Category: Blog

Benefits of Using a Dash Cam with a GPS System

Posted on | by Wisam Abou-diab | Leave a Comment on Benefits of Using a Dash Cam with a GPS System

One of the great things about fleet cameras is most fleet cameras include basic vehicle monitoring. For that reason, some businesses are replacing GPS systems with camera systems. Although this makes sense for light GPS tracking users, there are many benefits of using a Dash Cam with a GPS system.

 

In this post, we’ll explore two things. Firstly, we’ll discuss when fleets can use fleet cameras without additional GPS devices. Secondly, we’ll look at some benefits of using a GPS with a camera system.

 

 

When are fleet cameras enough for vehicle tracking?

 

Dash Cam with a GPS

 

 

Fleet cameras are enough when two things happen: (1) the fleet camera has a built-in GPS, and (2) the fleet only needs tracking for basic needs. This is because most fleet cameras record vehicle location and save a trip history, thus sufficing basic tracking needs.

 

 

When will fleets get benefits from a GPS with a camera system?

 

 

Car Cameras With Gps

 

 

 

Sometimes, fleets need more than basic monitoring and significantly benefit from combining cameras and GPS solutions. The most common use cases include: wanting fuel and diagnostic data, following compliance rules, and simplifying office reporting.

 

 

Fleets want to record fuel & diagnostics.

 

One of the biggest fleet camera weaknesses is that fleet cameras don’t connect with the vehicle’s engine computer. Hence, cameras are not able to collect engine data such as fuel measurements or diagnostics codes.

 

On the other hand, one of the benefits of using a dash cam with a GPS system is getting engine data. For instance, Geotab devices work with OEMs to read and report thousands of engine codes. In turn, fleets can leverage that data to improve their maintenance process.

 

 

Fleets need to follow compliance rules.

 

Another use case includes complying with rules. A great example is the ELD mandate. The ELD mandate requires fleets to electronically verify driving hours.

 

While fleet cameras can verify driver location and driving time, it fails to connect those data to HOS rules. Instead, fleets need a dedicated vehicle monitoring device because these devices compare driving hours against regulation hours.

 

 

Fleets want to simplify office reporting.

 

Lastly, GPS tracking helps simplify office reporting whereas fleet cameras can only provide footage.

 

For instance, consider time card reports. While administrators can match driver footage, driving records, and payroll together, this takes a lot of time. Instead, a vehicle tracking solution is more intuitive. Many vehicle trackers use driver log-in technology to match drivers to time cards.

 

 

 

Combining solutions improve reporting!

 

In summary, while fleet cameras are sufficient in some cases, combining a dash cam with a GPS system provide much more information. This is seen in fleets that want to manage fuel reporting, stay in compliance, and simplify reporting.

 

 

Like this blog? Check out our other blogs on fleet dash cameras and GPS tracking!

 

Can Dash Cams Lower Insurance Rates?

GPS Tracking for Small Businesses: What’s Different? What’s Important?

Fuel Card Integration Reduces Fuel Card Fraud

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on Fuel Card Integration Reduces Fuel Card Fraud

John’s company uses fuel cards. Fuel cards are convenient because employees like John can buy fuel with company money. However, more importantly for John, he occasionally uses his company card to buy fuel for his personal car. In other words, John is committing a rather common offense called fuel card fraud.

Fuel Card Fraud Costs Big Money

fuel card frauds

John might point out that he’s only taking a few dollars here and there.

That being mentioned, businesses lose tons of money because of people like John. In particular, there are two big costs.

Fuel slippage. Firstly, fuel theft leads to higher fuel costs. Businesses might employ several “Johns”. Altogether, fuel theft losses add up.

Accounting resources. Secondly, fuel card fraud has hidden accounting costs. A lot of businesses try fighting against fuel card fraud by auditing fuel purchases. However, in order to audit purchases, businesses spend time and money.

Using Fuel Card Integration to Reduce Fraud

Nowadays, many businesses are avoiding fuel card fraud by automating fuel purchase auditing. One of those companies is Entergy, a publicly listed energy company.

Entergy uses a process called “fuel card integration”. Fuel card integration combines purchasing data with vehicle forensic evidence such as vehicle location and fuel engine levels.

Fuel card integration eliminates fuel card fraud by flagging suspicious transactions. For instance, consider the following 3 measures.

reduce fuel fraud

Location & Log

Location and log measures a company vehicle’s location and driving hours. Fuel card integration triggers an alert if there is a fuel card purchase but the company vehicle is not in the area.

This is an extremely useful alert because it targets the most common fuel card fraud where drivers fuel a personal car instead of a company car.

Fuel Level

Fuel level corresponds to changes in a company vehicle’s fuel tank during fuel purchases. There is an alert if an employee uses a fuel card but their company vehicle’s fuel level doesn’t change.

Fuel level alerts provide an additional protection layer because it detects thieves who use fuel cards on an empty jerry can.

Match

Lastly, fuel cards look at match measures. In other words, fuel card integration checks if fuel goes into the correct vehicle.

This is useful for cutting down on company policy violations where employees use fuel cards for a coworker’s vehicle.

Fuel card integration is only one of several fuel card best practices. Click here to read an article on other best practices. 

What is ADAS & What is ADAS Used For?

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on What is ADAS & What is ADAS Used For?

ADAS, or Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, help drivers stay safe on the road. In fact, in a recent fleet management survey, ADAS are one of the biggest industry trends because of their accident prevention capability.

In this post, we will explore a few items including what is ADAS, what is ADAS used for, and how successful are ADAS.

What is ADAS?

what is ADAS

To illustrate, think about ADAS like Batman thinks of his Batmobile – a vehicle enhancer! Although ADAS does not shoot out webs, they have sensors that detect impending collisions and warn drivers.

An example of a ADAS is Mobileye. Ricardo Ruffino, Regional Sales Manager at Mobileye explains their popularity. “According to studies, human error causes 94% of collisions”, said Ruffino. “That’s a huge number and part of our job at Mobileye is to prevent those accidents and make our roads safer.”

What is ADAS Used For?

Another good question is what is ADAS used for. There are different use cases but we’ll start with Mobileye’s sensors.

Some examples of sensors include Forward Collision Warning, Headway Monitoring & Warning, Lane Departure Warning, and Pedestrian & Cyclist Collision Warning.

Forward Collision Warning

Forward Collision Warning

Perhaps the first sensor that comes to people’s minds are Forward Collision Warning sensors. These sensors detect when a vehicle is about to hit another vehicle ahead of them. When a collision is imminent, it make an audible sound for the driver to stop.

Distracted driving is a good example. A bussing company used Mobileye, and as a result, directly prevented an accident. A distracted bus driver did not notice that the vehicle ahead braked. However, because the Mobileye sounded, the driver braked the bus before it hit the other vehicle.

Headway Monitoring & Warning

Comparatively to Forward Collision Warnings, Headway Monitoring & Warning provide preventative warning ahead of collisions. Mobileye’s sensor uses an algorithm to compare vehicle speed and objects ahead. If a driver follows the leading vehicle too closely, the Mobileye will warn the driver to create more room.

Lane Departure Warning

Another useful sensor is the Lane Departure Warning. Lane departures are an important driving event because 60% of fatal collisions involve a vehicle that leaves its lane. If a driver is veering off the road, Mobileye will warn them to stay in their lane.

Pedestrian & Cycling Warning

Pedestrian & Cycling Warning

Lastly, Mobileye detects and warns drivers if they are about to hit a pedestrian and cyclist. This is especially relevant because of recent traffic trends. For instance, even though the City of Toronto designed an initiative called “Vision Zero” to eliminate fatal pedestrian and cyclist collisions, pedestrian deaths are still rising.

How effective are ADAS?

Finally, some people might be wondering what is ADAS’s success rate or how to sell it to a boss. “In summary, we have several success stories,” said Ruffino. “For instance, we had a pilot with a Dutch safety board. We installed Mobileye in 2000 vehicles and recorded no collisions during the pilot. In contrast, a non-Mobileye test group of 500 vehicles had 5 collisions during that time.”

Who Needs ELDs & Who is Exempt?

Posted on | by Wisam Abou-diab | Leave a Comment on Who Needs ELDs & Who is Exempt?

ELDs were a big industry item in 2017 because of the ELD mandate. It’s now making industry headlines in 2019. In this article, we’ll discuss who needs ELDs & who is exempt from ELDs in 2019.

 

What’s the buzz about ELDs in 2019?

 

ELD compliance will be on the radar again for 2019 fleet news for two reasons. Firstly, fleets with AOBRDS will need to upgrade to ELDs as the “grandfather clause” exemption expires in December 2019. Secondly, the industry is anticipating an announcement for the Canadian ELD mandate in 2019.

Who needs ELDs?

 

Who is exempt

Who needs ELDs in 2019? Long story short, drivers will need to use an ELD if they are required to fill Records of Duty logs and if they are operating in an ELD-mandated region. As of the beginning of 2019, ELDs are mandated in the US, Europe, and other spots around the world. There will be an ELD mandate in Canada but lawmakers have not finalized a timeline.

 

Who needs Records of Duties?

 

Who Needs RODs

A sub-question, then, is who need needs Records of Duties. The answer depends on your region. For instance, Ontario drivers must follow the MTO Rules. The MTO Rules specify that every CVOR-certified driver, every vehicle with a registered weight over 4500kg, and commercial vehicles carrying 10 or more people must keep a Record of Duty.

 

Because of differing rules and regions, we recommend looking on your regional transportation authority’s official website for an updated list.

Who is exempt from ELDs?

 

Another thing to note is there are some exemptions for ELDs. Who is exempt from ELDs in 2019? Similar to our discussion on Record of Duty, ELD exemptions vary depending on your region.

We’ll focus our discussion on the American FMCSA exemptions because experts expect similar Canadian exemptions. Three exemptions include infrequent Records of Duty, driveaway-towaway service, and pre-2000 vehicles.

Infrequent Records of Duty

 

Specifically, if a driver keeps Records of Duty for 8 or fewer days in a 30-day period, they are exempt from ELDs. This is most frequently applied to short-haul businesses that rarely go on jobs beyond the Record of Duty radius.

Driveaway-Towaway

 

Another category is driveaway-towaway services. These services hire contract workers to drive other business’s vehicles. Due to the nature of their work, they are also exempt from ELDs.

Pre-2000 Vehicles

 

Lastly, pre-2000 vehicles are exempt from the ELD mandate. These trucks do not have onboard computers, and as a result, are not compatible with sharing vehicle data to ELDs.

Summary: Research is Key!

 

Who Needs ELDs

In summary, ELD rules can get confusing. Who needs ELDs? Who is exempt? Ultimately, answers vary based on each fleet’s jurisdiction. Companies that are required to switch over to ELDs in 2019 and beyond should prioritize research to discover their personalized answer.

 

Links:

FMCSA: Who is exempt from the ELD rule? https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/faq/what-exceptions-are-allowed-electronic-logging-device-rule

 

MTO: Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Safety Manual. Module 9 – Hours of Service. http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/trucks/commercial-vehicle-operators-safety-manual/module-9.shtml

 

Disclaimer: “Who Needs ELDs & Who is Exempt” references the MOT and FMCSA website. However, this information may become out of date and inaccurate and readers should not substitute this article for official legal documents.

 

Liked this blog? Please leave a rating or comment below! Check our other blogs on ELDs and the mandate:

 

5 FAQs About The Canadian ELD Mandate

4 Tips on Preparing for the Canadian ELD Mandate

What To Look for When Choosing an ELD Provider

A Complete Guide to ELDs: Prepare Yourself for ELD Mandate in Canada

Can Dash Cams Lower Insurance Rates?

Posted on | by Wisam Abou-diab | Leave a Comment on Can Dash Cams Lower Insurance Rates?

Can dash cams lower insurance rates? 100%, yes!

 

Consider the following case. Two fleet owners got together and talked about their insurance. Their fleets used the same insurers and had a similar history, so the business owners expected to pay similar premiums. However, to the surprise of both owners, one of the companies was paying significantly less on their premiums. Why?

The difference was that one fleet used fleet cameras while the other fleet did not. Just like the fleet owner with higher premiums, many people wonder why dash cams lower insurance rates.

Why do dash cams lower insurance rates?

 

Insurers reduce rates whenever a client is considered less risky or whenever a solution reduces business costs. Hence, many insurers categorized fleet cameras a risky reducing and a money saving solution because fleet cameras reduce false claims, reduce client accident rates, and saves admin time.

Dash cams reduce false claims.

 

Dash Cams Reduce False Claims

Firstly, dash cams lower insurance rates by reducing false claims. False claims are extremely relevant for fleet operations because 80% of company drivers are not responsible for an accident involving commercial vehicles.

Hence, dash cams protect drivers by capturing incidents. In turn, insurers are also off the hook from covering the accident when cameras prove their client’s innocence.

Dash cams reduce accident rates.

 

Secondly, dash cams lower insurance rates by reducing accident rates. Drivers are much more likely to drive safer when cameras are monitoring them. Additionally, many fleets use fleet cameras as a training tool by recording and reviewing incidents.

Dash cams reduce insurance admin work.

 

dashcams reduce the fraud tax

Thirdly, dash cams lower insurance rates by reducing an insurer’s admin cost. Dash cams reduce admin cost because getting a video footage significantly shortens the insurance claim cycle.

To illustrate this point, consider filing an insurance claim. What does a claimer need to provide? Traditionally, claimers need to send facts by taking pictures and providing witness statements. In other words, insurers need to constantly ask their client for more information. In contrast, a video footage provides all of that information and eliminates a long claim process.

Insurance & fleet cameras will continue to be closely aligned.

 

In summary, both insurers and their clients see fleet cameras as a useful tool. In fact, many insurers now have fleet cameras as a mandated item for their clients and incentivize their clients for their investment. With the continued growth of dash cameras, we anticipate continued collaboration between the insurance industry and the dash camera industry.

Liked this blog? Please leave a rating or comment below! Check our other blogs on Dash Cams:

 

Benefits of Dash Cams: 5 Reasons to Buy Dash Cams for Your Fleet

Choosing the Best Commercial Vehicle Camera System For Your Fleet

How are Fleets Handling 2018 Trucking Industry Challenges?

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on How are Fleets Handling 2018 Trucking Industry Challenges?

The American Transportation Research Institute recently published its top 2018 trucking industry challenges. 2018 trucking industry challenges include Driver Shortages, Stringent HOS Rules, Driver Retention, ELD Mandate Concerns, and Trucking Parking Shortages.

In this post, we’ll discuss each of the five trucking industry challenges and examine how fleets are handling them.

1.Driver Shortages

Driver Shortages in trucking industry

Driver shortages plagued the trucking industry for the past few years. In fact, last year, I wrote an article about driver shortage. Experts predicted that there will be a shortage of 200,000 drivers by 2020 because of aging drivers and declining youth interest.

If younger people are not going into trucking and older drivers are retiring, does this mean truck drivers are endangered? Not necessarily. A recent trucking trend is an increase in immigrant drivers. Hence, a lot of fleets are recruiting immigrant drivers for handling driver shortage.

A good case study is trucking giant Day & Ross. Day & Ross are using innovative training tools to attract immigrant drivers. For example, Day & Ross added driving simulators to traditional training to break down communication barriers between drivers and trainers.

2.Stringent HOS Rules

Another trucking industry challenge is stringent HOS rules. Many drivers and organizations are lobbying the FMCSA to loosen rules. According to some people, HOS rules are not reflective of real life situations.

For instance, as we’ll discuss later in this article, a common concern is when drivers can’t find parking lots. Drivers are still on the clock when they can’t find parking and will be fined for a HOS violation if caught.

For now, the FMCSA recommends fleets and drivers to adapt to current laws while the agency reviews possible changes.

3.Driver Retention

drivers retention

Driver retention is similar to the driver shortage issue. Since drivers are in high demand, trucking companies compete against each other for drivers. Hence, a lot of fleets are working on driver retention. How are fleets improving driver intention?

The biggest trucking industry change is that a lot of fleets are hiring HR professionals. For many years, fleets promoted ex-drivers into recruiting and retention. Although ex-drivers are well-respected, fleets are finding a lot of success in hiring experienced HR professionals.

HR staff have significant experience in employee engagement and retention. For instance, Elise Leeson is the VP of HR at Averitte Express. Leeson’s company is in the Top 100 list of largest for-hire carriers. Some of her successful retention strategies include creating a driver-friendly company culture and improving driver benefits.

4.ELD Mandate Concerns

The ELD Mandate is still a trucking industry challenge even though it’s been a year after its enactment.

Some trucking firms are struggling with underperforming vendors. For instance, one trucking company owner commented that his vendor did not update their ELD program after the FMCSA introduced new exemptions.

In addition, other truck fleets are transitioning from AOBRDs to ELDs. The FMCSA granted a two-year grandfather clause for AOBRD users. However, as of December 2019, AOBRD fleets need to research and upgrade to an ELD provider.

5.Truck Parking Shortage

Truck Parking Shortage

Speaking of the ELD mandate, some truckers are blaming the mandate for parking lot shortages. However, Darrin Roth, the VP of Highway Policy at the American Trucking Association disagrees.

Roth claims that there are more spare parking lots than demanded. The biggest issue is that drivers are not finding open parking spots. A lot of drivers use phone apps for locating empty parking spots. Unfortunately, a lot of parking lot apps have outdated information. Hence, truckers are recommended to use apps that reserve parking spots.

What other trucking industry challenges are affecting the community? Let us know in the comments.

Links
PR Newswire: Driver Shortage Once Again Ranked As Trucking Industry’s Top Concern
Transport Topics: Fleets Hunt for Strategies to Lower Driver Turnover
FreightWaves: How real is the parking problem?

Inventions & Innovations: RFID Asset Tracking to Asset Sensors

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on Inventions & Innovations: RFID Asset Tracking to Asset Sensors

People commonly use the words “inventions” and “innovations”. Most of the times, however, people misuse them. The biggest difference is inventions are new ideas whereas innovations are improvements. Since learning those terms in business school, I saw real-life examples by working in technology. To illustrate, let’s discuss RFID asset tracking and asset sensors.

RFID Asset Tracking – An Invention

RFID asset tracking was an exciting invention. A lot of people don’t know about or appreciate RFID tags because they are extremely small chips. However, many businesses use RFID asset tracking for saving cost or even saving lives.

For example, many hospitals use RFID asset tracking on medical equipment. After hospitals and other organizations experienced success with RFIDs for asset tracking, people started using RFIDs for asset scanning.

RFID Asset Tracking

For example, think about key fobs. I moved apartments when I was younger and one of the biggest differences was the entrance door. Before the move, I used keys to unlock the lobby door. However, after the move, I used key fobs to scan in. At that time, I thought key fobs were as magical as Harry Potter gadgets.

Nowadays, RFIDs are still popular. Nonetheless, a new business trend is Big Data. In other words, businesses want to collect more data to make better decisions. Hence, for some businesses, RFIDs are not enough because they only collect location data. What’s the next big thing?

Asset Sensors – Innovating RFIDs

An emerging technology are asset beacons. Similarly to RFIDs, asset sensors are small sensors. However, the biggest difference is asset sensors collect much more data. To illustrate, consider a recent magazine article on wineries.

Pehlam Estate Winery Plans Better Wines

rfid tracking system

Picture from Crush Summer 2018 & retrieved from www.issuu.com.

Who loves wine? Tasty wine requires careful preparation. For example, consider Pehlam Estate Winery, a multi-generation winery in Ontario. According to their experience, -10°C is the best icewine grape harvesting temperature. Hence, the winery invested in asset sensors for temperature alerts.

After a while, the winery discovered that they can do even more with asset sensors. Matthew Speck, the winery’s Operation Manager, started using climate analytics for predicting growth patterns and for producing better quality wine.

Summary

Inventions and innovations will always happen. Forward-thinking businesses invested in new technology such as RFID asset tags and asset sensors and found new ways of conducting business as a result.

Links
Issuu: Crush Summer 2018 Magazine. Sensing Change.

It’s Easy and Effective to Make Digital Forms

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on It’s Easy and Effective to Make Digital Forms

What do logging into websites, buying stuff online, and completing surveys have in common? All of these actions involve customers filling in online forms. Nowadays, there are hundreds of online forms and there are tons of free tools to help people make digital forms.

Is it hard to build forms?

make a digital forms

Not at all! One of the great things about digital forms is that it’s easy to learn how to make digital forms. For example, when I was in school, a lot of my classmates learned and used SurveyMonkey.

SurveyMonkey is a free online tool where users make and share surveys. It was a great tool for school (and even work!) because it was easy to build a form and it was valuable for collecting research data.

How do you make a killer form?

Tools like SurveyMonkey are just the beginning. Although it’s not hard to make digital forms, it’s important to learn how to do them properly. After all, great forms lead to great results!

building a killer form

The Best Practices of a Killer Form include Organization, Multimedia, and Mobile-Friendliness.

Organization

Forms must be organized. For example, consider Tax Forms. Taxpayers usually confirm their name, address, and other personal info on the first page of their Tax Form because it makes sense to keep similar data together.

Hence, before people start making forms, they should create a form outline. This involves brainstorming data collection objectives and grouping those objectives in a logical order.

Multimedia

Another best practice is including multimedia. Particularly, people are getting away from text-only forms. Most forms in the 2000s era consist of text boxes and checkboxes. In contrast, modern forms include file uploads.

To illustrate, think about driver maintenance forms. In the 2000s, drivers would need to describe vehicle problems in words. However, in modern forms, drivers can take a video with their phone and upload that video onto the form. After all, pictures are worth 1000 words!

Mobile Friendliness

Lastly, forms must be mobile friendly. Mobile friendliness is much more than downsizing a form to fit a phone screen. Instead, mobile friendliness is about taking advantage of phones. For example, a lot of digital phones use e-signatures. Customers can directly sign on a phone rather than signing on paper.

Case Example: AAA

Many businesses choose to make digital forms because it’s an effective way to improve processes. One of those businesses is AAA, one of the largest emergency road services.

Before starting digital forms, drivers manually completed forms. “Manual forms are a lot of work for drivers and for administrators,” commented a driver. “Sometimes, drivers had to turn in damaged forms because it was raining.”

Then, AAA decided to go digital. Digital forms were much more effective. In fact, on average, drivers got to their next jobs 3 minutes quicker. As a whole, this means AAA saved 750 hours every month!

Click here to learn more about making digital forms with ProntoForms. 

GPS Tracking for Small Businesses: What’s Different? What’s Important?

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on GPS Tracking for Small Businesses: What’s Different? What’s Important?

GPS tracking for small businesses can be very different than GPS tracking for larger companies. Why?

Small businesses operate differently than larger companies. As a result, small business owners experience different challenges than larger companies.

Small businesses vs. large companies – key differences

Small businesses are smaller (duh!). What does that really mean? In the case of GPS tracking for small businesses, smaller business environments lead to different use cases. For instance, small businesses experience tighter employee connections, higher customer service emphasis, and more staff responsibility.

Tighter Employee Environment

Small businesses have smaller team members. In fact, many small businesses employ family members. In turn, staff members are more likely to be aligned towards a team goal. Hence, small businesses usually experience less time theft than bigger companies.

Use case

GPS tracking for small businesses with close employees are more about protecting business than about monitoring staff members. For instance, a business owner who employs family members are less likely to have to watch their team.

However, business owners might use GPS tracking to protect their bottom line. A great example is in the snow plowing business. These businesses use GPS tracking to keep a record of all of their jobs. As a result, if there is ever a dispute, small businesses can use tangible historical data rather than relying on hiring expensive legal staff.

Customers are THAT Much More Important

gps fleet tracking small business

Small businesses naturally have fewer customers than large businesses. In addition, they don’t have as much advertising resources. Hence, small businesses will do everything in their power to delight their current customer base and to spread positive word of mouth.

Use case

Small businesses use GPS tracking to improve customer service. For instance, our client PoppaCorn uses real-time tracking to provide delivery updates to their customers. Real time tracking increases estimate accuracy which in turn increases customer satisfaction.

Employees Wear Many Hats

Small business employees wear multiple hats

Last but not least, small business employees wear many hats. For instance, a small business employee might be responsible for sales, marketing, and customer service. In contrast, larger companies separate those functions into 3 different roles. Hence, small businesses employees are always looking for better time management tools.

Use Case

GPS tracking for small businesses are also used to save time. Many tracking tools provide data and functions that eliminate manual admin work.

A good example is filing fuel tax forms. Normally, a business staff has to keep a record of fuel receipts and odometer readings. On the other hand, vehicle trackers automatically collect that data and generate reports. Hence, employees can spend their time on more important tasks than data entry and reporting.

Conclusion

Vehicle tracking is helpful in small and large businesses. The difference, however, in the nature of business leads to different use cases.

Climate Targets May Result in More Sustainable Fleet Management

Posted on | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment on Climate Targets May Result in More Sustainable Fleet Management

Sustainable fleet management is a forefront industry item because many businesses around the world are going greener. In fact, recently in October 2018, a climate study group advocated that humans need to be greener.

The IPCC & the 1.5 Degree Target

Global warming is a controversial topic. Some people believe that natural cycles caused recent climate change. However, a lot of scientists tend to disagree.

One group of scientists, the IPCC, issued a stark warning about global warming at a UN conference. They explained that humans need to act quickly to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees in the next few decades.

Otherwise, if temperatures continue to climb over 1.5 degrees, scientists warn that there will be irreversible effects. For instance, rising water levels will leave some areas uninhabitable and deadly weather will become more common.

CO2 emissions cut by 45%

In particular, the IPCC noted that governments should aim to cut CO2 emission by 45%. Consequently, a 45% goal can significantly impact heavy fuel users- such as business fleets.

The Case for Sustainable Fleet Management

Nonetheless, many fleets are moving towards sustainable fleet management even without a carbon target. One explanation is taking environmental leadership. However, another reason is reducing business costs.

Multiple studies show that sustainable fleet management leads to business savings. For instance, fleets save directly on fuel costs and indirectly from tax credits.

How do you Implement Sustainable Fleet Management?

After deciding to go green, the next question is often, “How do you do it?”.

Fleets need to work on every area of their operation including purchasing assets, planning operations, and conserving fuel.

Asset Purchasing

The first area is purchasing equipment. Fleets are moving towards fuel efficient ideas such as electric vehicles and solar appliances.

Asset Purchasing

Electric vehicles continue to be a fleet management trend in 2019. The technology is more feasible than ever, and as a result, a lot of fleets are testing the idea to cut fuel costs.

Another alternative is switching to solar appliances. For example, some fleets equip solar panels to power vehicle appliances. According to a study, solar power cuts 3% of fuel during drives and 16% of fuel during idling.

Route Planning

Yet another idea is route planning. Many fleets are combining internal functions into single routes rather than spreading out their trips.

route planning

To illustrate, consider the medical industry. Medical organizations might use vehicles to collect supplies and deliver medical test samples. Rather than sending out two vehicles, businesses are now combining tasks into a single route.

Fuel Conservation

Lastly, fleets are always looking for ways to reduce fuel usage. Some of the traditional ways of reducing fuel include implementing a no-idling policy and monitoring fuel mileage.

In 2018, however, fleets tried new ideas. For example, if you look at trucks on the road, you might notice that some trucks travel in a line. This is on purpose and is called “platooning”. Researchers found that platooned trucks can save up to 10% of fuel, which is a small step towards a 45% target.

Many fleets are adopting sustainable fleet management ideas. It’s a good move for moving green and for saving costs!

Links
United Nations Environment Programme: Rapid and unprecedented action required to stay within 1.5ºC says UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Sustainable Roadmap: Environmental Considerations for Fleet Management