Keeping Tabs On a Business with Vehicle Tracking

Any business that uses vehicles is beset by potential pit falls. Fuel prices alone can be a serious source of inconvenience – when prices rocket, a business operating any kind of fleet has to stay on top of its regular routes, and the amount of time each truck or van is out on the road, in order to prevent spiralling petrol bills from seriously damaging company books. Sounds easier said than done, of course – how anyone is supposed to keep tabs on something that could be at the other end of the country is not clear. Not clear, that is, unless the company in question decides to invest in a vehicle tracking system.

In this day and age, anything can be (and frequently is) tracked. Most domestic road users have some form of vehicle location system in their car, or in their pocket. They might not know it, but they do – a modern mobile can be located, which means the vehicle it’s travelling in can also be found; and, of course, satellite navigation systems automatically locate a vehicle in order to work out routes for it. Most people don’t view their sat nav systems as vehicle trackers, but that’s exactly what they are: and it’s that same technology that makes a dedicated professional vehicle tracking system work.

Because the technology is so advanced, a modern vehicle tracker does a whole lot more than simply tell its owners where a van or truck might be. It can relay information about average speeds; about average journey time over popular routes; and even about the amount of time a vehicle spends idling (i.e., engine on but not going anywhere). It’s this last piece of information that is clearly important for fleet managers worrying about their fuel bill. Idling can be a significant cause of leaking bank balances, for a freight company: vehicle tracking, which provides clear indications of when idling occurs, for how long, and how often, allows a company to build a picture of its overall fleet habits – which can then be used to develop new guidelines for drivers, that promote more fuel efficient use of company vehicles.

A vehicle tracker can obviously be used to slap wrists, if necessary (for example, vehicle location systems can be programmed to alert a central program if company cars, trucks and so on are being used outside of regular hours) – but they’re better employed developing better fleet techniques. Before vehicle tracking existed, it was impossible to know what each fleet vehicle was doing, where and when: now that information can be centrally received and interpreted in real time. That offers a unique opportunity to all vehicle based businesses – a chance to get to know the reality of the road, for their drivers and vehicles, and develop company procedures accordingly.

In the old days, the most frequent complaint heard in any industry that employed drivers was this: the people at head quarters don’t know what it’s like, out on the road. Well, with vehicle tracking, they do. They know exactly what it’s like, out on the road – and they ought to be able to use that knowledge to make their company processes better.