Last December, we visited Steve Minter at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Steve has been rolling out our Quadrant solution throughout the state in the vehicles he manages. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is responsible for a wide range of activities, including:

• Regulation and inspection, (including every retail weigh scale in the state, eggs, amusement rides, pesticide use, and fuel pumps)
• Teens and tobacco
• A veterinary office
• A marketing division, (which runs farmers’ markets and promotes Kentucky agriculture products around the world)

Many people at the Department of Agriculture work remotely and by themselves. There are obvious safety concerns, which Steve has addressed using Quadrant to gain visibility into where vehicles are located. Steve helps ensure safety of workers by conducting remote physical vehicle inventory checks using Quadrant—something that was impossible to do before Quadrant. Steve has used Quadrant reporting to move from re-active to pro-active management of his fleet.

With innovative solutions like this, Steve’s long-term vision will provide a positive impact in all areas for which the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is responsible.  Customers, such as Steve, continue to show us new and innovative ways to use Quadrant on a day-to-day basis as a great telematics, automated GPS, and automatic vehicle location solution.

The Chicago Sun Times of Sep 15th reported on the unauthorized use and recovery of a City of Chicago Department of Water Management vehicle. The City has been a WebTech Wireless customer since 2003 with several hundred vehicles in their fleet equipped with Quadrant in-vehicle Locators.

We’re thrilled that Quadrant technology helped authorities track and recover the vehicle − illustrating one of the many benefits that Quadrant remote fleet management can provide government fleet operators. You can read our City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation case study here.

Read the full Chicago Sun Times article here.

WebTech Wireless attended the American Public Works Association’s annual Congress & Exposition, held in Boston, Mass., August 15-18. A great turnout and a great opportunity to connect with representatives from municipalities from across North America. Many thanks to our customers who dropped by our stand to see us, and also to those public works professionals looking for an AVL/GPS solution for their fleets that took time to chat with our team. Hope to see you all again next year in Denver.

Recently one of our InterFleet customers, Hennepin County, Minnesota, appeared in the local television news (03/23/2010). The story illustrates how city governments like Hennepin County are using our GPS remote vehicle location systems to improve workplace performance, accountability and service to city constituents. Excerpts from this story and link to the television report below:

KSTP TV – Minneapolis and St. Paul – Who makes sure city workers are doing their jobs?

Hennepin County invested in automated vehicle location devices or AVLs. They can track where pothole patch trucks are located and when the patch mix is pouring out, down to the minute.

Public works officials said the system not only holds workers accountable, it also makes repairs more efficient.

Chris Sagsveen with the Hennepin County Public Works Transportation Department said, “It also assures us that where we’re say getting complaints, AVL will prove we’ve been there.”

Gov. Steve Beshear

State of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear yesterday held a press conference to review progress on his state’s aggressive Smart Government cost-cutting program; announcing further measures to increase the already US$900 million that have been shaved off the state budget over the last two years of his administration.

Of note is Governor Beshear’s reference to the state’s ongoing review of its business solutions, and a fleet management pilot completed by the Dept. of Administrative Services, in which AT&T Mobility and WebTech Wireless played a key role.

From the Office of the Governor’s Press Release (January 13th, 2010): 

The full Commonwealth of Kentucky Press Release can be seen on their website.

We’re thrilled that the Commonwealth of Kentucky has seen such significant cost-cutting results − and in such a short period of time. That the governor himself is aware of the program and sees it as an important component in meeting his state’s budgetary obligations is indication that remote fleet management is today a necessity for government at all levels and sizes.

For more information on WebTech Wireless’ solutions for government, including our recent acquisition of the government focused InterFleet brand, please visit our website.

This article, highlighting some of the features and benefits of our technology in the area of winter snow removal, recently appeared in the Chicago Sun Times newspaper:

City using technology to remove snow, avoid blowing budget
(Original Sun Times post here)
November 12, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN, City Hall Reporter

How do you avoid a blizzard of budget-busting overtime and still remove the snow from Chicago streets?

By using technology to measure and improve productivity.

Today, Mayor Daley unveiled plans to put GPS, high-tech sensors and the city’s vast network of surveillance cameras to work to get the snow off Chicago streets.

Sensors on the trucks will tell camera-monitoring supervisors how much salt is being spread, how many tons are still in the truck and whether the blade on a plow is up or down on the street clearing snow.

And by using safety cameras, the city will be able to track the movement of snow plows without putting nearly as many supervisors on the street.

“We’re gonna knock our supervision down from 30 supervisors on the street down to 10,” said Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne.

“Then, we’ve got a schedule made out for every snowstorm and we’ll have our exempt members [who] don’t get paid overtime … working with me on the street assessing and helping foremen on the street do their jobs.”

Daley said it’s critical to keep close tabs on how much salt is being spread.

“Why do they put more salt on one block than the other block? How much did you put in the intersection? … If you put it all in one block, you have to go down and pick [up] more salt,” he said.

Why the efficiency expert’s approach to snow removal?

“Accountability. You need more and more technology. That’s where we’re all going: Fire, Police, Building Department, Sanitation. Technology is here to stay. You have to use it. … It’s a cost factor,” the mayor said.

“You use cameras for all operations of the city. … It’s not used for one purpose for one department. It’s used for fire, police, sanitation. Everything possible, you use that camera for. You can’t say, ‘Those are the Police Department’s cameras and no one else’s.”

Last winter, Daley raised the roof after then- Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi spent $490,000 on snow removal during a relatively minor, first-of-the-season snowstorm.

Picardi wore the jacket — and was ultimately replaced by Byrne — even though a City Council rebellion subsequently forced Daley to reverse a cost-cutting policy that saw City Hall plow side streets during normal working hours to reduce overtime and skip side streets altogether after minor snowstorms.

This winter, it’ll be a different story even after the city failed in its effort to privatize side street snow removal.

“There will be overtime,” Byrne said. “The sooner we can get trucks off the arterials into the side-streets, we’ll do that. We can also look at trying to pull some trucks off the mains and getting ‘em into side-streets as we’re still doing mains, depending on the severity of the snow.”

Daley added, “Everybody prays for a mild winter — not only for snow [removal costs], but for the safety of people.”

The City of Chicago has been a WebTech Wireless customer since 2003, and currently has over 2,500 Locators installed in vehicles used by its various public works departments, including vehicles operating at O’Hare International Airport, where WebTech Locators transmit critical location data to airport personnel every ten seconds to alert them to runway incursions and security breaches.

Additionally, WebTech’s recent acquisition of Grey Island, and its InterFleet suite of solutions for government, enhance our offering to cities like Chicago that require innovative technology to manage and improve government services such as snow removal. To find out more, please visit our webpage or contact us directly.