Benefits of GPS Vehicle Tracking

Benefits of GPS Vehicle Tracking

Fleet owners have never been in high demand as they are in this current age. Because of Customer’s expectations of high quality delivery service, fleet owners are faced with problems of delivery time and duration, shipment tracking, customized delivery needs; it has thus become more difficult for fleets to keep their head up in the game. Companies that have a big fleet tend to spend m ore time worrying about the vehicles getting into wrong hands therefore it is important to consider installing a GPS system in their automobiles. In recent times, vehicle manufacturers make it compulsory for cars to have an inbuilt GPS system in every vehicle to ensure the safety of their customers especially when on the road. The benefits to be gained from this are definitely unbridled as they range from cost efficiency, alerts and diagnostics and also maintenance history to name a few.

Reduce Expenses

Vehicle fuel consumption is one of those expenses that every fleet owning company must engage in regardless of fleet size. Realization of this fact drives fleet owners to a search for the most effective ways to conserve fuel. GPS tracking technology can provide the best means of ensuring effective fuel consumption. Using this technology, fleet managers can; minimize engine idle time, monitor speeds and optimize routing.

Minimize Engine Idle Time The amount of fuel that fleet owners/managers can save by cutting idle time is actually unimaginable. Due to the fact that drivers want their cabins comfortable at all times, they’d want it hot during winter and want it cool in the summer. To achieve this, they’d have to leave their engine running while making deliveries/stops. During on-duty hours, vehicles may be left idling for hours burning fuel and maximizing engine wear and prematurely aging the vehicle which reduces the fuel economy capacity of the vehicle. A GPS vehicle tracking system would help fleet owners/managers monitor their fleet, receiving reports and alerts every time the driver shuts down and turns on the engine and when the vehicle is in motion, providing accurate idle times. With this, companies can save hundreds of gallons of fuel every year.

Monitor Speeds Excessive speeding can become a real enemy to fleet owners’ finances. In fact, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, excessive speeding can reduce fuel economy by 20%. It is true that quick delivery increases customer base and company reputation, but excessive speeding is never the answer. It not only burns fuel but wears out vehicles quicker and can also be a risk to fleet operations. By monitoring speeds, a company can save a lot of Dollars in operating costs and vehicle fueling. GPS technology can integrate data such as maps, traffic and posted speed limits in real time, sending alerts to fleet operators and drivers notifying them of exceeded speed limits and encouraging them to slow down.

Route Optimizing For fleet owners, vehicle fueling via engine starts, running and idling pose the biggest financial threats. All fleets make multiple stops each day; fuel consumed by these typical actions can be reduced drastically through efficient routing of drivers. Also, the number of stops and locations can change frequently and drivers could make unscheduled stops. In these situations, it becomes more important to determine the order stops and choose the most efficient route. GPS vehicle tracking enables routing and work scheduling either as an integration with third party routing apps or as standalone apps. They communicate with drivers, providing destinations and schedules, work tickets and also optimize the order of destinations, providing drivers with the most efficient routes. This helps companies plan their work and conserve fuel. Route optimization enables drivers navigate roadways, avoid traffic challenges, and reduce idling and other delays helping the company save precious fuel. With this, fleet dispatches can communicate with drivers to determine the best order for multiple stop trips even as driving conditions and work orders change.

Maintenance History

Knowledge of your fleets’ next service date and maintenance history is an important factor in determining the health, strength and efficiency of fleets. Maintenance reports provide managers with an itemized view of each vehicles service need and this is crucial for planning ahead and can also reduce money spent on vehicle repairs. The vehicle maintenance feature in GPS tracking devices help fleet managers keep track of vehicle servicing, plan maintenance and also servicing history and costs while notifying them of due dates for future servicing. Drastically reducing the risk of break downs and expired warranties on vehicle parts. It helps in the setup of maintenance schedule intervals based on mileage, hours or days between servicing enabling them to know when their vehicles are overdue for service.

Real Time Vehicle Location

GPS tracking helps fleet managers locate vehicles while on the road. It provides managers with location updates by the seconds/minutes when vehicle is in motion and hourly updates when a vehicle is off. It also provides them with maps interface that enables that enables fleet managers to keep up with vehicle movements along with current traffic conditions. This could be especially useful in situations where vehicles may have experienced a hitch and is unable to move to the fixers. In such situations, a look at the real time update of the particular vehicle would give the dispatch manager the precise location of the vehicle and its direction of travel. It would also help in figuring out the closest repair service around the location of the vehicle.

Real Time Violation Alerts

Poor driver performance can incur a lot of direct and +indirect costs to a business, and if not checked, can cause a lot of financial problems in the long run. GPS trackers can help curtail these unnecessary expenses by improving the performance of your drivers to promote safety, ensure efficiency and save a lot of money for your business. They provide fleet managers and drivers with real time alerts notifying them on violations such as hard braking/acceleration, excessive speeding/idling, low battery and also Geofence exit and entrance. Managers can also create customized scoring patterns that give them access to in-depth information of your on-duty drivers to help assess and manage your fleet through predictive analyses. This could help a company reduce the number of driving related incidents, save fuel by reducing aggressive driving and also funds spent on driver and car insurance.

Vehicle Diagnostics

The vehicle diagnostics feature in GPS trackers provide direct visibility into engine performance, including major stats and fault codes. These are integrated into the vehicles electronic control module and it collects codes via a standard J-Bus or OBD-II connection. This ensures the safety and longevity of vehicles through the use of actionable key metrics. Once data is received, it creates comprehensive easy to use diagnostics reports on data filled dashboards, helping managers figure out specific performance items and note potential risks, thereby improving overall vehicle performance and efficiency. With this feature managers can see engine data such as hard brakes and hard stops. Fault codes help diagnose potential breakdowns reducing unnecessary costs and repairs. Diagnostic reporting provides a list of each failure chronologically, noting event time and date.

Vehicle Incidents

One of the many uses of GPS trackers includes; protection of vehicles, assets and drivers. It also prevents theft and vehicle misuse, reduction of accident rates which protects employees from injury and keeps vehicle operational for longer. GPS tracking helps companies cover the risk of accidents and injuries by offering these features; seat belt alert5s, speeding alerts, hard brakes/acceleration alerts, maintenance notification and two way driver communication systems. It is a fact that people who realize that they are being monitored tend to act more responsibly. With drivers, this results in fewer collisions and potentially dangerous accidents. It can also provide a yardstick for measuring how much change has taken place in an employee over a period of time.

Is GPS Device Necessary?

The importance of GPS vehicle tracking is such that it can never be over emphasized, as it saves fleet managers/owners from a lot of operational issues while offering them unbridled services at the same time. With GPS services, vehicle position stops being a problem, it aids roadway navigation, easy status updates without having to place a call through at all times, significantly cuts down fueling and repair costs and most importantly, reduces drivers workload by eliminating the need to fill logbooks , as their movements are automatically updated by the tracking feature.

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Benefits