Fleet Tracking Serves Small Business Fleets In Many Ways
When you come to think of it, small businesses, more than big ones, need increased productivity and working efficiency, both of which are associated with GPS tracking. Plus, with an increased dedication towards work from your drivers, you can significantly increase your profits, allowing you to give perks to your workers for a job well done, which will further reinforce such hardworking behavior. Overall, fleet tracking is the ultimate management tool you’ll need to get the best out of your team.
Here’s how that happens:
Increased Work Efficiency
It is hard to put the premise of feet tracking under one header, but if it is to be anything, then efficiency is as good a term as any to describe the definitive goals of fleet management. After all, fleet managers want their workers to do as much work as humanly possible without overexerting them – this leaves only one way to do so: improving the business protocol and introducing more efficiency.
With GPS tracking in the mix, there won’t be any cover for anyone to slack off, but the point is to get the best out of a team through superior management. Knowing where the drivers are at a given instance and where they’re headed, and other details like how close they are to completing their daily goals, and so on, allows fleet managers to make consequential decisions that help businesses grow.
The ability to monitor your fleet will allow you to manage them better, assign new tasks to them, or reroute your drivers as needed. This also means that you won’t have to give estimated or vague answers for when they ask for ETAs. On both ends of the operation, fleet tracking software helps improve team productivity and efficiency. Plus, eliminating excuses for less than satisfactory performance creates an atmosphere where the only way forward is hard work.
Better Communication
Optimal communication is key to success for any work environment, but the transportation business problem is that the two parties are not even in the same space. Thus there is no way of knowing when and when not to communicate with the other person, even if it is urgent on your end. The problem is that you can’t constantly bother the other party because they’ve got deadlines to meet and a schedule to follow, but at the same time if you were to distance yourself from the whole thing completely, the work efficiency would drop to rock bottom.
Your job is to find the perfect balance where you’re not annoying your drivers but, at the same time, not ignoring their progress either. By balancing the instances of communication, you can reach an optimal level, i.e., being connected enough but without being annoying. One way to do this is to reduce the need for communication. Normally, the only reason you’d be constantly phone calling your drivers would be to ask for their locational updates.
However, with fleet tracking in the equation, that need is more or less taken care of; now, you’d only want to communicate when something serious is the matter so that you can either give your driver a heads-up about the problem or guide them on how to proceed next. This way, your drivers will know that your attempts to communicate are backed by genuine concern. The productivity level will also go up since all of your workers will be fully aware of why you’re not phone calling them for locational updates – you know where they are.
Of course, if someone is running off course or performing unsatisfactorily, you should ask them what the problem is so that you can resolve it.
Driver & Asset Safety Assured
Next, one of your biggest concerns as a fleet manager or a small business owner is the safety of your vehicles and drivers. Accidents involving commercial vehicles are so common that it behooves you to be concerned about this matter. The biggest risk to this safety is unsafe driving, and with the tight schedules and deadlines that the transportation business thrusts upon drivers, is it all too unbelievable that commercial drivers tend to get a bit careless on the roads (not that this should be an excuse to do so)?
One way to avoid such a disaster is to constantly engage your drivers in safety lectures and meetings so that they understand how even minor negligence can bear disastrous consequences, something that most people tend to ignore. But things can get out of control on the road unless you have a way to monitor how your drivers are performing, which is made possible by GPS fleet tracking. Apart from simply tracking the displacement of your drivers, sophisticated GPS tracking systems can also show you stats and telematics data about how your drivers are behaving on the road.
This includes data on speeding, rough driving, swift turns, hard braking, high acceleration, and other indicators of unsafe road behavior. Note that in the event of an accident, not only will your employee and vehicle take a beating, but you’ll also become liable for any damages to the party in a personal injury lawsuit. Commercial accident lawsuits can drain thousands of dollars from businesses, even small ones like yours, and we all know what such a huge drain can mean for anyone trying their best to get their startup at the forefront of their niche.
Of course, it is just as much possible that your driver gets involved in an accident that they didn’t cause. If that does happen, you’ll once again have to deal with the legal trouble that comes with being involved in such a mess. However, fleet tracking can come to the rescue here as well. With the data at hand, you can prove that your driver was not engaged in any hazardous activities on the road and was instead driving safely – if you can produce dashcam footage too, it will be the perfect defense evidence.
Remember that a crash is a risk to your employees, your assets, the other party involved, and your business because of the legal problems that come later.
Fuel Wastage Minimized
Fuel costs take a huge chunk from the business funds of every transportation company, and if you can make some cuts here, you’ll save up a significant sum in a given year, more than enough to pay for your fleet tracking system. Idling and poor route planning can lead to excessive waste of fuel, and the financial loss of such a drain may not seem like much at a given instant. It can become a drag after some time, especially if you have a couple of vehicles.
Wasting fuel is bad for the planet and your business because you need to make your financial side as efficient as possible. Through timely idling notifications and better route planning abilities, GPS tracking helps you save a significant sum. Idling is one of the most important fuel drains, i.e., when your driver leaves the vehicle running during deliveries, and if you can modify your employee’s behavior, it will help you a lot.
All made possible by GPS fleet tracking.
Better Route Planning
Getting to places is the foundation of the transportation industry, but your workers need to use the most optimal route for every travel. However, you can’t always rely on experience or your gut feeling because both can fail you miserably when the time comes. Taking a single wrong turn can not only cost you in terms of fuel and effort, but you’ll also lose precious time. This is where route optimization comes into the picture to help you better scale the roads ahead of you without worry.
The complicated algorithm in your fleet tracking system will use the satellite data to select the most suitable route for every drive based on several factors such as distance, number of turns, traffic density, and more. This way, every drive will be smooth and as short as possible, allowing your drivers to save time, effort, and fuel. On top of it all, route optimization will let you better schedule your stops so that you can get more work done without having to exert your workers more than usual.
Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed
All of this combined will be more than enough to deliver your best for every client, which will perfectly reflect how your services are received. Timeliness, consistency, superior planning, better teamwork, and care for road safety enabled by telematics are all things that your customers will appreciate a lot. This is sure to get you several positive reviews for your business. Based on these reviews, you will be able to get more leads for your business and develop a reputation in the market as a truly professional workforce.
Small or big, all businesses are only as good as the people leading them want them to be. If you’re not serious about the quality of service you provide, then there won’t be any way forward. With fleet tracking, you can significantly improve your performance and satisfy your customers with your professional excellence and enthusiasm.
Features To Look For When Buying A Fleet Management System
Now that we’ve mentioned how small businesses have much to gain from the inclusion of fleet tracking systems in their framework let’s try and understand how not all fleet management solutions are the same. You can’t overspend or underspend when it comes to something so important as a GPS tracking system, but at the same time, you need to be aware of the features you’re getting as part of a deal.
Before finalizing a deal, make sure that the product you have in mind carries the features we’ve described below lest you end up with an inadequate fleet tracking system that only eats up on your monthly rent and brings nothing to your end:
Live Location Tracking
The first feature you need to look for is live location tracking which refers to the ability to track the movements of your fleet vehicles as they happen at that instant. On your end, you’ll see the vehicles as dots or markers on the screen moving on a map that represents your service area.
This is important because, with instantaneous updates, you’ll be able to make informed decisions.
Idling Notifications
Next, idling notifications are important if you want to be updated about any fuel wastage so that you can cut down the operation costs by minimizing wastefulness. Plus, this way, you don’t have to be in front of the app screen all the time to catch up on stuff that matters.
Maintenance Alerts
Another important aspect of fleet tracking is to be reminded of any scheduled maintenance checks and impending maintenance trouble. If you can notice such trouble before it becomes a bigger problem, you’ll be able to preempt major disasters.
Route Optimization
As mentioned already, fleet tracking software can help you map out the best route for your schedule based on traffic density, distance, number of turns, number of stops, and so on. This way, your drives will be as smooth as possible, allowing you to squeeze in more work than usual.
Drivers’ Behavior Monitoring
Being able to note any instances of speeding, rough driving, or similar unsafe road behavior will put you in a better position to preempt accidents on the road. You will avoid legal trouble that comes with accident cases and safeguard your drivers and assets.
Location History
Through location history monitoring, you’ll be able to catch up on the progress of our workers and see what they did for the day. No turn or detour will go unnoticed, and even if you missed the live stream, you’d be able to review the work efficiency of all of your workers.
Automated Performance Records
Lastly, you don’t need to hold onto inefficient and inaccurate manual logs to monitor your drivers’ performance. Instead, you can assess their progress based on automated data generated by the app, which is accurate and unaltered.
All of these features combined will make your fleet tracking experience as fruitful as possible, and your business will surely benefit from the exercise.
How To Pick A Fleet Tracking System For Your Small Business?
This section is for an average small fleet owner who is confused about which product to go for, considering that there is such a vast variety in the market. As we’ve already clarified, some products have been specifically designed for small fleets, others not so much. Your decision here will impact how your business proceeds and how much you can get out of your fleet tracking endeavors. But the thing is, you can’t base your decision on the first product you come across that looks okay for you; instead, you’ll have to invest some time and consider a couple of things before turning in a decision:
- Is the service affordable, or will you simply be inviting a burden on your business funds?
- Whether you’re free to use the fleet tracking solution as per your needs or if there are some fixed rules about commitment and number of vehicles?
- Has the said product generally been well received by other small fleet owners working in similar conditions as yours?
- Does the product offer all the features you need, are all of them mentioned in the product description?
- Based on customer reviews, are you certain that the fleet tracking company’s features advertised are indeed provided?
- Are the contract terms user-friendly or overly binding, and if that the latter is the case, how hard is it to walk away from the deal once you’ve signed up?
- Lastly, is the product advertised as a fleet tracking solution for small fleets specifically?
Based on the answers you get for these questions and other such queries, you’ll know if a product is the one for you!
Fleetr Is The Perfect Choice For Small Businesses
Having gone through all the essential features that make a fleet tracking solution a capable choice and all the benefits that such a fleet management system brings to the table, you’ll have a much better idea about what you need for your small business. Ideally, you should look for a product with affordable rent, minimal hassle in the acquisition process, no trouble with terms and conditions, and with all the high-end features included.
Fleetr is just such a deal with no binding contractual obligations on your end, no trouble with how you get to use the tracker, and no complications for quitting if you don’t want to be subscribed anymore. The best part about our deal is that we reveal all the details you need to know beforehand, so there are no surprises down the road. Plus, we’ll ship you a free tracker to get you started with your fleet tracking endeavors from day one – no installation needed.
Call us if you’re still not sure why our product is the best one for your small fleet; we assure you that our tracking services and customer support are unparalleled!
