About Fleet Tracking Systems

GPS vehicle tracking is an interesting application, that can provide a businesses management with detailed up-to-date info on their vehicle fleet, but many will ask themselves what actual value it can bring to the bottom line.

This article illustrates how different types of business that rely of road transport have themselves reported how they gain business benefit merely by means of to take advantage of the data arising from GPS vehicle tracking systems in their operations.

The first pertains to a typical small business that has around half a dozen engineers who maintain heating systems around the local area.

Even with this comparatively small fleet of six vehicles it was clear that improvements in its management could be made. Keeping track of vehicles and the allocation of work was time consuming depending on regular calls in and out of the office. Emergency call-outs required calls to every engineer to determine the most appropriate response. Scheduling required a significant component of guesswork and also the considerable amounts of paper-based administration were challenging to keep up.

The adoption of GPS vehicle tracking enabled the company to realise fast savings. Initial cost savings stemmed from reduced private usage. Now, 18 months on, fuel expenses have typically more than cut in half. Additionally, the comprehensive reporting made possible has made compliance with Government policy regulations and business planning straightforward. When it comes to customer support and efficiency savings, just having reliable information about each and every engineers location makes unexpected emergency call-out management much more effective than previously possible.

A 2nd example pertains to a regional distribution business. Again the immediate benefit was found to be a saving in petrol. On fuel savings alone, the return on investment was four-fold - after just three months the measured savings were enough to balanced out the cost of the system for the whole year. Moreover, the effect on management was significant. In this case the company monitored the vans to every stop they made and as a result they could determine where they encroached on each others' areas. Now, the workload is more distributed across drivers, vehicles and geography so as make sure that the amount of work is properly dispersed and mileage is more evenly distributed across the fleet.

A third illustration is from a mid-sized transport haulage company operating a fleet of around 50 trucks. Here the challenges for the management team include compliance with limited drivers' hours, the requirement to maximise vehicle utilization whilst reducing diesel costs and outgoings

With fleet tracking now operational, customers are kept up to speed with accurate arrival estimates and the program aids in planning; driving time, wasted diesel and inaccurate overtime payments have all been decreased, making the very best use of the whole fleet. Even small savings in distance travelled can yield a very worthwhile saving.

So, from these three varied examples of real case studies, ranging from a small fleet of vans up to a large fleet of heavy transport vehicles, a common theme emerges.

Firstly, each of these cases clearly showed a substantial reduction in their fuel expenditure and that financial saving alone far exceeds the subscription costs of the tracking system itself. Secondly, every business in its own method found it relatively simple to improve their overall operational efficiency through applying the additional information that fleet tracking can provide, to either work more proficiently or providing enhanced customer service.