A Truck Was Stolen from an Active Job Site. GPS Tracking Helped Keep It in Sight.
- Jul 8
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Most workdays at NorthStar Safety begin the same way.
As the sun comes up over the Fargo-Moorhead area, crews load trucks and head in every direction. Some spend the day painting highway lane markings. Others deploy barrels, barricades, and traffic control devices to keep road construction projects safe. During the busy season, eight to ten crews can be working across a 150-mile radius.
Then one fall day, the unexpected happened.
While employees were meeting with a contractor on a closed street in Grand Forks, someone climbed into one of NorthStar Safety's work trucks, drove through a barricade, and sped away.
The truck and the suspect were gone.
For Marc Rue, President of NorthStar Safety, there wasn't time to panic.
"Our guys called 911 right away," Rue said. "I called Razor Tracking to find out what we could do."
Within minutes, the GPS tracking system became one of the company's most valuable tools.
As law enforcement pursued the stolen truck, Razor Tracking provided real-time location information that NorthStar Safety relayed directly to officers.
"We were able to determine where the truck was headed," Rue said. "We conveyed that information to local law enforcement, and we were able to keep them updated throughout the pursuit."
For more than an hour, the chase stretched from Grand Forks into the surrounding countryside.
"It was a nerve-racking time," Rue recalled. "I was just really hoping there wasn't going to be an accident where this person hits another vehicle."
Fortunately, the pursuit ended without any innocent motorists being involved. The stolen truck was recovered after it crashed in a rural field.
For Rue, the experience transformed GPS tracking from a useful management tool into something much bigger.
It became proof that knowing where your vehicles are can make all the difference when the unexpected happens.
A Business Built on Keeping Roads Safe
Ironically, NorthStar Safety exists to improve safety on roadways.
The company specializes in pavement marking, temporary traffic control, and roadway safety products throughout eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. During the construction season, nearly 40 employees and dozens of vehicles are constantly moving between projects.
"When the snow melts, it's go time around here," Rue said.
That kind of operation demands constant coordination.
A truck leaving for one job in the morning might be the closest crew to another project that comes up later that afternoon. Without knowing where vehicles are in real time, dispatchers would be forced to rely on phone calls and guesswork.
Instead, NorthStar Safety uses Razor Tracking's Premier GPS trackers to see every truck on a single map.
"We have the units color-coded by line of business, so we can see where the trucks are and if they're where they're supposed to be throughout the day," Rue said.
Turning Location Into Productivity
Long before the stolen truck incident, Razor Tracking had already become part of NorthStar Safety's daily operations.
If a supervisor receives a call for another job, they don't automatically send a truck back to headquarters.
Instead, they simply look at the map.
"The crew might be coming back from a job," Rue explained. "If something needs to be picked up along the way, we can look at the tracker, see where they are, and divert them."
Those small routing decisions add up over an entire construction season.
"If we can get more jobs accomplished while they're already out there instead of coming back and going back out again, we can save fuel and labor."
For a company operating roughly 25 to 30 trucks during its busiest months, every avoided trip matters.
Peace of Mind Has Value, Too
Operational efficiency is important.
But for Rue, one of the biggest benefits isn't measured in miles or dollars.
It's confidence.
"I think it's just knowing where everything is," he said. "We probably have 25 or 30 trucks, and during the busy months of the summer, knowing where all that equipment is currently located brings some peace to us."
That peace of mind extends beyond dispatching.
NorthStar Safety also uses Razor Tracking to simplify quarterly IFTA and IRP reporting, reducing the time spent preparing required mileage reports.
"It makes that very fast and efficient to get done," Rue said.
Trust Your Team. Protect Your Assets.
NorthStar Safety first installed Razor Tracking devices in 2018 after another local business recommended the system. At the time, the company's fleet was growing, and so was the investment tied up in its vehicles.
Those trucks have only become more valuable since then.
"We trust our employees," Rue said. "But we need to know where the trucks are at all times, and Razor allows us to do that."
He doesn't see GPS tracking as a way to watch employees.
He sees it as another layer of protection for the business—and for the people who depend on it every day.
The stolen truck remains the only theft NorthStar Safety has experienced.
Rue hopes it stays that way.
But if something like it ever happens again, he knows they won't be searching blindly.
They'll know exactly where to start.
Advice for Other Fleet Owners
Looking back, Rue believes every business with expensive vehicles or equipment should consider GPS tracking, not because something bad will happen, but because one day it might.
"Anybody that has a fleet or other expensive equipment," he said, "you want to know where it is all the time. I think it's a really good investment to have trackers in these vehicles."
For NorthStar Safety, Razor Tracking delivers more than dots on a map.
It helps crews work smarter. It saves fuel and labor. It simplifies reporting.
And when one ordinary workday suddenly became anything but ordinary, it helped provide the real-time visibility needed when every minute counted.