Dealing with risks of accidents, theft, and breakdowns is an important part in the life of any fleet owner. To deal with these risks, it is important to realize the importance of GPS fleet tracking solutions for the modern-day requirements of your fleet business. As it can be commonly observed, the world of technology has the solutions to almost every possible problem. The solutions offered by fleet tracking systems have made the lives of fleet owners and managers easy and hassle-free.
With fleet tracking systems, you can now enjoy tracking your vehicles in real time. In this manner, one can get updated on the movement of their vehicles from the comfort of their office.
Not just this, tracking systems move beyond their functionalities to actually improve your fleet performance.
With fleet tracking solutions, one can ease out their anxieties and get a hold of a vehicle’s location. Moreover, using this technology allows fleet managers to meet the maintenance goals of their vehicles. Because of these reasons, the systems are largely becoming popular not only among large fleet businesses but with small and medium fleet owners as well. We explore what fleet tracking actually is, and the top 5 benefits of fleet tracking that can enhance your fleet’s performance greatly.
What is Fleet Tracking?
To put it simply, fleet tracking is all about using a vehicle tracking system to monitor the activities of any vehicle. For this, the vehicles are fitted with GPS tracking devices that capture real-time movement of the vehicle. The data recorded can then be accessed and monitored by any user on a real-time basis, as and when the vehicles are moving.
The biggest advantage of a fleet tracking service is that users can have access to real-time as well as historic data. These datasets are precise and accurate. Moreover, these provide valuable support to the strategic interests of any fleet business by empowering the fleet business to take effective decisions.
Core Features of A Real-Time GPS Fleet Tracking System
The functionalities of some of the best fleet tracking solutions cover the all-round expectations of a fleet operator. Right from providing solutions to the most basic need of tracking vehicles to advanced needs of providing performance reports, fleet tracking systems have answers to all your possible problems. In fact, they allow the fleet operators to edge past their typical methods of making a decision. These features, which enable fleet operators to work in a more robust and dynamic environment, are as follows:
- Location Support
The GPS fleet tracking software provides location support to the users. This helps the fleet owners/managers to be aware of the movements of vehicles as they are on the road. The managers and owners can locate their vehicles on the map and monitor the trip’s progress. In this manner, the fleet owners and managers can stay updated with various information during the course of movement of vehicles. These include the information on the present location of the vehicle, distance travelled from starting point, distance remaining to reach the destination, important landmarks on the route, distance from the nearest vehicle of the fleet, updates on the movement of vehicles in the geofenced locations and others.
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- Notifications and Alerts
One of the best applications of real time GPS fleet tracking systems is that they provide users with various kinds of alerts. These alerts are produced spontaneously to alarm the fleet operators on several updates. The major advantage of these alerts is that they allow owners or managers to be notified in real-time. For instance, one of these alerts is an over speeding alert, which notifies the fleet operators as soon as any driver crosses the set speed limit. The other such type of alert is a harsh braking alert which is received upon the aggressive braking in any vehicle. In this manner, the fleet operators can become aware of the number of times where harsh braking was applied by any vehicle.
There are other types of alert features as well, which can be crucial from the viewpoint of safety. One such alert is the SoS alert which can be raised by the driver when there is an urgent need for establishing connection with the manager. The vehicle idling alerts are received from the vehicles that are not moving for a long period of time for unknown reasons. The fleet operators can contact drivers and respond to any stressful situation, thanks to these notifications.
- Driving History
The fleet vehicle tracking devices store the datasets of every movement of vehicles which can be accessed at any time. This provides the users with the flexibility to have a look at the historic data as the need arises. The biggest uplifting factor with this is that these datasets are systematically arranged and curated. The users can have a holistic view of the journeys made by their vehicles in the past. With this, the business has the opportunity to work on its shortcomings and improve its performance.
With the applications of fleet tracking solutions, a business can have an overview of the performance of its drivers. Combined with this are the statistical reports produced by the tracking solutions. These provide insights into the performance of the drivers. This also provides the opportunity to discover the scope of improvement by identifying the flaw points of the drivers. This feature of fleet tracking provides valuable insights to fleet owners and managers.
- Reports and Analytics
The advent of smart telematics solutions has allowed fleet operators to refine their way of working with the help of reports. These reports are automatically generated by fleet tracking solutions. With the help of this data, users can dig deep in addressing the concerns and challenges faced routinely. Not only this, by taking the help of these reports, businesses can improve on their prospects of cost-saving. Reduced expenditures on fuel, maintenance and repairs of vehicles help in bringing down business costs significantly.
With the help of these reports, fleet operators can have insights on fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance, driver performance, repairs, and other areas of importance. These reports work wonders for fleet businesses to have the chance to improve their performance.
- Vehicle Security Features
Most of the GPS fleet tracking devices these days are equipped with advanced vehicle security features. Using these features allows both drivers and fleet operators to realize the need to ensure the security of both – driver and the vehicle. There are hence different types of vehicle security features offered by various GPS fleet tracking devices. Remote vehicle locks, security alarming systems, and geo-fencing are examples of some of these rewarding features. Using these features allows both the drivers and fleet operators to have hands-on actionable solutions. Features like vehicle mobilizers and panic buttons provide a much needed helping hand to users, especially in cases of a security breach.
Benefits of Fleet Tracking
Fleet tracking systems provide the users with abundant opportunities to rescue themselves from the challenges faced day-to-day. Having fleet tracking solutions helps in delivering on the significant needs of a fleet operator. As discussed, the fleet tracking solutions are capable of catering to some of the basic needs to the most advanced needs of fleet operators. The need for equipping your vehicles with fleet tracking solutions is most important today than ever. The rising competition in the fleet and transportation industry has been a driving force to go for adoption of fleet tracking solutions sooner rather than later. Adding to this are the compliance requirements in several countries, which requires vehicles to be equipped with GPS tracking solutions.
Reliance on GPS fleet tracking solutions allows the fleet owners and operators to get past their worries and have real-time command over situations. Having tracking solutions is crucial in safeguarding vehicles from a range of hazards. Here are the 5 important benefits of GPS fleet tracking solutions that make them the fitting choice for improving your fleet performance:
1. Route Planning and Optimization
The functionality of a fleet GPS tracking device revolves around creating awareness about the real-time movement of vehicles. The fleet vehicle tracking system allows the fleet operators to monitor the movement of their vehicles on the trip. Further, with the help of fleet tracking solutions, a user can plan their trip and optimize their journey. The fleet operators can receive important information like dispatch time and arrival time of vehicles.
The users can also have a grasp on information like choosing which route can be fuel-efficient for the vehicle. Along with this, updates on stoppage location of vehicles and delay time of vehicles can be assessed. Other important updates, such as traffic congestion on any particular route, can also be determined with the help of fleet tracking solutions. As a fleet operator, having the understanding of these crucial aspects is a necessary part of planning trips and schedules.
The fleet tracking solutions make it possible for fleet operators to know about pertinent details such as – when did the trip begin, the starting point of the journey, different stoppages taken by the vehicle, route taken by the vehicle to reach the destination, insights on the fuel usage etc.
2. Minimizing Risk of Theft
The fleet tracking solutions play a key role in minimizing the incidents related to theft. With real time GPS fleet tracking solutions, you can clamp down on such incidents. Businesses with these tracking solutions can remotely control the vehicle lock with an immobiliser. These can be remotely applied on vehicles by the fleet operator with the help of tracking applications. Combined with this, there are safety features as well, such as an alarm system, which can be utilised by the drivers remotely. Users also have the advantage of keeping track of the movement of the vehicle and recover it in case it falls prey to theft.
3. Improving Driver Safety and Performance
The GPS Fleet Tracking solutions can be a game-changer when it comes to improving the driving behaviour and patterns of the drivers. Drivers can be judged on several parameters based on the data produced by the real time GPS fleet tracking solutions. Fleet operators always have the liberty to go through the driver profile generated by the systems. Here, the operators can get updated on various aspects such as the on time delivery rate of any driver, number of times in which a driver has been involved with accidents, time spent idling, etc.
4. Improving Fleet Productivity
Adoption of fleet tracking solutions offers a win-win situation for the wide-ranging needs of a fleet manager and drivers. These solutions make it possible for the managers to have real-time knowledge of several aspects of fleet operations. Be it your need to save fuel or reduce the burden of maintenance costs of vehicles, tracking solutions have got a solution to your every possible problem. With the help of tracking devices, you can predict the shortcomings that need to be fixed. You can hence make all the needed preparation for the journey in the wake of data-driven insights. These insights are about fuel consumption patterns, your maintenance reports for vehicles, and performance reports of drivers. In addition to this, the on-road assistance features such as navigation also have a direct impact on the performance of the fleet. The GPS fleet tracking solutions not only guide you with your running operations but enable you to plan your future. Fleet owners have found landmark changes in ways in which their fleet productivity has been affected with solutions of real time GPS fleet tracking.
5. Improving Customer Satisfaction
Real time GPS fleet tracking ignites the spark for marking improvements in a fleet’s performance. These solutions play a remarkable role in shaping the customer relations of a fleet business. With on-time dispatches and turn by turn updates on navigation, the customers can rest satisfied with the overall performance of the business. The fleet tracking solution allows users to streamline their processes and systemize their operations.
Moreover, these solutions allow the business to align with the expectations of the consumers. These expectations can be in the form of ensuring the quality and safety of goods, ensuring that on-time delivery is made, etc. Fleet tracking solutions help in democratizing the access of information of the fleet to allow consumers to have updated and real time information. With overall improvement in the performance of the fleet, customers of the fleet business achieve the best of values.
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