City Of Columbus Invests In GPS Tracker Devices
Whoever said investigative journalism was dead surely never researched the work that a local television news station conducted in the city of Columbus, Ohio that focused on the misuse of city motor vehicles. This is because after a Watchdog 10 Investigation showed a significant level of incompetence when it came to fleet management of city vehicles funded by taxpayer dollars, the city of Columbus has now moved forward with a plan to install tracker systems on various city-owned and operated cars.
Officials for the city of Columbus stated publicly yesterday that they now have in place a plan designed to monitor vehicles at its fleet facility using real-time GPS technology. In fact, a Columbus Fleet Administrator has gone on the record saying the city has already equipped over half of the city fleet with vehicle management systems. That means the process of having all city vehicles installed with the latest real-time GPS units could be completed any day now, allowing fleet managers to complete access to both live and historical driving activity.
Columbus was faced with an angry public demanding more accountability after a year-long Watchdog 10 investigation uncovered city workers taking advantage of city vehicles and grossly misusing time and money. What the local news team investigation showed throughout the series was those city automobiles left idling for lengthy periods of time resulting in excessive and unnecessary use of fuel consumption. Even worse was the documentation of one particular city worker who was caught leaving the job to buy donuts on a daily basis while on the clock. The public outrage resulted in a demand for more accountability, and that is why a representative for the mayor explained installing GPS tracking systems would help the city better manage fuel consumption and overall fleet activity as a method of reducing fuel usage while also boosting worker safety.
After evaluating the cost of the GPS hardware against the cost of excess fuel consumption, Columbus city officials believe the tracker devices will essentially pay for themselves in only a year and a half from an increase in both vehicle and fuel management.
Matthew is a freelance writer who is passionate about technology, music, photography, and decentralized finance.
