My peers now have teenagers

I recently joined the throng of people on Facebook.  The experience has been pretty entertaining.  Though most of my peers are still raising little ones, I have found that some of my classmates now have driving teens.  That's a little scary for me but more so for them!

As a teenager, we always said that our parents had no idea what it was like then and that their time was nothing like our time.  I am certain that has been said by every generation in America.

The fact is that at least one thing has remained the same.  Even though cars are safer in terms of the number of fatalities, automobile accidents are still the number one killer of teens in America.

Fortunately, the same technology we use at our parent company, Track What Matters, to track fleet vehicles, can be used to track teen drivers.  I spoke with a new customer who manages a fleet of limousine drivers in Massachusetts this past week.  He said that he is amazed by how much better his drivers drive simply because they know they are being tracked.

GPS tracking for teens accomplishes the same thing.  Only, instead of saving fleet costs, you can potentially save the life of your teen or someone else.

In my high school years, one of my good friends had a wreck driving over 100 mph.  I can say for certain that if he knew his driving was being tracked via GPS by his father, there is no chance that he would have been driving anywhere near that fast.

GPS tracking is well worth the investment because it works.

Keep your teens safe,

Steven Van Ooyen

Do You Have Eyes in the Back of Your Head?

Earlier this year, I spoke with a father who wanted GPS tracking for his daughter.  The parents traveled a fair amount and had to leave their senior in high school at home expecting her to attend classes and do the things that teen girls should do.  

I guess dad remembered his teen years and realized that even "good" kids can go a little wild.  Considering the fact that automobile accidents are the number 1 cause of deaths for teens in America,  he was almost assuredely right in thinking that she might be at risk.

Dad put the GPS tracking device on his teenage daughter's car on a Sunday.  Monday he went out of the country on business expecting his daughter to be in class.  When he logged in to the tracking system, he found something quite different.  Instead of his teen being in class, she was driving her car 250 miles outside of town!

Provided with the knowledge the GPS tracking device gave on location and speed, the parents were able to make correction to their teen's behaviour before it became more dangerous.

I love to hear stories of tragedy avoided.

Be safe,

Steven Van Ooyen

Chief Technology Officer

Track What Matters

Teen Driving Safety on YouTube

I'm constantly amazed by the monster that is YouTube.com. It's become an incredible way to mass distribute all video. So, we frequently check out what's going on in YouTube Land. Well, even teen tracking and driving safety are represented there. These short videos are interesting and some are entertaining. Make sure you check out the last one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBPeHY0UOq4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Myr0euHBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQdkFteZys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rheoLJw8-tw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYwpuuyBGxM

Live safe and well,

Steven Van Ooyen
CTO

What to Tell a Teen Being Tracked

I've spent a lot of time over the past few month talking to parents and imagining a future conversation with my kids when they start driving about why they will be monitored. I'm not sure there is a perfect method for broaching the subject. Some of the parents I've spoken to intimated that they would avoid telling their teens about the units. Other parents are considering a more direct approach of telling them. I think the latter will prove to be the most effective for families. Here are some reasons why:

1. The Track What Matters (www.myteenmatters.com) GPS trackingservice works best as a deterent to bad driving behavior. I had breakfast yesterday with one of my pals from high school who told me a story for the first time about him and another buddy racing each other down 635 in Dallas at speeds up to 140 mph! I asked him the question with the obvious answer, "is there any way you would have driven that fast if you knew you dad would find out?" of course his immediate answer was "never".

2. Trust is a huge thing with teens. I remember asking my parents why they didn't show me more trust. The conversation never went well when I had recently broken their trust. It is my thinking that trust might well be a benefit of the TWM system when the subject is properly approached by a savvy parent or two. Consider what breeds trust. The easy answer is the demonstration of trustworthy behavior. When it comes to driving, in the past, trust had to be given in blind faith by parents to kids that didn't have wrecks or traffic tickets to show for their poor driving habits. Or, if a teen truly was a cautious driver, they might still carry unwarranted restrictions since their parents were unable to verify the teen's good habits. Thus, when broaching the subject of tracking, a motivation to a teen (not that I am advocating giving a teen a choice) might well be that your teen could experience greater freedoms more quickly with TWM installed on his or her car accompanied by examples of good driving habits.

3. Trust is a two way street. Did you trust your parents? I can say that I did, but in so many ways, my teen years were lived in a simpler time. Back then (I am 34) they kept tabs on me by talking to the parents of my friends and attending school events. However, though it was just 16 years ago, the world is a completely different place. When I was in high school, the Internet was 9 years from starting to become mainstream. Everything done on the Internet was boring text and was of little appeal to most teens. Though we still managed to download a very long list of blonde jokes (I found these highly offensive and would never condone the practice of making fun of this upstanding group of people whether they were of natural membership or synthetically included :) ). The point here is that today, since it is easy to create community online, a great number of concerned parents are monitoring their teen's Internet activities to be able to more quickly identify problems in behavior and association. In light of recent school tragedies, and statistics, this can only be viewed as a wise practice. But how does this establish trust between teen and parent? It only does if your relationship is honest. By this I mean that you tell your teen that you are going to be monitoring his or her activities because you care for them and desire to protect them from the many negative influences that are out there today. This is the chief justification I see in teen tracking.

What about Big Brother? Well, Big Brother doesn't work at Track What Matters. Neither is TWM an agent of any governmental authority. Your privacy and safety are our chief concerns. We will never sell your personal information to an outside entity or give it to a govenrmental agency without your written concent. My slightly governmentally paranoid personality won't allow it.

So, rest assured that you can put restrictions on you teens and it will never kill them. On the other hand, had I been left to my own conscience as a guide through my teen years, I might not have survived them.

Take care,

Steven Van Ooyen
CTO

Teen Brains

Howdy From Flower Mound, Texas:

When we first started investigating GPS tracking and its possibilities, we had an idea of the dangers teen drivers pose to themselves and to others. However, the more I've investigated, the more heartbroken I've become. Over the last 8 months, I've read hundreds of articles about teen driving accidents. The statistics just don't tell the whole story. When you read that 3,800 teens die yearly and 8,000 people die yearly as a result of teen drivers, you miss the real impact. It's not until you read the details that it really hits your heart.

On the way to the office this morning, I heard about 2 boys in Benbrook, Texas that died and the girl with them that had to be taken by air to the hospital due to a high speed wreck. In this case, the truck they were in ended up in a tree upside down. I can't help but hurt for the families that were left without their boys and the struggles ahead for the young girl.

Through more research this week, I've read multiple articles that document studies that point to a part of the brain that isn't fully developed until approximately 25. (Of course, the insurance companies have known this forever.) This is the part of the brain that processes risk and danger. I've listed some articles below that detail this. Knowing this, and my own experiences driving and being with other drivers in high school, I shouldn't be surprised by the headlines. One of my friends, who was a "good kid" was in a wreck on a two lane road at about 115 mph that easily could have killed him or the driver whose car he hit. As a good friend's mother liked to tell her, good kids can get in trouble too. It only takes one time.

This is where we feel teen vehicle tracking can make a huge difference in the fatality rates of teen drivers. When do kids misbehave? Easy answer: When they can get away with it! At least that's how I was. If I knew that my parents would see when I was driving my vehicle at high speeds, I'd definitely have reigned in my 1970 F-100. If you have the chance to improve the odds of you teen's survival, why wouldn't you?

Keep them safe. Life's short enough.

Steven Van Ooyen

CTO

Articles:

http://adtsea.iup.edu/adtsea/articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2273bb8c-b15f-46ff-87be-3b6e236f856b

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2005Jan31.html

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=462287