FIVE WAYS TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR GPS TRACKING SYSTEM

You’ve made the investment in a GPS fleet tracking system. It has been selected and installed. The drivers have been trained and after a few early concerns were assuaged they are now fully on-board. Everything seems to be going to plan. But how do you know that the system is delivering on its potential?

With Fleetmatics GPS Tracking there are a host of features built into the system that allow you to monitor improvements and keep a track on how your business performance is improving.

Here we look at just five of the many metrics available to owners.

At the heart of everything is the Fleetmatics dashboard. With its easy to view, customisable graphic interface it allows you to understand the true impact your fleet’s performance has on your business.

When productivity is increased, it helps you cut down on costs. You can track speed violations, average speed, engine on-time, vehicle idling, vehicle mileage and number of stops. In addition you can drill down to view individual vehicle and driver performance.

However, sometimes figures and numbers are hard to appreciate. But one thing that all owners understand is cost.

The system can convert performance data into the only metric that really matters: money. Using cost assumptions you can customise the system to show exactly where money is being wasted, and track how improvements affect profitability in real terms.

1. SAVINGS ON FUEL The cost of fuel is the largest single cost component of any fleet. With petrol prices continually rising it is vital that vehicles are scheduled and driven in an efficient manner. With a GPS tracking system you can eliminate wasteful fuel activities from the outset. The dashboard provides real visibility into where fuel is being wasted and can help change drivers’ behaviour quickly.

Idling time is top of the list when it comes to fuel wastage. The ‘Idling Report’ on the Fleetmatics GPS vehicle tracking system collates data, such as idle start and stop times, location of idling, and total idle time, which can be used for analysis – for example, the standard idling report can be used to help minimise idle times, reduce fuel waste and also decrease engine wear and tear. In addition, alerts can be set up whenever idle time exceeds a pre-defined threshold. Fuel can also be saved by improving routing and reducing unnecessary driving. And don’t’ forget that this can all be viewed in actual costs.

2. IMPROVED VEHICLE MAINTENANCE

The system monitors driving style for events such as speeding, severe braking and idling. Driving performance can be improved and maintained by league tables and incentives, but the benefits do not stop there. One of the additional benefits of improved driving style is a reduction in servicing costs by reduced wear and when this is added to the mileage saved by effective routing the savings begin to add up.

With Fleet Maintenance Reports vehicle life can be extended while service alerts help manage the maintenance needs of your vehicle fleet. Alerts can be set by calendar time, engine on time, or mileage depending on the type of service needed. Each alert provides a specific name and description and can cover multiple vehicles. Costs can be assigned to vehicles and this can be tracked over time to show how the costs are faring.

3. IMPROVED SAFETY Bad driving costs money with fuel use, vehicle wear and the possibility of accidents or traffic fines. By monitoring driver performance on the dashboard through graphics for speeding severity, speeding violations and harsh driving it is possible to monitor and tutor drivers to improve their performance.

This can all be grouped together in a safety score report, allowing attention to be focussed on improving the worst offenders. To check exactly how the improvements are working over time there is a very useful safety score trend graphic that reflects the impact over a given period.

4. INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY When it comes to ensuring that routes are optimised there are immediate benefits. The system uses sophisticated GPS mapping Google Maps including ‘Street view’, as well as using the traffic monitoring feature to help avoid delays. If a vehicle is required it is simple to quickly look at the location of the job and see where the nearest drivers are situated; this information is supplied both as a distance and driving time under the current traffic conditions. The detailed reports can be used to optimise efficiency and, with each driver being accountable, the productivity of the business may improve visibly.

5. INDUSTRY BENCHMARKINGWhile all of these measures are an excellent guide to how your fleet performance is improving and the costs reducing, if the business is to remain competitive in the marketplace it is helpful to know how you are performing against similar companies. That is now possible through the industry benchmarking dashboard. By using one of the largest customer sets in the vehicle tracking industry, Fleetmatics can provide benchmarks with high credibility. The graphic provides in-depth analytics based on the fleet’s trends and compares it to the industry benchmarks.

There is no need to search for information as key actionable insights are pushed out to you. Sometimes the news is good, sometimes it is not but it provides a real snapshot of how the fleet is performing and allows the owner to target areas that need to be improved.

Solid statistics are hard to ignore. Add these five reporting components together and you have a strong, evidence-based insight into the impact of your investment in a GPS vehicle tracking system.

To find out how Fleetmatics REVEAL can quickly deliver a rapid return on investment for your business, visit www.fleetmatics.ie/reveal-demo or call 01 424 5441

www.fleetmatics.ie 01 424 5441

Find out how you can better manage your drivers’ behaviour by implementing the Fleetmatics GPS fleet tracking system.

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