Author: Courtney redwell

Fleet Management GPS Will Increase Sales Team Productivity

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Increase Productivity of Sales Team With Fleet Management GPS

Sales is all about spending more time selling and less time dealing with the administrative aspects.

When being faced with constant meetings back-to-back nearly everyday it is easy to let the paperwork pile up. Hours of careful planning before hitting the road is a luxury not many people in sales can afford.

On the sales end of things, many of you might be thinking you don’t want anyone tracking you but, fleet management GPS works FOR you not against you:

Wouldn’t it be great if you could send all your appointment locations to your Garmin device so you don’t have to input them when you get in your vehicle? Get a report of your visited locations to put your day of work into your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) for automatic follow up? Do your expenses quicker than ever by providing you with a comprehensive report of your mileage at the end of each month? With fleet management GPS you can.

On the management side of things, you could go one step further and build an API to integrate into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to make your team be even more productive. If you want to know more about how this can be done, send an email to [email protected] or call 1-888-998-1122.

The main intention of a fleet management GPS system is to make life easier. Whether that be for fleet managers to monitor their vehicles, HVAC company owners to dispatch workers to specific jobs, or sales reps with very limited time, fleet management GPS can help. For more information on GPS fleet tracking and how fleet management GPS can help you whether you are in sales, are a fleet manager, or own a business, contact us.

Our amazing support team will help guide you along the way and continue to guide you throughout your time as one of our clients. We want to work with you to stay organized and make your life easier.

Original Article From Geotab:
How Telematics Can Help Make Your Sales Team More Productive

Expand Your Telematics Solution with Third Party Device Integration

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Third Party Device Integration With Existing GoFleet Solutions

We integrate with a large variety of different third party devices. Some of the most popular applications include the following:

  • Garmin device integration to deliver notifications to your drivers.
  • Iridium Satellite to enable connectivity when traveling out of cell coverage.
  • Hours of Service to log how long your drivers have been on the road to help keep them safe.

The IOX platform was developed as a modular solution to the integration problem. The platform allows for flexible product support while keeping individual costs down. The Third Party Protocol was designed to easily allow the integration of external devices. By utilizing the IOX platform & Third Party Protocol, starting the integration process is simple.

Step 1: Request an External Device ID
Our software needs to know who it’s talking to. Contact GoFleet to obtain an External Device ID unique for your product. We will save a record when we see your device to indicate it was found.

Step 2: Request Status Data IDs
It is always beneficial to know what data you’re sending and its format. You can apply a different offset and conversion factor for each type of data. Request a distinct ID for each type of status data you want to send.

Step 3: Implement Third Party Protocol
It is important all devices involved speak the same language. The Third Party Protocol attempts to link with the device connected and expects messages to be structured in a certain way. A checksum is included to help ensure the integrity of the data during the process of transmission.

Step 4: Use the data
Once GoFleet has the data, what can be done with it? Take a look at the Software Development Kit (SDK). With this powerful tool you can create new applications, custom reports, or integrate the data into your own systems.

Could integrating your device with GoFleet add value to your products and expand the capabilities of your current solution(s)? Contact us to learn more.

Original Article From Geotab:
Expand Your Telematics Solution: Third Party Device Integration

Fuel Management Software For Your Fleet

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Fleet Fuel Management Software

Keeping track of your fuel usage of a fleet of vehicles, no matter if it is a fleet of 2 or 2000 can be quite difficult. Fuel management software can help you keep track of fuel usage, where fuel is being wasted, and most importantly save you money.

GoFleet’s GPS fleet tracking system comes equipped with fuel management software. Fuel is clearly one of the biggest operating costs for many organizations so having a solution to provide advanced fuel management tools is very important. Not only will you receive the benefits of our fuel management software but you will also benefit from the many other elements our system has to offer.

Our GPS tracking devices are plug and play. There is no messy wiring, no install costs and best of all you can do it yourself in a couple of minutes.

GoFleet also provides all our valued customers with training on how to get the most out of our system.

Some of our Fuel Management Software features include:

  1. Idling Time Reports
  2. Driver Scorecard Reports
  3. Audio In-Car Driver Coaching
  4. Route Optimization
  5. Fuel Usage Report

Idling Time & Cost Reports
Reduce the time your drivers spend idling to save you money on fuel. Idling time is normally the biggest fuel waster we commonly see with our clients. Our advanced idling report can show you just how much time your drivers are spending idling AND how much it is costing your company.

fuel management software idling cost report

Driver Scorecard Reports
Our driver scorecard report shows all the “bad habits” of your drivers. These habits also are contributing to your wasted fuel. The habits include: speeding, harsh braking, hard acceleration and harsh cornering. The scorecard allows you to compare your drivers and see which ones may need some of your time to sit down with them and discuss their driving habits. These bad driving habits are a huge contributor to wasted fuel.

Fuel management software driver scorecard

Audio In-Car Driver Coaching
Our driver coaching audio alerts (beeping function inside the car) helps drivers to correct fuel expending faults such as idling and speeding on their own. It is a reminder to them when they have had the car idling for too long, or go too high over the speed limit you set, to correct the behavior right away.

Route Optimization
Our advanced Route Optimization software allows you to optimize your route based on shorter distance and travelling time to further reduce your fuel consumption.

Fuel Usage Report
Fuel Usage Report is exactly what it sounds like, a report on the entire organization split up by drivers determining the fuel usage and costs for a specific period of time.

Fuel management software fuel report

We want to work with you to save you money. Contact one of our fleet consultants today to learn more.

Telematics Plays a Huge Role in the Green Fleet Movement

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

The Role of Telematics in the Green Fleet Movement

A growing number of organizations have recognized the importance of implementing environmentally friendly processes and policies into their business. In an effort to achieve operational efficiency, many companies are no longer solely addressing cost control, but rather have increased the emphasis on environmental sustainability. Fleet management software is capable of providing these companies with the ability to address both cost and environmental concerns in an overall effort to operate with maximum efficiency. Companies that utilize fleets in their day to day operations are crucial to many industries and the overall economy so it is unlikely the number of fleets will decrease any time in the near future. However, through constant analysis and tracking of fleet activity, fleet management software is able to monitor a variety of key performance indicators involving areas such as emissions levels and fuel consumption.

Fleet Impact of New Fuel and Environmental Standards
“Fuel is one of our industry’s largest expenses, so it makes sense that, as an industry, we would support proposals to use less of it.” recently stated by Bill Graves, President and CEO of the American Trucking Association. The transportation sector is responsible for about 28% of all greenhouse gas emissions currently in the USA. The Obama Administration is working towards the development of greenhouse gas standards and vehicle fuel efficiency by 2016. They are ultimately working for a 10-20% reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the type of vehicle, beginning in 2014 running through 2018. The significance of telematics is emphasized through recent proposals; fleet management services enable companies to monitor areas such as mileage, idle time, speed and fuel consumption, all which simultaneously result in decreased fuel expenses, emissions and overall fleet operating costs.

Telematics Leading to the Success of Efforts in the Green Fleet Movement
Telematics is making fleets sustainable and efficient. The industry has had an impact on fleet operations, and has proven to be successful in making them safer, more efficient, and successful at operating in accordance with the corporate mission. Whether it be through the reduction of idling time or the optimization of routes, GPS tracking (telematics) has played a strong role in not only assisting fleets in saving money, but also enabling them to become more sustainable. Decreasing fuel consumption and cooperating with the local emission standard are the first steps towards the achievement of greener operations in a fleet based organization. There are also a number of steps that will assist a company in moving forward towards becoming a greener fleet:

  1. Reduce Idle Time
  2. Improve Vehicle Maintenance
  3. Reduce Speeding
  4. Reduce Unauthorized Vehicle Usage
  5. Optimize Routing
  6. Continuously Monitor Emissions

Contact us for more information about GPS fleet tracking and how you can start moving towards a Green Fleet.

green-fleet-movement

Original Article From Geotab:
The Role of Telematics in the Green Movement of Fleets

Green Fleet Management With GPS Fleet Tracking

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Run a Green Fleet with GPS Fleet Tracking

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) about 20 pounds of CO2 emissions are produced from burning a gallon of gasoline. About 23 pounds of CO2 emissions are produced by burning a gallon of diesel fuel. EIA estimates that in 2013 US diesel fuel and gasoline consumption for transportation resulted in the emission of close to 1,095 and 227 million metric tons of CO2 for a grand total of 1,522 million metric tons of CO2.

Running a Green Fleet may have come up in some of your meetings, or has been suggested but nothing has been done about it because it seems like a very difficult and exhausting task. Running a green fleet was more than likely brought to your attention from an ethical perspective to help the environment and do your part as a company. What you may not have considered is the real economic concerns that also exist. It is in your best interest as a company to run a green fleet not only for environmental factors, but for increasing revenue and retaining existing customers as well.

In the increasingly environmentally conscious world we live in there is no excuse for organizations to not make the effort to run a green fleet, or at least a greener fleet than they are currently running. You will be more likely to retain your current customers as well as attract new eco-minded customers who are only looking to work with environmentally conscious companies. By making the commitment to running a green fleet you will also be saving your company money on high fuel costs.

Green Fleet Benefits:

  • Reduce Fuel Expenses
  • Increase revenue by appealing to eco-minded customers
  • Help the environment and make a difference by reducing emissions
  • Increase vehicle lifespan
  • Reduce unexpected maintenance

GoFleet makes running a green fleet easy and would love the opportunity to work with you to lower your CO2 emissions and increase your fuel savings. Contact one of our fleet consultants today to learn more about our GPS fleet tracking systems and how we can bring you closer to running a green fleet!

green-fleet-lower-emissions

Reduce Fleet Emissions With These Easy Tips

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Reducing fleet emissions can be seen as a difficult task as producing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when running a fleet is inevitable. Reducing your fleet emissions will not only help the environment it will save your company money on gas, and who doesn’t want that?

The concept of reducing your fleet emissions is quite simple: the greater your fuel consumption, the greater your emissions will be. Reducing your fuel consumption will, in turn, reduce your fleet’s emissions and save you money.

The way employees drive company vehicles will either increase or decrease fuel economy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Fleets that are serious about becoming more sustainable must strive to modify their driver’s on-road behaviour to reduce fleet emissions.

GoFleet wants to work with you to lower your GHG emissions and save you money. Our intelligent GPS fleet tracking system makes reducing fleet emissions easy.

Here are easy tips to lowering emissions:

  1. Avoid aggressive driving (eg. speeding, accelerating too quickly, harsh cornering, hard braking)
  2. Avoid idling: Reduce fleet emissions/gas consumption easily, do not leave your vehicle running
  3. Reduce additional mileage: Optimize your routes and minimize your number of stops
  4. Drive according to the speed limit

Communicating these tips to your drivers and having them implemented are two totally different things. Yes it is one thing to tell them to make these changes but how will you know they are in fact changing their habits? Our GPS fleet tracking system will not only help monitor but also help implement and point out the negative driving habits of your drivers.

  • Reduce Aggressive Driving Habits
    Aggressive driving like speeding, aggressive acceleration, hard braking and harsh cornering can all be monitored in our GPS fleet tracking system. It will show all of the listed infractions on the map exactly where it happened. We also have Driver Scorecard Reports where it will list the number of incidents each driver has had over the last week in comparison with all other drivers.
  • Eliminate Speeding and Idling
    Speeding and idling are two of the largest contributors to higher fuel consumption. We offer something called “Audible Driver Alerts” that will alert your drivers of these infractions immediately when it happens. If your drivers are speeding or idling our device will detect it and start beeping, it will continue to beep until the infraction is fixed (speeding/idling is stopped). This feature also works for monitoring seat belt use.
  • Optimize Routes
    Our software has a route planning tool that allows you to optimize your routes to save time and save on gas. Reduce fleet emissions by driving shorter distances to destinations.
  • Drive The Speed Limit
    Since our software is so advanced it displays the posted road speed in comparison with your driver’s speed on the map. This is another way to ensure your drivers are not speeding, not wasting gas, and possibly the most important element, make sure they are obeying traffic laws.

Through effective implementation, you will be more likely to not only improve your fuel economy but also decrease GHG emissions and boost on-road safety. Reducing your fleet’s emissions will not only benefit you (and save you money) but it will also benefit the environment. Transportation is one of the largest, if not the largest, source of air pollution.

Contact GoFleet to find out how our GPS fleet tracking systems can help you move towards running a greener fleet and significantly reduce fleet emissions.

reduce-fleet-emissions-with-fleet-management-solutions

Canadian Environment Week: Clean Air Day June 4th

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

The first week of June is Canadian Environment Week, June 1st to June 7th. Protecting Canada’s environment offers a world of benefits for Canadians, from enhancing health and the quality of life to strengthening the economy. Canadian Environment Week is a great opportunity to celebrate our achievements and work towards reducing air pollution even further.

Clean Air Day, celebrated on June 4th this year, raises awareness and encourages action on clean air issues. It is a celebration of environmentally friendly activities that promote clean air across the country.

The transportation industry is one of the largest contributors of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. For Clean Air Day why not begin or renew a commitment to greener transportation? In making the commitment to greener transportation not only will you be helping the environment but you will also be saving money on fuel.

lower-emissions-with-fleet-management-solutions

It would be great if we could all transfer over to electric vehicles or hybrids overnight but we realize it is not that simple. New vehicles can be very expensive and may not even be properly suited for the job. Our fleet management solutions help monitor the amount of gas your current vehicles are using on a regular basis and find the areas where you are using unnecessary amounts of fuel. We want to work with you lower your emissions and fuel costs.

Fuel is often the highest operating cost for some fleets; a measurable method that leads to fast fuel savings is our fleet management system. It helps reduce fuel consumption by:

  • Reducing idling time, hard acceleration, harsh braking and speeding
  • Reducing total miles driven by incorporating route optimization
  • Detecting engine faults that may be contributing to increased fuel consumption
  • Analyze your miles per gallon (MPG) reports to pinpoint your most fuel efficient vehicles

Our fleet management system offers the most extensive metrics available to help you effectively run a greener fleet and save on fuel. GoFleet can help you manage the driver behaviour that leads to high fuel consumption. You can view information directly in My.Geotab (our fleet management software) and monitor any drivers spending too much time idling using our idling report, see below:

idling-time-report

You can also monitor their hard acceleration, harsh braking, speeding, and idling (all factors in fuel consumption) in one easy to view report, our Driver Score Card Report:

driver-score-card-report

Many of our customers like to print off the Driver Score Card Report and post it in the lunchroom or somewhere all employees can see it. It then often becomes a competition between employees to see who can get the lowest number of incidents, and sometimes the winner at the end of a certain time period will win a prize. This keeps it fun and helps encourage your drivers to reduce fuel consumption without having to tell them off directly.

Dispatch drivers more effectively to reduce fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, mileage, and increase the operational efficiency of your entire business. Get to your customers faster and more efficiently while lowering your fuel consumption with our Route Planning Tool:

route-optimization-lower-emissions

Implementing a Green Fleet Program targeting improvement of fuel economy with the use of innovative fleet management software allows business owners and fleet managers not only to help the environment but also reduce fuel expenses.

Want to learn more about GPS fleet tracking and the environmentally friendly benefits? Contact one of our fleet management consultants today for more information and start lowering your emissions and saving on fuel!

3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Company’s Response Speed

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

A common reoccurring complaint from customers about different businesses is regarding poor response time. Customers complain about lengthy hold times, the huge window when a service person may (or sometimes may not) appear, or waiting to get a callback regarding an issue. Poor response times can damage a business’ brand and bottom line, but solutions are available to reduce your company’s response time.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A virtual private network, also known as a VPN, gives employees access to the business’ internal resources. These resources include anything from inventory and order management to internal calendars. Access to these allows your employees to answer customer questions or problems right on the spot. This will also allow employees to provide customers with a timetable for the delivery of a replacement part or new order.

FAQs and Searchable Databases
More often than not customers will try to find an answer for themselves before they call the customer support line. Developing an FAQ with answers to the most commonly asked questions or problems your customers are facing is an excellent way to address common issues. GoFleet’s support team has adopted this technology and has found great success with it thus far.

Upgrade Fleet Management
Unnecessary idle time and poor route planning have a more significant impact on your fleet’s response time than you may think. Service calls and delivery times can be unpredictable and reduce customer satisfaction and trust. Businesses that start out with one truck often develop unofficial policies to guide their fleets; upgrading your fleet management can more than pay for itself in customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction then leads to referrals and repeat customers. A specialist in upfitting in Calgary advises outsourcing fleets to a management service with GPS (such as GPS fleet tracking by GoFleet) which will dispatch the closest vehicle to the address, reducing the time between receiving the service call and getting a vehicle on-site to a minimum.

Contact GoFleet to learn more about increasing your company’s response time. We want to help you better manage your fleet. Call 1-888-998-1122 or email [email protected].

Original Article: Business 2 Community

Using Third Party Devices with GoFleet in MyGeotab

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

GoFleet is excited to be collaborating with a number of different partners offering a variety of add-ons to help make fleet management even easier and increase safety and productivity. All of the add-ons allow seamless integration into our existing clients My.Geotab software. The new software that will be provided by our partners include: tire pressure monitoring, trailer temperature monitoring, video surveillance, man down systems and a maintenance management solution.

The power of the right platform often means everything to a fleet manager. Some fleets may have existing GPS tracking devices from third party providers and would like to take total advantage of the many features of the My.Geotab, fleet management system. For example, a may want to continue using existing satellite tracking devices or battery-powered asset tracking for mobile assets (trailers or equipment).

Not all GPS fleet tracking providers embrace the open platform philosophy that we do here at GoFleet. Our open platform approach allows fleets to re-purpose existing hardware by adding it to their existing My.Geotab system. GoFleet makes this process both easy and cost effective.

API Software Interface
Each telematics device is programmed to store data and communicate in different ways. In order to deliver the data in a format that our servers can understand, the interested customer (sometimes with the help of GoFleet) must first develop what is called a software interface. This software must have the ability to collect data from the third party devices before it’s delivered to the My.Geotab servers in a format they understand.

After adding third party devices to the My.Geotab database, the device will function much like a GO device would. Whenever the software delivers new data, it will flow to the correct database automatically. This allows fleets with any mixture of third party devices and our GO devices to take full advantage of the many features available in My.Geotab.

The following items are required to take advantage of third party devices in MyGeotab:

  • A custom serial number prefix (e.g. “C1”) allocated by GoFleet or Geotab
  • A MyAdmin account to which GoFleet (in partner with Getoab) will assign the necessary permissions to use third party integration
  • A My.Geotab hosted database
  • A software application that will interface between the third party devices and My.Geotab

Check out all of our great add-ons now available:

New Competitive Differentiator is Customer Support

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Customer Support is the Key to Success

Stability is lacking in today’s worldwide economy, in addition to higher competition levels, shorter product lifecycles, and decreasing margins has forced technology companies to quickly act in protecting their current customer base. The retention of customers can be achieved through competitive pricing and special offers. However, society is now recognizing that excellent customer support/service proves to be the most important factor.

Competitive differentiation is often identified through the level of services and support provided as opposed to the product itself. Customer retention has proven to be more important than ever before. Through the formation of strong relationships, overall customer loyalty will increase greatly at an organization.

This knowledge is especially relevant to the high technology industry. It is no longer acceptable to simply have a sophisticated fleet management solution. It is important to also ensure the fleet management solution provider you choose to work with offers high quality and convenient technical support. Companies require an easy to access method for getting help and answers to all questions at any given time.

Here at GoFleet, we take pride in the customer support we offer. We are with you every step of the way from installation, creating custom reports, and helping you throughout your entire time working with us with anything you may need. Many other companies only offer support through the installation stage, we offer it whenever you need it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also allow you to engage in self service support for commonly asked questions.

Without a strong support team behind the product, especially when it comes to GPS fleet tracking, the product significantly loses value. Speak with one of our fleet consultants about our high quality customer support and products we offer. Check out these testimonials below on GoFleet’s rock star customer support:

“With Emile from support I was better able to understand the reports. He is always available to answer my questions and he does so clearly and patiently. GoFleet is a great company to work with. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who needs this service and I have.”
– Veronia Kukkola, Poppa Corn

The ease of plug and play technology, custom reporting that goes beyond “the norm”, and perhaps my favorite part, talking to the same person every time I call!
– Fleet Coordinator