What is Fleet Management Software?
Any business which has a commercial vehicle and a mobile workforce to serve customers needs to have fleet management tools to ensure the fleet performance is fully optimized to increase productivity and reduce overall expenses.
Managing a fleet is never easy – It stretches from effective Vehicle Utilization, Driver and Vehicle Safety, Routing, Cost reductions (including fuel and labor), Proactive Maintenance, Compliance, and Providing “top-notch” customer service.
Whether the fleet is small, medium, or large – Fleet management software is used to identify inefficiencies and support better operational decisions to solve modern fleet management challenges.
What is GPS Tracking?
In order to be on top of the fleet operations, fleet managers need to know exactly where the vehicles and crew are at any given time. Getting real-time visibility is a challenge for all fleets ranging from few to thousands of vehicles. It takes a significant amount of time and precision to keep track of everything and the operational complexity to make data-informed decisions is still a top challenge for fleets
Modern GPS Fleet Tracking software like Azuga has made the lives of fleet managers much easier by giving them real-time visibility and insight into their fleet operations. It gives a full picture of what’s really happening on the road. Not just the location but driver behavior, speeding, idling, stops, hard braking, vehicle diagnostics, fuel consumption, and risky events where and when they happen by the minute from a single browser or a smartphone without making those laborious phone calls and paperwork.
What are the common features of GPS Tracking Software?
Not all Fleet GPS tracking tools are created equal. With so many different options, it is hard to know which one is right for each business.
For example, A construction company would need time-on-site and asset utilization information compared to a plumbing company that wants to track the number of stops.
It should give you more than just track and trace of a vehicle. But here are the most important features you need to looks for
- Posted speed limit with Speeding Violations, Idling, and Hard Braking Alerts
- Distracted Driving Monitoring, Driver Coaching with Driver Scoring
- Driver Identification, Trip reports with historical driving data
- Geofencing, Ignition On/Off and unauthorized vehicle usage
- Proactive Fleet Maintenance
- Odometer reading capture, and Fuel consumption
- Safety and Savings Dashboard – Access Anywhere anytime
- Integration with other business tools
- Custom Reporting
- Carbon Footprints reporting
What are the different types of GPS Trackers?
OBD-II An OBD II Plug-N-Play is the smallest, simplest, and most accurate tracking device of all. It stands for the On-Board Diagnostics II port which is found under the steering wheel. All vehicles model year 1996 and newer have an OBD II. The data is directly pulled from the engine computer. No installation is required! Just plug in the device and you’re done! Need not to worry about wiring or battery life ever! You can switch between vehicles in 5 minutes
They are also capable of transmitting data including location, speed, fault codes, engine hours, and other important diagnostic information
JBUS – Based on the vehicle classification, the Engine Control Unit (ECU) varies. For bigger trucks, JBUS port is available. Very similar to the OBD II setup
Hardwired Black Box trackers – Hardwired devices are wired directly into a vehicle. This may be done because the vehicle doesn’t have an OBD II port. The main disadvantages are no access to fuel data, can’t retrieve engine fault notifications, and maintenance data. Need to pay for installation and de-installation even when you want to switch between the vehicles
Phone App-Based – Simple, easy to start. If you have company phones, just download the app and start using it. Accurate location tracking is challenging based on network availability. Limited features and works great if you have fewer vehicles
Driver Coaching and Safety
- Driver Safety
Driver inattention caused 78% of the accidents and 65% of the near-accidents in Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s year-long study. This rising financial burden is just one of the many reasons that it’s more important than ever to prioritize safe driving within your fleet.
GPS Fleet Tracking tools let you monitor, measure, and prevent unsafe driving, resulting in fewer accidents and more money saved. GPS tracking technology by itself cannot boost safe driving, to ensure safety and maximize protection against potential liability, companies must proactively enforce the policies they implement.
- Distracted Driving
Distracted drivers are 23 times more likely to be in an accident, and crashes are the #1 cause of workplace fatalities. 3400 fatalities in 2016 were attributed to distracted driving.
Combining vehicle data with GPS information to provide a clear view of driver behaviors so risky driving can be corrected—in real-time. With modern GPS technology, texting, calling, and app usage can be monitored or blocked entirely when a driver is behind-the-wheel.
- Driver Coaching
Driver safety is always a paramount concern for any fleet. When we talk about far fewer miles of speeding, and drivers giving up harsh braking or cornering, we are talking about a change in behavior that is beneficial to all.
Newer GPS tracking platforms have in-cab Audio Buzzers which produces beeps sounds in the cab to indicate when certain behaviors have been exceeded. The beeper can be configured to chime when the driver is in hard braking, idling, speeding, or rapid acceleration condition. The idea here is to coach in real-time versus waiting for the data to pour in and move the burden of the chase to the fleet manager.
- Dual facing Dashcams
Dashcams are constantly proving it to be an extremely useful tool for fleet managers. They can be used to keep your drivers safe and accountable, protect your business in the event of an accident, reduce fraud attempts on your company, and even lower the insurance premium on your fleet vehicles. Equipping your fleet vehicles with dashcams is a great investment.
- Driver Scoring and Rewards
Engaging employees with goal-based rewards instead of punitive notifications and training meetings boosts the entire workplace culture and positively impacts productivity and morale. A culture focused on safety and productivity shows employees you care about them and take proactive steps to recognize, reward, and retain high performers.
All good, but will your drivers cooperate? Advanced GPS tracking comes with gamification and a rewards-based system that motivates drivers to compete among themselves on safety scores to improve Driver safety scores in realtime. Just like fantasy football.
- Big Brother and What’s in it for the drivers?
Common vehicle tracking myths are “Big Brother is watching”. GPS is not mounted because the employees are not trusted, but to streamline opportunities within the business, to build efficiency, create a safer environment in all to improve the bottom line of the company.
The reality is Gamification and a rewards-based system will motivate drivers to compete among themselves on safety scores. It will be easy to get full participation from Drivers to achieve better safety scores, reduce risk, and lower insurance costs.
It’s also an opportunity for companies to move from a “gotcha” culture to a “great job” culture
Maintenance
Reactive maintenance is estimated to cost 50% more than repairs and greatly reduces the life of fleet vehicles. Managing your fleet’s vehicle maintenance program doesn’t need to be a painful paper-driven process. GPS tracking platforms should have preventive maintenance built into it so you never have to fall behind on routine fleet maintenance or buy yet another product. Automating maintenance will ensure all services are up to date and keep track of maintenance costs and fleet service records.
Properly maintaining brakes, tires, coupling devices, and other mechanical systems and parts can lower your risk for collisions. In fact, a study conducted for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found that 27% of accidents involving one truck and one passenger vehicle were caused by brake problems.
Maintenance Dashboard – Provides you with a quick snapshot of vehicles that require immediate attention and vehicles that have already passed a due date (overdue).
Service Entries & History – Create and maintain the list of all the services for your entire fleet while preserving historical service records, including scanning and uploading receipts.
Alerts & Reminders – Trigger alerts and notifications for service due, oil changes, engine hours, mileage, and any other type of preventative services.
Custom Reporting
The custom reporting helps you to turn the vehicle data into information that is both measurable and actionable. With performance trending reports, fleet administrators should be able to see how the different groups or branch offices within the company are performing week over week or even month over month
It can help you perform deep inspections into the data and annotate reports with key insights. It will also help to pinpoint areas that work well, and which need improvement to impact your bottom line.
Integrations
It is very common for companies to have numerous software tools like Payroll, Fuel cards, Dispatching, ERP, CRM and if these disparate tools don’t talk to each other, it will be difficult to accelerate the internal processes and impossible to make informed decisions.
Improving the overall efficiency will be a challenge because it’s a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive manual approach.
The GPS tool should support API functions to enable customers to receive and push data with other business tools and automate. It should also support conventional data transport methods such as FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, and Google Drive.
ROI and Savings
Return on Investment is an essential part of the decision-making process. Creating a safety-first culture includes what happens on the road. A slight improvement in driving behavior can lead to better efficiency across the fleet. Lower fuel costs. Fewer accidents. Vehicles last a bit longer. ROI can be achieved with positive encouragement and rewards through gamification.
The savings and returns can be big in the following areas
- Eliminate Unproductive Labor: Reduce overtime costs
- Increased Revenue: More stops and additional service calls
- Fuel Savings: Through reduced speeding, idling, hard braking, and acceleration
- Vehicle Operating Costs: Reduced unauthorized miles
- Savings on Maintenance: reductions in annual maintenance costs
- Accident Risk Reduction: Decrease in annual accident costs
- Insurance Savings: Enjoy up to 15% insurance discounts
Here is the sample of an interactive ROI Calculator provided by Azuga.
Final Words
There’s no question that fleet tracking is beneficial. No matter what type of business you have, choosing a fleet tracking solution can be overwhelming, and selecting the wrong vendor can be risky. The implementation may take longer than expected, costs may be higher than anticipated, contracts may be complicated and driver adoption/morale can take a hit.
It may be tempting to simply settle for the cheapest choice without doing the necessary research to find the GPS solution that fits your needs. Remember, “Not all GPS Fleet Tools are created equally.”
Don’t worry! Our complimentary Buyer’s Guide saves you the hassle of time-consuming research to quickly identify all of your options and narrow them down to a shortlist of best options.
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