Ways GPS Fleet Tracking Software Can Improve Your Business Rastrac Team | Dec 29, 2015 9:48:58 AM



Although the economy’s on the mend and jobs are starting to pick up once again, businesses still need every advantage they can get to not only survive, but to thrive in today’s highly competitive business environment.

With this in mind, what are some of the ways that GPS fleet tracking software can improve your business for the coming year?

Although the benefits of GPS fleet tracking software can vary by industry, some of the general ways that this software can improve a business include:

#1: Improving Efficiency for Vehicle Routes

One of the biggest concerns of retailers, transportation specialists, and even utility companies is the efficiency of their route planning.

Efficient vehicle routes put a company’s fleet vehicles where they need to be faster, with less wear, tear, and fuel consumption. This improves cash flow for many companies by allowing more services to be completed in a shorter time frame, and reducing expenses for maintenance and fuel per job/shipment completed.

Inefficient routes create delays and increase resource consumption, which adds extra expenses and delays revenue.

GPS fleet vehicle tracking software can help your dispatch centers improve route efficiency by:

• Tracking traffic patterns on a local level, avoiding the routes that would produce long delays.
• Helping identify optimal order of arrival/delivery on a route to minimize total time traveled.
• Keeping drivers “on-task” when using company vehicles.

#2: Reducing Impact of Vehicle Theft on Operating Costs

For a business of nearly any size, the vehicle fleet can represent a significant investment of monetary resources.

Replacing stolen vehicles is not only inconvenient, it can be expensive, even with insurance to help cover the costs.

Using GPS fleet tracking allows you to quickly identify the location of any vehicle in the field. This can be invaluable for asset recovery efforts to retrieve a stolen vehicle before it can be irrevocably damaged.

Simply knowing that your fleet vehicles are equipped with GPS tracking devices can convince would-be thieves that the risk isn’t worth it.

Either way, the cost and/or disruption caused by a vehicle theft is reduced.

#3: Eliminating Fuel Theft/Fraud

It’s an unfortunate fact that some drivers, when entrusted with a company vehicle and reimbursements for fuel costs, will try to abuse these privileges for personal gain.

Fuel theft/fraud, for example, occurs when a driver reports consuming more fuel than they actually used, leading the company to over-reimburse the driver. The driver pockets the change, and the company ends up spending more for fuel than it should.

GPS fleet tracking software can help prevent fuel theft/fraud.

How?

By tracking not only the total distance that a vehicle travels, but important engine statistics such as idle time, speed, and acceleration, you can create an accurate assessment of what the total amount of fuel that the vehicle should have consumed. Comparing this estimate to the fuel consumption reported by the driver can help you determine if fraud is taking place.

For example, say that a driver is completing a route that is roughly 1,000 miles long. Checking the GPS route, you see that on this particular route, the truck should get about 7.5 mpg, for a total of about 133.3 gallons of fuel used. If gas costs $3 a gallon, that should be a total cost of $400. However, the driver cites you $600 for fuel consumption.

With GPS tracking software, you can examine the route the truck actually followed as well as important engine performance metrics to see if they account for the difference between the projected fuel use and what was billed.

#4: Optimized Maintenance Scheduling

Speaking of engine performance and distance traveled, knowing these statistics can help your company optimize the scheduling of key maintenance procedures such as:

• Oil changes;
• Alignments;
• Wheel changes;
• Shock/strut replacements;
• Transmission flushes;
• Brake servicing;

Just to name a few such procedures. These procedures can often be expensive, totaling thousands of dollars, but failing to perform them in time can cause a vehicle breakdown, leading to even more expenses in shipping delays, towing fees, or extra repairs from incidents caused by lack of maintenance.

Knowing the total distance that a fleet vehicle has traveled and remotely monitoring key engine performance statistics allows your company to create a more efficient maintenance schedule. Avoiding unnecessary maintenance reduces overall maintenance costs. On the other hand, identifying when preventative maintenance is needed can help avoid costly breakdowns.

#5: Increased Access to Vehicle Information

One of the greatest advantages that a GPS fleet tracking software can provide is increased business intelligence for your vehicle fleet. Being able to track where each vehicle is at any given time and sharing that information with your company’s supply chain personnel can have a huge impact on the efficiency of your supply chain.

When a shipment is late, you can track down where the truck is and get an estimate of how long it will be until that truck arrives based on local traffic patterns, or even reroute a different truck to take over the cargo load in case of a breakdown.

This helps improve the performance of your supply chain, which can be an incredibly important benefit to your company.

These are just a few of the ways that GPS tracking software can help improve your business in the coming year. Do you have a favorite benefit of GPS fleet tracking software? Leave a comment below!