What is a Fleet Tracking Mobile App?
When you choose to implement a fleet tracking system, you are likely to find that it comes with a mobile app providing an interactive dashboard for you to monitor and manage your fleet – even when you aren’t at the office. Not all fleet tracking apps are created equal, but there are some features that you can find within these apps that will make tracking your fleet (and managing it) much easier.
Uses the Fleet Tracking Hardware to Sync Data
When implementing a GPS tracking system into your fleet, there is usually a type of hardware that must be plugged into the OBD-II port. When the hardware is plugged into the port, it will take the data it accumulates from the app and collects it in the app. From there, you get the opportunity to create reports that can help you in various aspects of your business.
Your fleet tracking system should provide you with historical data as well as real-time data on your fleet. From your mobile device, you should be able to see exactly where each vehicle is and what its status is. The same applies to the historical data – from there, you can determine if there are driving patterns that are troublesome to the efficiency of your fleet.
Offers the Potential for Real-Time Communication
To be successful, you need to be proactive with your fleet. The best way to do this is to keep the lines of communication open between yourself and the drivers of your fleet. Having this open line of communication makes it possible for you to offer up the guidance they may need when they run into an obstacle – like backed up traffic – while still allowing them to handle their routes with confidence. When you know where your fleet vehicles are, not only are you reducing the risk on your business, but you are also enabling your customers, allowing them to have a timeline for their delivery or service call.
Allows for Geofencing Parameters
When you own a fleet, you have to juggle multiple jobs – you can’t constantly be watching your drivers to ensure they are doing what they need to be doing. In fact, depending on the number of fleet vehicles you have, it is likely next to impossible for you to keep up on all of their moves, to begin with. So, how do you work around this to ensure that the drivers stick to their routes without going too far out of their way?
Geofencing parameters are how you ensure that your drivers stick to the route with very little deviation. If they go outside of the parameters you have set for them, you will receive an alert on your phone. You can then review which fleet vehicle went out of bounds and address the situation. These alerts allow you to focus your attention on things other than micromanaging your fleet at all hours of the day and night.
Your Mobile App and Tracking Solution Should Be Easy to Use
You have enough on your plate as an owner/manager of a fleet and business – the last thing you need is for your fleet management solution and mobile app to take up even more of your time. The entire system should be easy to use, and it should be possible to implement it across your entire fleet with minimal disruption.
These are some of the criteria you should consider when looking for your fleet tracking system and mobile app:
- How easy is the layout to navigate – does it require a four-hour training to understand?
- Can the details be easily configured?
- Is updating the information easy to do?
- Does it have offline capabilities?
You don’t want to have to spend all your time and money figuring out how to use this, which is why having user-friendly technology is often the most beneficial.
Your Tracking System is Versatile
A good fleet tracking system does more than just track your fleet. In fact, it is actually natural for these to offer your small fleet with solutions that make the overall fleet management job easier – these may include:
- The ability to assign and/or review asset and team member assignments
- The usage metrics of each vehicle
- Preventative maintenance schedules/monitoring
- Fuel economy and consumption tracking
- Work orders and their statuses
- Operational expenses of the fleet
- Vehicle inspection configurations
The purpose of these extra options is to empower you, the manager, and allow you to take control of your fleet all from the comfort of your home. You no longer have to be tied to a desktop computer to monitor your team – you can go to the conference, take that long lunch, visit other businesses, and so on. Everything you need to know about your fleet can be found in the app.
Drivers Practice Safer Driving When a GPS Tracking Device is Implemented
If you were being monitored in your personal vehicle, you would probably change how you drive, right? When you implement fleet tracking devices in your driver’s company vehicles, they are more likely to pay more attention to how they drive, which is beneficial for your company as a whole.
The more mindful your fleet drivers are, the more money you save. How does this technology improve driver habits?
GPS Tracking Allows You To Monitor Speeding and Other Unsafe Driving Habits
A big part of having a mobile app to help you monitor your fleet is the ability to monitor driver behavior like speeding, sudden acceleration, hard braking, idling, and more – these can all influence the efficiency of the fleet and even the safety. By monitoring these items, you can rest assured that your fleet will drive safer – protecting your assets in the process.
Cuts Down the Amount Spent on Fuel
Not only do the above situations play a role in the safety of your fleet, but it also influences the efficiency of your fleet’s fuel economy. Instances of hard braking, idling, speeding, and more can weigh heavily on your fuel consumption – when you work on eliminating these driving behaviors, you can save quite a bit in gas for the entire fleet.
Offers Data for Rewarding Drivers
In the same way that your fleet tracking software gives you bad behavior, it can also be driven by data that can be used to reward your drivers as well. Drivers want to do better when there is an incentive involved – the type of reward you choose is up to you and can be chosen based on what motivates your drivers. Using fleet tracking software like Fleetr can provide you with a leaderboard of your drivers – who is driving better than you expect and who needs to be in training?
Stop Relying on Drivers for Specific Vehicle Information
One of the most important aspects of taking care of your fleet is keeping up with preventative maintenance, which required a heavy reliance on your drivers in the past. Each day, they would likely come to you and tell you what their ending mileage was for the day so that you could input it and keep track of it for maintenance purposes. With fleet tracking software, this becomes an automated process – your drivers no longer have to report back to you each day. This helps reduce the number of errors and discrepancies that may occur, delaying necessary maintenance.
The Benefits of Using a Fleet Tracker and Mobile App
There are so many benefits that your small business fleet can experience when you implement a tracking solution and mobile app into your business infrastructure. You have already learned that driver behavior behind the wheel can be impacted greatly by the use of fleet tracking and monitoring it via mobile app – but what other benefits are there?
- Reduces operational expenses – implementing a fleet tracking system can greatly reduce operational expenses by helping find the most optimized routes, reduce fuel consumption, and more.
- Keeps customers happy – you will find that customers who know when to anticipate the fleet drivers are happier than those who face delays because of a lack of communication. You can answer questions your customers have by looking at your mobile app.
- You can plan routes better – routes can be complicated to change, especially if a driver is already accustomed to a specific way. Routes have to change, though, because if you don’t change them occasionally, you are likely ignoring the possibility of increasing the efficiency of your fleet.
- Get timely alerts – using a mobile app to help you keep track of your fleet provides you with the opportunity to get real-time alerts. Get alerted when the driver is speeding. If the driver leaves a geofenced area, you can get a real-time alert. Using a mobile app in conjunction with your fleet tracking software provides you the opportunity to know what Is going on in real-time with your fleet.
- Reduce the amount of paperwork in the office – You likely handle a lot of paperwork in your office each day. The piles of papers on your desk are proof that you take a great deal of pride in your title and your fleet – you keep track of everything manually. If you introduce fleet tracking software with a mobile app, these are often available on any smart device and on your desktop. Using a mobile app and fleet tracking software is the same equivalent as going digital (paperless, green, eco-friendly, etc.), and you can let the automated processes update the data so that you can spend more time out from behind the desk – interacting with customers and not filling out paperwork.
Introducing Fleetr Into Your Business
Fleetr is a fleet tracking solution that was created for small fleets – just like yours. Fleetr does not require businesses to commit to a long-term contract. Instead, you can cancel anytime without penalty. The monthly rate for Fleetr’s standard fleet tracking product is $9.99 per month per vehicle – including the hardware and app.
When you sign up for Fleetr and pay for your first month’s service for your vehicles, we ship you your hardware, which will arrive in about three to five days! During this time, we recommend getting the app set up with your specific criteria and all the data about the vehicles and the drivers of each one. Once you get the hardware, you plug it into the OBD-II port, and it begins gathering data from the vehicle almost immediately – transmitting to the app via wireless networks (at no extra cost to you).
Fleetr makes digitizing your fleet tracking easier than the other larger-scale operations, but with many of the same perks. There are many different attributes that Fleetr offers in terms of fleet tracking – including vehicle usage metrics, preventative maintenance schedules, alerts for the driving behavior that you need to know about, and so much more.
As the data accumulates, Fleetr provides you with reports on your fleet – driver leaderboard, fuel efficiency tips, etc. Did you know that you have the opportunity to save up to $200 per month per vehicle? That’s right, with Fleetr, when you implement the tips and tricks for fuel efficiency, you can save big time, more than enough to pay for your subscription!
Are you ready to take the next step with your fleet monitoring? Let Fleetr help you minimize the amount of paperwork you shuffle, alert you when there is unsafe behavior, and provide you with more fuel savings in the long run – all when you switch your small fleet to Fleetr.
