Revolutionary Vehicle Tracking Technology ... check it out

The vehicle tracker is also available for the individual motorist ... FleetM8 Solo. Check out the website by clicking on the logo.

North vehicle trackers to be sold across India
Dec 12 2008

by Andrew Mernin,
The Journal

A SCIENTIST whose invention saved him from a speeding ticket and a campaigner for motorists’ rights have joined forces to commercialise a new tracking system which will now be sold across India.

North East inventor Dr Phillip Tann and Neil Herron – a well-known regional campaigner for motorists hit by questionable parking and speeding fines – launched a business on the back of Dr Tann’s groundbreaking vehicle-tracking system.

And yesterday the South Tyneside business, FleetM8, announced a deal with India’s SLN Technologies which will see the technology marketed throughout the Indian sub-continent.
SLN specialises in telemetric, tracking and communications technology and is involved in the Indian lunar satellite project Chandrayaan and worked on the control system for India’s moon mission.

Initially FleetM8 will market its products as vehicle tracking devices which can either be used via a mobile phone or attached to the vehicle to track speed and location.

However the company is currently working on a number of other applications for the technology including a child safety device and a mobile golf course-mapping device for golfers.

The technology first gained recognition last year when Dr Tann received a speeding ticket from Northumbria Police which claimed he was doing 42 mph in a 30 mph zone.
However, Dr Tann’s vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device which not only recorded the vehicle’s position it also recorded a speed, to six decimal places, of 29.177196mph.
Today’s commercialisation of that device follows the sourcing of around £250,000 of investment by directors Dr Tann, campaigner Neil Herron and financial adviser Byron Longstaff.

In recent years Neil Herron has become a well known campaigner for the successful Metric Martyr’s fight – to be allowed to sell fruit and vegetables in imperial weights – and is also a champion for the motorist in parking and speeding disputes.

Last year he exposed errors in Sunderland’s legal regime which resulted in thousands of motorists being refunded for parking tickets.

As well as India, FleetM8’s technology has attracted interest from several other international markets.

Dr. Tann said: “Within a few years we anticipate that cars and other vehicles will once again take the lead with the integration of sophisticated technology transmitting data to a remote ‘black box’ at such low cost and volumes that will enable a multitude of applications to be utilised.
“Just imagine the road networks as a computer network with traffic lights as switches and roundabouts as hubs and we could end up with super-efficient highways and massively reduced congestion.”

The company is preparing to launch the technology in Australia as a mobile phone application through a partnership deal with Vodafone.

FleetM8 has also gained interest from the States and is in talks with a number of haulage firms who could harness the system to monitor long-distance trips. In South Africa, where vehicle theft and car-jacking is rife, interest has been shown in FleetM8 by businesses who would like to market it as a tracking device to assist in recovering stolen vehicles.

Similarly in Kenya, local authorities have expressed an interest in the technology to prevent the increasingly-frequent hijacking of its postal vans.

Dr Tann is also developing a child-tracking application through either a special clip or a mobile phone download for older children, which is expected to come to market in the new year.

Had a ticket in Ealing ... better read this and tell your friends

Ealing's Councillor Taylor says: "We have to draw the line somewhere ..." May I humbly suggest that he gets permission AND legal advice first. Ealing Council is already in enough trouble drawing lines where they shouldn't!

Ealing Council could be investigated by police for fraud
10:38am Thursday 11th December 2008
Ealing Times
By Alex Hayes

POLICE could be called in to investigate Ealing Council for fraud after it refused to hand out refunds for cash taken on unlawful box junctions.

Cops are investigating a north London borough where 73 tickets were handed out by the local council on one unlawfully marked box junction.

This number is dwarfed by the 59,728 penalties handed out by Ealing Council in the past two years on six junctions which were finally taken up earlier this month, following advice from the Department of Transport (DfT).

Ealing Council has agreed to repay people sent £100 tickets from the junctions in Southall, Hanwell and Ealing Broadway, from June 20, when it was revealed last week the council was told the markings were wrong by the DfT.

However, campaigners are now pushing councillors to refund every penny dished out by drivers since the junctions were put in place in 2004.

Jim Douglas, a campaigner for the Motorists Legal Challenge, an organisation set up to challenge councils over incorrect road markings, said the group was considering calling in police to investigate Ealing Council on grounds of fraud.

He said: "The principles of British law have shown the money is refundable from when it started to be taken unlawfully, and not from when the council was told it was wrong.
"This has been proven in court with banks found guilty of mis-selling policies. They offered to pay back cash from when they discovered products were being mis-sold, but were told to pay back the whole lot.
"We still want the council to admit its mistake and pay back the cash, but until it does this it will have dirty money on its books."

Mr Douglas also said police investigating the other box junction had admitted it was a sensitive area, because of their close working relationship with the local authority.
Ealing Council has spent thousands of pounds putting 50 extra Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) on the streets, and also works closely with officers in areas such as trading standards and envirocrime.

He continued: "Obviously, this problem could present itself in Ealing as well, and so we want to know whether officers from Ealing would be investigating.
"There is a conflict of interests here, so perhaps it would be better if it was looked at by people from another borough who are independent."

He said the group would be contacting Councillor Phil Taylor, who is in charge of parking, to lay down its position before pursuing the case any further.
Cllr Taylor said the threat would not change the council's stance on the issue.
He told the Ealing Times: "We have to draw the line somewhere, and if we kept going back over history the council would never be able to move forward in anything it does.
"We still believe those junctions were legal, but the DfT weren't happy with them so we took them up."
Anyone interested in joining the campaign for a refund can send an email to: ealing@motoristslegalchallenge.co.uk

What do you think of Ealing Council's position? You can post a comment below or contact Councillor Taylor on his blog here

One small step for Dr. GPS one giant leap for vehicle tracking ...

FleetM8 PRESS RELEASE: 11th December 2008







ONE SMALL STEP FOR 'DR. GPS' ONE GIANT LEAP FOR VEHICLE TRACKING AS FLEETM8 TEAM UP WITH INDIAN LUNAR SATELLITE COMPANY

NORTH EAST VEHICLE TRACKING TECHNOLOGY FIRM AND INDIAN LUNAR SATELLITE COMPANY TO LAUNCH IN INDIA

In October 2007 North East inventor Dr. Phillip Tann received a speeding ticket from Northumbria Police alleging that he was doing 42mph in a 30mph zone. Fortunately for Dr. Tann his vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device that not only recorded the vehicle’s position it also recorded the vehicle’s speed … to six decimal places.

(left) Dr. Tann with the FleetM8 Tracker

The headlines ‘Inventor wins speed camera battle’ went around the world when the Crown Prosecution ‘withdrew the case because the officer who operated the camera had retired.’

In 2008 Dr. Tann teamed up with Motoring Campaigner Neil Herron to develop a version of the highly accurate vehicle tracking device for the mass market and FleetM8 was created using the unique patented technology. FleetM8 not only monitors the vehicle’s speed and location in real time it also provides a full history of a vehicle’s movements for a twelve month period which can be accessed at any time and reports and statistics produced.

A version, known as FleetM8 Solo, has also been developed for the individual motorist and can provide data to challenge speeding and parking fines as well as monitoring driver behaviour. Alerts and reports as well as geo-fencing are all useful benefits for fleets and the individual motorist alike and users of the device report better driver awareness and behaviour as a result.

Because FleetM8 is effectively a ‘black box’ within a vehicle and can prove pre-collision behaviour as well as the immediate location and recovery of stolen vehicles substantial discounts on premiums are available.The company has expanded, taken on a number of employees and re-located from Birtley to South Tyneside with support from South Tyneside Council and Business Link.

In September FleetM8’s Neil Herron and Byron Longstaff went on a UK Trade and Investment Mission to India and met a number of companies who had expressed an interest in working with FleetM8 and the technology and an interest in taking the product to market in India. As a result of this visit SLN Technologies are to partner FleetM8 in India and take FleetM8s revolutionary vehicle tracking device to market in the whole of the Indian sub-continent. SLN Technologies are no stranger to groundbreaking telemetric, tracking and communications technology as they are currently involved with the Indian lunar satellite, Chandrayaan. having worked on the worked on the control system for the Moon Mission, India’s most prestigious project.




















Anil Kumar at SLN Technologies

Anil Kumar, Director of SLN Technologies said: “We are very pleased to be partnering FleetM8 and looking forward to taking this exciting technology to market in India. We anticipate massive demand for the unique product that Dr. Tann has created and it will be highly beneficial to anyone operating any fleets in India, whether it be trucks, tankers, buses or taxis. We believe that the unique, patented technology will revolutionise the GPS tracking industry and we will be working closely with Dr. Tann in taking new ideas forward using his concept.”

Neil Herron, Director of FleetM8 said: “We have experienced a great deal of interest in Dr. Tann’s patented technology from around the world and SLN Technology impressed us with their set up and understanding of the massiveworld potential.. GPS Tracking applications and GPRS data transmission is set to revolutionise the way remote data can be captured, stored, accessed and utilised and we anticipate that it is set to become the fifth utility service. The FleetM8 and FleetM8 Solo Vehicle Trackers are the first application of the technology to be taken to market, but there are a myriad of applications that can use the technology such as child or asset tracking, mapping out your golf round to replay on your home PC. The secret in the technology is the unique and cost effective way that the data is compressed and transmitted and because of this, the technology has the edge over all the other products on the market.”

Dr. Tann, states: “This is one small step for FleetM8 but one giant leap for the GPS tracking industry. Within a few years we anticipate that cars and other vehicles will once again take the lead with the integration of sophisticated technology transmitting data to a remote ‘black box’ at such low cost and volumes that will enable a multitude of applications to be utilised. Just imagine the road networks as a computer network with traffic lights as switches and roundabouts as hubs and we could end up with super-efficient highways and massively reduced congestion … all because the transmission of data is so low that it will enable route optimisation and analysis.”

CONTACT:

Neil Herron
Tel. 0191 5192379
Mob. 07776 202045
http://www.fleetm8.com/

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

Inventor wins Speed Camera battle

SLN Technologies

India launches first Moon mission

Revolutionary Vehicle Tracking Technology launched

A revolutionary, highly accurate, low-cost vehicle tracking system for the motorist is has just hit the market (FleetM8 Solo) ... at an amazingly low price compared to the competition and with a monthly licence of only £6.00!

You can use it to challenge PCNs by showing exactly where you were parked and for how long. This product has multiple uses including monitoring your vehicle in real time as well as historically. Check it out.

A version is also available for companies with multiple vehicles. As well as monitoring vehicles' movements, including on-screen display of speed and location, FleetM8 can also produce numerous reports tailored to a company's individual needs.

Click on the image below to watch the demonstration and find out more. I hope you will be as impressed as I was when I was first introduced to the technology.

Two Speeding Tickets and a Take-Away in three and a half minutes ...

FleetM8 inventor Dr. Tann was alleged to have been doing 42mph in a 30mph zone and proved with his patented technology, that he was doing less than 30mph.
BBC Report here

The Police dropped the case. If Mrs. Whitmore, in the report below, had had the FleetM8 Solo device fitted to her vehicle then she would have been able to access her own data and show exactly what speed she was doing at the time she allegedly did 38mph at the same location ... twice!

However, based on Mrs. Whitmore's details of her journey Dr. Tann was able to retrace the journey using his fitted FleetM8 Solo device and the shortest time he was able to manage was 5 mins and 48 seconds. The journalist reporting below managed 5 minutes and 6 seconds.

Mrs. Whitmore is consulting lawyers in order to fight the case because she faces an automatic ban if convicted.

Mum caught speeding twice in under four minutes
Dec 3 2008
by Sam Wood,
The Journal

A HUNGRY mother was caught speeding twice in three minutes, 23 seconds, by the same camera – and found time to stop for a McDonald’s in between.
On August 22, Gill Whitmore was twice clocked by a mobile camera going at 38mph in a 30 zone on Ryhope Road in Sunderland.



She had travelled a distance of around three-quarters of a mile up and down the road and bought a snack at the Drive Thru hatch in three minutes, 23 seconds, according to the police speed gun.

Miss Whitmore, a single mother from Waldron Square, Hendon, Sunderland, says she will contest the tickets and points.
She already has six points on her licence and would be banned if both the speeding tickets were confirmed.
She is planing to see a solicitor next week to discuss the case.

The 45-year-old, who works as a kitchen assistant at South Moor Secondary School, said: “It is just impossible that I could have driven that distance and been to McDonald’s in that amount of time.
“I had nipped out to get some food for my kids and then I decided to get a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonald’s.
“A week later I got a letter with two speeding fines. It seems funny to me that they were exactly the same speed as well. I think the camera was faulty.
“The manager has confirmed I went to the Drive Thru that morning and I still have the receipt.
“I need my car to get around and I am prepared to take this all the way to court. If it had just been one ticket I would have accepted it and taken the points but the fact they are so close together makes it impossible for both to have been me.”


Her case has been taken up by Neil Herron, who has tested the route with the equipment designed by Dr Phillip Tann, whose speeding case was dropped by Sunderland magistrates last year.

Mr Herron said: “We have retraced the journey at least half a dozen times using GPS technology to record our speed and the best time we have managed to get is five minutes, 48 seconds.
“To do the route in that time she would have had to drive across verges, cut across islands and speed around the Drive Thru. It is just not possible that she could have got both of those tickets legitimately, unless it is the fastest fast-food restaurant in the world.”

But last night Jeremy Forsberg, of the Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative, which is responsible for the speed cameras, said he stood by the accuracy of the equipment.
He said: “No one has successfully challenged a speed camera in the courts in Northumbria as far as I’m aware. I am totally confident that these cameras work.
“If it goes to court, first we will use the judgment of the officer and then we will rely on the evidence of the camera.
“I can’t comment on the length of time between the two photos but these cameras record speed accurately.”

Last night Oliver Mishcon, a specialist motoring lawyer, said: “This case is another example of how speed cameras are failing to do their job properly.
“Experience and research are beginning to show that they are unreliable at calculating speed.”

Journal reporter Sam Wood showing the time it took to complete the journey taken by Mrs. Whitmore ...
5 minutes and 6 seconds.

END





Leading Motoring lawyer Oliver Mishcon states:

"This is another example of how speed cameras are not doing their job properly.
They are often inaccurate and rarely help to improve road safety. In many cases they actually make drivers behave in a more dangerous manner by slowing down suddenly and speeding up again - concentrating on their speedometers instead of the road.

No wonder motorists are turning to specialist lawyers and technical experts. They feel persecuted by a policy which is motivated by economic factors, and they are often victorious.

Sadly, some do not have the resources for professional advisers, but more and more people are trying to stand up for themselves. I am sure their determination will eventually force a change of policy, so that soon we will see improvements to driver training and more active police patrols on our roads once again. That is the only way we will start to really tackle road safety."

Bromley Council taking the p

This time it is the council taking the p and receiving it.

This just shows the arrogance of a local authority ... and failing in its duty to exercise discretion ... even AFTER the adjudicator's recommendation.

Maggie Gebbett, 63, was issued with the fine back in May.
Carer wheels out pennies for fine
BBC News

A carer has paid her £80 parking fine in a wheelbarrow full of pennies in protest at the penalty.

Maggie Gebbet, 63, was fined in South Street, Bromley, south London, after the ticket she bought peeled itself off her car's windscreen in hot weather.

Despite an adjudicator recommending the charge be cancelled, Bromley Council has insisted it be paid.

Mrs Gebbett, from Chislehurst, Kent, said councillors had been "extremely shabby" over the charge issued in May.

'Credible witness'
"I can understand the council going through a procedure, but when they are given advice, surely they should take that advice. It's a total charade.
"I can't believe they have been so cavalier about the whole thing. I know this has happened to others, but people get frightened about the fine going up and won't pursue it."
I'm furious about the whole business and most upset about being criminalised when I have not broken the law

Maggie Gebbett
She added: I'm furious about the whole business and most upset about being criminalised when I have not broken the law."

The mother-of-two wrote to Bromley Council's parking officers enclosing a photocopy of her ticket asking them to see sense and withdraw the charge incurred in South Street.

The council declined and she was referred to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS).
Following a meeting with a PATAS adjudicator in October, he concluded Mrs Gebbett was an "honest, credible and convincing witness" and recommended the council cancel the charge.
However, the officers chose not to adopt the lawyer's findings and requested she pay the £80 fee by 3 December or face an increased charge of £120.
"The adjudicator concludes that the contravention did occur and the Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) was issued correctly," said a Bromley Council spokesman.
"Whilst we accept that mistakes do occur, motorists need to display their pay and display ticket."