If you have a fleet of any kind of vehicles on the roads for any reason, there are several ways a GPS vehicle tracking system can increase productivity of both the vehicles and the drivers. Whether you are a customer service manager, a fleet manager or the owner of the company, GPS tracking can help you increase productivity in several areas and show a positive return on your investment in 90 days or less.

You work for a plumbing company and you have noticed that three of the plumbers you have on the road spend far longer on many jobs than the other seven plumbers. But you don’t know why. A GPS vehicle tracking system would tell you that those three plumbers actually do the job in the same amount of time. The difference is that they spend the extra time sitting in the truck with the engine idling. This behavior affects gas mileage, individual job productivity, company customer service productivity, and customer satisfaction (because the customers can see the trucks still sitting outside their homes). The data from your GPS vehicle tracking system will report to you how long the engine is idling, where it is located while idling, and exactly when the engine was turned on and off, as well as how long the vehicle stayed in any single place all day.

A GPS vehicle tracking system can help you improve efficiencies and productivity in several ways, as the account above demonstrates. Here are some additional ways you can expect to improve productivity and efficiency:

- Track and download reports with your GPS vehicle tracking system on the time spent at each location by each driver. Some companies report employee productivity increases of as much as 30%.

- Detect and eliminate excessive engine idling with your GPS vehicle tracking system and improve fuel efficiencies, reduce fuel costs, and reduce fuel consumption.

- Use the monitoring and reports provided by your GPS vehicle tracking system to monitor driving habits of employees and correct bad habits that are dangerous or inefficient. These actions will also help you keep your vehicles on the road longer, reduce maintenance costs, and save fuel and fuel costs.

- Use of a GPS vehicle tracking system to locate and direct or redirect the closest vehicles to customer locations. For any company trying to survive in a competitive environment, high productivity and performance in customer service might be your strongest competitive advantage. Knowing which vehicle is closest to a customer with an immediate need, will reduce response times, increase customer satisfaction, improve customer retention, and improve fuel and driver/employee efficiency and productivity.

- Installing a GPS vehicle tracking system in each vehicle in your fleet will improve your cost efficiency and improve your job productivity. Because a nearly invisible GPS device attached to the OBDII connection in the vehicle makes it possible to receive an immediate alert notification if there is a vehicle theft and because the GPS device allows you to pinpoint the location of the vehicle every second, retrieving the vehicle and apprehending the thief is much more likely. Most insurance companies offer reduced rates on insurance for all vehicles that are part of a GPS vehicle tracking system.

- The geofencing option that is part of a GPS vehicle tracking system allows you to set boundaries for each vehicle. If a vehicle is taken outside that defined area, you receive an instant alert. With this capability you can not only protect your vehicles at night, but you can detect any unauthorized use of company vehicles.

- Your GPS vehicle tracking system will also provide maintenance alerts. This can make a critical difference in both extending the life of the vehicle and preventing costly break-downs. It can also help you detect problems when they are just beginning instead of when they are big repairs that are both expensive to perform and that keep the vehicle off the road for some period of time.

Improving productivity is a critical objective in most companies. Understanding the potential impact of a GPS vehicle tracking system for your company is a very potent argument for making the investment, especially when you will save enough to pay for the entire cost in 90 days or less.

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.

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?

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?