AlerTrax

AlerTrax is a smart GPS/WiFi/LTE tracker that keeps track of your assets and alerts you of troubles.

AlerTrax works both outdoors and indoors to monitor and recover assets quickly.

11/02/2026

Most drivers' instinct when a deer jumps out is to steer around it.

With a loaded trailer on the hitch, that instinct is the dangerous part.

The New York DMV says to brake firmly and not swerve, because swerving can cause a collision with another vehicle, a tree, or a pole. Wisconsin DOT says to brake firmly, stay in your lane, and warns that sudden swerving can mean a loss of control and a more serious crash.

And there's a second problem nobody plans for. If the truck gets towed, the trailer may not go with it. Now you've got equipment sitting on a county road while somebody finds another truck.

Have that plan before next week! See the link in the comments.

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Let's hope you get lots of treats and not tricks.

If you are worried about your assets while you are enjoying your candy,
AlerTrax will give you the peace of mind that you deserve!

10/30/2026

April. Somebody opens the storage barn door and tries to remember what was supposed to be in there.

Was it four mowers or five? Which trailer went to the dealer for the winter? What's the serial on the new one?

The equipment theft data says missing records are one reason only 21% of stolen equipment comes back. And stored equipment adds a second problem: a machine taken in December may not be missed until spring.

One afternoon the week of the last mow fixes both. Steal this sheet. It's at the link in the comments.

10/29/2026

022.

That's when the major U.S. carriers finished retiring their 3G networks. AT&T announced it would finish by February 2022, Verizon by December 31, 2022. The FCC warned that more than phones would be affected, including "vehicle SOS services, home security systems, and other connected products."

A GPS tracker is a connected product and when its network goes away... so does the tracker.

That's question 1 of 7 we'd ask any GPS tracker company, including us:
1. What network does it use?
2. What is the battery life claim based on?
3. How often does it update, and how accurate is it?
4. Does it need wiring?
5. What's the IP rating?
6. What alerts and reports do you get?
7. What does it cost over 3 years?

Our own answers are in the post, so you can hold us to them 👇

10/28/2026

The leaves aren't off the lawns yet, and the 2027 mowing season already has a deadline.

If you hire H-2B workers for an April 1 start, your Department of Labor application can be filed no earlier than 90 days before: January 1, 2027. Last January, the window opened at midnight, and three days later employers had requested 162,603 positions against 33,000 visas.

Then there's what you promise once they arrive: a guarantee of at least three-fourths of the job order's hours in each 12-week period, and daily records of where the work happened, start and end times, hours offered and hours worked should be kept for 3 years (20 CFR 655.20, 655.56).

What to do before Thanksgiving. See the link in the comments.

10/27/2026

56%.

That's the share of stolen equipment in 2016 that had been made in the last five years. The single most stolen model year was the newest one: 1,987 thefts of 2016 models (NER/NICB 2016 Equipment Theft Report).

The report's explanation: "If given the choice between two similar machines a thief will choose the newer, more valuable machine because they are equally easy to steal."

And only 21% of stolen equipment was recovered. Among the reasons: missing ownership records and confusing ID number formats.

The NER's advice: "When they purchase equipment, owners should register serial numbers." Day one.

If you bought at Equip Expo, here's the 7 step day-one setup linked in the comments.

10/26/2026

"Landscaping pays about $27 an hour now." You may have seen that number here too: $27.71, the BLS average for production and nonsupervisory employees in landscaping services (August 2026).

It's real but it's not what a crew member makes.

That figure averages everyone non-managerial across the whole industry, including equipment operators and irrigation techs and includes overtime premiums. The wage for the job itself, landscaping and groundskeeping workers, has a U.S. median of $39,150 a year, about $18.82 an hour (BLS, 2025 wage data).

Use the right number for the right decision: occupation wages to set pay, industry averages to think about total labor cost.

Both numbers and your state's at the link in the comments.

10/23/2026

Most "fall back" advice is about sleep schedules.

For a field crew, the time change is three operational problems that show up the same Monday:

Visibility: 77% of pedestrian deaths happen in the dark (NHTSA 2023).
Equipment: trailer lights that haven't mattered since March suddenly do (49 CFR 393.9).
Theft: 4 to 7:59 PM is the second most common time for reported vehicle thefts (FBI, 2019 to 2023), and after November 1 it's dark.

One week, eight steps and the dark months start right.

Full checklist linked in the comments.

10/22/2026

2:10 AM. First real snow of the season, and it's sticking.

Four trucks. Five drivers. 38 lots clear by 6 AM.

Two of those drivers worked leaf cleanup until 6 PM yesterday. One truck went home with a foreman. You're not sure which.

In the next ten minutes you decide who goes, in what truck, to which lots, for how long and some of those decisions have federal rules attached.

Then the road: the FHWA reports over 1,300 people killed each year in crashes on snowy, slushy, or icy pavement and arterial speeds drop 30 to 40 percent on snowy pavement. If your 6 AM deadline was built on dry road times, it was built wrong.

Make the 2 AM decisions this week, while it's dry. Check out the link in the comments.

10/21/2026

Third week of October, leaf calls stacking up and everyone's at 45 hours.

Foreman: "We need another guy."
Owner: "Just run the overtime. It's six weeks."

They're both guessing.

Example math from BLS data: a three person crew running 6 overtime hours each, every week, costs about $278 a week more than paying those hours at straight time, about $1,668 over a six week leaf season.

But the cheapest overtime hour is the one you don't need. Drive time between properties counts as hours worked (29 CFR 785.38). Saving each person 20 minutes a day is 5 crew hours a week.

Find the hours before you buy more of them. See the link in the comments.

Address

Annapolis, MD

Website

http://www.alertrax.com/

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