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Why Do I Need a GPS Fleet Tracking Device?

If you run a fleet management business or your business is dependant on vehicles for operations, then you must have heard of GPS fleet tracking by now. Chances are that you’re asking yourself: Why do I need a GPS fleet tracking device at this very moment? No problem, we’re here to explain how your business can benefit from GPS fleet tracking.

During the past few years, technology has made several breakthroughs for the transportation and logistics industry. As businesses across the globe become borderless, the logistics industry grows more and more important. Advances have been made in telematics, augmented reality, reporting software, and more, to help fleet managers save time and money on operations.

Before we dive into why you need a GPS fleet tracking device, let’s first understand the technology.

What is GPS Tracking Technology?

Are you sitting with all of your drivers and ensuring that they are reaching destinations on time and being responsible? We’re guessing the answer is no because it’s impossible to do so. What if we told you that it’s possible to do all this virtually? You can simply use a GPS tracker in each of your vehicles. This tracker will not only locate the driver for you but also let you know if they’re not driving safely or are being irresponsible on the road.

A GPS fleet tracking software uses both hardware and software. The hardware is usually used to track your vehicle and its operation. There are many options on the market, and the kind of device you need will depend on the depth of stats you need to be monitored.

The simplest ones are plug-and-play devices that are placed in the vehicle. While more advanced ones can be hooked up with the information centers of your vehicles to provide more insight.

Global positioning software is used to track the vehicle. And, all information gathered by the hardware is sent to the software in the form of real-time updates on location, vehicle status, and driver behaviors, etc.

Why is a Vehicle Tracking System Important for Your Business?

As a business that manages vehicles and is dependant on them for timely operations, it is useful to benefit from GPS tracking hardware and software to keep track of your vehicles, improve driver safety, cut fuel costs, and train new drivers.

Still asking yourself: why do I need a GPS fleet tracking device? Let’s look at some reasons why you would need a vehicle tracking system:

  1. If you need to gather data that will be useful in managing and increasing the performance of your fleet vehicles
  2. Reduce expenses associated with resources that manage fleets and products
  3. Optimize your routes based on the data received by the GPS tracking system
  4. Comply with critical state and federal regulations for electronic logging devices, like the International Fuel Tax Agreement, and driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs).
  5. Optimize the time and money spent on managing fleet vehicles

Hopefully, you get the picture now and understand why the best solution to your needs is GPS tracking software to increase your business’s overall performance.

What are the Benefits of Using a Fleet Tracking System for Fleet Management?

Employee productivity is at a low, vehicles are always in maintenance mode, and business costs are going higher and higher each day. Does that sound like your business? We understand that fleet management is a tricky business, but if you don’t use the right fleet tracking software, you are in for more issues.

Now, let’s look at what additional benefits you can get from telematics-powered software and hardware.

Reduce Costs and Save Money

We understand that implementing a new system may seem like an added cost. But, a GPS tracking system will actually reduce costs in other areas of operation.

Reduction in Fuel Costs:

  • A good GPS tracking software tracks your drivers’ driving behaviors. Overspeeding can significantly increase fuel consumption and also put the driver at risk of speeding fines. A fleet tracker timely informs you of such behaviors, so you can put a stop to them.
  • Idling can also add to fuel costs, approximately 6 billion gallons of fuel per year, to be exact. The best part about GPS trackers is that they can alert fleet managers of idling behaviors so they can prevent these in time.
  • GPS tracking services give you data that allows you to optimize routes and avoid areas with toll charges. You can also easily locate a faulty vehicle and send the nearest technician to cut fuel costs.

Reduction in Insurance Costs:

A good GPS tracking system will help you cut your drivers’ Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) score. This can significantly reduce insurance premiums. By having direct access to driver behaviors like overspeeding, reckless driving, hard braking, you can take steps to reduce the high insurance costs.

Make Customer Billing More Accurate

Track exactly when a vehicle reaches its destination and then bill your customers accordingly. This tracking removes added miles or ambiguities from data and allows you to bill your customers with accurate numbers

Improve Driver and Fleet Safety:

  • Be proactive about your drivers’ and assets’ safety. Knowing exactly where your vehicles are can help you send help immediately in case of an accident or an emergency.
  • As we mentioned before, GPS tracking systems actually report on driving behavior, so fleet managers can work to improve them and introduce better safety measures. Actions like overspeeding, hard braking, distracted driving can harm the driver and the vehicle. You can use this data to target faulty driving performance and correct it in time.
  • Tracking systems and the data they save can help when there is an accident involving an employee. Useful information like the date, time, and location of the accident can help litigators and insurance companies in case of a claim.
  • The best part is that you can easily locate a stolen vehicle through these tracking systems.

Improve Operational Performance:

You can use a GPS vehicle tracking system to improve back-end operations and vehicular performance. You can use the data presented by the software to keep your vehicles on a maintenance schedule and avoid breakdowns and downtime.

  • Mobile apps are the best option to help you keep all your vehicles on a consistent maintenance schedule based on their mileage and needs. You don’t have to worry about keeping track of each vehicle’s tire rotations or oil changes. The app will do it for you.
  • Worry less about fixed schedules and focus on better schedules that actually make sense for the business. GPS trackers can help optimize routes and schedules for dispatchers based on on-ground realities.
  • GPS tracking systems use geo-fencing to allow you to mark a safe area for your vehicles, and they track when a vehicle enters or leaves that area. This way, you can prevent your vehicles from getting stolen, your drivers from entering manual time logs, and ensure communication between you and your drivers.

Payroll and Tax Automation:

GPS systems automate certain business features and store all critical employee data like payroll information and taxation details for each driver. They are your best friends when it comes to calculating taxes and payroll numbers.

  • A good GPS tracker can help calculate complicated jurisdictional taxes. In order to submit the IFTA fuel tax, you need to know exactly how many miles each vehicle was driven in a state. This task can be quite time-consuming if done manually. A GPS tracker automates this and makes your life easier.
  • You can track your employee’s work hours and efficiency with a GPS tracker. You get data points like check-in and check-out times, time spent on lunch and other activities, etc.

Improve Your Customer Services

Get real-time updates to dispatchers and cut on delivery times while making sure that your customers are satisfied. GPS tracking allows you to ensure faster delivery and happy customers at the same time:

  • Knowledge is empowering. Real-time tracking will allow you to let your customers know exactly where their products are, and they will love you for it.
  • You get access to data such as timestamps and location as far as job completion is concerned.

How Can GPS Tracking Help a Driver?

We’ve talked at length about how a GPS tracking solution can benefit your business, but in order to implement it, you need your drivers’ buy-in and introduce some best practices. Here are some benefits that you can share with your drivers to get them on board with using fleet tracking software:

  1. It can help them keep their vehicles safe and locate them in a crowded parking area.
  2. It can help them make more stops in a day through optimized routing.
  3. It can help them maintain their vehicles on schedule.
  4. It can give them direct access to you for communication.
  5. It can help them ask for help in a dangerous situation immediately.

What is Fleetr?

Fleet is a one-of-a-kind, easy to install GPS fleet tracking software that uses both telematics hardware and software to keep track of your fleet vehicles. Fleetr is the perfect fit for both small and large businesses that deal with vehicles during their day-to-day operations.

How is Fleetr the Best GPS Tracking System to Help You do Fleet Tracking and Management?

If you want to introduce efficiency in your fleet management process, save money on fuel costs, and increase employee productivity, this is how Fleetr can help you:

Real-Time Reporting:

Know exactly where your fleet vehicles are with real-time updates from Fleetr. You can easily access these updates through your mobile app, laptop, or desktop. These updates are refreshed every 60 seconds.

Ensure Driver Safety:

Every time a driver engages in dangerous driving behavior like hard braking or overspeeding, Fleet will send a push notification your way so you can immediately put a stop to it.

Access Trip History

Get access to detailed history for all trips taken by your drivers and plan your fleet operations based on real data.

Optimize your Routes:

Use past data and weekly reports to optimize your routes and help your drivers spend time where it’s really necessary. Manage your load for the day in an effective manner.

Save Money on Fuel Costs

Use Fleetr’s weekly reports that detail driver behavior and highlight drivers and patterns that cost you extra fuel. With Fleetr, you can save up to $200 per vehicle per month in fuel costs by just following tips given by Fleetr each week.

Hold Your Drivers Accountable

Fleetr tracks your drivers’ behavior and helps you improve driving habits that put your assets and them at risk. Drivers will know this and will be less likely to make mistakes.

Never Miss Maintenance Schedules

Fleetr automates your vehicles’ maintenance schedules, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of each vehicle’s mileage and other needs. It sends you alerts when maintenance routines are needed.

Get Fleetr Now:

Fleetr comes with an affordable cost of $9.99 per month per vehicle, and we have no minimum vehicle requirement for you to get started. We are tailor-made for small businesses and work to improve your efficiency in operations. Our model is simple, we charge you only for the vehicles you use Fleetr for, and if you think we aren’t the right fit, you can simply send us the OBD port II device back, and we won’t charge you.

Interested? Schedule a demo now.

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