Candid conversations about using GPS and wireless technology for work and fun.
Posts tagged survey
New Poll Suggests College Freshman Aren’t Prepared to Navigate New Surroundings
Aug 31st
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It’s back to school time … do you know where your kids are?
A new poll says they may not either.
In partnership with the College Parents of America, we surveyed current college students to find out what life had been like during their freshman year.
Here are some quick stats from our poll:
- More than 50% of the students we asked said they hadn’t felt confident in their ability to find their way around their college town before heading to school their freshman year.
- More than 60% said they were not familiar with the location of businesses or buildings (with more than 1/3rd of this group saying it took more than 3 mos. to figure it out)
- More than 50% said they would not have been able to locate the police station in an emergency
- More than 40% said they would not have been able to locate the nearest hospital
- More than 40% said they got lost during their first year and 1/4 of these said it had caused them to fear for their safety
And don’t think that just because your kid is staying in-state means they know their way around. 45% of the students who said their school was within 200 miles of home still weren’t confident about driving around town.
If you think that your kid has a plan to get acclimated to their new college town, think again. The #1 way students said they found they way when they were lost? Waiting until they hit a landmark or other location that they recognized. The 2nd most popular (not so scientific) method was to depend on someone else in the car to lead the way.
So you ask them not to drink and drive, remind them not to text and drive, and just in general, encourage them to be safe drivers. But how do you ensure they are confident navigating their new stomping grounds?
James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, sat down with us for a few minutes to give us his best advice for parents. You can listen to the conversation here:
jim-boyle_college-parents-of-america
A few tips include:
- Give your kids some sort of GPS technology so they can find their way around, especially in emergency situations
- Before or on moving day, take some time out to pinpoint the most important places and take a test drive with them
- Put together a “lost” kit for your student’s car that includes a paper map, reference and emergency numbers, a prepaid mobile phone (or phone card) and a prepaid gas card
TeleNav is also offering a Back to School special for TeleNav GPS Navigator. From now through the end of September, parents can purchase a full year of the service for $89. Once activated, students can get GPS navigation directly from their cell phone. If you’re interested, visit our online store and use this promotion code: Back2School2009.
Click here to access full results from our poll.
Is Anyone Keeping an Eye on the Company Car? Apparently Not…
Sep 4th
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Author – Sal Dhanani – Co-Founder and Sr. Director of Marketing
We issued the results of a survey this week which showed that 94% of business supervisors who manage corporate vehicles do not know where those vehicles are during work hours.
That’s right … 94%.
When running the survey, we had no idea what to expect but we certainly did not predict that such an astounding majority do not have an eye on their company cars.
You can take your guess at why this is the case – maybe managers are just overworked and don’t have time to monitor vehicles more closely; maybe it’s due to a lack of capable technology; or it could just be the case that many don’t see the need to monitor their fleets. My guess? Probably a combination of these.
Regardless, those 6% who are actively overseeing their vehicles will have a major leg-up on the competition when it comes to:
- Safety of the vehicle
- Fuel management
- Increased productivity
- Cost reduction
- Customer service
(check out the press release for more information on why)
What amazes us is why SO many managers aren’t tracking their vehicles when it’s so easy to do it now with GPS.
What do you think? Why are so many managers apathetic when it comes to their mobile assets?
GPS on School Buses – What Do You Think?
Feb 7th
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Author – Mary Beth Lowell, Communications Manager
As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, GPS technology is not just for consumers, it is also becoming relevant for businesses and government organizations of all types and sizes. One of the industries that has begun to leverage the capabilities of GPS is school district transportation. For example, using TeleNav Track on GPS-enabled phones, many schools across the country are now able to easily locate where all of their buses are at any time throughout the day. This means improved safety, more efficient and effective communication with parents, and perhaps even an improvement in school bus routing.
If you are interested, here is a case study (download in PDF) on how the Anaheim Union High School District in Southern California is using TeleNav Track and here is one on how Napa Valley Unified School District in Northern California is using the service.
Survey – Give Us Your Feedback!
Are you a parent with kids who ride the school bus to and from school? We want to get your opinion on using GPS on school buses and your ideas on how it can be used to increase safety for your children.
We’ve posted a very short survey to get your feedback.
Click here to access it and give us your opinion. It should only take five minutes and will help us improve our service and add features you think are important!
Traffic Delays Got You Down?
Jan 16th
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Author-Mary Beth Lowell – Communications Manager
In the spirit of NFL playoff season, we published results from a survey today that showed that 72% of people we polled have been stuck in traffic due to events that they aren’t attending. This can be incredibly frustrating – especially if you’re just trying to get home after a long workday or if it’s during the middle of the weekend when you weren’t planning on sitting in traffic. I know Seattle-ites are always trying to plan around game and concert traffic in the city (although <big sigh> we won’t have to worry about playoff traffic this year).
Our announcement also included stats on professional football attendance in 2007. Apparently the regular season drew in a record number of fans – more than 17 million. I’m sure we can expect the same size crowds, if not larger, next year.
All these fans mean a lot of additional drivers on the road trying to get to the stadiums. Daily traffic seems to already be bad enough but certainly planning your commute around major events is a good idea. Hopefully our traffic service helps some of you get through the commute. For the rest, any other creative techniques you use to make sure you don’t get stuck in event-related traffic?
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