Advances in GPS tracking fleet management systems empower you to effectively and easily achieve your fleet risk management goals and serve as an asset to your employees in the case of an emergency. The world is unpredictable and you can’t protect your drivers from everything on the road—but you can mitigate some of the major risks with the help of GPS tracking technology!
Keep reading to learn why GPS tracking is among the best risk management resources for your fleet.
Quick Links:
- What Is Fleet Risk Management?
- What Are the Challenges of Fleet Risk Managers?
- Why GPS Tracking is Among the Best Risk Management Resources
What Is Fleet Risk Management?
More than 2.5 million people are involved in car accidents every year and the leading cause is distracted driving. No matter how safe a driver is, there is an inherent risk to getting behind the wheel simply because you can’t control how safe the other drivers are around you.
If driving is dangerous for people who only make trips for personal reasons, then imagine how much risk there is for fleet vehicle drivers and their managers.
This is the purpose of the fleet risk management field—to manage, mitigate, and prepare for a multitude of risks that might impact your fleet. As a fleet risk manager, your job is to reduce liability and decrease risks for the company, municipality, or organization for which you work. It’s also your responsibility to ensure that your employees are safe and your equipment is being regularly maintained, which further enhances safety and saves precious resources.
What Are the Challenges of Fleet Risk Managers?
The unique and important work of managing fleet risk entails a variety of challenges along the way, including:
Unknown Driver and Asset Locations
It’s the call no fleet manager ever wants to receive: one of your company’s vehicles accidentally crashed due to inclement weather and the driver isn’t sure where they’re located. Or the vehicle broke down on the side of the road in between towns.
Whatever the situation may be, not knowing the location of your driver and assets is fraught with significant risk. You need to ensure your drivers are safe no matter where they are—and customers count on your assets being delivered to them on time!
Inconsistent Maintenance
Your fleet can’t move anywhere if vehicles are unexpectedly breaking down and delaying your operations. Tracking the maintenance of one vehicle is a hassle in and of itself, much less needing to track the maintenance needs and history of multiple vehicles!
There are countless benefits to performing preventative maintenance and the importance of regularly servicing your vehicles cannot be overstated. For the safety of your fleet drivers and the longevity of your fleet operations in general, inconsistent maintenance can result in sketchy circumstances and avoidable maintenance downtime.
Lack of Contract Enforcement
How can you ensure that your assets are being kept where they should be in accordance with legal agreements? Contracts exist to validate an arrangement between parties, but it can be a massive challenge to guarantee that pertinent assets are handled properly as stipulated by a contract.
Sure, video surveillance footage can be reviewed in hindsight to see the series of events that lead to moving unauthorized assets, but a real-time solution to enforce contractual obligations would be far more efficient and effective.
Why GPS Tracking is Among the Best Risk Management Resources
Fleet risk managers who deal with the aforementioned challenges—and more—can tremendously benefit from utilizing GPS tracking as part of your fleet risk management operations in the following ways:
Insight into Precise Location at All Times
In the situation where one of your drivers is disoriented or simply doesn’t know where they are, GPS tracking is the perfect antidote to this problem.
The name “GPS tracking” provides the solution; by implementing a system that leverages GPS data, your drivers and assets will never be lost. After all, the last thing your customers would want to hear is that you’ve lost track of their product!
Fleet risk managers can gain peace of mind knowing that the lives and important assets that you’re responsible for won’t ever vanish from their overview.
Regular Maintenance Schedules
Long gone are the days of manually tracking maintenance on your fleet vehicles and other assets. With GPS tracking technology, you can monitor vehicle or equipment performance, automate service schedules, and pull maintenance reports to make informed decisions about the status of your fleet.
Tracking the location or using remote diagnostic capabilities to monitor the performance of your vehicles or equipment allows you to also know when and how your company’s equipment is being operated. Using some of the basic and advanced software settings, you can monitor the traveling speed and acceleration of vehicles, as well as what systems are being used or engaged. By automating this crucial component of fleet operations, risk managers can save time, money, and avoid headaches caused by unexpected downtime.
Ensure Contracts Are Followed
When clients are aware that equipment and vehicles are being tracked—and that you are using geofencing capabilities to monitor the real-time location of these assets—they’re more likely to take greater care with the rentals and stay within the designated geographic areas. This also can help to cut down on the number of potential arguments or confrontations you may need to have with clients.
Utilizing GPS tracking also serves as a powerful anti-theft tool; in the event that your assets are stolen or moved without authorization, you can track their locations and pass that information along to the authorities.
Streamline Your Fleet Risk Management Workload with Rastrac’s GPS Tracking Solutions!
There’s a reason that Rastrac is entrusted with tracking more than $1.5 billion in assets worldwide: we’ve been a leading provider of GPS tracking solutions since 1993.
Over the years, we’ve learned a great deal about the importance of risk management in terms of fleet operations and asset management. GPS tracking technology significantly minimizes risk, boosts safety, and keeps your operations running smoothly even in stressful situations.
Contact us today to learn more about how our GPS tracking solutions can make your work as a risk manager easier, more efficient, and help you deliver effective results.
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