Category: Blog

Fleet fuel cards are a trusty sidekick to conquering fuel and administration problems! A recent development for fleet fuel cards includes partnering with telematics. Because of this partnership, fleet fuel cards are capturing more data than ever.

What does this mean for fleets? For a lot of fleets, this means that fuel cards are getting a serious upgrade to fight off villainy! Let’s take a look at how they tackle the villainy of expensive fuel prices, dry paperwork and sly fraudsters.

Villain #1: High Fuel Prices

Well, this was bound to happen! After years of relatively modest prices, fuel is getting more costly. Big events in 2017 such as hurricanes caused the spike. And what does this mean for fleet managers? Fleet managers are tasked with minimizing fuel expenses and need a sidekick to counter rising prices.

One of the ways to fight expensive fuel is to reconsider how to pay for fuel. For fleets that use credit cards or cash, they could be overpaying. According to Glen Sokolis, president of the fuel management group Sokolis Group, fuel cards help save 5 to 20 cents versus other ways to pay.

How are fuel cards getting this discount? This is possible because fleet fuel cards are partnering up with gas stations to get kick-butt deals. For example, some cards provide live updates on which stations have the best deals. Other cards provide loyalty programs to earn free fuel.

Villain #2: Paperwork

Holy heap of paperwork, fleet manager! What are we going to do? One of the biggest challenges without fuel cards is managing fuel reports. To the annoyance of administrators, they have to fill in forms for things like receipts and reimbursements.

Instead of going through this process, fuel card software makes it easier. These software capture data such as fuel purchases and usage. As a result, it is very easy to generate reports.

And what do these reports mean for fleets? For administrators, it frees time to work on projects other than data entry. As well, for managers, fuel software eliminate human error and creates accurate reports.

Villain #3: Fraudsters

In a perfect workforce, everyone follows the rules. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Over the past few years, fraudsters came up with a lot of creative schemes. These schemes range from buying personal items with credit cards to filling up personal vehicles.

One of the key advantages of using a fuel card instead of a credit card is to control purchases. Whereas credit cards allow drivers to buy anything, fuel cards ensure that drivers will only purchase fuel.

Another idea is integrating fuel cards with telematics. This integration allows managers to match fuel purchases with tank fuel. As a result, managers can easily catch fraudsters who use fuel cards for a non-business vehicle.

Click here for more information about integrating fleet fuel cards.

Links

Pymnts: Why Fleet Spend For A Mobile Workforce Is Rarely A Clear Picture

HDT: Wow! My Fleet Fuel Card is Burning!

Infosys: Trends in the fuel card industry

USA Today: Gas prices rise for most Americans — especially in the Midwest. Here’s why.

The idea of live GPS tracking is not as straightforward as it sounds. A lot of people don’t realize that fleet tracking solutions have different ways of collecting and reporting data.

Let’s take a look at a few methods.

Method 1: Collecting and Reporting All Data

In a perfect world, every single moment of data would be collected and reported. However, this isn’t feasible. Each vehicle can send thousands of gigabytes of data. Not all of this data would be relevant and the sheer amount of data can overload a server.

Method 2: Sampling and Reporting Some Data

Instead of reporting every single second, a lot of fleet tracking solutions sample data. This means that data is only collected periodically. For example, data might be sampled and reported every 30 seconds or every 100 meters.

Although this is easier on the server, sampling data has some drawbacks. Between the sample periods, key information can be missed. For example, in some situations, it shows that drivers drove through a building. That doesn’t look right!

A Unique Method of Live GPS Tracking

Geotab uses a unique method of live GPS tracking called the curve based algorithm.

What is the curve based algorithm?

Engineers found a better way to collect and report data. This is done by identifying useful points and re-creating a path. And what is the result? By developing curve base algorithms, engineers invented an efficient and accurate way of providing live GPS tracking.

How Does it Work?

Neil Cawse does an amazing job of explaining the system in this video:

Let’s break it down into 3 steps.

1 – The Geotab system identifies the beginning and end of each route, and connects the points. Let’s call this the “predictive route”. The predictive route is then compared with data collected from the actual route. Let’s called the difference between the predictive route and the actual route as the “amount of error”.

2 – The system analyses the amount of error between each data point and decides what to do. If the distance between the predictive route and actual route is minimal, then the data point is reported. This is because the reported points would almost be identical to the route actually travelled.

3 – If the error, however, is still quite large, the system finds where the error is the largest. The system would then consider that to be a new data point. It runs the analytics again and again until the error is minimized. As a result, the system moulds the predictive route to closely match the actual route.

Why is this a good idea?

The biggest advantage of the curve based algorithm is that it captures every single critical point. Compared to the sampling method, these points may be missed if they occur outside of the sample period.

In addition, curve based algorithms can be applied outside of location tracking. Here are a few examples:

• Speeding. Spikes in speed changes can be recorded with curve logic. As a result, managers can identify all infractions and determine how long each infraction lasted.
• Battery voltage. 80% of vehicle failures are caused by electrical system faults. With curve based algorithms, the system can identify ripples in voltage. Once a ripple is identified, the system sends a critical warning that the unit will soon fail. This helped prevent costly breakdowns on the road.
• Driving habits. By monitoring horizontal and vertical location data, the Geotab system can identify a lot of driving habits. These habits range from harsh acceleration to even driving over potholes!

Click here to see the live GPS tracking system.

Links:

Geotab: How the Curve Algorithm for GPS Logging Works

GPS vehicle tracking for pest control companies is growing popular. In this industry, pest control companies are looking for ideas to provide better service, protect their brand, and save money.

What’s with the hype about pest control businesses?

Pest control remains a popular industry. Think about all of the recent headlines about pests!

For example, remember the recent bed bug infestation? “Don’t let the bedbugs bite” used to be a figure of speech. Unfortunately, bed bugs returned and they returned with a vengeance! Over the past few years, bedbug infestations in hotels, hospitals, and residential areas made the news.

And don’t forget about the giant rats! In some places, rats can grow quite huge. In New York, rats stole pizza and were caught running through the subway. The videos were then shared on YouTube and went viral.

3 Areas of Focus

A growing industry is good news! At the same time, competition among businesses is fierce. 3 areas that pest control businesses should focus on include:

• Customer service. An easy way to grow the business is to satisfy existing customers and encourage them to come back.
• Brand protection. What do customers think about a company? Related to providing good service, companies are challenged by supervising workers and ensuring that they act as good company ambassadors.
• Cost control. It costs money to do good business. Pest control companies need to spend money on its people and its equipment.

Let’s take a look at how these 3 areas improved with GPS tracking for pest companies.

Customer service

A big part of growing pest control sales is winning repeat business and referrals. Are workers arriving on time? Are they spending enough time on site? Since pest infestations often require multiple visits, it’s important to leave a good impression every time. This ensure that customers will want a team to return and will refer the team to friends.

One of the biggest reasons for using GPS vehicle tracking for pest control is to track customer visits. For businesses that frequently receive complaints, pest control fleet tracking was very useful. After being tracked, workers were more accountable and complaints stopped.

Here’s a great story about customer support. A customer complained that service never arrived and was given a refund. Then, the customer complained a second time that the service was missed. After checking GPS data, it turned out that the team was on property. The customer finally admitted that they lied because of financial issues. The company then went beyond expectations by creating an affordable payment plan for the client.

Branding

How is branding related to vehicle tracking? Mike Gibney, Safety Director at Orkin/Rollins explains it best. “Orkin is probably recognizable by at least 90% of the country as the bug company,” said Gibney. “We have a brand to protect.” Orkin would much rather be known as a bug company than a company with unsafe drivers.

This is where vehicle tracking comes in. GPS vehicle tracking for pest control does a lot more than location tracking. Beyond looking at location, it helps people like Gibney get reports on driving and safety measures.

And how did Gibney use this info? He was able to quickly find and warn drivers who sped, refused to use seatbelts, or drove after hours. Gibney then retrained drivers and increased his company’s safety rating.

Cost cutting

GPS tracking for pest control is worth much more than its cost. Because fleets are saving on fuel, safety, and maintenance, the program usually earns back the investment within the first year.

Let’s take a look at some of the stats at Orkin. Orkin reports savings in several areas including insurance payments, accident reductions, maintenance improvement, and customer retention. Between all of these areas, $40M is saved each year. And what is the best part of saving $40M? Only $4M was spent. That sounds like money well spent!

Click here for more information about GPS vehicle tracking for pest control.

Links

USA Today: Bed bugs disappeared for 40 years, now they’re back with a vengence

Fox News: Pizza rat returns

Geotab: Three Connected Perspective

Many fleets are searching for solutions to texting and driving. In response to the texting and driving epidemic, a lot of governments created new laws. In some places, getting caught texting and driving results in big fines and jail time. Many people agree that tough rules are a good idea.

At the same time, many fleets taking extra steps to avoid texting and driving. Let’s review some solutions to texting and driving.

1 – Creating a sound company policy.

The first step to reducing texting and driving is to establish a sound policy. Drivers need to understand what is expected of them and how expectations will be enforced.

Some of the best practices in establishing a good policy include:

• Defining rules and exceptions. Drivers need to know what will be allowed and disallowed. For example, some companies allow hands-free Bluetooth while other companies do not.
• Explaining what will happen if rules are broken. Drivers need to understand the consequences of texting and driving. Most companies will issue write-ups, suspensions, and terminations for violations.

2 – Supporting the company policy.

After establishing the company policy, the next step is to support it. This comes in 2 ways – training the drivers and enforcing the rules.

Training goes beyond telling a driver to stop texting and driving. Some of the most effective training includes giving drivers examples of what happens to distracted drivers. For example, in fleets with monitoring tools, drivers are trained on how distracted drivers are monitored and caught.

Another way to support policies is to enforce the rules. For several years, fleets waited for complaints from drivers or from traffic tickets. Nowadays, a lot of fleets rely on monitoring technology. This allows fleets to enforce their rules without relying on a tattletale to report offenders.

3 – Installing camera solutions.

A growingly popular solution to texting and driving is installing cameras. Cameras are a way to keep drivers accountable. With cameras, safety managers are able to set rules and review footage to check if drivers are distracted.

An example of a progressing camera technology is facial tracking. Facial tracking checks drivers’ eye movements to see if they are distracted. This allows companies to find distracted drivers even if they were not involved in a collision.

4 – Using cell control devices.

Another effective technology that stops texting and driving is cell control. Cell control is a little different from cameras because this is a preventive tool. With cell control, fleets can set rules such as blocking cell phones while the vehicle is driving. Due to its ability to prevent distracted driving, cell control is popular with both fleets and families!

5 – Eliminate distractions while driving.

One of the biggest reasons why some drivers text in the first place is their supervisor. A lot of companies still rely on texting and calling drivers. This creates a distracting environment where drivers need to answer a call or a text.

Many fleets have since overhauled their dispatching process. For example, some fleets use a 2-way dispatch messaging service that only works when the vehicle is parked. This prevents dispatchers from distracting drivers while they are on the road.

Looking for more information about solutions to texting and driving?

Click here for more info on cameras.

Click here for more info on cell control.

Click here for info on 2-way dispatch systems.

Links

CNN: Driving while distracted: Which countries have toughest laws?

Fleet Financials: Developing Fleet Cell Phone & Texting Policies

Automotive Fleet: Preventing Distracted Driving

For businesses, choosing the right GPS fleet tracking hardware is a tough decision. In today’s market, there are a lot of great options. How do fleets pick the right company?

Let’s take a look at a survey. In this survey, businesses shared the most important factors when evaluating different solutions.

Survey of Important GPS Fleet Tracking Hardware Criteria

Screenshot from Automotive Fleet

As shown by the survey, fleets look at multiple areas before finalizing a solution. Let’s review some of the most important areas.

Ease of Use

Vehicle tracking should not be difficult. One of the key concerns for fleets is learning how to adapt to the program and how to teach staff. “Some of our staff struggle with advanced Excel reports”, said a fleet manager. “We’re looking for a program where it would be easy for our staff to design and view reports.”

What is a good way to design easy-to-use reports? Here’s a typical process. Fleets decide on which reports they care about the most. Then, they (or their provider) would create those reports. As a result, a clean dashboard of relevant reports would be presented.

Tarn Bhui is a Product Expert at GoFleet. “Users care about accessing the most useful reports,” said Bhui. “By customizing reports and showing only those reports, fleets found the service to be easier to use.”

Customer Service

Another big deciding factor is the level of customer service. As with any technology, there might be hiccups with GPS fleet tracking hardware and software. When this happens, who can provide quick and satisfactory support?

Every service provider has some sort of customer service. Another big factor, however, is getting support beyond solving technical problems.

For example, GoFleet proactively works with clients to help them succeed. “Everything is data-driven in our process,” said Bhui. “Our clients set their performance targets. We would review performance trends and compare them with set targets. Then, our support team uses the data to make policy suggestions and ensure our clients reach their targets. Clients love our data-focused consulting.”

Service Coverage

Service coverage is another big concern when it comes to GPS vehicle tracking hardware. Some people ask, “can vehicles be tracked at all times?”. Some of these people were disappointed when they discovered that they didn’t get service in certain areas.

It’s important to pick a provider that has service flexibility. “In our process, we take a look at the areas where fleets operate”, said Bhui. “Because we work with all major cell providers, we would use the best provider based on a fleet’s operation area.”

For some fleets, they go to areas without any cell coverage. How can these fleets still get service? In order to serve these areas, satellite tracking is used. Satellite tracking does not rely on cell signal and can track fleets that travel to remote areas.

Software Features

And of course, fleets care about what the device actually does. A lot of fleets understand that GPS tracker hardware does a lot more than location tracking. Some of the other common uses include driver training, dispatching, and maintenance improvement.

Because of the different options, one of the first steps is to ask what are the expected results of using vehicle tracking. Once this is figured out, fleet management solution providers can then recommend what features can fill project needs.

Link

Automotive Fleet: How Fleet Size Dictates Telematics Needs

Fleet consulting is the process of advising how to achieve fleet objectives. Who is the typical fleet consultant and what kinds of objectives do they work on?

There are two ways of providing fleet consulting services – internally and externally. For internal consultants, these are superstars from within the organization that work on projects. As well, some companies hire outside experts to help achieve objectives.

As for fleet objectives, some of the common areas include:

• Productivity. Drivers are not like office workers. Since drivers are working remotely, one fleet objective is making sure workers are productive.
• Safety. Road accidents can happen. As with any fleet, a big objective is to minimize safety risks.
• Fleet costs. Fleets have high operation costs. Some of the biggest categories include fuel and maintenance.
• Compliance. Some companies fall under certain regulations. As well, companies might have to comply with customer contracts.

As we can see, fleet consultants need to attend to a lot of different areas. For this reason, fleet consultants created and looked at KPIs. KPIs are the most important numbers to collect and use when giving advice.

Here is our list of 3 important KPIs for fleet consulting:

1. Service time.

Category: Productivity, Fleet Costs

A common KPI for fleets is service time. This might include arrival time, departure time, and on-site time. For fleets, especially those in the service and transportation industry, customer service is important. Fleets must ensure that drivers are arriving and leaving at appropriate times.

A great tool to collecting customer service KPIs is setting up geofences. Geofences are zones that can be tracked. With geofences, fleets are able to track customer sites and get service reports.

With this KPI, successful fleet consultants were able to:

• Identify rule-breakers. Consultants quickly found drivers who did not follow company rules. In one company, they found technicians who spent more time at coffee shops than at customer sites. This allowed the company to improve customer service by replacing rule breakers with trustworthy drivers.
• Identify utilization. Utilization reports can be created from service data. In this report, consultants can check how many hours or miles each drivers drove in a day. This report held drivers accountable and productive.

2. Safety reports

Category: Safety, Fleet Cost

Another big KPI is monitoring safety reports. Although safety policies may vary with the company, some of the common reports include speeding and harsh driving. In order to monitor driving behaviour, fleet safety consultants create exception reports.

Exception reports are custom created rules. For example, for some companies, speeding might be defined as driving at any speed over the limit. In other companies, there might be a bit of a buffer. After rules are set, fleet consultants can collect data and make decisions.

With this KPI, successful fleet consultants were able to:

• Create training plans. Consultants are able to see areas where some or all drivers had poor performances. This allows consultants to provide targeted training. For example, one company noticed that a shocking number of drivers did not wear seatbelts. The company then created new seat belt policies.
• Engage safe drivers. Consultants were also able to identify terrific drivers. In some companies, consultants successfully implemented a bonus system to reward good driving behaviour. This kept drivers happy and motivated to stay safe.

3. Idling

Category: Fleet Cost

One for the biggest areas for minimizing fleet costs is controlling idling. Idling is a significant waste of fuel. For some companies, there are no-idling policies.

In order to collect idling data, fleet management consultants create another exception report. They would identify criteria that would be considered idling. For example, one company defined idling as any time over 3 minutes.

With this KPI, successful consultants were able to:

• Identify which drivers to train. Consultants were able to identify drivers who need training. With detailed reports, they targeted and trained drivers to stop idling. As a result, the fleet saved a huge portion of fuel costs.
• Create a proactive process. Rather than using reports, some consultants opted to create live alerts. Whenever a driver idled, their supervisor would receive email alerts. Supervisors can then remind drivers to shut off their trucks.

Looking for more KPIs? Book a demo to learn about more KPIs for fleet consulting.