Fleet Management News

Without a fleet tracking system, there is no way to verify a driver’s location, routes or to ensure that employees only use vehicles for authorized trips. Jason Bailey, CEO of Vanguard Alarm Services, said, “My guys travel quite frequently but FieldLogix (fleet tracking system) gives me the exact time when an employee started a vehicle, when he arrived or left a job site, and when the vehicle was shut off. l know exactly how long the employee took at each site and how long they worked during the entire day.”

Troy Suhr of Alpine Materials used to have a lot of problems managing his 14 delivery drivers. Every morning he would meticulously plan out his drivers’ routes, but his drivers would often make unscheduled stops or would take too long at deliveries, which would completely throw his plans off. So he decided to research fleet tracking systems, because he “needed more control” of his employees out in the field.

Troy said, “Customers waiting for a delivery would often call wondering when their materials were going to arrive. So I would have to track down the driver on my cell phone and try to figure out where he was and reassess when he would arrive at his next delivery. Then I would have to call the customer back. It really ate up a lot of my time.”

So Troy decided to take control of the situation and purchased FieldLogix+Nav for his entire fleet. Since then, FieldLogix has greatly improved his operations, customer service and driver safety. “It makes planning the day so much easier,” said Troy. “I like not having to worry about whether or not my employees have made it to a stop, are on the way to a stop, or have left a stop…. I have more peace of mind knowing my guys aren’t speeding or driving recklessly.”

Fleet tracking systems are a worthwhile investment for many companies, large and small. Most users see a positive ROI in less than 90 days. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. A fleet tracking system can drastically improve customer service. You can impress your customers by giving them precise arrival or delivery times, based upon the actual location of your vehicles at the moment they call. You can respond quicker to last minute customer requests because the system is able to quickly locate and notify the driver that is closest to the client.

2. Employee productivity is often improved because managers are able to document long lunch hours, monitor unauthorized breaks, prevent employee overtime and maintain electronic driver records to prevent vehicle usage after hours or on weekends. Many business cut overtime costs immediately.

New research from Microsoft Research Asia (MRA) shows the cause of traffic jams. “Congested road segments are only the appearance—they’re not the problem,” says Yu Zheng in a report from MIT, who led the research. “We try to identify the true source of the problem in our work.”

Microsoft (MSFT) scientists used GPS tracking data from thousands of taxi cabs in beijing to determine where, when and why areas of the city became congested. MRA has shown that tracking the location of taxicabs could be a better way to identify the underlying problems with a city’s transportation network, helping officials determine how to best ease congestion.

The researchers used GPS data from more than 33,000 Beijing taxicabs. That data was collected in 2009 and 2010. The researchers were not just looking for bottlenecks—trouble spots that regular commuters may know only too well.