards to protect employees on the road. People who drive for business are up to 50% more likely to be killed on the job than construction or agriculture workers. Facing such dire odds, global fleets can’t wait for governments to “pave the way” for safety. How do managers contain—much less recognize—occupational risks at intersections, highways or anywhere else drivers conduct company business?
Death of an Auto Analyst
These are exciting and historical times for the global auto industry. The automotive researchers and analysts at Morgan Stanley have come to the realization that the prosecution of their craft along traditional lines will fade to irrelevance, ultimately ending in extinction. They are writing all about technology because they believe that "the industry simply has no future unless it adapts to it." They go on to claim that, "In the internet of things, the automobile is the ultimate 'thing.' Without embracing this change, we have no future as auto analysts."
They truly believe what they are writing on the future of autos without human drivers, without individual/private ownership and with entirely new players competing for the growth in 10 trillion miles traveled annually.
The Hidden Cost of Personal Use
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” – Mark Twain
While I prefer to think that most drivers will do the right thing (assuming they know what that is), it’s clear by talking to fleet managers around the country that there exists little trust that drivers are accurately reporting personal miles of company vehicles. Whether the discrepancy is due to lack of understanding of the difference between commute, personal and business miles – or willful distortion, it is potentially a very expensive aspect of dealing with the Modern Mobile Worker. With the IRS announcing that personal use of company vehicles will be a priority area for audits, the lack of accurate IRS-compliant mileage logs could become a large and costly risk.
