Tracking Fleet for Labor Savings

Most fleet owners and managers today are aware of fleet GPS tracking. Tracking offers a host of benefits for companies that deploy vehicles on a day to day basis.  It allows these companies to streamline their operations in the most effective and efficient manner. The cost of this equipment is reasonable and the return on investment is significant.

GPS fleet management systems help companies of all sizes to constantly track and monitor vehicles on road.  Without the need to invest in expensive equipment or hire additional employees, GPS fleet tracking is a very attractive option particularly for smaller companies that might not typically have the resources to roll out this type of effective technology.

Fleet tracking offers a variety of benefits for fleet owners.  It can keep a constant tab on the vehicles, regardless of whether they're on the move or stationary. They can monitor the time taken for vehicles to reach their destination and identify any time wasted. They can also identify and optimize inefficient routing, enhancing fuel efficiency.

One of the greatest advantages to fleet owners is the tremendous potential for labor savings.  Being fully aware of an employee's day to day operations keeps them alert and ensures they deliver maximum productivity.  GPS fleet management systems help fleet owners track their vehicles to see if they are on the move or stationary at a location. They can also monitor the duration for which the vehicle is on the road. This helps them monitor if fleet drivers are working efficiently. In the long run, this provides them with immense savings on labor costs as well other significant benefits.

Many companies have been able to cut down on their fuel costs through fleet GPS tracking. Without tracking, it is virtually impossible to accurately track fuel costs and the result is the company absorbs unnecessary expense.  Enhanced routing, reduced idling, and eliminating unauthorized use of vehicles will dramatically reduce fuel costs. 

Tracking systems make it possible to know when the vehicles and crew arrive at and leave the job site. These systems also make it easier for the payroll department to accurately match up hours worked with the time sheets.

 

AVL Tracking: What Your Competitors Don't Want You to Know

AVL tracking or Automatic Vehicle Location tracking provides tremendous benefits and opportunities to users, such as productivity, efficiency and accountability. Companies that have installed GPS tracking in their fleets have experienced substantial savings on fuel, time and money.  This is something that your competitors do not want you to know. 

Fleet management has come a long way and even basic AVL tracking systems provide reduced operational costs, enhanced security for vehicle and driver and improved customer service.

AVL tracking should be embraced by employees.  You might want to offer your employees part of the money you are sure to make from tracking as bonus. This could be a great morale booster and will ensure their cooperation in bringing this effective system into place. Fleet management systems help resolve various customer disputes related to service duration, arrival time and service location in a precise manner.

AVL tracking ensures your drivers stay within the specified speed limit. This in turn reduces fuel consumption, accidents and the need for additional maintenance. Incorporating tracking can also reduce your insurance costs.  Insurance companies offer discounts for vehicles that are equipped with tracking devices because of reduced accident risk, driving fewer miles and slower driving.

Another major area where you can see significant benefits is the time sheets.  Time sheets are notoriously inaccurate. With the help of the AVL tracking system, you can compare the time sheets to a start-stop report and verify working hours.  In most cases, companies see a significant reduction in overtime costs.   

You can use the reporting system to in AVL tracking to effectively eliminate unwanted stops during working hours, driving after hours and moonlighting. This in turn provides huge savings on maintenance, fuel and wages and also ensures better customer service and lesser liability for fleet owners.

 

3 Things You May Not Know About Your Vehicle GPS System

GPS technology today allows fleet owners to track their vehicles and monitor them on a constant basis. Vehicle GPS system relays important information on the vehicle location with the help of the Global Positioning System attached to the tracking device of the GPS vehicle.

There are many benefits offered by GPS fleet management systems, including keeping a close watch on staff performance, lowering fuel consumption, devising effective short routes for drivers, tracking stolen vehicles, obtaining discounts on insurance and making use of other features such as time sheet reporting and mileage claims to enhance customer service and satisfaction. All these benefits make vehicle GPS systems a worthwhile investment for companies.

Three most important things you may not know about your GPS system for vehicles include:

1. Lowered fuel costs - Vehicle GPS systems are extremely useful in monitoring the fuel quantity used by drivers during their job runs. Fuel wastage results usually from various factors such as speeding, excessive idling and taking a longer route.

This vehicle tracking system generates reports that clearly indicate times when the vehicle has been kept in excessive idling and also the driver responsible for it. This provides an opportunity for fleet managers to set right the issue.

GPS systems also help you ascertain the route taking to a particular destination and offer alternate short route suggestions. You can then instruct the driver to use the shorter route and save on fuel consumption. You can confront drivers who indulge in over speeding as you will know the exact time and location where it occurred.

2.Staff-monitoring - Fleet GPS tracking systems offer a host of other benefits too including effective management and monitoring of staff. Until the innovative GPS navigation system was invented, there was no way fleet owners could keep an eye on the drivers who leave the office premises. They could not really find out whether staffs leaving the office were misusing vehicles, running their personal errands or doing their job as they are supposed to.

There was also no way of finding out if drivers are over speeding, wasting fuel, time and indulging in unnecessary idling. With the help of the vehicle GPS system report it is possible to find out whether your employee took any detour or stopped along the way at any destination and for how long. This system also ensures that drivers take the right routes as it is easy for the fleet manager to find out through the reports whether or not they drive in the right direction.

With the help of GPS tracking devices that will help identify the most efficient routes, drivers can plan their trip even before they leave the office premises.

3. Stolen vehicle tracking & Insurance benefits - One of the best benefits of the vehicle GPS system you must know is regarding insurance and vehicle theft. It is possible to set alerts in the system to inform you if a vehicle that is not scheduled is on the move. This helps in quicker response time. With the help of the signal it is possible for the police to track down the location of the vehicle and act on time. This extra security in your vehicle offers you big discounts on insurance. Certain insurance companies offer even up to 30% for companies that have installed tracking systems in their vehicles.

 

Automotive Fleet Management - Taxi & Limousine Fleets Get Lean

If you own an automotive rental company, then you must know the value of automotive fleet management systems. With the help of efficient fleet management systems, you can keep track of your taxi and limousine fleets, enhancing overall productivity and minimizing costs.

Fleet management systems also help you keep track of vehicle maintenance requirements. The system makes it possible for fleet managers to run regular reports and keep maintenance logs by tracking and recording car details. They can now schedule periodical servicing, change new tires and attend to repairs on time.

Alerts can be set by the manager for notification of significant milestones for a large fleet of vehicles. GPS based automotive fleet management systems use advanced software to monitor fleet and report data from onboard to a centralized location for analysis. One of the most important benefits of this system is that they enable fleet tracking of mileage even as the vehicle is active. This is especially useful for taxi and limousine fleet owners who can stay on top of service requirements that are mileage based.

Good fleet management helps extend vehicle life and also help maintain vehicles in a top condition.  An automotive fleet management system is an excellent option for extracting maximum productivity from the asset.

Fleet management systems are based on GPS or Global Positioning System which offers a variety of benefits.

GPS based systems ensure maximum safety of your taxis and limousines and also bring in place an effective dispatching system. GPS navigation based automotive fleet management systems can effectively manage fleets of taxis and limousines with accurate rescue, trace and dispatch. Passengers benefit from the e-map to identify and locate destinations. Dispatcher can also keep track of whether the vehicle is in moving, rest or vacant. Taxis and limousine companies can now function to their utmost potential.

Another great advantage of the automotive fleet management system is that dispatcher can now pinpoint and identify the exact customer location and assign the nearest taxi thereby enhancing efficiency and saving time and money. By installing this system, fleet owners can cut down on fuel consumption and on unnecessary driving for locating destination. Limousines and taxis can move around with pin point accuracy with minimum chances of mistakes in direction with the help of advanced GPS navigator that provides e-maps of high accuracy.

GPS based automotive fleet management systems also enhance safety for both passengers and drivers. If there is an untoward emergency or problem, passenger or driver can use the GPS navigator to contact the dispatcher for help. It is easy for the dispatcher to identify location of the taxi instantly to send out help. This greatly reduces the reaction time as the dispatcher has the ability to constantly monitor the vehicle location at all times.

Enhance the productivity and efficiency of your automotive fleet by installing a GPS based fleet management system.

Fleet Tracking Device Technology - How it Works

A fleet tracking device helps owners manage their fleets of vehicles from wherever they are and whenever they want.  These devices help them monitor their vehicle's whereabouts making their fleet administration highly efficient. Fleet tracking devices provide fleet owners with enhanced profits as they greatly reduce the misuse of vehicles.

A fleet tracking device helps improve productivity as drivers of vehicles tend to work efficiently when they know they are being monitored. Employee management becomes greatly simplified. 

With the help of the fleet gps tracking devices, it is possible to avoid vehicle theft. The tracking system helps police locate the vehicle with ease.

Satellite signals are used by the Global Positioning System, or GPS, to track the location of vehicles. This technology is very precise. This system combines a host of advanced technologies. There are three sub systems in use including communication link, base station and in-vehicle unit. There is a position sensor incorporated in the in-vehicle unit along with the right communication link interface and intelligent controller.

GPS fleet tracking systems offer many benefits for fleet owners.

This system uses software that can be accessed from the computer by the dispatcher, ensuring better dispatch for delivery drivers and service technicians. Instant dispatch is one of the greatest advantages of this fleet tracking device as compared to the much slower traditional dispatch methods using judgement of dispatcher using a map. This ensures enhanced service quality.

Fleet tracking device that works with GPS is effective in both rural and metropolitan areas. It is possible for fleet companies to keep their windshield time to minimum by defining routes and dispatching employees speedily using this tracking system. Errors are minimized and drivers no more pass each other on the way causing wasted time and more fuel consumption.

Fleet tracking systems also provide historical tracking reports apart from real time information. This feature is extremely useful for staffs. If there is a complaint of late delivery by the customer, the arrival time and the amount of time spent at the location can be verified from the GPS tracking record.

GPS tracking device therefore is a system that is extremely functional and useful for fleet owners and ensures enhanced productivity and performance.

Online Vehicle Tracking - A Big Win for Landscaping Fleets

Online vehicle tracking is being utilized by landscaping companies due to the convenience, flexibility and enhanced productivity it offers. GPS fleet tracking online offers you the convenience of monitoring and accessing your fleet from wherever you are. You just need access to a PC and internet system enabling you to manage your fleet from office or home.

You can choose from a variety of different companies offering this service online. Just subscribe to one of the GPS fleet management systems service provider online to enjoy improved performance.

Vehicle tracking online allows fleet companies including landscaping fleets to optimize usage. You can monitor hourly utilization rates of your vehicles with just a click of the mouse.

Fleet owners can establish criteria for assigning vehicles for a particular request. Online vehicle tracking providers give you different tools with which you can establish the criteria for efficiently assigning a vehicle request. They also provide tools to balance Pooled vehicles to Assigned vehicles and view utilization in the form of a graph.

Landscaping fleet owners can opt for GPS fleet management systems that can be accessed online. With the help of this system, it is possible to monitor and optimize use of company staffs who are the most valuable asset. You can avoid repetitive tasks by asking your online vehicle tracking system to conduct rule validation, error checking, coordination with fleet users and policy enforcement.

Fleet managers and dispatchers are constantly kept informed of what has to be done when with automatic updates of the fleet dashboard. These systems instantly alert owners if a particular vehicle is behind schedule or returns late.

Online vehicle tracking enables fleet owners to send help immediately in case of a problem with the vehicle. Response time is minimized or negligible as they know where exactly the vehicle is without wasting time on directions.

Companies can reduce cost to a great extent by optimizing fleet and staff. Enhanced efficiency and efficient functioning can help fleet owners even reduce the size of their fleet reducing costs further. By identifying shortest routes through vehicle tracking system online, companies can save greatly on fuel costs. This is very useful for landscaping fleet that have to travel long distance with their equipment.

Many common problems faced by landscape professionals are solved by the fleet tracking technology. Landscape managers have to deal with many issues such as crew service overlap, time wastage at the office and padded timesheets. These issues are effectively addressed by GPS technology which helps identify low productivity.

For landscaping companies, online vehicle tracking technology provides measurable information helping them make informed business decisions. Whether you are a small company managing a few vehicles or a large landscaping company managing a big fleet, tracking technology provides the right support level helping you enhance profits by measuring your fleet usage and field operations in the most effective manner.

 

Affordable GPS Tracking – ROI is Where the Rubber Meets the Road

As a fleet owner or manager, are you concerned about how affordable GPS tracking might be?  There are a number of areas you can look at to determine a potential return on investment from real time gps vehicle tracking and to justify the expense on a system. 

The first area to consider is increased productivity.  GPS fleet tracking can enhance your company's productivity through improved routing, scheduling, arriving and departing job sites on time, fewer trips to supply houses, shorter breaks and an overall tightening of day to day operations.

Another area is reduced fuel expense.  Companies that use GPS fleet tracking typically see a significant reduction in fuel costs because of less idling time, better routing, fewer side trips and elimination of unauthorized personal use of the vehicles. 

A third area to look at is reduced wages.  Typically more work is completed in less time, reducing the need for excessive overtime.  In addition, time sheets can be verified, reducing waste and inaccuracies.

Companies can also see lower insurance rates, fewer speeding tickets and better customer service.  Affordable GPS tracking is all about return on investment.  As outlined here, that return is predictable and can be significant. 

How Vehicle Tracking Technology Will Change Your Business

2010. A new year.  Maybe it's time for a new tool for your business as well.  Vehicle tracking technology is a tool you should consider.  The impact on your business can be dramatic and immediate.  Here are some examples of how GPS fleet tracking will change your business for the better.

Your business will become more profitable.  GPS fleet tracking increases your mobile workforce's productivity and reduces overtime and fuel expenses.  The direct result is more money in your pocket.

Vehicle tracking technology can make your company safer.  Awareness is heightened and more attention is focused on driver safety.  Many companies that use gps fleet tracking are seeing fewer speeding tickets and accidents. 

Using a fleet GPS system has a positive impact on owners and managers as well.  The technology can free up time for you to spend on other projects or go play golf.  GPS tracking users report that stress levels are reduced because of the fact that vital fleet and company information is available at their fingertips.  No more wondering where your drivers are or what they are doing.  No more disputes with customers over time on the job site or whether or not deliveries were made.  With the new year, perhaps it's time to resolve to take a closer look at a GPS tracking system.   

 

3 Things to Consider Before Investing in GPS Fleet Software

If you own or manage a fleet of vehicles, chances are you've been approached by a company offering GPS fleet software.  There are a tremendous number of companies now offering gps fleet tracking technology and there are some pretty big differences in those offerings.  As a consumer it's easy to be overwhelmed or confused by all the choices and unsure where to invest your hard earned dollars.  To simplify your choices a bit, here are three things you should consider before you sign on the dotted line:

The first is the hardware.  Not all GPS fleet management hardware is the same.  There's a pretty big range in quality and performance.  Reliability and data storage are important considerations.  Be certain a warranty is provided.  Some companies also offer a money back guarantee.  This can be very important to you not only in terms of hardware reliability, but also in overall system friendliness and usability.

The second item to consider is the monthly data plan.  This is an ongoing cost for as long as you use GPS fleet software.  The data plan is what makes it possible to provide you with real time GPS tracking.  There really isn't all that much difference in data plan coverage because most of the established GPS tracking companies use the same networks.  The big difference will be in the cost and what's included for that monthly cost.  Does the company offer system training to ramp you up and help maximize your return on investment?  Do they offer ongoing training, full service and support?  GPS tracking systems are basically easy to use but as in all things new there is a learning curve, so training is important. 

The third item to consider is contract terms.  In the early days of GPS fleet software, long term contracts were the norm.  Now there is no need to be locked into a long term contract.  Some companies will even offer you month to month agreements.  The industry is changing rapidly, so it's in your best interests to not be locked into anything long term. 

And a bonus fourth thing to consider:  The best of all possible situations is to be offered a free trial.  This allows you to get a real feel for the system without any risk or obligation on your part.

Why Bother To GPS Track?

Because Nobody Really Wants To Buy A GPS Tracking System, But They love Owning One!

In speaking with hundreds of companies using GPS fleet tracking over the past several years, I've come to realize that an investment in a GPS tracking system is a big investment.   Not as much in terms of financial investment (the $ return is solid and proven) as in emotional investment. Rolling out a GPS fleet tracking system represents a true companywide commitment to change. Let's face it. Nobody likes change. But the change here is truly a positive one. Even if the idea of rolling out a GPS tracking system is not initially embraced by all involved, and it rarely is, the end result of implementing it is ALWAYS positive. The return on your emotional investment will be as rewarding as the return on your financial investment.

It's tough to put a dollar value on peace of mind, but my guess is that most companies would happily pay a premium for the peace of mind that GPS fleet tracking can offer.  Having access to detailed fleet and employee information is the key.  You might be surprised how affordable a GPS fleet management system really is.  For every dollar invested, most companies see a multiple dollar return.