Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer. As the marketing copyeditor of Resource Nation, she touches on a range of topics such as commercial vehicle insurance and skid loaders.
If you’re orchestrating a fleet of trucks, you know the importance of GPS fleet tracking for both you and the drivers, it’s a significant tool for tracking productivity and safety. While the popular question today is whether to track via smart phone or software based equipment, many don’t realize the most important one: Are you using the best features? For the sake of your drivers, your business and your bottom line, be sure you’re not missing out on anything.
Analytics
As with any business, analytics is an integral aspect of growth and evolution. Knowing what your employees are doing, where they are doing it, and whether they are staying on track is important to the business as a whole. From customer care to ROI, your trucks’ down time and working time makes all the difference. Though you may be currently using analytics, consider one feature that you may be missing.
- Behavior: Over a period of time, you can see your driver’s performance, and compare to others as well. This is useful for evaluations and reviews.
Historical Route Information
Historical route information is a GPS feature that is important to you in a number of ways; 1. When hiring new employees, this is an excellent opportunity to show them the right and wrong routes. 2. It allows you to determine how well your driver is doing at getting from point A to point B. Consider the variety of ways you can view and use this information.
- Route playback: This allows you and your drivers to assess whether or not the routes are efficient.
- Reports: Instead of relying on drivers to manually send in their driving hours, you can pull them daily, monthly or yearly.
- Time spent idle: How long was your driver sleeping, pulled over to grab food, or stopped making a delivery? Time is money, and every minute off the road could be making a difference.
Real Time Alerts
Your truckers should know what is happening to their trucks at all times, even when they are not with them. As a valuable carrier for your product, your drivers will benefit from being alerted about a problem right away.
- Break ins: From tow-guard, which tells you if the car is moved without the ignition, to battery alert, letting you know someone has taken it out of the car, you can be sure your fleet is safe.
Custom Geo-Locations
Whether you are setting boundaries or your drivers are customizing their route, geographic features are of utmost importance; there are a few ways you can use this type of software.
- Landmarks: Have you drivers define their own landmarks to make travel easier and more efficient.
- Boundaries: Set geographic boundaries, and create notifications in the case that one of your drivers leaves or enters that space.
Organized Tracks
Keeping routes and tracks organized is an easy way to ensure your drivers are being productive on the road. With their own short cuts, meal stops and resting places in mind, they can give great insight to other drivers as well.
- Share: Allow your drivers to share their tracks with each other to make last minute route changes much easier.
- Search: Drivers can search other tracks to shorten a trip or find a new route if stuck in traffic or a detour.
- Comments: Drivers are experiencing the various routes, so allowing them to include their two cents on how it was and what to avoid is beneficial.
GPS tracking software is an important aspect to any driving or trucking business, from both the driver’s perspective and the boss’, so be sure you’re utilizing the best features.
