Soon, when Wyoming state employees take a state vehicle out on the road, a GPS monitoring system will be along for the ride.
The Wyoming Department of Administration and Information recently announced it’s spending about a quarter of a million dollars installing hardware that can track a vehicle's speed, location, and condition in every vehicle in the state motor pool.
After installation, the Verizon-made GPS units will cost the state $18.95 a month to maintain. With about 1600 state vehicles, that means Wyoming will be paying about 30 thousand dollars a month. But Tim Thorson with the Department of Administration and Information says they should actually save the state a lot of money.
“These systems will show the motor pool--the folks responsible for maintaining these vehicles--when they need an oil change, when they need a tune up, when they need service,” he says. “These systems also allow the fleet managers to decide how many cars are really needed for their agency”
Thorson says state agencies could use the units to monitor whether their employees are breaking traffic laws. But he says there is no statewide plan to do that.
All state vehicles should have the GPS units installed by the end of the summer.