Vehicle tracking: Tracking your fleet could save you time, money and headaches

If you thought vehicle tracking was just another example of an increasingly 'big brother' nation, then think again. The digital revolution has irrevocably influenced everything we do; vehicle tracking simply makes use of the technology that is available to us today in order to improve and further our businesses.

Whether your vehicle fleet consists of 2 or 2,000 vehicles, by making use of a vehicle tracking system in your business you could make considerable savings and reap rewards including reduced costs, increased productivity and happier customers.

What is a vehicle tracking system?

Well, it's more or less what it says on the tin. A vehicle tracking system comprises a vehicle tracking unit which is installed into each of your vehicles and generally uses GPS to determine their exact position.  Along with this, computer software enables you to track the location of your vehicles via a web-enabled computer in real-time, 24 hours a day.

Depending on the specific vehicle tracking system, you also have access to a whole menu of other information including vehicle speed and direction, fuel consumption and stop and idle times.

What are the benefits?

Regardless of the size of your fleet, there are many advantages to installing a vehicle tracking syst:

• Reduced operational costs: Vehicle tracking allows you to monitor all vehicle and fuel usage, including fuel and mileage abuse, speeding, heavy breaking or extreme acceleration. It can also direct drivers to the most cost efficient routes and highlight times when vehicles are left running for no reason and burning unnecessary fuel, such as on a delivery. By managing your staff and their vehicles more effectively using vehicle tracking, you could see a marked reduction in operational costs and increased productivity.
• Better vehicle management: Because vehicle tracking allows you to see where each vehicle in your fleet is at any moment in time, you are able to despatch the closest available vehicle to a job.   This will not only save fuel, once again reducing your costs, but also allow you to complete more jobs in less time, allowing increased productivity.
• Happy customers: Vehicle tracking enables you to be much more accurate on delivery times to customers. This not only means happier, better informed customers (who wants to wait in between 9am and 6pm for a delivery?!) but may also give you a competitive edge, which is not to be sniffed at in these current economic times. This increased control and better management of time will inevitably enhance your company's productivity.
• Reduced paperwork: Vehicle tracking can cut out the need for manual time sheets, overtime sheets and delivery records and make this kind of administration much more accurate. It means that admin staff can stop chasing the whereabouts of drivers, vehicles and paperwork and get on with other important tasks.
• Reduced insurance premiums: Car insurance companies have also recognised the benefits of vehicle tracking and by installing a vehicle tracking system you could reduce your insurance premiums by a significant amount. Also, if one of your vehicles is ever stolen, vehicle tracking will increase your likelihood of recovering it.

Taking into account all of the gains of vehicle tracking in terms of increased productivity, reduced operational costs and more satisfied customers, vehicle tracking should in fact be considered as 'big benefits' rather than 'big brother'.

This post was written by Ed Langley on behalf of RAM Tracking. Find out more about vehicle tracking on the RAM Tracking website.

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