Are you a Transport Company running a fleet of trucks or buses to carry out your commercial activities?
Yes,
You must be looking for effective fleet management system for growth of your business.
Trucks and buses are valuable assets of your business and protecting them against road accidents and hijacking must be, naturally, your prime concern. Most accidents are caused due to rash and careless driving. GPS enabled fleet tracking system is a boon to modern commercial vehicle owners. It helps locating your fleet movement discreetly.
GPS fleet tracking systems are very effective in public transportation, particularly in a fleet of commercial trucks, school buses or metered taxis. These systems help the concerned transport company or the school administration to know the exact location of a particular vehicle. It improves the safety of both, the vehicle and its passengers. Drivers of vehicles fitted with GPS enabled devices are able to make required adjustments in their route to tackle traffic congestion problems. Efficient route management helps saving on fuel and vehicle maintenance cost. Many schools and corporate houses are opting to install GPS tracking system in their fleet of buses. This gives peace of mind to institute officials and family members of the passengers. This technology has helped great way in discreet location of your fleet movement.
So, treat the following tips as a stock of arrows in your quiver.
GPS fleet tracking system has certainly helped in increasing efficiency and productivity in businesses related with fleet of vehicles. It not only helps in cost and time savings, but also has proved very effective system in discreet location of your fleet movement.
Benefits:
Fitting any vehicle with a GPS tracking system, whether commercial or private, gives the user a number of benefits. These benefits can have direct influence on your finances, car security and vehicle usage, all ultimately leading to benefits for the owner.
1) Security
Installing GPS tracking to a vehicle has a number of instantaneous effects on its security. GPS tracking means you are always able to know where your car or van is situated at any moment of the day or night. By geo-tagging your vehicle, whereby you define a particular area or zone, out of which it must not travel, you can instantly be notified if it leaves the works compound, your street or the garage at the end of your garden.
2) Theft
Car theft is a particular problem and tagged vehicles can also warn the owner if they are moved. The GPS tracking system will be able to tell if the car has shifted even slightly and an alert will be triggered. GPS tracking also means that owners stand a greater chance of recovering any stolen vehicle as it can be followed and traced, ensuring its eventual discovery.
3) Monitoring
Monitoring is of great benefit, especially for fleet vehicles but also provides private users who will benefit greatly from the ability to locate their vehicle. This can be especially useful if you are trying to find your car in a full car park, after two weeks away in the sun.
4) GPS tracking
The most obvious result of tracking solutions are sat nav systems, meaning you are less likely to get lost, than if you rely on conventional paper maps. Although you still have to exercise a certain amount of common sense and make sure you put the right location into your system.
5) Fuel saving
Modern GPS tracking systems can provide drivers with a vast array of data concerning their journeys, while of particular interest to business users, private drivers can also benefit from knowing the best routes, quietest streets and quickest roads to take in a morning. Data regarding your driving habits can also cut down on fuel consumption and help save money on fuel.
Things To Avoid While Tuning With Commercial Vehicle Tracking.
- Take Plenty Of Time To Review The Initial Requirements And Quotes
If you don’t dedicate an adequate amount of time to review the quotes from the OEM or upfit vendor, you risk missing crucial details.
Common oversights include:
- Not including a trailer brake controller if your fleet vehicles will be required to do towing
- Not giving adequate instructions on the layout of decals
- Not including a block heater if your fleet operates in cold climates
- Not including an adequately sized battery and alternator for auxiliary equipment
Every fleet is unique and industry-specific. These are just a few possible details that could be neglected. Trying to use a one size fits all approach in an attempt to save time and money can come back to bite you in the end, ultimately costing you more resources by the time the project is completed.
- Don’t Overload Your Fleet Vehicles
It’s surprisingly common for even experienced fleet managers to simply overlook or underestimate the amount of stress all the additional aftermarket equipment will put on the vehicle. Safety and payload requirements must be considered when fleet vehicle upfitting so balance and towing ability aren’t compromised. A great new decked out van isn’t much use if it’s not able to meet safety standards and tow loads when required.
- Try Not To Void The OEM Warranty If Possible
It’s essential to ensure the upfitter is well aware of any alterations to the vehicle that will void the manufacturer warranty. Voiding the warranty may be necessary depending on the up fitting required. However, you’re going to want to know this ahead of time, so you’re not shocked when you take your fleet vehicle in for maintenance, and you’re told it’s no longer under warranty.
- Do Your Best To Anticipate Future Requirements
It’s worthwhile to take a moment to reflect and imagine as best you can where your business might be 5, 10 years from now. It can be challenging to add on significant installations on top of an already fully upfitted vehicle. If you anticipate needing additional up fitting specs in the future, it may be wise to consider how those future installations would fit into the picture.
- Try and Keep The Process As Simple As Possible
Time is money. It can be tempting to shop around each upfit spec to try and get the best deal possible. However, at a certain point, you need to ask yourself how much all the extra time and effort of taking your vehicle to different vendors is worth to you. It may be worth paying a bit of a premium to have all the work done under one roof if it saves you a significant amount of time in the end.
Having all your fleet vehicle up fitting done at one location will also avoid having different vendors pointing the finger at other pieces of equipment saying that it’s obstructing their ability to complete their work. It’s also important to try your best to resist the temptation of installing “nice to have” but not necessary pieces of equipment that could crowd the vehicle and take up space that might be needed to for more critical equipment in the future.
- Give Adequate Attention To The Graphics
A fleet vehicle is mostly a moving billboard for your business, despite some people disagreeing they should be. It’s worthwhile to sit down with your team and put some serious thought into how you’re going to utilize this free piece of advertising best. It’s worth spending a bit of extra money to get some quality graphics that will grab people’s attention and help build your brand recognition.
- Consider Installing GPS Tracking During Your Fleet Vehicle Upfitting
Fleet vehicle upfitting of an individual vehicle so it can perform well on its own is very important. Fleets work best when they are organized, and each vehicle is being utilized optimally. Fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page to set up a meeting with a Nero, fleet consultant. We would welcome the opportunity to learn about your fleet and discuss ways vehicle tracking can enhance operational efficiency and save your business money.
FleetGo are an exceptional provider of fleet management and field services management with over numerous customers worldwide. We offer solutions for fleet management services focusing on delivering products to enhance the profitability and productivity of your fleet. In fact, we aim to offer choice and scalability with their solutions and offer an attractive Beat Any Price offer. We are rapidly becoming a big name on the global vehicle tracking scene.
Author: Abel Korevaar
Abel is a consultant at FleetGO, a leading European telematics service provider. He likes to follow the latest trends in technology and is responsible for the content at FleetGO.
