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.

The obvious use of a vehicle tracking system is to locate the vehicle if it is stolen. Installation of a device will provide real time location of the car. Some systems will even tell you if the vehicle is in a garage or parking deck. Because these devices make finding a stolen vehicle so much easier and faster for police to locate, insurance companies offer discounts of five to fifteen percent when they are installed.

Not only will a vehicle tracking system help you locate a stolen vehicle, it will notify you with an erratic driving alert when the thief starts driving to escape the area of the theft. A system that includes a dash board camera will even identify the thief to police.

A vehicle tracking system can also be used for spying or tracking the activities of family members. This benefit can, of course, have both positive and negative implications. You can use it to track the movements and activities of teenagers or of a spouse if you have reason to suspect them of undesirable activity. But there are several very positive uses, as well. A vehicle tracking system in the car of an aging parent or a parent with Alzheimer’s Disease can protect their autonomy while assuring you that their driving is safe or knowing where they are at all times in case they become lost.

The ability of some vehicle tracking system equipment to track driving habits can also make them a valuable driving instruction tool for teens or other new drivers. Your system can be programmed to track driving speed, cornering speed, how quickly the driver accelerates after a stop, idle time at a location, and other safe and efficient driving habits.

Reviewing driving practices can help a new driver improve their skills quickly and efficiently. Safe and efficient driving habits by all drivers can reduce fuel consumption, reduce fuel costs, and help to protect the environment. Some vehicle tracking system equipment can even be programmed to provide an alert when it is time for the engine to be serviced and when the tires are improperly inflated.

Your vehicle tracking system will also include GPS driving directions. Use of directions will save time and provide the most direct or the shortest route to your destination. Some systems also provide the most efficient route. You might choose a high-end vehicle tracking system that not only includes directions, but includes capabilities to provide voice directions and to monitor traffic along the route and notify you if there is an accident or traffic jam ahead. It can then provide an alternate route. Many parents choose this option because it prevents teen drivers from becoming lost when they need to detour around traffic.

Finally, a vehicle tracking system can provide the option of “geo-fencing” to define limits or boundaries for safety. This can be used, for example, to notify you if a teenager enters an unapproved part of town. It can also be used to provide an alert if an aging parent leaves a customary location.

A vehicle tracking system can certainly be used for spying on family members. But it’s more positive value makes it worth considering for every family vehicle. The reduction in insurance costs could recover the installation costs in as little as three years. The fuel cost savings achieved by more economical driving habits and the increased safety of your family members makes vehicle tracking a smart choice for many families. Just choose the features you want on your system and start sleeping better at night.

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?

Do you recall the news reports a few years ago when UPS decided to have all of their drivers plan their routes and make their deliveries without making left turns? They did some analysis and found that left turns were burning fuel, time and money. How did they perform the analysis? They used GPS vehicle tracking to reduce costs.

GPS vehicle tracking allowed the company to monitor where the trucks were at any given time. They were able to extract reports showing the average wait time to make right turns and to make left turns. They were also able to analyze the amount of extra fuel required to make left turns (due to waiting for traffic to clear or for lights to change). They were also able to convert their findings to dollars lost. They determined that making left turns was simply too expensive.

In September of 2009, the mayor of Dyersburg, Tennessee reported on initial findings about city employee productivity and responsiveness to resident requests for services. Using new GPS vehicle tracking the city discovered several ways to improve productivity, reduce operating costs, eliminate waste, and improve customer satisfaction.

GPS vehicle tracking provides a wealth of information to management, including:

- driving speed (fuel efficiency is lost when speed exceeds 60 mph).

- unsafe or inefficient driving habits.

- use of less efficient travel routes.

- excessive idle time.

- ability to identify and re-route the closest person when there is an urgent need.

- time spent at each location.

All of this information then becomes the basis for helping drivers exercise better driving habits, identify consistent habits that reduce efficiency, and even document reasons for some customer complaints. The ability to activate warning systems, for example, for bad driving habits and to communicate more efficient alternate routes is just the beginning of the value to a company of GPS vehicle tracking to a business of any size.

GPS vehicle tracking systems enable companies to know where their vehicles are, how they are being driven, where they are and for how long. When analyzed over a period of time, bad driving habits, bad routing, and many kinds of costly waste can be identified and addressed with individual drivers, resulting in increased productivity, less waste of time, fuel and money, and improved responsiveness to customers. These and other benefits derived from the data provided by the GPS vehicle tracking system reduce operating costs and increase profits and efficiencies.

With GPS vehicle tracking your company can streamline operations, increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase profits by facilitating the kinds of savings that directly and proportionately improve your bottom line. Because GPS vehicle tracking is inexpensive, you will probably see instant benefits when the devices are installed in your company vehicles.