GPS Tracking For Fleet Vehicles

Whether you operate a fleet of taxis, a pizza delivery firm or are a national car hire company it is important to know where your vehicles are at any one time. GPS tracking has made this task simple these days and at the click of a button you can be kept informed as to the location of any of your cars, buses or vans day or night.

Keeping track of multiple vehicles can be a logistical nightmare and this can be made worse if your network covers a national or international area. Installing your vehicles with real time or passive GPS tracking will make keeping controlling of your deliveries, dispatch and collections a lot more straight forward.

Depending on the model of GPS tracker you wish to install you can record everything from direction of travel, speed, and multiple locations that can either be downloaded or viewed live over the Internet.

Systems can also be configured to better analyze your company, drivers and vehicles performance by producing regular reports. These can cover such things as mileage, events, stationary periods and many more besides that can contribute to a company’s greater efficiency.

Knowing exactly where, at any one time, your minibus drivers, parcel couriers or fleet of lorries are allowing for flexibility and adaptability. Companies can play more effectively, dispatching vehicles to their most economic points, arrange more effective use of time and give customers a more reliable, quicker and responsive service.

A GPS tracker that keeps you updated as to your driver’s progress means you are never more than 30 seconds behind knowing where everyone is at any time. This can be really useful if you are transporting valuable goods, vast some of money or important people where it is essential to know the exact location at any one time. It is for this reason that many security firms and private protection companies make great use of this technology.

Many councils and major city transport networks have been revolutionized with GPS tracking, nowadays there is no need to stand for long periods wondering when the next bus or train is due. Most towns and cities have their vehicles linked up with monitors along the routes that not only keep dispatch offices in touch but also make customers aware of the vehicles location. GPS helps to ensure customer satisfaction by giving fair warning of delivery times, bus arrivals and vehicle location, and happy customers are more likely to return.

GPS Tracking For Business Fleet Management

GPS tracking technology has become very popular in the last few years as a means of navigation while travelling in our cars. Originally designed by the United States military for military use, many commercial applications have been developed for GPS tracking capabilities since the US government opened up the technology for commercial development and use. The most common and popular of these is using this GPS tracking technology to replace the use of paper maps for trip and driving navigational purposes.

Many car makers now incorporate this ability in new cars, and aftermarket units can be purchased for installation in older cars. As nice and convenient as this use of the technology is, there are actually more beneficial and practical uses of GPS tracking for business fleet management.

GPS tracking can be used by businesses for fleet management in several ways to increase efficiency and decrease unnecessary business expenses. One of these uses of GPS tracking is being able to more efficiently map and monitor delivery routes to eliminate unnecessary driving by employees. With the continuing rise in fuel costs with no end in sight, any unnecessary or unauthorized driving increases fuel expenditures and decreases profits for the company. While this might not have a big impact on a company with one or two company vehicles, a company with a multitude of vehicles could really be impacted financially by excess fuel expenditures caused by unnecessary driving by its employees in company vehicles. GPS tracking gives the company the means to track movement of its vehicles to ensure that they are reaching the destinations they are headed for in a timely manner without making detours or stops for non-business-related reasons. It gives the company the ability to make sure it’s employees are where they are supposed to be and are performing the jobs they are being paid to do when they are away from the business in company vehicles.

Another excellent reason for GPS tracking by businesses would be for theft prevention of expensive company vehicles and equipment, and quick recovery of vehicles or equipment which might become victim to this crime. Some covert GPS tracking units can be set to send alerts to a cell phone or computer when a movement perimeter has been breached. Some of these units also have the capability of being able to disable the starting system of vehicles equipped with them so that once turned off, the vehicles can’t be restarted by the thieves. With the vehicle disabled and the ability to know exactly where the vehicle is, authorities can be immediately notified of its location and quick recovery of the vehicle secured by law enforcement officials. Another benefit to businesses whose vehicles are so equipped would be a possible reduction of insurance premiums due to the high recovery rate of vehicles equipped with GPS tracking systems, thereby saving the company additional money. For a company with a number of vehicles or high value equipment such as construction related equipment, this could result in a substantial savings just in insurance costs.

While most of us think of GPS technology as a nice convenience that can help us get from one place to another without getting lost or having to fumble around with paper maps, companies using GPS tracking for fleet management can greatly benefit financially by employing this revolutionary technology to eliminate unnecessary driving costs and protect expensive machinery against loss due to theft.

Advantages of Fleet Management – Seven Tips For Managing As an Expert

There are many advantages of fleet management when everything is done correctly. In addition to the direct monetary incentives of proper fleet management, there are also multiple advantages in insurance, safety, and repairs. Here are seven tips to help you manage your fleet like an expert.

1. Use company provided vehicles rather than having your employees use their own vehicles and reimbursing them. There are multiple advantages to this including presenting a uniform image, ensuring a proper vehicle for the job, and reduced liability issues.
2. Know your costs. It is important for you to know both the direct and indirect costs incurred by a fleet so that you can plan correctly to lower them. Indirect costs include customer satisfaction, marketing value, driver downtime, as well as other costs.
3. Only keeping as many vehicles as are necessary is one of the big advantages of fleet management. Each vehicle costs a not insignificant amount of money to purchase and maintain, and every vehicle that is sitting in the lot unused is depreciating, costing you even more money without providing you with any benefit.
4. Pick the appropriate vehicles for your fleet. While this can mean choosing the obvious such as full- [sized trucks for heavy jobs, it can also mean picking sedans over SUVs for daily drivers. Also, while some features are nice, depreciation is less with vehicles that don’t have all the top of the line extras.
5. Require steps to reduce the number of accidents. Not only do accidents damage vehicles, they can carry a lot of other costs that can really hurt. Check potential employees’ driving records before hiring and continue to check them during employment. Mandate safe-driver training and provide incentives for safe driving.
6. Manage maintenance. Use the latest management software to keep track of the maintenance schedules of the fleet to increase efficiency.
7. When selling a no longer needed vehicle, sell it in a competitive market to maximize resale value.Proper management of your fleet can greatly increase your profits. Use these tips and continue research to find more advantages of fleet management.

Fleet Maintenance Management Software

The movement of goods in and out of warehouses, distribution centers and final outlets like retail chains form an integral part of supply chain management. With the gradual demise of ‘just-in-case’ inventory management and the arrival of the ‘just-in-time’ inventory concept, the logistics operations have become critical, and form the backbone of production and distribution operations.

The function of logistics is to provide auxiliary service along the value chain of a product, by transporting the product to different locations for value addition, storage and final consumption. This function assumes significance in light of companies moving their manufacturing locations across different parts of the world for competitive cost advantages. Furthermore, the concept of modular manufacturing and assembly at different locations has forced a strategic role upon logistics to deliver the goods in time.

The function of transporting goods is provided by transportation companies who have extensive fleets consisting of trucks, ships and planes. The ownership of oil tankers and other container carriers, and airplanes in the tourism and courier industries, involves huge costs. The fleet is owned by the companies who manufacture the goods, or is rented out by transportation companies.

Asset management for fleet owners means effective utilization of the fleet, maintenance of the fleet and prolonging the life of the fleet. Maintenance management software packages help achieve these goals. Since fleets are mobile assets, the computerized maintenance system is mostly networked through base stations and mobile stations like hand-held digital assistants and palmtops. Advanced technologies like RFID help pinpoint the location of assets for on-the-road maintenance.

The fleet MMS provides features like data management of the fleet, including fuel entry, the running of miles and crew details. It provides regular features, like scheduling preventive maintenance and crew shifts. The fleet MMS links to the financial parameters by allowing the entry of billing and payment of bills for fuel or on-the-road repairs.