There are several ways to abuse the privilege of driving literally any kind of company vehicle:

- running errands on the way from the last business stop back to the garage

- using the truck for your weekend moving business

- using the company car to take your kids places on weekends

Each of these abuses of the privilege of driving a company vehicle can be detected by tracking vehicle movement. With a simple GPS tracking device that attaches to the steering column of each vehicle, you can not only know where each vehicle is at any moment (because you will be tracking vehicle movement), but you can also use the capability of tracking vehicle movement and save the history to prove where each vehicle has been and when it was there.

Consider the cost to the company if every vehicle is being driven an extra 100 miles per week. Assuming that your vehicles average 10 miles per gallon around town, each vehicle will use ten gallons of gas. If gas is selling for $2.75, each vehicle is costing the company an extra $27.50 per week. You can do the rest of the math to carry that out by the number of vehicles being used and then multiplying by 52 weeks. That comes to $1,430 per vehicle per year – and that’s just for gas!

By the time you add up the pro rated costs for everything else, you could be saving a bundle by tracking vehicle use. Take a few minutes to figure it out. Gather all of the costs on a ‘per vehicle’ and a per mile basis: fuel, oil, insurance, maintenance, parts, wear and tear, tires, license tags, taxes and the risks of having the vehicle on the road.

When you add up all of these costs for every vehicle that might be in use for something other than business, the amount could be staggering if it is widespread. But if you invested the small cost of tracking vehicle movement with a GPS tracking device, you could pay for the device and the monitoring service and still hand the boss a huge amount of money. If your fleet is like most, the cost of tracking vehicle activity with a GPS device would be recovered in just three months. In just ninety days you could expect to recover the cost of the device for tracking vehicle movement and the cost of a full year of monitoring.

Finally, consider that I’ve only asked you to think about the cost of unauthorized use of company vehicles and the cost savings you could achieve by tracking vehicle use. Now think about the money you could save if you could prove that some of your drivers were intentionally taking longer routes from one place to the next, or that by tracking vehicle movement you could prove that some of your drivers are sitting somewhere killing time. The more you think about the value of tracking vehicle movement, the greater the potential savings you can achieve for your company.

For more information about the benefits of tracking vehicle behavior, get the free report, “7 Ways Your Company Can Save Thousands of Dollars With GPS Fleet Tracking.”  Many companies have substantially increased their revenue and lowered their costs by installing a GPS tracking system for their fleet. To calculate the ROI for your company, see the GPS vehicle ROI calculator.

You might know that GPS fleet management equipment allows you to see (on your laptop) exactly where every vehicle is at a particular point in time. But do you know that this same equipment also maintains a complete history for each vehicle of where, when and how that vehicle has traveled over any time frame? If you notice an anomaly at any time, you can download a report of the history of each appropriate vehicle and analyze the cause for the anomaly and determine what corrective action is appropriate.

You probably know that GPS fleet management equipment allows you to watch your computer screen and see movements of your vehicles in “real time” in order to monitor everything that is happening with your fleet. You might not know that GPS fleet management equipment also allows you to receive alerts or historical reports when drivers are speeding, idling, stopped, traveling, moving outside a predefined area or driving unsafely in a number of other ways. You can also track driving habits that negatively affect fuel efficiency or the useful life of the vehicle.

If you choose a GPS fleet management system that includes a maintenance scheduling system, you will be able to keep track of maintenance needs of each vehicle organized into an easy-to-read report whenever you want an update. This feature of the GPS fleet management system also alerts you to a number of maintenance problems when they begin instead of when the vehicle breaks down at an inopportune time.

GPS fleet management will also help you save a bundle of money and run your fleet in ways that are environmentally friendly. You can monitor fuel mileage reports and compare the data to maintenance schedules and engine tuning details. You can compare fuel mileage with actual routes traveled by individual vehicles and/or drivers.

Many GPS fleet management systems also allow you to disable your vehicles to prevent theft, as well as tracking with minute-by-minute pinpointing if a vehicle should be stolen. This capability alone will qualify your fleet for a discount on the insurance rates charged by most leading insurance companies.

Many of these capabilities of GPS fleet management systems will also allow you to monitor and coach driver behavior. The reports available for instant download can be used to coach drivers in achieving better response times, more efficient travel routes, greater fuel efficiency, safer driving habits, and more. This is a wonderful contribution to the efforts of many organizations to improve employee productivity. You will have the added opportunity to improve vehicle productivity, extend vehicle life, and operate the vehicles in the fleet in ways that help to protect the environment with the various benefits of GPS fleet management.

If, for example, you notice when you monitor the vehicles leaving the garage each morning that most of the vehicles travel the same route for the first eighteen miles, but one driver takes a different route, not only is your curiosity engaged, but you wonder why this is happening. Further investigation reveals that this particular driver takes the same route every day. As you review the reports from your GPS fleet management system, you discover that this driver is your most productive driver and reaches his first stop first with uncanny consistency. You decide to download a customized report that shows the progress of each vehicle on a minute-by-minute basis. Your analysis reveals that while the other drivers spend 37 minutes idling in traffic, your lone wolf is making uninterrupted progress toward his first destination. GPS fleet management has demonstrated a way to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

GPS fleet management will make your life easier. It can help you:

- track all movements of every vehicle and maintain a full history on the movements of every vehicle

- monitor driving habits for use in coaching drivers in achieving greater efficiencies and saving fuel, time and costs

- manage maintenance of the fleet with greater ease

- protect vehicles against theft or find them quickly if stolen

- improve employee productivity

- manage vehicles for greater efficiency and longer life.

For a small investment in the GPS device, a minimal monthly monitoring fee, and a few minutes for installation, you can be saving time and money instantly. Most companies that install GPS fleet management equipment find that they save enough in the first 90 days to pay for equipment, installation and the first year of monitoring.

For more information about GPS fleet management, get the free report “7 Ways Your Company Can Save Thousands of Dollars With GPS Fleet Tracking.” Many companies have substantially increased their revenue and lowered their costs by installing a GPS tracking system for their fleet. To calculate the ROI for your company in under 30 seconds, see the Fleet GPS ROI calculator.

From your central monitoring computer, you can track the movements of every truck all day. And when you arrive in the office in the morning, you can review the movements of any trucks overnight. Have you ever thought a particular truck was racking up far more mileage than it should? Would you like to be able to prove that two of your employees are using that truck every weekend as a moving van for their moonlighting business? With mobile GPS you can track where every vehicle has been driven since installation of the system.

Have you wondered why Truck 36 seems to take longer to reach local destinations than other trucks and drivers? With mobile GPS in the truck, you can prove that the drivers are taking the longest possible route to each destination and stopping at home for a very long lunch.

Or perhaps you think several of the trucks are using too much fuel for the miles they are putting on the odometer. Mobile GPS in the truck would tell you that they are meeting in the parking lot of an empty warehouse for card games every afternoon, leaving the trucks idling so nobody will know.

Mobile GPS will certainly provide all the ammunition you need to prove that you have a few slackers on your team or that your vehicles are being used after hours by some enterprising drivers. But there are also many positive results you can achieve with this technology. For example, by monitoring routes taken by your drivers, you can help them identify more fuel-efficient or faster routes. Mobile GPS tracking will reduce fuel use and cost, reduce carbon emissions, and increase productivity of these drivers.

Instead of walking the garage at the end of each driver’s run to note mileage and make other checks of the vehicle, you can automate the data gathering with a mobile GPS system. Then you can use that time to analyze the information and still get home in time for supper. As you analyze the information the mobile GPS system will gather about your vehicles and your drivers you will be able to reduce costs, improve driving safety and fuel-efficient driving habits, improve productivity, improve customer satisfaction, maintain vehicles more efficiently, extend the life of vehicles, and protect your drivers and your vehicles from theft and other dangers.

Consider, also, this very different benefit of a mobile GPS system in your fleet. At 10 am, you notice that the truck 12 is sitting on the side of the Interstate, but shows no indication of a vehicle problem. You assume the driver has pulled over to check something. You continue to monitor, noting that the truck has not moved at 11:30. You try to call your driver and he does not answer the phone. You continue to monitor and call until noon. By this time, you are concerned. Using your mobile GPS tracking system, you locate a truck returning to the garage that is about 10 miles beyond the location of truck 12. You call the driver and ask her to stop and check on truck 12. You continue to monitor the arrival of truck 16. Within a minute you receive a phone call from the driver of truck 16 informing you that the driver of truck 12 is in bad shape and appears to have suffered a stroke. She has called 911 and will accompany the driver of truck 12 to the hospital and remain there until his family arrives. You then call the driver’s wife, and take a van to deliver another driver to complete the run for truck 12, pick up the driver of truck 16 and take her back to her truck (unless she followed the ambulance with it), and return to the hospital to wait with the driver’s wife. Mobile GPS saves a life and keeps a delivery on schedule.

Mobile GPS in every vehicle in the fleet can save money, save time, increase productivity, reduce fuel usage and carbon emissions, reduce your management time, protect your vehicles, and even save the life of a driver. All things considered, don’t you need mobile GPS for your fleet?

For as little as $300 per vehicle and a small monthly maintenance fee, you can take full advantage of this constantly evolving technology to reduce your company’s operating costs. Here’s how GPS fleet tracking saves your company money.

1. Improve navigation. Your GPS fleet tracking system will be fully integrated with Google maps. This enables drivers to identify the fastest, most direct or most fuel-efficient route to a destination (whether it is within the city or across the country). The navigation function also provides live time reports on traffic conditions along the way, even providing detours around traffic jams. If the weather is bad, you can choose terrain views to see what is ahead. Navigation functionality in your GPS fleet tracking system also allows fleet managers to know precisely where every vehicle is at any time. This makes it easy to identify the closest vehicle to an emergency situation and quickly re-route a vehicle.

2. Monitor and improve driving habits. Because your GPS fleet tracking system compiles data on driver behavior, you can identify drivers who are habitual speeders or who consistently brake hard or who accelerate too fast from a stop. You will have regular reports of every trip taken by every vehicle. You can program the GPS fleet tracking system to alert the driver when the speed limit is exceeded by more than 5 mph and to alert the fleet manager when the speed limit is exceeded by more than 10 mph. You can track exact routes and know which drivers are taking detours or are sitting somewhere with the engine idling for extended periods of time. By monitoring and reviewing this data with your drivers you can improve driving habits and safety.

3. Accident and theft reporting capabilities. If a driver is involved in an accident, the GPS fleet tracking system will provide a complete analysis of the incident with precise data on the speed and direction of the vehicle. This results in accurate and defensible information about the accident for police and insurance companies and makes completing insurance claims faster and easier. In the event of a theft, you will be able to track exactly where the vehicle is at any given moment and this information can be shared with police. You also have the ability to lock doors, disable the starter and cause the horn to start blasting from your central office with your GPS fleet tracking system.

4. Vehicle monitoring and maintenance management. Your GPS fleet tracking system will also have the option for including a maintenance tool. This can interface with the vehicle’s on-board computer to provide notices of times for routine servicing, low tire pressure, evolving engine or system problems or excessive carbon emissions. This enables the fleet manager to either alert the driver of a problem or to bring the vehicle in for service or repairs before there is a complete breakdown requiring emergency action.

Use of these four major capabilities of a GPS fleet tracking system will help your company save money in the following ways:

– Use less fuel and save on fuel costs

– Reduce engine maintenance and operating costs

– Save 5-35% on insurance costs per vehicle

– Eliminate damaging or costly bad driver habits

– Increase productivity and reduce overtime

– Reduce paperwork for drivers, fleet manager and payroll

– Eliminate unauthorized breaks, side trips, or after hours use of vehicles

– Improve customer service and customer satisfaction

In most cases, companies that installed a GPS fleet tracking system recovered the total cost of installation and the first year’s maintenance costs in 3 to 6 months. Some recovered their entire annual cost in just one month. A GPS fleet tracking system is becoming an essential tool of effective and efficient fleet managers throughout the world in all industries, services and businesses. Can you afford to continue spending too much on fuel, insurance, operating costs, employee overtime and employee waste? Isn’t it time you find out how a GPS fleet tracking system can save your company money?

Types of Information You Can Gather

A fleet GPS system will be connected to a satellite mapping service that will also be able to provide information at the street level and a satellite image of streets and buildings anywhere your vehicles might go. Upon request, these mapping services can be programmed to distinguish truck routes, as well. Other information includes:

- Precise location of each vehicle up to the minute.

- Vehicle route history.

- Ability to show the proximity of vehicles to a given location.

- Notification and alerts about traffic violations, unsafe driving practices, and driving habits that waste fuel.

- Maintenance history and schedules.

- Fuel saving suggestions.

- Vehicle theft protection and recovery tools.

- Geo-fencing capabilities.

- Instant calculation of alternate routes.

Ways to Use the Data

The abundant data provided by a fleet GPS tracking system can be used in many ways to improve efficiencies, reduce fleet operating costs, improve customer service, make operations more fuel efficient, and even reduce accidents and vehicle break-downs. Whether you use you vehicles to haul freight over long distances, to respond to human emergencies, to provide product servicing and maintenance or to transport your sales force, fleet GPS tracking can help you in often unexpected ways.

1. Driver information provides the basis for coaching or re-training drivers who your fleet GPS data shows to be driving unsafely or in ways that waste fuel or damage the vehicles.

2. Driver information from fleet GPS tracking can provide the basis for performance based compensation and bonus programs, and the metrics tracking for implementation of the program.

3. Driver and route tracking maintained by your fleet GPS device provides needed documentation for dispute resolution of customer complaints, servicing time, schedule discrepancies.

4. Provide directions when a driver is lost or to redirect a driver around traffic jams or accidents causing long delays or highway closures.

5. Ability to define routes on the basis of travel time, fuel efficiency or route characteristics.

6. Identify and redirect the closest vehicle in response to an emergency.

7. Program driver and dispatcher alerts when vehicles exceed safe speeds.

8. Create anti-theft measures, such as disabling starters, locking doors, triggering sirens and defining geographic boundaries.

9. Verify time cards, automate billing and accounting steps and avoid mistakes.

10. Improve employee productivity by as much as 35%.

11. Monitor time per stop and after hours or other unauthorized vehicle use.

12. Use your scheduling accuracy and reliability as a marketing tool.

13. Rack up insurance discounts on each vehicle equipped with a fleet GPS tracking device.

The capabilities of fleet tracking expand year by year. Investment in fleet GPS tracking and monitoring will often pay for itself in money saved with fuel savings in just the first year. As your fleet becomes more efficient and more productive with these tools and the abundance of data provided, your company will reap the benefits above and more.

If you are not using a fleet GPS system you are missing out on far too many business efficiency tools. Shouldn’t you make the investment today?

At a surprisingly low cost, you can equip every vehicle owned by your company – from company cars to long-haul tractor trailers – with a GPS tracking device. This device enables fleet tracking, which will send and receive signals via satellite. You will then have access to a broad range of vehicle and driver information, as well as the ability to communicate critical information to your vehicles (and drivers) that will increase efficiency and productivity.

Fleet tracking can help you achieve the following results for your company:

- Reduced time (driver, manager, accounting) spent on paperwork.

- Automated billing and payroll applications reduce errors.

- More efficient routes and speeds resulting in lower mileage and lower fuel expense.

- More efficient routing reduces extra stops.

- More efficient routing and driving reduces idling times.

- Ability to redirect the closest vehicle with fleet tracking for urgent needs.

- Tracking eliminates unauthorized use of company vehicles.

- Eradication of employee fraud.

- Ability to improve safe-driving habits and fuel-efficient driving habits.

- Drivers protected by fleet tracking against false customer claims and dangerous driving accusations.

- Rapid recovery of stolen vehicles.

- More efficient delivery of products and services.

- Ability to document key performance metrics for employee recognition or retraining.

- Possible reduction in vehicle insurance costs.

Fleet tracking will provide a myriad of standard and customized reports on vehicle history, driver history, safety statistics, economies achieved, and payroll and billing information. You can monitor the location of every vehicle in a single screen view or in greater detail. You can view vehicle status from the office or on a hand-held device from anywhere. You can even access statistical information from remote locations to help you answer customer questions or complaints, estimate costs and schedules for new clients or customers, and provide instant assistance to drivers.

A recent study by the Aberdeen Group documented a 23% increase in total number of service calls completed per day per technician in organizations with small fleets when GPS fleet tracking was installed in their vehicles. What would a 23% increase in profitability mean for your company if achieved across your entire fleet?

What would you save in overtime pay if all of your technicians were able to achieve a 23% productivity increase and reduce 23% of overtime pay with fleet tracking? When technicians are more efficient and productive, not only do they finish their work faster, they also enable supervisors, managers and others to eliminate overtime, as well.

Consider next the impact on your fuel bill if you were able to eliminate all speeding (over 60 mph), reduce idle times, ensure use of the fastest, most direct, and most efficient routes by all drivers, and eliminate unauthorized vehicle usage with fleet tracking? Then add to this savings the additional amount of fuel you could save if all of your employees authorized to drive company vehicles were safe and efficient drivers.

Finally, by using the maintenance alerts and schedule monitoring capabilities of a fleet tracking system, you can ensure that your vehicles are operating in peak condition, most efficiently and reduce the number of needed repairs while on the road. This keeps vehicles on the road longer, saves the costs associated with avoidable break-downs, and improves fuel efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a properly tuned engine saves mpg by up to 4%. Immediate repair of a major mechanical problem, they say will improve mpg by as much as 40%.

Consideration of all the ways GPS fleet tracking can help you achieve operating cost reductions and improve productivity makes it easy to see how fleet tracking takes the guesswork out of business management. Is it time to make fleet tracking part of your management team?