Author: Vishal Singh

crossroad with a car transmitting a signal

Iridium Satellite Solves Minimal Coverage Concerns

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Our telematics devices are responsible for tracking vehicles and assets and managing data for fleet managers within your company. All the information recorded can be easily accessed and downloaded for further decision making and strategic use. Our devices are capable of pulling the necessary information when they have enough power and strong network coverage to record data regardless of where your assets are located such as downtown in the city or in more remote areas.

Sharing the responsibility of managing and tracking your fleet results in you wanting to know where your vehicles are at all times. However, there might be a few companies who seek for the same capabilities but operate in areas with minimal network coverage. In order to gain tracking information, we utilize this opportunity and provide an add-on solution by integrating both our Go Rugged and GO device, with the communication reliability of the Iridium Network. Although the device is still capable of recording and storing information when operating in an area with minimal/no network coverage, the Iridium satellite is capable of providing the data in real-time.

GoFleet’s Integration with Iridium

The Iridium Satellite solution is a third party system that integrates with our Go Rugged and GO devices. It’s an external modem that connects to the unit and provides a robust failover system that allows for assets to continue to record positional updates while operating in remote areas out of cellular coverage. The devices are preconfigured to efficiently continue logging all GPS data and save it to its internal memory so, when it does gain cellular coverage, the data can be automatically uploaded to the database to provide a full breadcrumb trail of the trips performed while the vehicle was out of cellular range.

Benefits of the Iridium Satellite Tracking Solution

There are significant benefits to having the add-on Iridium Satellite Tracking system:

  • Coverage Anywhere – Regardless of whether your assets are located in or out of cellular coverage, you’ll still be able to receive real-time updates on your asset whereabouts.
  • Man-Down Functionality – GoFleet has also integrated a “Panic” feature with the Iridium add-on. When triggered, the satellite sends a top-priority message over the Iridium network to our software solution. The device on the driver’s end will also start to beep indicating that the message has been sent. The solution then sends a reply back to the vehicle and the device stops beeping, letting the driver know that the database has received the message.
  • Cost Efficient Data – The Iridium solution is a failover system, meaning that the device will only send data over the Iridium network when the GO cannot send data through the cellular network. The add-on is strategically designed to only send certain data over the Iridium network in order to maintain manageable costs but still receive reliable data updates from assets.

For more information on the important features of GPS fleet tracking, and how it can help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants.

 

source: http://www.geotab.com/blog/benefits-of-iridium-satellite-tracking/

 

Customized-reporting

Power of Custom Reports

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Customize your company reports to gain tailored fleet information

Organizations are constantly looking for new ways to improve their yearly profits. With growing competition and rapid technological advancements, countless companies are turning to telematics for vehicle cost savings, driver management and improved insurance rates. Fleets posses the ability to extract an enormous amount of valuable data from their vehicles. This data when turned into meaningful information can help management make smarter fleet choices as well as improve their ROI.

With GoFleet, understanding your fleet behaviour can be further made simple with custom reporting. Reports within the database can be easily accessed and generated for decision making and driver behaviour analysis. With over 30 standard reports to choose from and the ability to create limitless custom reports using excel; information on driver events can be downloaded, customized and scheduled to be emailed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Understanding your Reports

Using excel to create custom reports allows for limitless options when analyzing your fleet data and driver behavior. Variables that best align your business objectives can be included to create graphical reports that match your organizations requirements and can also be placed on your dashboard for a summary view. Below is an example of a safety report that can be enabled on the dashboard.

The Driver Score Card Report: Data concerning risky driver behaviours based on accelerometer data and rules created around sensitivity is used to generate the report.

This report can help:

  • Management understand driver performance and measure how their habits affect fuel efficiency and safety
  • Easily measure driver behaviour trends and take any appropriate action to improve performance
  • Compare individual drivers against organizational targets and recognize employees for good driver behaviour

Driver Score Card

Customizing Reports

Customizing reports within the software solution is fairly easy. You would select the specific report and customize either of the following options.

Custom Reports Fleet

  • Report View: allows you to decide who can view the report
  • DashBoard: allows you to display the report on the dashboard. Select the date range of the information (This week, Last week etc) and who can view the report on the dashboard
  • Email Report: allows you to add email receivers, select the date range of the information to be sent and the type of report to be sent

Custom reports progress and provide you with a means of comparing data withing certain periods of time and also measure company growth. The numbers can help your company formulate your budget and implement strategies to improve vehicle costs. In addition to helping you make decisions about the company and it’s future, reports help keep a trail of vehicle history which can be used for so many purposes such as maintenance records, employee behaviour trends, insurance purposes and more.

For more information on the important features of GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

 

[email protected] | 1-888-998-1122

Measure Fleet Standards with Exception Reporting

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Generate reports based on Exception Rules

Understanding where and when an issue arises with your vehicle can be made simple by creating rules within your solution. Fleet managers are capable of setting specific fleet standards (rules) within the database, these standards can then act as a benchmark to effectively manage and improve on road driver behaviours. Therefore, when a vehicle event occurs around the rule set, an exception is recorded which can then optionally notify one or more people, alert the responsible driver in their vehicle, or easily log the event in your account.

Our solution offers a robust suite of built in exception rules separated into easy to understand categories. In addition to these, you can create an unlimited number of custom rules which combine different various conditions to suit your needs.

The types of built in exceptions offered are available in three categories:

Safety:
Enables fleet wide safety, driver safety, and changes to driver behavior which increases accident risk such as harsh braking, seat belt use, speed violations, accident detection and more.

Productivity:
Driver measurements related to time spent performing specific actions such as excessive idling, late arrivals, early departures and more.

Fleet:
Responsive vehicle monitoring Engine issues, battery drain, tracking device tamper detection and more.

Generating Exception Reports

Exception rules can also be accessed within the database by running reports at any time to review the history of exceptions and to understand the trending behaviors of your drivers. In other words a report based solely on speeding can be generated if requested by management within a specific time period. This report will contain information of the incident, the time period and the date of the incident.

The importance of generating such reports are limitless. It can act a benchmark for decision making, help understand how your drivers are performing through data analysis and implement strategies using numbers gained from the report. As drivers often do not see the expenditure side of running a business causing them to make hasty decisions while on the road. Therefore, the whole idea of setting rules within the solution identify who those drivers are and what what hasty decisions are being made.

Exception Reporting

Along with the default reports already available, advanced reports containing more information can be downloaded. Downloading an Excel file allows for the most flexibility in analyzing the data, while PDF files are most portable. These reports also contain more information as displayed and can help fleet managers review data/driver behaviours based on such rules.

For more information on the important features of GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

 

1-888-998-1122 | [email protected]

 

real-time-alerts

Receive Real-Time Alerts & Monitor Driver Behaviour on the Go!

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Real-Time Alerts Monitor Driver Behaviour on the Job

GPS systems offer fleets an abundance of data for managers to better monitor their vehicles and engine diagnostics. To make the process even more accessible, GoFleet offers the ability to send events recorded in real time to effectively monitor driver behaviours and stay on top of business needs. This poses as an advantage over some of the other driver behaviour monitoring systems that do not allow for updated real-time alerts.

Receiving alerts in real-time translates into being able to monitor driver behaviours while on the job. Alerts are generated when a rule set within the database is broken. GoFleet driver behaviour monitoring systems is designed with default rules that can be customized based on your company preference by selecting appropriate conditions. When the condition set is broken by a driver only then will a notification be sent out. These notifications can be sent to management or selective users via email, popup’s within the database or the device can be set to beep (within the vehicle) to fix the driver behaviour immediately.

Below is an example of a rule set around speeding. As per the condition set, if the driver drives over the set speed limit a notification will be sent out containing information about the speeding incident. These notifications generated can be customized based on what data your company would like to gain.

Creating a rule

Create a driver rule

Setting Conditions

1. Select “Add speed”

2. Set the speed limit you would like the drivers to remain within

3. Choose how to notify someone when a rule is broken

driver behaviour monitoring systems

Notifications are important, if a vehicle is spending too much time speeding/idling it leads to an increase in fuel consumption. The more money wasted on excessive fuel costs, the more your business bottom line suffers. By monitoring driver behaviours through alerts you can ensure that behaviours are fixed easily. You can also generate a report based on the number of times the driver broke the same rule set, allowing you to take corrective measures and keep a record for legality purposes.

Other example of alerts include programmed off-hour alerts. This means that managers can ensure that their vehicles are not being driven during non-working hours. Moreover, there are tons of other expenses that come along as a result of over-using the company vehicle or driving recklessly. There will be an increase in vehicle part replacements and more overall maintenance costs due to more wear and tear. To avoid further expenses take advantage of our solution; let GoFleet’s real-time alerts help for you.

For more information on the important features of GPS real-time alerts, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

 

1-888-998-1122 | [email protected]

 

Geo Fences: Set Boundaries for a Better Business

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Increase Employee Productivity Using Geofencing Technology

A geofence, also known as a zone, is a virtual fence around a real-world area of interest. You can use zones to denote where places are such as your office, customers, workplaces, airports, gas stations, entire states and provinces or people’s homes. When combined with exception reporting, zones become a critical component for analyzing the behavior of your fleet.

Zones can be easily added into the solution by clicking on the map to add each point. Each geofence can be differentiated by colour as well as a unique description. Along with the other customizable features, there are unique benefits to utilizing zones. Geofences are flexible and can be set at nearly any distance surrounding an entire city or even around a single house. They help reduce administration time spent analyzing information concerning customer visits and also maintain employee accountability.

Geo Fences

GEOFENCING TUTORIAL

Defining a Zone

To define the boundary of your new geofence, first select a starting point on the map. Continue creating the boundary by selecting points along its perimeter. A line will connect the points, showing the perimeter in the order you add them. To finish, close the zone by re-selecting the beginning point. Note that the perimeter lines can be moved while the zone is being created and a point can be removed by dragging it off the map.

Geo Fences

Modifying an Existing Zone

To change the shape of a zone, find the zone on the map or search for it in the zones list. Selecting a zone on the map and the menu below will be shown. Select change zone shape to modify the boundary by moving or removing individual points. To add a new point to the boundary, select along the zone boundary.

Geofences

The benefits of adding geofences vary among industries, and if making consistent customer visits is a promising feature of your business then gaining push notifications when a driver enters a customer zone might just be what you’re looking for! Also it is important to remember that geofences can be created around any area of interest such as, your corporate office to monitor when drivers arrive to work and when they leave.

By using zones in combination with real time location tracking, reporting becomes a powerful tool for productivity. This enables a number of possible scenarios such as:

  • Have an email sent out when drivers arrive at customer locations
  • Sound an in-vehicle alert to a driver who has left work early
  • Notify your shipping and receiving department when a truck will arrive soon
  • The application recognizes stops made within zones, such as customer areas, and can also indicate the amount of time spent at these locations

For more information on the important features of GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

1-888-998-1122 | [email protected]

Real Time Fleet Tracking

Real Time GPS Fleet Tracking

Posted on | by Vishal Singh

Live Track Your Vehicles with Real Time GPS Fleet Tracking

Real time GPS fleet tracking can be an important money-saving tool for any sized business. From the ability to reduce fleet idle times, improve driver behaviours and measure maintenance costs, the solution is designed to control expenses that can eventually affect your company’s bottom line.

Live tracking is an important and interesting feature offered by GoFleet’s solution. Designed to help locate the current location of your company vehicles; the solution is capable of playing back trip details, generating reports based on location visits and optimizing routes for customer visits.

How to locate fleet vehicles?

Locating vehicles within the database is fairly easy and accessible. You can select multiple vehicles at a time which will automatically populate on a map as shown in the image below or select individual vehicles to locate in real time. The status of each vehicle selected will then be displayed on the map, helping you quickly see the position of that particular vehicle. The application is also capable of automatically saving records of each trip made when vehicles are driven from place to place. The telematics device will record the distance travelled, time spent driving/idling and other important engine diagnostic events which take place along the way. Such data can later be generated (within specific time periods) to verify driver location needed from the past or even the current route taken during the day.

real-time-gps-fleet-tracking

 

 

Fleet Management Reports

Reports containing such information can also be downloaded to better understand the data or used for important decision making. For instance, mangers can obtain reports of fuel efficiency based on the route taken and whether the drivers were idling along the way. These reports can be scheduled to determine areas where drivers may be wasting fuel. Increase in fuel usage might occur at times when there is needless idling, unapproved vehicle usage and speeding. Managers can then eliminate irrelevant fuel expenses by using the GoFleet’s real time tracking solution.

A few drivers may not like the idea of being monitored, but the overall savings of real time GPS fleet tracking will be worth the potential dissonance. With live tracking we can help managers regulate scheduled vehicle maintenance, monitor drivers in real-time and verify log times of employees. All of these aspects are important to saving the company time and money allowing you to never lose sight of your vehicles, but instead effectively manage your fleet to eliminate labour costs and bring forth positive changes.

For more information on the important features of real time GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!