Category: GPS Tracking Benefits

Benefits of GPS Vehicle Tracking With Garmin Integration

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

GPS Vehicle Tracking With Garmin Integration

In keeping with the promise of making the most superior products in the automotive, aviation, marine, outdoor and sports industry that are an essential part of our lives, Garmin is a market leader in creating value and quality for the customer. Indeed, GPS vehicle tracking with Garmin integration has made it easier for business owners to track their trucks and for individuals to monitor their personal cars as well.

For business people, this platform has enabled them to facilitate easier communication with various vehicles dispatched from their central places of work, all the way to the field. With the capability of this system sending and receiving alerts and messages in real time has made lots of people start to shun those time consuming (and sometimes dangerous) phone calls as a means of tracking the whereabouts of their vehicles. The end result here is less time wastage, ensuring the safety of your drivers to keep them off the phone while driving and increased productivity.

As if that wasn’t enough, GPS vehicle tracking with Garmin integration offers you as a driver a cut and dry communication avenue avoiding a lot of mind boggling challenges on the road and more so with features like the preloaded detailed maps of more than 40 states that offer the latest updates, navigable complex interchanges, easy to search points of interest and addresses mode, you can definitely enjoy your journey. One of the more important things while driving is having the ability to keep your eyes on the road and not get distracted by responding to a phone call or text message. This is undoubtedly the basic advantage here.

Need to make more money as a business owner? Here we go! With this tool, your driver(s) can get feeds and avoid traffic jams, road diversions and other pitfalls along the way therefore getting to your destination a lot quicker. With other integration options you can count on various functionalities that you may require. In a large extent, GPS vehicle tracking with Garmin integration includes tons of features of creating and assigning tasks based on addresses, monitoring job statuses at any time and remotely and ensuring seamless communication between the dispatch team and the team back at the office.

To learn more about our GPS vehicle tracking system and GPS vehicle tracking with Garmin integration contact one of our fleet consultants today! Call 1-888-998-1122 or email [email protected].

 

This article was written by guest author Samuel Abuya.

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.

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

Benefits of Choosing the Right Telematics Harness

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Importance of Selecting the Right Telematics Harness

The right telematics harness matters; it helps maximize the richness of the telematics data, reduce your liabilities, and optimize installation time. This article touches on the three main benefits of choosing the right telematics harness and how it can make a difference.

Data Richness

GoFleet, in partner with Geotab, provides a “proprietary” data harness that gives end-users the most in-depth and detailed data possible. For example, it allows your GPS tracking device to tap into the manufacturers proprietary data bus which is where the information below is typically kept:

  • Odometer
  • Seatbelt
  • Engine-hour data

Optimize Installation Time

Using the proper harness helps installers mount the GPS tracking unit in the optimal location when performing activities, such as following the best route path. Furthermore it is important to help avoid brake and gas pedals, steering columns and high traffic areas for obvious safety reasons. T type harnesses limit tampering, help avoid GPS monitoring detection and allow mechanics to scan vehicles directly.

Liability Reduction

GoFleet’s harnesses (by Geotab) simply work. There is no chance of mis-wiring, over-current, or reflection issues, which can happen when a harness is too long for the vehicles network. Improperly wired or designed harnesses can cause a host of mechanical and electrical issues which can seriously increase a company’s liability. It is important for end-users to work with a reliable organization that is committed to engineering innovation.

For more information on the GoFleet solution, in partner with Geotab, that powers some of the top fleets in North America (such as UPS), please fill out our contact form.

GoFleet is not just another GPS Fleet Tracking company, we are interested in optimizing the way you do business. We work with you to ensure you get a quick ROI from our solution and truly see all the benefits GPS tracking can offer.

 

Original Article Written by: John Kyes, Development at Geotab
https://www.geotab.com/blog/top-3-benefits-of-choosing-the-right-telematics-harness/

Top 10 Reasons to Use GPS Tracking Technology

Posted on | by Courtney redwell
    • Save Fuel

Fuel gets wasted from poor driving behavior (like speeding), unnecessary idling and unnecessary miles driven that a GPS fleet tracking system can help identify. Our customers have reported anywhere from 12-30% savings on fuel after implementing our system.

    • Increase Productivity

Optimize driving routes; find the shortest routes with the least amount of traffic to get to destinations faster. Get to your customers on time and send the closest drivers to the closest call.

    • Improve Vehicle Maintenance

Without a fleet Maintenance management system vehicles are usually either serviced at regular intervals or service is forgotten altogether. This can cause a few problems, either the vehicles are getting serviced when no maintenance is actually needed or vehicles are overdue on their maintenance. With our fleet management system you can set up alerts for maintenance and the system will alert you of any engine faults. You will no longer need to pay high priced mechanics to find out what is wrong, our software can tell you.

    • Reduce Labor Costs

Time is money and with our fleet management system get accurate records of driver hours. Eliminating manual time sheets will please your drivers and your administrative staff.

    • Increase Driver Safety

Eliminate speeding, rapid acceleration and harsh braking. Fleet managers will be able to access important data about driver behavior and can identify pain areas to discuss with their drivers. Our in-vehicle driver training ‘beeps’ will also alert drivers immediately of any poor behavior allowing them to correct the negative actions themselves.

    • Prevent Unauthorized Vehicle Use

Unauthorized and after-hour use of the company vehicles can be easily identified and controlled with real-time data and alerts from our fleet management system.

    • Plan Routes Efficiently

GPS tracking technology allows fleet dispatchers to use real-time location for time-sensitive dispatching. It enables dispatchers to identify any delivery/service route overlaps and difficult traffic areas to avoid.

    • Reduce Insurance Costs and Liability

Many insurance companies offer discounts to businesses taking advantage of GPS tracking technology. Also, fleet management systems can reduce liability from worker’s compensation costs and accident claims. GoFleet has a partnership with Mutual Liberty and can offer between a 10-40% discount for fleets of 20 or more.

    • Optimize Customer Service

Real time tracking makes serving your customers easier. Know which driver to send, where they are and when they will arrive to the destination. The GPS tracking data can be used to verify driver deliveries and the amount of time spent at each location. The system also removes all customer vs. driver disputes by providing the real facts.

GPS fleet tracking does much more than simply ‘tracking’. Of course this feature is great but with all the advanced reporting technology, driver coaching, and alerts that come along with it your company will realize a return on investment and overall business optimization in no time.

Fleet Management With Advanced Exception Reporting Technology

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Advanced Exception and Risk Management Reports Assist in Fleet Management

Rule Creation

A simple and effective way to manage the weak areas of a fleet is reporting by exception. Management can easily choose and set specific rules and standards by using Geotab’s Rules engine. Driver training programs that make use of the in-vehicle beeping function, which is triggered when a rule is broken, has proven to be one of the most effective ways to manage and improve the on-road behavior of your drivers.

fleet management speeding seatbelt exceptions

The most common exceptions include:

  • Idling over your threshold
  • Speeding over the posted limit
  • Seatbelt
  • Aggressive driving

When these rules are broken, they can be communicated in a few different ways:

  • Real-time email alert
  • Urgent pop-up on screen in real-time
  • In-vehicle beep can be set, this is a real-time driver behavior management tool used to correct poor driver behavior
  • Possibly the most used: when rules are broken they automatically populate into the Risk Management Report and Exceptions Report. Broken rules can also show on the map for a quick view, and exact location of an incident.

What is the Different Between Risk Management and Exception Reports?

One of the biggest differences is that the Exceptions report shows the location of where each rule was broken. This data is usually most important for organizations because it encompasses all the weak spots and can be communicated to management easily when broken. It optimizes the “no news is good news” saying: management only needs to be notified if a rule has been broken.

On the other hand, the Risk Management report shows how many rules were broken and the total miles driven for the specific time frame chosen. This is also a very important metric, when you take a look over the entire organization you can see how many rules were broken over a standard amount of miles. For example how many rules were broken per 100 miles driven? This allows all drivers to be placed on an even field so the organization can enforce fair practices. Consider this: A driver that breaks 10 rules and drives 50 miles is very different than a driver that breaks 10 rules and drives 500 miles.

Want to improve fleet management and/or learn more about GPS fleet tracking and how it can optimize your business? Contact us!

 

Original Article From Geotab:

5 Reasons to Adopt Telematics Today

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

 

Telematics Benefits

 

The potential of telematics, also known as GPS fleet tracking, is huge. Think of it as a mobile phone for vehicles, it can tell you where it is and what it’s doing whenever the vehicle is running.

  • You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure. With telematics you can determine a vehicles mileage, performance, location and speed and compare it to other similar vehicles or vehicles in your fleet to gauge performance. For fleet managers to properly understand and enhance their metrics, telematics is key.
  • Competitive Edge. From limousine services to national delivery companies, if your business uses vehicles for day-to-day operations it can benefit from gps vehicle tracking. Telematics allows businesses to improve response time, plan routes to spend less time driving, and of course lower fuel and maintenance costs. Gain competitive edge over the competition with GPS fleet tracking.
  • Cheaper Insurance. GoFleet has developed a partnership with Mutual Liberty and can offer a discount between 10-40% for fleets of 20 or more (US based customers). There are also many other insurance companies that will often offer discounts if you provide them with a snapshot of your drivers information. This way they are in a better position to offer competitive quotes for good driver behavior.
  • Improved Dispatch and Customer Service. Telematics allows you to improve efficiency and response time. Make your customers happy and keep them coming back to you for future services. Enhance and improve your sales, lower costs and increase profits.
  • Maintenance Management. With the help of telematics never miss another oil change or tire rotation again. You can set up maintenance reminders and alerts to be notified when maintenance needs to be done on each vehicle. Since the devices plug right into the vehicles computer (ECM), you will also be able to see the same messages the mechanic would see and get notified of any engine faults. You can fix any issues before they become something serious.

 

For more information on GPS tracking and telematics, contact us!

 

Myths About GPS Fleet Tracking Systems

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

GPS Fleet Tracking Systems: Common Myths

GPS Tracking often gets a bad name. Many employees may feel uncomfortable with GPS fleet tracking systems being installed on their vehicle. Employers may feel it is simply too expensive and they will not have the time to make it beneficial. These are just a few of the myths that will be covered in this article. Fleet tracking is implemented to help everyone. Not just the employer, the employees, and business as a whole.

1. We Trust Our Employees Therefore Have No Need For GPS Fleet Tracking.

GPS fleet tracking systems are not intended to monitor your employees’ every little move. It is geared to reduce operating costs and inefficiencies in the field. GPS tracking systems have been proven to reduce maintenance and fuel costs, optimize dispatching and routing, increase response time and accuracy to customers, and provide safety and security for drivers.

  • In general you know you can trust your employees, but without GPS tracking how can you be sure?
  • Do you know how much your vehicles are being used for personal use?
  • If company vehicles are being used for personal use then aren’t employees using your gas and creating wear on your vehicles? What is this costing your company?
  • Are your employees doing work on the side, with your company’s vehicle?
  • Is your company being put at risk by employees doing work on the side in your vehicle?
  • Without a GPS tracking system, how much is this potentially costing your company in wasted fuel and wasted time?

2. GPS Fleet Tracking Systems Are Complicated to Use And Install.

As long as the tracking system you are interested in purchasing is plug and play, it’s easy to install. There is no messy wiring or complicated installation. When it comes to using the system, make sure your vendor is willing to work with you to learn the ins and outs of the software. This includes:

  • Get you started and teach you the basics of the system
  • Show you how to interpret data and apply it to save on fuel and operational costs
  • Provide any support you need throughout the ENTIRE time the service is provided to you NOT just when the system is first implemented
  • Have available technical and sales support to cover any issues you may be having

3. Our Drivers Will Quit if we Install GPS Fleet Tracking.

Our personal experience with a vast customer base proves this theory untrue. You would be surprised at how much some employees depend on GPS tracking for time card verification, routing information, roadside assistance and verification between any customer and driver disputes. GPS fleet tracking systems often eliminate annoying and time-consuming paper work for drivers and provide extra security.

GPS Tracking aims to benefit the company as a whole, it is not used to get drivers in trouble. It can help:

  • Verify and possibly reward good behavior
  • Proof of delivery and length of service calls. For example: verify employees word when held against customer word
  • Increase driver safety
  • Provide proof of meeting performance goals

4. GPS Fleet Tracking Systems Are Not Affordable

Of course cost is an understandable concern to have. GPS tracking systems normally require a monthly fee and an investment in hardware for each vehicle. Even though these costs may not seem like a necessary expense the system will not only preform necessary tracking of your vehicles but will also identify bad practices that cost companies up to thousands of dollars every month. These expenses include: Excess idling, poor driving habits (reckless driving), excess overtime, vehicle maintenance, inefficient routing, side trips and more. The costs of these monthly reoccurring inefficiencies quite often exceed the monthly investment of a GPS tracking system. Return on investment happens as early as the first couple months for some companies.

  • Many companies can’t afford NOT to implement a GPS tracking system.
  • ROI usually happens within one to three months of investment
  • Only the first month payment is considered capital outlay. The system then becomes an operating expense rather than a capital cost and often businesses can receive a tax deduction.
  • Without implementing the system, how much is wasted time and fuel costing your company?

5. All GPS Systems Are The Same.

Many business owners may think that GPS tracking alone (knowing where their vehicles are at all times) is good enough. If you are only utilizing GPS fleet tracking systems to track your vehicles you are missing out on all the other great features. The business optimizing potential of the system is huge and goes well beyond just simple tracking.

Many GPS tracking providers will only set up the basic tracking capabilities and refuse to make the commitment in helping customers to use this technology to its full potential. When choosing GPS fleet tracking for your business make sure your future provider has an interest in learning about your business, the goals you hope to achieve, and the money you want to save through the system.

There is some truth to the myth of all GPS fleet tracking systems being the same; many providers may sell a similar technology but the true value comes in the relationship you build with that provider over time. A Fleet Coordinator states:

“Not only did I find that we were overpaying for an antiquated technology from our previous provider, but also that we were way behind in ease of installation, functionality, and reporting options. It wasn’t long before we saw what fleet tracking could really do for us thanks to GoFleet. The ease of plug & play technology, custom reporting that goes beyond “the norm”, and perhaps my favorite part, talking to the same person every time I call!”

6. GPS Fleet Tracking Systems Are Not a Necessity

Fleet managers and business owners often think they can track their drivers well enough through cell phone communication.

A cell phone may be a valuable tool but it cannot provide anywhere near the amount of useful information a tracking system can such as: engine status, real-time vehicle location, history of stops, stop times, and many other valuable metrics including fuel consumption, mileage and speeding.

If you think cell phones can track your drivers well enough, ask yourself these questions:

  • Do some drivers give you the answers you want to hear, instead of their actual location?
  • What about those drivers who don’t even know where they are?
  • How much of your own time is wasted asking your drivers for their location?
  • How much is your company wasting on time and fuel?

7. We Are All Too Busy To Use GPS Fleet Tracking Systems

If you relate to this statement then it is a warning sign your business is no longer under control. Instead of you running your business, it is now running you.

Are you currently paying supervisors to watch over the workers? Can you afford to pay employees to watch over other employees? GPS will automatically monitor employees and can send you up to date alerts automatically. GPS fleet tracking systems are easy to get set up and running, right away.

For more information on GPS tracking, pricing, or to sign up for a free 30 day trial, please email [email protected].

Fleet Tracking Software Improves Maintenance, Reduces Breakdowns

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Reduce Breakdowns and Improve Maintenance Management with Fleet Tracking Software

Regular breakdown maintenance reduces costs in the long run by guarding against preventable damage through wear and tear. Vehicles that are regularly serviced are also more fuel efficient. Fleet Tracking Software takes the guess work out of maintenance ensuring all maintenance is kept up to date and done on time.

However, it is vital to ensure you have control of your maintenance costs and our GPS fleet tracking software helps you be in control. If your fleet is made up of new vehicles, put a clear process in place to claim back costs through manufacturer warranties where this is applicable.

An educational program for drivers highlighting the need to make repairs early can also generate cost savings. It is more cost effective to repair a small chip in a windscreen or a small scratch on bodywork than it is to replace the entire windscreen or repair a scratch that has been allowed to become rusty. This also protects against end of life recharges from your leasing company as well.

Fleet Tracking Software Maintenance Management

Action Steps:

Itemize a priority list of maintenance reminders for your fleet and date/odometer of the last maintenance event for each vehicle.

Major Reminders Include:

  • Oil Changes & Filters
  • Tire Services
  • Winterization
  • Surface/Electrical/Hose Inspections
  • License & Certification Renewals

Setup these reminders for vehicles with our fleet tracking software, MyGeotab: Video Tutorial to Setup Fleet Maintenance Reminders.

Setup Scheduled Maintenance Reminders / Vehicle Diagnostic Reports for maintenance persons (or drivers if they are responsible for maintaining their vehicles) on a weekly/monthly basis.

Have reminders updated in MyGeotab as service and reminders are completed.

ENHANCED MAINTENANCE ADD-ON: Running a large fleet with maintenance staff? Need to get organized? Get an enhanced integrated maintenance management system with GoFleet using FIIX CMMS. This add-on allows you to complete work orders, manage parts and inventory and also integrates with odometer/engine hour data directly from MyGeotab. Email [email protected] for more information.