Complying DOT’s Drug and Alcohol Policy is easy with TSO Mobile Automated Random Testing

While tracking is a major part of operating a business efficiently, monitoring driver behavior helps contribute to increasing overall productivity.

According to a recent study published in the Journal Sleep,  20% of all crashes involving a commercial vehicle results from drowsiness behind the wheel.  Improve safety conditions by installing our sensors which alert dispatching of drowsy driving activity!

Our GPS Vehicle Tracking also has the ability to automatically rate your drivers based on custom behavior metrics. Create custom driver behavior profiles featuring:

• RPMS
• Speeding
• Harsh Turns
• Idling
• Fuel performance
• Acceleration
• Deceleration
• Average Speed

TSO Mobile offers additional tools to improve Driver Behavior, including our GPS Tracking with Live Video Verification to monitor and reference the cause of a driver's behavior at any given time. These tools create accountability and driver's respond by performing better.

Dispatch and Human Resources can utilize and benefit from preventative safety measures with our Driver Behavior Score Card. Our Score Card features automated random testing for both Alcohol and Drug tests, and then stay organized with driver's alcohol and drug test results with our easy to reference, automatically updated Medical Card system.

With TSO Mobile's all-under-one-roof solutions, your business will be running smoother in no time!

Do you influence your mobile audience?

Earlier this month, TSO Mobile had the opportunity to showcase products at the APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The event was sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association and hosted by the Fort Worth Transportation Authority as it invited all attendees to join in learning about the various vehicles and technology associated with providing public transportation. At its Bus Products and Services Showcase, TSO Mobile proudly staged and displayed our Onboard Advertising System technology, offering transit operators an additional opportunity for revenue generation.

As the demand for various public transportation options continues to increase in cities, ridership is growing. As more and more individuals decide to jump on trolleys, buses and rails in their cities, the audience sitting in these vehicles has expanded to become much more varied than that of years ago. We see groups of all ages, races, professions and incomes riding public transit to get where they need to go. With a growing passenger audience, the option of digital onboard advertising systems provides a significant revenue generation opportunity for transit companies everywhere.

Increasingly popular "Park-and-Ride" options have caused a wide range of business professionals, teachers, college students and many other types of workers to leave their vehicles in parking spaces and ride public transit vehicles to and from jobs. Digital onboard advertising tactics reaches all these passengers, demanding attention and allowing reception of messaging visually – no matter what other senses are being distracted, such as headphones affecting the ability to hear.

With highly effective and professional onboard advertising, HD multimedia display technology placed onboard has the ability to easily reach both drivers and passengers riding public transit, using screens to comprehensively show campaigns and real-time notices. The system combines audio, video, TV images, pictures, animation, texts, documents, websites, streaming media and database data into different features and then releases the finished programs via a uniform network to
media display terminals everywhere. The images and real-time information are then systematically and perfectly displayed in front of the seated audience at designated locations.

While onboard advertising can serve as a dominant use of onboard digital space, these systems placed onto vehicles can be used for more than simply promotional methods. Onboard displays have the ability broadcast multiple notifications to travelers in real-time and display announcement information all while remaining centrally controlled with scheduled messaging. With the ability to inform and engage passengers, digital advertising allows transportation facilities to efficiently connect with their commuters, whether at stations where they sit and wait or while riding vehicles daily.

Some prospects these systems are capable of, once implemented, include the capacity and technology to become an information source to tourist riders, offering informational material about surrounding areas based on vehicle movement via geofencing techniques; tell stories and facts about given subjects automatically; create infomercials; and provide vehicle updates and status in real-time. With installed onboard advertising systems, technology can then be manipulated to perform customized tasks to fit the needs of any transit operation.

Digital placement of information onto transit vehicles offers an amazing opportunity to transportation operators in any field to make profitable use of fleet vehicles' onboard space by subsidizing operations with advertisements. TSO Mobile provides you the hardware and technology needed to make it easy for you to take advantage of building relationships with businesses in your local area by creating a unique opportunity to benefit everyone.

Image credits: APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference (www.apta.com)

How to increase Vehicle Safety on School Buses

With many different components of public transportation, school buses play a big role in carrying a large percentage of our public population every day. Today, more and more transportation directors and school administrators are becoming interested and willing to dedicate resources in an effort to protect their passengers and personnel. School bus video surveillance solutions, along with the use of GPS vehicle tracking and logistics, help to support this effort of ensuring vehicle and passenger safety of those who use school bus transportation.

Every entity is different, which is why it is important to assess all aspects of the system to find the right fitting platform and management solutions for each. Working together, video surveillance systems and logistics solutions installed in school buses can always help management improve the safety of the vehicle and monitor a number of factors in the duration of a simple bus ride. These can include vehicle speed, tracking of current and past locations, accelerations and brake use. The cameras have the ability to confirm that rules are being followed, creating safety for both passengers and drivers, helping to understand behaviors, measure practices and safeguard what is seen, all in real time. 

Video camera systems capture information from various intelligence resources and monitor them in real time with real people. The systems are constantly being updated to reflect the latest technology and conditions. By surveying bus interactions as they happen, managers are able to verify that all rules are being enforced, whether this is in the case of driver activity on the road or passenger actions on board. With the ability to install cameras both inside and outside of the bus, an all encompassing visual of the ride is put together and transmitted to surveyors.

Measuring driving practices also becomes easy with the use of these systems. By using video surveillance to monitor the driver, behaviors are recorded in real time, offering the chance to find and correct mistakes as efficiently as possible. By monitoring behavior behind the wheel at any given time, overseers are able to assess any distractions, reactions and reasons for actions throughout any given ride, allowing them to understand the driver.

While the use of video camera surveillance and logistics systems allow companies to see and react immediately to situations and make decisions to make the most efficient use of time and money, they can also be used at later times for its video analytics. It has been extremely helpful to save recorded materials and develop records to be accessed at later dates, if needed. 

With the task of transporting millions of children to and from school each year, it is unquestionable that safety will remain an essential element to be addressed when making smart transportation decisions. Video surveillance is a great safety tool for school buses and those who ride them, both passengers and drivers. 

Making Public Transportation More Effective

American cities are increasingly facing new demands on transportation systems due to a rapidly growing population. As a demand for various public transportation options to become available increases, as does a need to keep these systems running more and more efficiently. Big or small, running in large or smaller cities, these public transportation systems rely on the use of GPS vehicle tracking systems to ensure an efficient practice to achieve maximum satisfaction for its customers. As a need for quantity has increased, it has become just as important to build these systems for the public, as it has to build them smartly. 

Because of this need, the implementation of GPS-based fleet management solutions to control and execute these systems has become more crucial than ever. GPS tracking not only monitors where employees are, but poses much larger benefits to attaining a successful and efficient public transportation system, leading to happier, more satisfied passengers.

Here are 5 Advantages to Making Public Transportation More Effective through GPS Tracking Solutions:

1. Monitor where employees are and what they are doing

GPS tracking system technologies provide proof of location, route use and service completion in the most efficient method possible. They offer a cost effective way to monitor vehicle performance and employees for speed, location, and any possible misuse of vehicles. With monitoring techniques easily available, there is better guidance for drivers and faster emergency response actions to ensure pinpoint precision and efficiency.

2. Reduction in costs

Through the use of GPS tracking systems, a reduction of costs in several platforms can be found. Because of efficient route management and decision-making, a reduction in average travel time per job can be reached. Maintaining and reducing idle time can lessen mileage and fuel costs per trip. Costs per year are found to be decreased in the long-term as more people use the public transportation systems as well. By use of efficient technologies, passengers are left satisfied and more likely to reuse public transportation systems, using less fuel on personal individual vehicles and increasing fuel savings, ending in more efficient operations.

3. Improved vehicle maintenance

With installed GPS devices, vehicles are monitored accurately and timely, providing data in terms of speed and vehicle performance. With the latest monitoring software technology available, easy tracking of speeding, braking excessively, etc. can be recognized and further action can be anticipated. By supervising handling of vehicles in a system, maintenance costs may be lowered significantly.  

4. Improved communication between dispatchers and drivers

With use of fleet management technologies, dispatchers are able to view computer screens in order to monitor location of existing vehicles in reference to their own and traffic conditions. By staying alert about any accidents, construction and potential delays, maximum efficiency of routes taken can be achieved through efficient communication between dispatchers and drivers. This instant communication increases fuel and maintenance efficiency while ensuring customer satisfaction.

5. Real time updates for passenger

With fleet tracking technologies, customers are easily able to receive real-time information during the use of their chosen public transportation systems. Passengers can instantly be updated on waiting and arrival times as well as schedules at designated stops. Accurate updates can be given based on the nearest vehicles progress and information. With mobile applications like those used by TSO Mobile, it has become easier than ever for track vehicles in real-time. By staying fully informed and interactive, passengers are left satisfied and more likely to repeat use.

City of Hollywood, FL & TSO Mobile's Public Transportation Solutions

The City of Hollywood in FL and TSO Mobile have teamed up to implement a state of the art Public Transportation Management Platform in their public transportation trolley system. The implementation is still in process, but it is a fact! The City of Hollywood, FL has seen the huge potential that TSO Mobile's system has for the benefit of the city's public transportation system, operations, and passengers. Their trolleys will now have GPS Vehicle Trackers installed (among other hardware) that will help the city keep control of routes and create a better passenger experience. Not only will City of Hollywood be able to track their trolleys in Real-Time, but they will also have access to a series of powerful logistics control tools from TSO Mobile's public transportation solution. Some of these are: