APTOS, CA – First Alarm, a U.S. security company, has added CarChip Pro to its fleet operation, which has saved the company nearly a million dollars in insurance costs, the company said. It has also resulted in a perfect vehicle safety record.

First Alarm offers residential and commercial security systems and private patrol to customers all over the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. The fleet provides services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to homeowners, school districts, businesses, city and county government facilities, and manufacturing plants, via a fleet that includes 75 vans and pickups. The vehicles are workhorses, driven an average of 6,000 miles a month.

Davis Instruments' CarChip Pro provided the company a comprehensive solution by giving management details of both the drivers' and the engines' performance. CarChip records every second of every trip, including speed, time, and distance. It also reports "jackrabbit starts" and hard-braking that lead to increased maintenance costs.

To prevent vehicle wear and tear and to increase safety, First Alarm management sets speed limits for vehicles using CarChip software. When vehicles exceed the pre-set speed, the CarChip data logger in the vehicle sounds an alarm until the vehicle reduces its speed to under the set limit.

Management can also review vehicle engine performance with CarChip because it can record 23 different engine functions, including RPM, fuel pressure, fuel trim, and coolant temperature. It diagnoses engine "trouble codes" and also allows the "check engine" light to be reset.