Access the GPS Tracking System Mobile Site From Your Cel Phone – Anytime, Anywhere. Giving you current fleet vehicle status and locations in real-time 24/7.
Real-time GPS vehicle tracking systems can help you to be a better fleet manager. With a Real-time GPS Vehicle Tracking System, you always know the fastest and cheapest way to get Driver A to Point B. You don’t have to spend valuable time guessing, the system knows where your fleet vehicles are located. It gives you the knowledge fleet managers to need to make the BEST Fleet Management Decisions.
Real-time GPS vehicle tracking systems keep fleet operations lean and GREEN. The best GPS fleet tracking systems use telematics technology to increase daily fleet deliveries and stops, dramatically reduce overtime costs, improve driver safety, and cut fuel costs. Plus it’s better for the environment.
GPS fleet tracking systems were installed last year in 300 school buses in St. Paul, MN. At first, drivers were not overly enthusiastic about the installation of the GPS fleet tracking devices. Until the drivers realized just how useful they could be. Not only have the GPS tracking devices help resolve heated disputes between parents and drivers, but in some cases, the GPS tracking devices have saved bus drivers from losing their jobs.
On a typical day, the public school system in St. Paul is responsible for transporting an average of 38,000 students. The school’s transportation department often receive dozens of calls a day from parents complaining that the bus never picked up their child. Until recently, before the
GPS systems were installed, it was the school bus driver’s word against the parent’s. That has all changed since the school district installed a GPS fleet tracking system in every one of the school district’s 300 buses.
Green Fleet Survey 2010 by PHH Arval shows the number of fleets measuring emissions has significantly increased over the past two years. The 2010 Green Survey by PHH Arval revealed that 49 percent of participants are reporting that they are measuring emissions. In 2008, the first year the questions was included in the PHH Arval Survey, only 28 percent responded that they measure emissions. Despite the challenging economy, fleets are clearly making progress towards “greening” their business operations. Additionally, according the Survey, 68 percent of responders said they have an environmental goal for their fleets, which is up slightly from last year’s results.
Nearly 65 percent of the fleets who reported that they are actively measuring emissions are doing so with actual fuel use data . This is an increase of more than 10-percentage points over 2009. Using actual fuel data provides fleets the most accurate data and accounts for variations in driver behavior (and hence fuel economy) and mileage.
Two cities in in Southern California – Culver City in Los Angeles County and Westminster in Orange County – have been using Pure Power oil filters in an effort to reduce waste and maintenance expenses, according to a press release from the company, PurePower. According to Kelly Tidwell of Pure Power!, use of the company’s cleanable, reusable oil filter can extend oil change intervals two to four times longer than traditional filters. Reducing waste is good for the environment, reducing expenses is good for fleets.
The Culver City Fleet is ranked # 7 on the 2010 100 Best Fleets listing. The city fleet has been using Pure Power! oil filters for the last year. According to Paul Condran, equipment maintenance manager, the filters used in the city’s fleet of vehicles never have to be replaced and can be retained and reused as fleet vehicles are replaced. “They are providing us with an excellent way to clean the oil, especially in our expensive heavy- and medium-duty natural gas engines,” he said. Condran stated the City will eventually have the entire fleet converted.
Taxi cabs are crucial to a city’s transportation system. I realized this recently after trying to get a cab after a Charger’s game in San Diego and during a taxi cab strike in Atlanta. Having access to cabs 24/7 is something that we all take for granted. Taxis are vital people movers and cities cannot function properly without them.
Taxi cab fleets in major cities range from approximately 5,000 – 10,000 vehicles. For example, the city of Chicago has a fleet of about 6000 cabs. Chances are, fleets this large owe their flow and easy operation to GPS fleet tracking systems. That is because without them, too much is left to chance. Drivers and consumers are wandering about rather aimlessly hoping to hook up at the right place and the right time.
GPS tracking is a preferred method of taxi cab fleet management. Companies dispatching taxi cabs know that a tracking system will tell them where their fleet is exactly, so they have better control of their resources, and as an extension of that, better control of their operating costs and profit margin. GPS tracking systems are used to: record on-duty trips; to keep an electronic record of mileage and location, eliminating the need for manual trip sheets; and to better dispatch the closest available vehicle to trip requests.
“We have generated more than $1 million in fuel savings since 2008, and our reduction in GHG emissions since 2006 is equivalent to removing more than 3,000 cars from the road,” says Erv Lauterbach, president, Carrier Building Systems and Services. With over 3,000 fleet trucks and cars in North America, Carrier reduced emissions by more than 30 percent since 2006 by deploying a diverse set of strategies, including right-sizing fleet vehicles and monitoring driving patterns using global positioning system (GPS) data to removing unnecessary weight from fleet vehicles.
Carrier Corporation is reducing its fuel use and green house gas emissions following an analysis of the company’s entire fleet of vehicles. Carrier changed its sales fleet by removing gas guzzling trucks in favor of hybrids and smaller engine vehicles. Carrier’s GPS system generates data that has provided visibility to other savings opportunities, for instance, carrying unnecessary equipment in trucks increased both weight and gasoline usage. Fleet vehicles now carry only the tools and parts that are required. The GPS technology provides data for fuel economy performance across the country and has led to an average mile per gallon increase of nearly 7 percent, according to the Carrier Corp.
GPS tracking system, FieldLogix, can quickly slash vehicle fuel consumption and fuel expenses plus reduce greenhouse gas pollution and CO2 vehicle emissions. FiedlLogix GPS system will give your fleet managers a GREEN Fleet Management Report that is easy to understand and utilize to develop a green fleet strategy. These automated Green Fleet Score Reports work around the clock, so you can quickly see increases in profitability, performance and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. With this type of GPS system, even a small fleet can save thousands of dollars per vehicle per year.
Vehicle GPS systems enable drivers to easily set attainable goals to reduce vehicle emissions and show tangible results. Reports that used to take days or months to compile now take just seconds thanks to recent improvements in fleet telematics technology. Modern GPS tracking systems can do things today that they were unable to do even just a few years ago. As the demand for Green features increases, the wireless telematics GPS technology is evolving.
Whether you have a fleet of one van or one thousand, all fleet managers should consider installing a GREEN GPS system into their fleet vehicles to monitor engine diagnostics, fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. With “Green” fleet GPS systems, it’s easy for fleet managers to identify areas for improvement and take decisive action on key issues such as:
Fleet Cost-Reduction Strategies: Direct Expenses
Reduce fuel costs. Fleet operators should focus on miles per gallon. Fuel costs are a large direct operating expense, especially for fleets with high mileage each month. Many fleet managers approach fuel cost savings by looking for purchase discounts, which aren’t really feasible unless the fleet can fuel in volume at a single site. Fleet fuel cards can be used to direct driver purchases away from premium fuel, which offers some benefits, but the most significant fuel savings come from selecting more fuel-efficient vehicles. Moving away from heavy vehicles and larger engines can provide 30% to 50% fuel economy increases. Using a fleet tracking system to identify poor driving behavior that burns excessive fuel, such as speeding and unnecessary idling can reduce fleet fuel costs by approximately up to 12% per year. Also, a fleet fuel card will help move 8% of fuel purchases away from premium fuel.
Secure the best fleet financing. Proper vehicle financing should absolutely be considered. Leasing vs. ownership of fleet vehicles is a common funding decision for fleet managers, and the economic analysis often ends in a tie. The decision to lease or own frequently hinges simply on balance-sheet considerations.
Fleet Cost-Reduction Strategies: Direct Expenses
Sell used vehicles in competitive resale markets. Most fleets value their used vehicles based on market values published from various industry sources like KBB. Fleet managers are usually satisfied with the sale of an individual fleet vehicle if they realize close to the market average or, worse, an amount more than book value. This approach ignores that those published market values are the mean of a distribution of high and low prices. Far too often in a negotiated sale, the purchasing vehicle dealer or driver knows the condition of the vehicle better than the seller, and pricing it at market average gives the upside to the buyer. Only by pricing negotiated sales above the market average or by selling in a competitive bidding market with a larger population of buyers can sellers actually capture above-the-mean value for themselves. This approach can provide an additional 5% in average resale prices, up to $75,000 per year.
Reduce accidents and insurance costs. Typically most insurers will reduce your insurance premiums by over 30% if you install a GPS fleet tracking system. Moving beyond depreciation to other operating costs, fleet vehicle accidents require an average of $1,500 to $2,800 in repairs, but total accident costs are perhaps closer to $11,000 per incident when indirect costs such as injuries, liability, property damage, and workers’ compensation are included. Typical fleet annual accident rates range from 15% to 40% of all vehicles, so the savings opportunities by reducing accidents can be substantial. By mandating pre-employment and annual motor vehicle records checks, requiring safe-driver training, and enforcing a safety scoring system, your fleet can reduce its accident rate by over 15% and save up to $375,000 per year.
Fleet Cost-Reduction Strategies: Direct Expenses
Use the right vehicle with the right equipment for the job. Feature and model creep are common causes of excess fleet vehicle depreciation. Drivers love four-wheel drive, extended cabs, plush leather seats, V-8 engines, and all kinds of other features. While providing fleet vehicles with those options may be good for morale and can be a good business decision, it will add to the depreciation cost. Trading in older vehicles for more fuel efficient fleet vehicles is also a good decision and this will be discussed further. Also, choosing fleet vehicles without regard to expected resale value can result in higher depreciation. For example, if you convert fleet vehicles from SUVs to sedans and remove some unnecessary amenities you can save up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fleet expenses.
Negotiate well with vehicle manufacturers. After selecting the right vehicle, acquire it for the best possible price. Vehicle manufacturers compete aggressively for market share and have significantly increased purchase incentives for fleet customers who buy new vehicles. By sourcing with only one manufacturer, your fleet can improve net discounts by approximately 5%, reducing depreciation by up to $225,000 per year.
Does your company have mobile employees such as sales reps or field service technicians who routinely need vehicle transportation to do their work? If so, managing your mobile employees and fleet vehicles effectively is an important part of maximizing revenue generation and customer satisfaction. Most executives understand the importance of keeping these employees productive, but they are often not aware of the significant productivity and cost-savings benefits that come from efficiently supporting employees’ transportation needs.
The Challenges of Managing Fleet Costs
Vehicle-centric companies, such as trucking and distribution companies, are experts in fleet management and usually have the in-house resources to do it quite well. However, for the rest of us in other industries, executives are primarily focused on managing the core of the business – whether it’s building high rises, manufacturing computers, or servicing HVAC equipment. Fleet managers simply don’t have the expertise or the inclination to invest much time or energy in improving fleet operations. Unless you are an expert in fleet management, vehicle expenses by their very nature are decentralized–usually occurring in small transactions spread across numerous locations and employees. On the surface, fleet management costs seem very difficult or control.
Contrarily, taking the time to focus on fleet management issues via basic operational policies and a little centralized control can significantly enhance worker productivity and result in major cost savings. Optimizing fleet management can ensure that mobile workers get the transportation their job requires while simultaneously yielding up to $1 million in cost savings for a typical mid- to large-size enterprise. Whether your company’s fleet is large or small, the same concepts apply.
Vehicle tracking systems should be considered if your company has more than two vehicles. If your company has more than two vehicles, then you have a fleet. The goal of fleet management is to extract maximum value and minimize the cost of maintaining of vehicles. Fleet management is a complex and comprehensive challenge. It involves much more than just knowing where drivers and vehicles are located or routinely checking oil levels in your fleet vehicles. Fleet management includes vehicle procurement, vehicle maintenance, vehicle disposal, vehicle tracking and the management of logistical, operational, functional, regulatory and compliance requirements.
With the assistance of modern technology such as fleet GPS devices or vehicle tracking systems, fleet management has now become much easier and cost effective. Fleet management is an important and often overlooked part of many private organizations. Due to the economy, private fleet operators today are under more pressure than ever to control expenses. Optimizing your fleet’s operations can improve your company’s productivity, reduce costs and have a positive impact on the bottom line.
One of the best things about real time fleet tracking is that it enables fleet managers to work hand in hand with their drivers and other mobile employees, even when they are thousands of miles apart. Every day there so many unforeseen circumstances arise, resulting in the need for last minute changes. So having a real time two-way communications system between fleet manager and commercial vehicle drivers is critical to a running an efficient fleet. Taking into account things like traffic jams, accidents, unpredictable weather conditions, delivery instructions, last minute pick-ups, and employee issues is an important part for a successful person managing fleet vehicles and drivers. Commercial vehicle tracking facilitates instant and accurate responses to ensure that the best solution can be deployed with the least amount of time or costs.
An average day someone overseeing a mobile workforce can involve matching busy schedules with the nearest available resources or service personnel to a new or changed location. Without a fleet management system, a telephone can be used to stay abreast of the constant changes, and to communicate with mobile employees. But a vehicle tracking device is by far superior to using a telephone to communicate – even if you have a smartphone with SMS text messaging, email and GPS navigation. The bottom line is a telephone no matter how smart it is, just doesn’t compare to a vehicle tracking solution.
