Vehicle Tracking Solutions Named to Monitor Municipal Fleet for Jersey City

DEER PARK, NY, August 21, 2013 – Vehicle Tracking Solutions, of Deer Park N.Y., has been selected to provide real-time fleet monitoring for Jersey City, it was announced by company founder and President John M. Cunningham, Jr.

“Municipalities all across the nation are recognizing that GPS tracking provides near-immediate financial benefits by saving money on fuel and maintenance,” said Cunningham, whose company provides state-of-the-art proprietary tracking to numerous municipalities in the New York metropolitan area, including Suffolk County, NY (population 1.3 million), the towns of the towns of Babylon, Brookhaven, Huntington and North Hempstead, the Suffolk County Water Authority and many fire and ambulance districts.

Jersey City will use the VTS “Silent Passenger” GPS fleet management system as a management tool to increase accountability, remove unauthorized use of vehicles and increase fuel efficiency.

“With this program we are creating mechanisms for accountability.  Any employee who takes a city vehicle outside of city bounds or uses it for a purpose other than city business, we will know and we will discipline such behavior,” said Mayor Steven M. Fulop. 

The program began with a 30-day pilot program on 20 vehicles in the Jersey City Department of Public Works and the second phase, which has already been approved by the city, will expand that first to the entire DPW fleet of 95 vehicles and then to the entire fleet including Police Department vehicles.

“Already this GPS program has helped eliminate wasteful vehicle idling times thereby reducing fuel consumption,” said Mayor Fulop. “It has also eliminated unauthorized stops and after-hour usage by city employees and has greatly improved productivity while creating efficiency and accountability throughout the Department of Public Works.”

VTS provides and installs onboard GPS devices along with access to a web-based system that will enable the city to monitor:

• Real-time locations of its entire fleet;
• Speed, direction, routes, stops, idle status, and hours of operation of any vehicle with an installed unit.
• Speed notifications with e-mail or text message alerts.

The system also can also create geographic territories, known as ‘geofences,’ and landmarks that allow Jersey City DPW to set a radius and be notified when vehicles enter or exit a designated area, or when a vehicle goes outside the city’s boundaries.

According to Cunningham, fuel consumption increases by nearly ten percent when a vehicle travels just five miles per hour over the speed limit, while habitual idling can waste as much as 5 gallons of fuel per month.

The real-time performance monitoring of VTS’ Silent Passenger allows a municipality to quickly address excessive speeding and idling and start saving money, Cunningham explained. “It has been proven again and again that our system establishes safe driving habits,” Cunningham said.