What To Look For When Choosing A GPS Fleet Tracking System For Your Business?
If you’re new to this and have no idea where to look and what features are worth pursuing, pay close attention. This section is for you. Not all GPS fleet tracking products are the same. There is variance not only in the terms and conditions but also in their abilities.
Remember that fleet management is not a form of surveillance or spying. It is a management technique, and ELD fleet trackers do much more than giving you updates about the locational displacements of your vehicles. Thus your search for the perfect GPS fleet tracking software should start with exploring the software’s features in question.
Here are some of the most important GPS fleet tracking features that you need to look for:
Real-Time Location Tracking
The first thing you need to confirm is if the fleet tracking system will be able to track the live location of your vehicles or not. Simple location tracking is not enough. You need something that will constantly update you about the actual displacement of your vehicles.
This means seeing dots on your screen that change their location as the vehicle (which is being represented by the said dots) moves in real-time. Live location tracking will better allow you to keep an eye on your workers’ progress, plus it is more efficient than intervalled updates.
In the latter case, you’ll see the location of your fleet vehicles but in a static frame that will refresh after some time, revealing the new location of your fleet vehicles. This is both impractical and as good as not having ELD fleet trackers in your car – after all, you can’t reroute your vehicles effectively and can’t make calculated decisions, so what’s the point?
When buying ELD GPS tracking equipment or a fleet management system, look specifically for “live” or “real-time” location tracking so that your investment is not a waste.
Location History Records
It is impossible to stay glued to your chair all day, looking at where your fleet vehicles have been and whether they ventured somewhere other than the designated milestones. Drivers can get busy with their personal errands using company property, and this is not okay.
Plus, there is a chance that your currently planned route might not be the most optimal option for your specific case. The location history feature is imperative for assessing the overall performance of your fleet drivers and verifying that your company assets are being used for nothing but company work.
Plus, the records are good for developing new business strategies and will help you make long-term decisions such as adding new cars, changing staff members, expanding your service area, etc.
Automated Reports
The usual protocol for determining how much work was done on any given day is to check through the manual log entries made by your drivers. But there is one small problem with this protocol, and that is the unverified & unverifiable nature of this data.
You can’t rely on someone’s ability to remember stuff to run your business. You need actual data, accurate numbers, and to-the-point stats. Nothing short of this will help you develop strategies to get your business to grow.
These automated reports are important since they give you the real picture of your business, successes, and failures. All of them are reported as accurately as you would expect from a complex algorithm. There is no way to tamper with this data. Thus your assessment of your workers will be based purely on merit and nothing else.
This will also compel your drivers to deliver their best since they know that they are being judged fairly. You can even introduce incentives to make your drivers feel appreciated for their hard work and to get them to enthusiastically participate in any strategic changes that you introduce.
Route Optimization
Not every possible route for a particular location is the best one available. You need to find the most optimal route for every travel, and this is not possible when you’re relying purely on your instincts and experience; both of these can fail you.
Instead, you need the cold logic of an algorithm to get you through in such situations. GPS fleet tracking systems are equipped with such algorithms that assess each route’s efficiency based on the distance, traffic density, usual traffic patterns, presence of any blockages (construction), and similar factors.
Thus selecting the optimal route is much more complex than going for the shortest route. Instead, you need to select the most suitable course so that you don’t run late for your stops and don’t waste money by wasting fuel.
Idling Notifications
You need to know when one of your drivers is idling because this is a huge drain on your profits (in the form of fuel wastage), and you must do all that you can to stop this. Start by educating your drivers about the importance of conserving fuel from an economic point of view and ecologically.
Of course, you don’t have to have the app screen open in front of you the whole time for this. You will be notified as soon as the app detects such a trend via the data transmitted by the ELD device. The rest will be up to you.
While the amount of fuel wasted in any given instance of idling may not be much, but if you manage to stop this activity, considering the number of vehicles under your business, you will save up a lot by the end of the year. You can put this money to better use; anything is better than dolling out your hard gotten gains.
Maintenance Alerts
It is a challenge to keep your vehicles all properly maintained and good to go at all times in this business, but it is a necessity at the same time. You need to ensure that the maintenance needs of your vehicles are well taken care of.
But your regular maintenance checks can only do so much to reveal problems. The last thing you need is having one of your vehicles break down in the middle of the road or, worse, get involved in an accident. Fret not because GPS fleet tracking comes to the rescue yet again.
The ELD GPS tracking devices installed into your vehicles or plugged in (depending on which type you got) will send timely maintenance reports to inform you of any impending maintenance trouble that might make things ugly. You’ll have to communicate with your driver and let them know of the problem so that they can nip it in the bud.
Driver Behavior Monitoring
Road safety is one of the ultimate pursuits of fleet management. Your drivers should drive safely and avoid creating any risks for the people they share the road with. Your duties are not limited to getting work done; you must get work done safely.
Accident cases involving commercial drivers are not a new thing. They happen all the time. With the mounting stress of making all the stops as per schedule, drivers can often slide into the unsafe side of driving, but you must bring them back to the realm of safety.
But how do you do that when you’re miles apart?
ELD flee trackers constantly emit signals that help fleet managers check if the drivers are driving under the speed limit and following other safe driving practices. If there is an instance of reckless driving, speeding, rough handling, hard braking, swift turning, and so on, the app will notify you immediately.
In other words, you won’t miss it if something like this happens and will thus be able to act in time to amend your driver’s ways.
Compatibility With Mobile Devices
Mobile phones are becoming increasingly relevant in the realm of computing. They are no longer the bulky and minimalistic gadgets they used to be two decades earlier – now, their processing capabilities rival that of much bigger computers and laptops.
This means that your ideal GPS fleet tracking & telematics software should allow you to use this extra computing power to use as well. Plus, since you can’t be in front of the PC screen all the time, it is better to have the application on your mobile as well for critical notifications.
This way, you’ll never be out of the loop when it comes to getting important intel about the performance of your crew.
Why Is Fleetr The Perfect GPS fleet tracking Product For Your Business
Now that we have gone through the essential features that make or break a deal let’s understand how all of this relates to Fleetr. Well, rest assured that Fleetr boasts all of the aforementioned prized capabilities, which make a fleet management system worth investing in, but there’s more.
Fleetr goes the extra mile to get itself ahead of the crowd and to emerge as a highly flexible and effective GPS fleet tracking solution for small fleets and businesses:
Made For Small Fleets
The best part about Fleetr is that it works for all fleets, big or small, but is especially suited for smaller ones. Very few other products can claim the same, at least not at the same level. Not only are you free to track as many vehicles as you want to (instead of being forced to agree upon a minimum number of vehicles), but you also pay per vehicle, i.e., you won’t be overcharged.
Plug-and-Play Tracker
The Fleetr ELD tracker is a plug-and-play device, perfectly suitable for small fleets since the business owners in these cases are not usually open for an installation process (as is the case with hardwired devices). Small fleet owners want to get started immediately with fleet tracking instead of waiting for an installation and then paying for it.
Plus, such devices also cost less, but in the case of Fleetr, the ELD tracking device is completely free – yes, you read that right, you won’t have to pay a dime for the device! All you need to pay for is the monthly rent for Fleetr’s services, $9.99 per vehicle per month, and that’s all.
No Binding Contracts Or Hidden Charges
Unlike most other products in the market, Fleetr won’t push you into a corner with unwanted and unfair contracts. You are not obliged to use the services for a fixed minimum time or a fixed minimum number of vehicles. In short, you are free to do as you please.
There are no installation charges, no hidden fees, and no initiation dues – how else do you define total freedom?
Affordable, Simple, & Effective
$9.99 per vehicle per month is very affordable. The services pay for themselves in the form of all the money saved. You’ll lower the fuel costs, improve business productivity, and ensure customer satisfaction through timeliness, all of which will bring in more money – more than enough to pay for this rent many times over.
Despite its powerful features, the app is very easy to use. There is no learning curve whatsoever. As soon as you tap into the screen, you’ll get acquainted with everything in no time. Thus Fleer is the ultimate fleet tracking solution for small businesses.
Choose Fleetr For Your Business Today
By now, you probably have a pretty good idea of how Fleetr can help your business and why this is the most suitable option for you, considering its vast applications, simplicity, affordability, flexibility, and versatility. If you still are unsure about the level of difference that our product can create for your business, feel free to contact us, and we’ll guide you through the numerous applications of Fleetr.
We assure you that our discussion will be worthwhile, so pick up that phone and give us a ring today!
