Can you imagine, there were ages where fleet managers used to depend on “accurate”reports from drivers to do data analysis of their fleet? GPS tracking technology has come as a game changer for this long, inaccurate procedure of managing fleets.

In almost every company, from delivery services companies with 1000’s of trucks to schools with few vans, fleet management is a trend that has picked up highly in the industry. Thus the need to maximise efficiency in all of these organisations while reducing expenses. The use of a GPS tracking to manage fleet will be of help to achieving these goals regardless of where the trucks are located.

Effective management of the fleet can be a tiresome task to fleet managers.Being a fleet management consultant, I have reaped the benefits of having a GPS tracking system in the business in which I manage their fleet. If you are considering investing in GPS car tracking for your fleet, read on to discover several ways in which you will benefit from incorporating this component in your business.

What are the benefits of GPS car tracking to fleet managers?

• Overall Reduction of Operational Costs
• Reduce Unexpected Fleet Maintenance Costs
• Increased Productivity
• Prevent Accidents while Improving Driving Standards
• Reduce Vehicle Theft
• Increase customer satisfaction

Overall Reduction of Operational Costs

GPS tracking of fleet in organisations, helps in overall reduction through provision of valuable information of a fleet. Through real-time tracing, fleet managers get routes vehicles have taken. This data allows for monitoring patterns of fuel consumption

In future fleet managers will choose appropriate routes for the drivers to reduce fuel consumption. These informed decisions, from data derived from GPS tracking generally will help to reduce operation costs.

Reduce Unexpected Fleet Maintenance Costs

Regularly monitoring the health of a vehicle and maintenance schedules updates offered by GPS tracking helps in reducing overall maintenance costs of fleet inline with avoiding downtime due to unexpected repairs while in transit.

The fleet tracking system has access to some mechanic issues and reports them instantly. This indicates that the fleet management team is in the know of fleet health at all times thus schedule maintenance before the mechanic issues escalate

The fleet managers will only have to cater for normal maintenance costs without suffering costs of downtime that would have risen incase of emergency breakdown.

Increased Productivity

With GPS tracking fleet managers will seamlessly assign tasks and have clear expectations of the drivers using the most appropriate routes. Drivers are able to deliver with no delays thus increasing productivity.

Getting real updates of vehicle locations makes it easy to coordinate tasks by sending close vehicles to a job thus saving resources. The accurate reports of vehicle locations, the trip report and driving habits of each driver's assigned vehicle can be used to make accountability of their work ethic thus fostering productivity generally.

Prevent Accidents while Improving Driving Standards

Fleet managers have access to data of drivers driving behaviours through GPS tracking systems and can use it to build a company norm of safety.

The combination of speeding alerts, harsh braking and prompt accelerations of each driver, will guide the fleet managers on which training to offer to their specific drivers. To some drivers, this could be acting as a refresher as the could have forgotten safety precautions thus avoiding accidents that are prone to happen due to negligence.

This GPS tracking data can also be used by business owners to award the drivers who are complying to safe driving habits.

Reduce Vehicle Theft

To any business vehicles whether leased or owned are essential and quite valuable. It's necessary for fleet managers to protect them for flawless company's operations. GPS tracking device comes handy to protect the fleet and ensure quick recovery incase of theft.

Inbuilt features like geo-fense helps fleet managers set virtual boundaries of operational areas of all the vehicles. In situations where the vehicle moves out of its designated areas without authorization, alert is initialised to take necessary actions before theft occurs.

Increase customer satisfaction

Every time a customer is happy, the business grows for they become loyal and have high chances of referring other people. GPS tracking technology ensures organisations’ customers are having this level of service experience they expect.

The real-time aspect of the GPS tracking device, enables organisations to provide estimated delivery time of their services to their customers. GPS tracking device makes it easier for fleet managers to come up with the quickest route in delivery in services to customers with no delay.

Conclusion

As we have seen, GPS tracking technology is a tool that significantly can help fleet management improve on their daily operations and thus worth investing in. Although some organisations still haven't given in to this technology, it still remains working for many organisations operating huge fleet and even a few vans.

The overall reduction of operational costs and fleet maintenance costs through accurates updates provided by the GPS tracking devices are some of the benefits fleet managers are enjoying. In line with increased productivity of organisations which is a huge win to investors not forgetting the customer satisfaction through timely delivery timelines.

So, why not implement GPS Tracking Technology right away? It's a wise decision for any business with a fleet to manage and protect its vehicles.