Impact of internet and technology on vehicle tracking

All of us at some time or the other have heard of vehicle tracking and vehicle tracking devices but have not been able to understand the actual mechanism and how it benefits the business owners. This article is an attempt to do just that.

Vehicle tracking as the name suggests is a method to keep track of the vehicles owned by a fleet company. These can range from cars, vans or trucks and the best part of this system is the total transparency and accountability it brings to the business owner of how the people in his employment are utilising his fleet of vehicles.

In the olden days, it was not possible to maintain such close tracking of vehicles due to technological constraints and that led to many problems to the fleet owners who were often fleeced by their vehicle drivers citing various problems to hide their own inefficiencies such as vehicle malfunctioning, road problems, accidents and so on.

Thanks to the internet and emerging technologies, it is now possible to install software such that it gives you an updated status of your vehicle at any point in time saving you time and money.

The advantages can be listed as under:

  1. You will be able to keep track of what your employees are up to through the working day and the best part is that you can do so without infringing on their privacy. This will ensure that they will not be able to put false claims under the guise of attending to any repairs, accidents and so on. It will thus save you precious operating costs which are the main expense head in your business. It will also improve productivity as employees will be more careful about their behaviour.
  2. With the help of the global positioning system, your drivers can find places more easily as compared to consulting maps and wasting time trying to get to the desired place.
  3. The insurance company will be able to offer you a much lower premium and more discounts when they realize that you have fitted adequate security and tracking systems, as they know that they will not be subjected to repeated claims for lost vehicles.
  4. You will be able to keep customers posted on a real time basis when they call thus providing them with excellent customer service, which in turn will lead to improved business potential for you.
  5. You can save on fuel costs borne out of excessive idling or speeding by the concerned drivers, when they know that they are beyond supervision. Once you track vehicles, these will reduce and that is a great saving to you.
  6. You can save paperwork on reporting mileage and time sheets since the software will be able to provide you with accurate reporting on a regular basis.

It is thus very clear that the cost for installing such a vehicle tracking system can be easily recovered through the operational advantages mentioned above. In these days of recession, when every pound is important, you need to seriously look at this option and not worry about the immediate cost as you will recover the same quickly and also be able to present a professional image of your company to your customers.