“If a GPS system helped you take on one extra job per week, and if overtime payments could be reduced by a couple of hours per week, what would your return be?”
Whether you’re dealing with a half dozen trucks travelling around town, or a fleet in the hundreds across the country, GPS-based vehicle tracking software can help you uncover the vehicle-usage details impacting your fleet’s productivity.
A good tracking system doesn’t just tell you where your vehicles are, it provides information that is directly relevant to your business operations. The following points will help you choose a system with the strongest reporting capabilities:
1. Which reports will I need to improve productivity and operating costs?
Accurate timesheets teamed with late arrival and early departure alerts will reduce undue overtime claims and ensure your customers get the hours of service that they pay for. Tina Kaiser of Meadow Services in New Jersey explains, “I saw a lot of unnecessary overtime being saved for my company. I can compare the actual time that the job took with what our crews say.”
2. Which reports can identify actions needed to lower fuel costs?
To help your crew become more fuel efficient, you must know how your vehicles are being driven. Daily route logs and driving style reports with acceleration and braking metrics can help. Geofencing alerts can also flag unauthorized journeys and unwarranted use of company fuel.
Helping a driver to improve their driving style can lower fuel costs significantly. “We tell drivers if they’re braking too hard or going too fast. Usually once they’re aware and they know we’re paying attention to it, it stops,” explains Maintenance Manager, Jack Armstrong.
3. What other fleet insights can help reduce costly overheads?
Real-time vehicle utilization reports ensure fewer vehicles are out of action, reducing unnecessary costs. Keeping all your fleet on the road will help to increase your capacity to service and charge customers. Some tracking systems also have the ability to set up vehicle maintenance reminders. These can be based on miles or fixed dates according to your company policy, keeping your cost of ownership low.
A good tracking system will help you plan, react and validate. “If anything goes wrong with scheduling, invoicing, or theft, we have the data right there,” Misty Absher, Office Manager of Illinois-based Greenridge Landscaping. Another feature to look out for is the ability to identify your nearest vehicle to a postcode, so that you can best deal with requests in real-time.
4. What kind of savings can I expect to have with GPS vehicle tracking?
- 25% reduction in fuel consumption
- 15% increase in overall productivity
- 15% reduction in employee overtime
- 20% increase in vehicle utilization
- 10% decrease in total miles driven
*Frost & Sullivan 2015
Try a free online demo of Quartix’s vehicle tracking system
See for yourself how Quartix can help your day to day operations
Put our system to the test with a free demo
Need to speak to one of our experts?
We’ll help you decide which vehicle tracking option is right for you