Friday 18 December 2009

GPS Vehicle Tracking Reduces Company Vehicle Costs

By Todd Cavanaugh

If you are like most business leaders today, you know it is important to monitor and reduce operating costs as much as possible. If you have company-owned vehicles of any kind on the roads, your cost to operate those vehicles might be 30% higher than necessary. If you want to take control of those vehicle costs, it is time to install GPS vehicle tracking devices in every vehicle.

You probably remember that UPS made news a few years ago by having their drivers make right turns only. This grew out of analysis of how the drivers were using time and fuel. Most left turns require a wait. Waiting costs money. This is typical of the kind of data and decision-making that can derive from GPS vehicle tracking. It is also typical of the ways companies of all sizes use GPS vehicle tracking data to make decisions that immediately impact the bottom line by reducing operating cost.

The information gathered by UPS and the action taken by the company can be useful to most businesses that have vehicles on the road. GPS vehicle tracking clearly demonstrates that left turns require waiting, either for the intersection to be clear of traffic or for a light to change. While waiting, driver time is being wasted and fuel is being wasted by an idling engine. Once this information is expanded across a full day, then across the entire company, the lost time and wasted fuel translates to significant cost. This knowledge indicates left turns are expensive.

Even more enlightening information was gathered by the Dyersburg, TN city government after they received angry complaints from city residents about long delays in responding to calls for trash pickup. The city installed GPS vehicle tracking and analyzed the data it gathered over a brief period of time. The waste they discovered is not uncommon, but it is worth considering. They found reasons for customer complaints and frustration. But they also discovered driver actions that needed correction. The driver actions included such things as: driving all day, except for lunch and breaks, without ever stopping, personal use of city vehicles at night and on weekends, wasteful habits like taking unnecessarily long routes to destinations, picking up a small amount of trash and going to the dump before picking up the next small amount of trash.

This is just one example of the waste that can be detected by GPS vehicle tracking. An amazing amount of other data is also provided to managers and company leaders:

- driving at inefficient speeds (over 60 mph)

- unsafe or inefficient driving habits.

- failure to use the most direct route

- leaving vehicles idling for a long time

- ability to identify and re-route the closest person when there is an urgent need.

- wasting time at a particular location

The information gathered by a GPS vehicle tracking system provides vital decision-making data for managers and company executives. The data can help managers correct bad driving habits, improve efficiencies, identify potential problems and protect their investments. It can become a primary tool in improving customer satisfaction. A good GPS vehicle tracking system can even help you create warning systems for drivers, notify drivers safely of traffic problems and offer alternative routes to save time.

GPS vehicle tracking systems enable companies to know where their vehicles are, how they are being driven, where they are and for how long. When analyzed over a period of time, bad driving habits, bad routing, and many kinds of costly waste can be identified and addressed with individual drivers, resulting in increased productivity, less waste of time, fuel and money, and improved responsiveness to customers. These and other benefits derived from the data provided by the GPS vehicle tracking system reduce operating costs and increase profits and efficiencies.

Your drivers can find the best driving routes, reduce waiting time, improve fuel economy and contribute to a better bottom line. GPS devices are very affordable and very easy to install and monitor. Many insurance companies even offer rate reductions for vehicles equipped with GPS vehicle tracking. Perhaps best of all, the ROI of this investment will be many times greater than the cost and you can demonstrate improvement almost instantly.

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