Fleetmatics occasionally publishes guest posts with interesting or helpful content relevant to our audience.
Dan Chaney is an avid blogger and is also a contributing writer for a web hosting review site. Global positioning system (GPS) tracking systems have a wide variety of applications ranging from individuals to businesses to government and military.
For businesses with a fleet of vehicles, GPS systems are crucial to the businesses’ profit making objective. However, not just any GPS tracking system is the right fit for your particular business. Therefore, be sure to ask yourself three basic questions before selecting a provider.
1. How frequently do you require the position data and at what accuracy?
The type of hardware and the system design required to set up an effective tracking system is highly dependent on location accuracy and frequency of data retrieval required by the user. If real time data is required then an active GPS tracking system is the best option. An active GPS tracking system provides you with up-to-the-minute updates.
Passive systems, such as GPS loggers, may be used when the data is not time sensitive. Active systems are generally more costly compared to their passive counterparts since they require additional hardware to enable real time location data transfer to the user. Active GPS tracking also typically provide more precise and accurate information.
2. How secure and reliable is the system?
A GPS tracking system should be able to offer reliable information free of interference from third parties. As a business owner, you should analyze the security requirements of your business activities before selecting a GPS tracking system. You should ensure that your system of choice can only be accessed by individuals with authorization and all user activity should be logged to allow for auditing. You should also ensure that the tracking system can easily be integrated into the business’s already existent systems to make adoption easier and more straight forward for the employees.
3. How does the tracking system benefit the business ongoing concerns?
As is the case with any business decision or policy, you should calculate the rate of return on investment from implementing a GPS tracking system in your business. Ensure that the returns exceed the cost of purchasing the GPS equipment and system installation. Returns on the implementation of such a system will materialize in aspects such as savings on fuel costs, ability to perform more jobs in one day due to an increase in productivity, decrease in vehicle and equipment theft, efficient delivery and, consequently, more satisfied customers, and more.
If the system is unable to increase the short term profitability of your business or is unable to maintain the business’ ongoing concern, consider revising your choice of equipment or your goals.
