The 6 Important Features Every Vehicle Tracking System Must Have
Car or truck tracking systems quickly boost productivity, safety, and profitability. Whether you’re considering GPS tracking company or switching the Vehicle Tracking Service provider, you need a knowledge that can meet all your feature needs.
Without the right features, you may fall behind and be unable to compete and cannot measure the Vehicle or car tracker price.
Must-Have Vehicle Tracking System Features?
Consider these six-must-have vehicle tracking features when comparing Vehicle Tracking Companies to improve your business and bottom line:
- Live Tracking
Location tracking underpins fleet management. “Dots-on-a-map” originated there. GPS tracking began with a need to track fleet vehicles and assets at all times for many reasons.
Knowing where your drivers, vehicles, and equipment are lets you respond faster to emergencies. It also helps you send the right vehicles, people, and resources; Anti-theft is the main reason companies need real-time location tracking. Even recovering one stolen vehicle or asset yields a huge ROI for many businesses.
However, not all car and truck tracking software are “real-time”. Some GPS tracking device providers only update periodically. They send data every two, three, or more minutes. If your business needs real-time data, ask providers how often their tracking devices update. In anti-theft, seconds matter.
Like cell phone companies, some vehicle tracking providers charge more for faster updates.
- Tracking Alerts
Fleet management customizable alerts are always the most important vehicle tracking system features. Real-time driving behavior notifications to fleet and commercial vehicle diagnostics can reduce risk and increase efficiency, improving the bottom line.
Real-time tracking alerts about wasted fuel due to poor driving or high idle times can show areas for improvement. Reducing fuel costs by 5-10% boosts profits.
Custom alerts include:
Odd-Hour Alerts: Alerts when vehicles and assets move between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM.
Long Waits: Alerts for vehicles idling over 10 minutes. You can also tell the driver to turn off the car.
Speed Alerts: Alerts when vehicles exceed 75 mph or a road’s speed limit. When they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 MPH.
Car Repair Due: Alerts for vehicle maintenance. Oil changes, tire rotations, and vehicle inspections can be alerted.
- Automobile Maintenance
Fleet vehicles are vital to your business, so maintaining them is essential. Track your vehicles and assets with truck or car tracking systems that monitor health.
This functionality involves identifying new maintenance issues, fixing them, and scheduling and completing preventive maintenance on time. Long-term vehicle downtime can hurt your business.
Vehicles must receive timely service. This prevents smaller issues from becoming catastrophic and avoids repeating maintenance on neglected problems.
- Routing and Scheduling
Car tracking services eliminate the hassle and risk of pencil-and-paper route planning. Most companies have issues with overlapping routes, drivers taking long routes, and not sending the closest vehicle to the next job before implementing vehicle tracking technology.
Phone calls to drivers about their next stop or route changes can waste time.
Vehicle tracking automated dispatch lets drivers know their route and destination at the start of each day. Vehicle tracking systems optimize routes based on customer requests and delivery needs. This feature can boost productivity, communication, and customer service by reducing arrival times.
Because drivers complete more jobs per day, most companies using the technology also see more revenue.
Vehicle tracking systems naturally optimize routes. Traffic, accidents, road work, bridge heights, and other factors affect routes. Thus, you can reduce mileage, fuel consumption, response time, and customer service. Real-time data lets you make efficient, customer-satisfying decisions.
- Vehicle Usage
Commercial vehicle and fleet utilization is becoming a key indicator of vehicle efficiency and TCO.
Knowing which vehicles and how often they are used—especially in shared-services operations—is crucial to determining whether you have the right kind and number of vehicles. Only fleet tracking systems measure this crucial metric. Using an Excel spreadsheet may perpetuate inefficiencies, increasing budget outlays for unused vehicles.
GPS tracking devices and related systems provide detailed utilization reports to help you make vehicle and asset decisions. It may require fleet right-sizing or vehicle efficiency improvements.
- Watching Drivers
Drivers are difficult to monitor and improve in a mobile workforce. The “Big Brother” mentality of many causes this problem. You can quickly disprove this.
Football coaches help players improve by reviewing game film. Sales managers review sales rep calls to improve close rates. Driver management should not differ.
Business efficiency and productivity depend on monitoring and improving driving behavior. It doesn’t implicate or track them. It boosts performance and business.
Tracking systems reveal many driving habits. These insights include speeding, rapid acceleration, harsh braking, and average jobsite time. Reports can validate timecards or show padded hours and high labor costs. Reports and customizable alerts help you coach drivers to improve performance and hold them accountable.
