Category: Blog

Fleet Management Tracking System: Security Services Industry

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Security Services Industry: Fleet Management Tracking System

When you are in the security services industry, you are responsible for protecting your clients, property, vehicles and other valuable assets. Your clients put their trust in you to protect the people, places and things that matter most to them. Monitoring those assets with a GoFleet fleet management tracking system is a cost-effective way to guarantee protection for your clients.

Security services companies are dedicated to providing protection for their clients. A fleet management tracking system is an important tool for your business’ operations. It provides an easy and quick way to monitor assigned assets with a minimum amount of hassle.

Know Your Business Needs

When you are considering implementing a fleet management tracking system in your security services company, you first need to determine your specific business needs. GoFleet uses a flexible software platform that can be used to increase your security fleet’s visibility, provide increased security for your clients, improve staff management and reduce operating costs.
Questions to consider include:

– How do you monitor the location of the assets that you have been hired to secure?

– What types of assets is your company hired to secure?

– Do you need to separate and share assets that you are monitoring?

– Do you provide constant monitoring and security services for your clients?

GoFleet fleet management tracking system was constructed with security in mind. The web-based software is not only secure, it is easy to implement and it can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection. Automatic alerts can be sent to your email even when you are offline. For example, if your security professional providing protection services to a client and their vehicle goes off the authorized route, you can get an instant notification. That will give you time to make sure your client is safe and secure. GoFleet offers security services companies a wide range of software customization options that can increase the ways companies can protect their clients and their assets.

In addition, GoFleet has many add-on features that can enhance a security company’s operations. For example, a car dash camera can be fully integrated with the fleet management tracking system. Cameras can record and live stream events that are occurring inside and outside of the vehicle. GoFleet’s man down system provides lone worker protection. If your security team is sent out for a dangerous assignment, the manual panic button can be used to alert your office if they are in trouble.

For more information on how GoFleet can be used to ensure the security and safety of the assets you have been hired to protect, Contact Us.

Business Tracking Software Is Essential For Medium & Large Fleets

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Medium & Large Fleets Find Business Tracking Software A Necessity

Businesses with large and intermediate size fleet operations are finding business tracking software an essential component of fleet management. With many vehicles and drivers, it is virtually impossible to keep up, provide routing and dispatching without it. Many fleet management companies are tailoring their software for these businesses to give fleet managers the relevant information they need to run a smooth fleet operation.

Large Fleets

Large fleets contain many moving parts that are usually spread over a wide geographical area. All vehicles must be accounted for and properly monitored at all times. Business tracking software can be customized for the business by department, geographical area or vehicle type to mimic the business’ internal structure.

When you have a large fleet, it is extremely important to find a business tracking software and fleet management solution with the capability of supporting a large amount of data and be able to interpret that data into information that you can use. The software solution needs to be able to help your fleet manager easily manage the entire fleet and all of your drivers. The software you select must be able to compile unlimited historical data within a reasonable amount of time.

Intermediate Size Fleets

Medium size fleets might not have thousands of vehicles but they still need to have GPS business tracking software to handle a large amount of vehicles easily. Customized tracking software can be integrated with their back office software to improve dispatching capabilities, productivity and vehicle maintenance management and much more.

Customized dashboards, alerts and reports can be created for different departments and people throughout your business. Business tracking software can help you stay in control of your medium sized fleet and prevent you from overlooking important issues. Automatic vehicle maintenance reminders can help fleet managers ensure all vehicles receive service in addition to extending the fleet’s lifespan.

GPS Fleet Solutions Are Proving Valuable For Small Fleets

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Small Fleets Are Finding Major Value In GPS Fleet Solutions

Regardless of the size of your fleet, business tracking software using GPS will provide extremely valuable tools and data that will improve your fleet operations. Many business owners think that their fleet is too small to use business tracking software; however, even small fleets with only a few vehicles find that this fleet management tool improves customer services, reduces costs and improves driver productivity.

Small businesses need to be able to monitor their fleet closely to save money and run their operations more efficiently. GPS fleet solutions can be used to update older fleet management methods to improve their operations and automate many time consuming processes. It also helps fleet managers monitor their drivers’ behaviors to eliminate unsafe driving habits.

Businesses with manual processes find that they have more mistakes, increased labor costs, and encounter more vehicle, fuel and labor theft issues. GPS fleet solutions provide a system for small businesses to monitor these metrics so they do not slip by without being noticed. In addition, it improves theft recovery. Having to replace a stolen vehicle is expensive and could break a small business.

GPS fleet solutions are now affordable for all business sizes so small fleets have access to tools that can automate their fleet operations. In addition, many businesses see reduced costs and a return on their investment within a matter of months. These tools can be used to improve customer service and give the business a competitive advantage.

Small businesses need to investigate possible GPS fleet solutions based their individual needs, industry and budget. The company the select should be selected based on their ability to prevent theft, increase efficiency, increase productivity, save costs. Furthermore, the solution they chose must be able to be scaled as their business grows.

Fleet Management Challenges

Posted on | by Courtney redwell

Fleet Management Made Easier

Today, fleet managers are under pressure to minimize fleet costs but are missing the information necessary to make informed decisions. It is important fleet managers have access to the tools they need to better manage their vehicles and drivers on a daily basis; fleet management technology provides these necessary tools. This information, paired with the appropriate follow-up by management, can help achieve significant cost savings. The key challenges fleet managers can face daily include:

Unnecessary Vehicle Idling
Fleet Manager’s may recognize unnecessary and excessive idling can be a significant contribution to operating costs, not all fleet managers know the extent of their fleet idling or what areas they should focus on. GoFleet’s Geotab fleet management solution enables fleet managers to:

  • Visualize total fleet idling as a whole
  • Measure idling in the yard, at drop off locations, at customer stops etc.
  • Understand idling as a percentage of total engine time
  • Monitor weekly and monthly idling trends with easy to use custom reports

Fleet Managers equipped with this knowledge can more easily identify the drivers, vehicles, and locations that exceed acceptable levels of idling and take corrective action. Reducing unnecessary idling is a simple way to reduce fuel costs.

Repairs and Maintenance
Vehicle downtime and fleet repairs are an expensive cost that fleet managers deal with daily. Managing these costs can be a major challenge. Using GoFleet’s Geotab fleet management solution fleet managers can:

  • View vehicle diagnostic codes right from a mobile or desktop device
  • Quickly identify potential vehicle issues which assists in prioritizing repairs
  • Set up regular maintenance reminders

When fleet managers act on this information, they can identify vehicle issues before they become major repairs and more efficiently manage vehicle maintenance. This can help reduce vehicle downtime and major repair costs which is an essential part to all operations. Additionally, regular maintenance on vehicles can likely prolong the life of major vehicle parts as well as increase the longevity vehicles.

Fleet Productivity
Are you getting the most out of your vehicles? Fleet managers constantly aim to achieve maximizing one’s fleet potential. GoFleet’s Geotab solution can provide important insight into the productivity of a fleet:

  • Fleet utilization visibility
  • Number of customer stops made in a day
  • Time spent at the office versus customer site
  • Real time dispatch and ability to identify nearest vehicle to a location
  • Driver’s congregating reporting
  • Routing

Gaining insight into the routes taken each day and knowing the utilization of vehicles can help fleet managers recognize where changes are needed to improve fleet efficiency and avoid unnecessary distance driven. Having access to this valuable information helps management make informed decisions on purchasing new vehicles. For example, vehicles identified as not in use can be re-assigned to locations that require extra vehicles, helping to eliminate the need to make big purchases that are unnecessary.

Contact GoFleet to learn more about this topic, or schedule an online demo to see the solution work in action.

 

Original Article Written by: Laurelle Flewelling, Account Manager at Geotab
http://www.geotab.com/blog/fleet-management-challenging-world/

Guidelines For Implementing A Fleet Management Program

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Fleet Management Program Implementation Guidelines

When you are ready to implement an effective fleet management program, it is important that you understand there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will work for every company. Understanding some basic guidelines will help you avoid wasting money and help you make a smooth transition to the new fleet management program.

Know What Your Needs Are

Before you look into GPS fleet tracking systems, you need to know what your needs are. You must also determine your budget and what you would like to accomplish with a fleet management program. Do you want to manage your drivers’ behavior, improve vehicle maintenance, improve routing, etc. In addition, you need to know if you are going to need the system to integrate with other back-office software programs that you are already using.

Communication

The best way to ensure your fleet management program’s success is to communicate with your entire staff about the fleet management program before it is implemented. This does not mean just sending a memorandum to all staff. Have an open discussion about the purpose and goals of the program. Open communication generates a company-wide buy-in that is essential for the program to succeed in the long-term.

Don’t Make Changes Too Quickly

Once you implement your new fleet management program, do not make too many changes too quickly. It is imperative that you collect your fleet data at a pace that is manageable and that your react to the new information in incremental steps, not widespread change. Some companies actually find that not changing anything for the first two months allows the fleet manager time to establish a baseline. After the baseline is established, the fleet manager can address issues with the facility design and the drivers’ behaviors one at a time.

Make Decisions With Data Not Emotions

If the GPS fleet tracking system reveals that a driver is underperforming, it is important you make decisions about your findings with the data not with your emotions. Do not be quick to fire an employee based on the fleet management program data, the underperformance may have a measurable solution. In addition, using the data instead of emotions can help mitigate the feeling of apprehension that many fleet managers feel.

GPS Fleet Tracking Systems: Moving Industry

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

The Moving Industry Finds Many Benefits in GPS Fleet Tracking Systems

GPS fleet tracking systems are going to great use in the moving industry. Moving companies are using these systems to provide the best service to their customers. Customers are truly appreciative of knowing exactly where their belongings are after the moving company picks up their stuff. Gone are the days a customer has so call a moving company frantically because the moving company lost communication with the truck. Also, customers do not have to worry about their belongings being sent to another state or location because routing is automatic.

When you are in the moving industry, the efficient routes you drive go straight to your bottom line. GoFleet’s GPS fleet tracking systems can help you gain control of your fleet of moving trucks and make your drivers more productive. If your drivers make unauthorized stops or drive out of the authorized area, it can take money out of your pocket because money could be made at another job. With GoFleet’s GPS fleet tracking systems, you can eliminate driver behaviors that affect productivity. GoFleet can send your fleet managers automatic alerts when your drivers speed, go off of the authorized route, idle excessively or make unauthorized stops.

Implementing one of GoFleet’s fleet tracking systems gives you the right tools to dramatically reduce fuel costs, labor and vehicle maintenance costs. Knowing where your fleet is positioned at all times can also help you make business decisions that can save your company time and money. With GoFleet, if a new customer calls with an emergency local moving job, you can send your closed driver to the job location to make sure your secure the customer.

When your moving company uses one of GoFleet’s GPS fleet tracking systems, you will be promoting quality and confidence in your company. Using the fleet management tools you can eliminate inefficiencies in order to gain more customers and ultimately grow your business. For more information about how GoFleet can help your moving company, Contact Us

Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems: Increase Safety and Save Money

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Increase Safety and Save Money With Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems

Business owners are using tire pressure monitoring systems to increase vehicle safety and save money. Tire pressure monitoring systems measure both the tires’ temperature and tire pressure. They are used to increase fuel economy and prolong the life of the tires, while increasing vehicle safety with fewer tire failures on the road.

How Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems Work

Tire pressure monitoring systems from GoFleet are used to alert the driver and fleet manager when the tire pressure drops under the set threshold. The tire monitoring system communicates the changes in air pressure and temperature to the fleet manager through the GoFleet GPS fleet tracking system. Robust tire pressure sensors are mounted internally to constantly measure tire temperature and tire pressure every 4 seconds.

Fleet managers can proactively manage their fleet’s tires with automatic alerts for low or high tire pressure, leakage and high temperatures. Alerts can be automatically sent to the fleet manager via email, SMS text message or displayed on the fleet management software.

GoFleet’s tire pressure monitoring systems are fully integrated with GoFleet’s GPS fleet management systems, MyGeotab and Geotab G06.

GoFleet’s tire pressure monitoring systems ensure a fleet’s tires are properly inflated at all times. This extends the life of the tires, reduces maintenance costs, increases fuel efficiency and increases vehicle safety.

Increase Fuel Efficiency

Making sure your tires are properly inflates results in the use of less fuel because there is less rolling resistance. When businesses increase fuel efficiency, they will immediately start saving money on costly fuel. With fuel costs constantly on the rise, increasing fuel efficiency in businesses with fleet operations is essential.

Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems Increase Vehicle Safety

When your tires are inflated properly, they do not generate as much heat which reducing the risk of catastrophic tire failure. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Statistical Investigation On Tire Pressure Maintenance, tires that are only a few psi off from recommendations from the manufactures can affect the vehicle’s stopping and handling distance. Businesses no longer have to rely on their drivers to perform manual tire pressure inspections “whenever they have time”. GoFleet’s real-time tire pressure monitoring systems provides immediate warnings of tire pressure and temperature issues. Taking care of the issue immediately can prevent dangerous tire issues when your drivers are on the road.

Top Fleet Management Trends of 2014

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Top Fleet Management Trends

Fleet managers are faced with many challenges every day. The pressure is growing in to reduce costs while improving driver productivity. There is also pressure to make fleet practices more “green”. According to a panel of truck experts, the top fleet management trends in 2014 include:

Managing Fleets With Telematics

Advanced technology has opened so many doors in the fleet management industry. Businesses are finally able to properly manage their mobile assets from the comfort of their office computer and/or mobile device. Fleet managers can instantly monitor vehicle locations, driver behaviors, routing, arrival times and so much more using a GPS device installed in each vehicle, a GPS receiver and web-based software. As reliable GPS fleet management solutions become more affordable and fleet managers are becoming more aware of the limitless benefits, managing fleets with telematics is becoming a norm in most businesses with fleet operations. .

Predictive Vehicle Maintenance Instead of Just Preventative Maintenance

The newest vehicle maintenance trend emerging is practicing predictive maintenance instead of the traditional preventative approach. Forward-thinking fleet managers are leveraging vehicle maintenance reports to fully understand what exactly is failing in their vehicles and when it will fail in their other vehicles. Then they use the data that was uncovered to create and establish a policy to replace the vehicles’ critical components before they fail, ultimately reducing vehicle downtime.

Rightsize Fleets

Many businesses are “rightsizing” their fleets, when possible. For example, instead of using a 1-ton pickup, businesses are using a ¾ ton pickup. In addition to reducing the initial costs of a purchasing a new fleet vehicle, it also improves fuel efficiency over the vehicle’s life. Rightsizing means choosing the best vehicle for the specific job. Business owners should carefully compare the vehicle specs to the intended vehicle use to find the fleet vehicles that are best designed for their business.

Increasing Fleet Vehicle Replacement Cycle Times

Fleet managers are constantly faced with making the dollar stretch as far as possible. Experts say there is a current fleet management trend of businesses keeping their work trucks in services longer than the traditional replacement cycle. In general, experts do not recommend increasing the replacement cycle times too much because increasing the service time, increases the vehicles’ mileage, maintenance costs and the risk the vehicle will fail catastrophically. Business owners must carefully weigh the pros and cons before deciding to increase the cycle times. If they do decide to keep vehicles in service longer, it is extremely important to keep up with preventative maintenance.

Anti-Idling Policies

Many businesses are implementing anti-idling policies for their fleet drivers. As more and more states and municipalities are adopting anti-idling laws, businesses want to ensure that they are in compliance. Reducing excessive idling will also improve productivity, reduce fuel costs and reduce greenhouse emissions.

Guide To Increasing Driver Productivity

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Increasing Driver Productivity Guide

A fleet manager’s job requires them to watch the bottom line, ensure vehicles are efficiently operating and manage drivers. As you can see, the drivers play a major role in this equation. The drivers can either help the manager succeed or drive productivity into the ground. Luckily, there are some great strategies managers can use to help boost driver productivity.

Maintain Vehicles

When vehicles are not properly maintained, it results in downtime for the vehicle and the driver. The key to an efficient fleet is to understand that preventative maintenance has many long-term benefits that greatly outweigh any short-term inconveniences. Many GPS fleet management companies offer valuable vehicle maintenance reminders that can help fleet managers stay on top of vehicle maintenance. This new technology is making it much easier for a fleet manager to take care of a large fleet of vehicles. Some fleet management systems even have tools that allow users to make appointments at the nearest service location or order vehicle parts.

Fleet Management Technology

Enhancing fleet efficiency and increasing driver productivity are easier than ever with new advanced fleet management technology options. Not only is it easier to manage fleets with GPS fleet tracking systems, using this solution also reduces a business’ costs. Fleet managers are able to monitor many non-productive behaviors such as excessive stop times, idling, downtime and route deviations. They are also able to see average delivery times, actual work hours and job times.

Some fleet managers are using GPS fleet management solutions to eliminate unnecessary paperwork for the drivers. The time spent on extra paperwork can be used to provide better service to your customers. Drivers no longer have to fill out mileage sheets, time cards, customer locations, times of stops, etc.

The best way to improve productivity is to incorporate fleet management technology in to your business’s fleet policies. Make sure your drivers know that your business has a culture of efficiency and high productivity.

Commercial Truck GPS Management: Roofing Industry

Posted on | by Devin Johnson

Roofing Industry: GoFleet’s Commercial Truck GPS

Delivering high quality roofing services in the fast passed world we live in can be challenging. GoFleet is uniquely suited to help with commercial truck GPS services for your fleet of roofing work trucks.

Implementing a commercial truck GPS system from GoFleet has many valuable benefits including:

Increase Roofing Service Without Increasing Your Costs

The GoFleet commercial truck GPS system lets you easily manage your drivers, time spent at job sites, on-time arrivals, and dispatching. This allows you to improve productivity and increase efficiency. Experts found that implementing a GPS fleet management system can add an extra 1.3 hours of service time each day per worker. That is time that would have been wasted by inefficiency.

Improve Safety

Improve driver safety and the risk of lawsuits when you manage your drivers with a commercial truck GPS system. When your drivers drive poorly, it can damage your reputation. Remember, their driving behavior is a reflection on your business. Even more importantly, they could be putting their lives and the lives of others at risk by driving in an unsafe manner. GoFleet’s commercial truck GPS system provides reports on drivers’ habits so you can identify problems and immediately fix them.

Managing Your Fleet Is Easy

When you install commercial truck GPS devices in your work trucks, you are providing your managers with all the tools necessary to properly manage their team of drivers. Managers can easily configure fleet management reports so they get all of the relevant information they need. Even when your manager is not online, automated SMS text message or email alerts can be set up to notify them of any driving issues. Alerts can be set up for driver speeding, excessive idling or route deviation. When your managers have the tools they need to succeed, your business will succeed. Running an efficient fleet can cut your operating costs, reduce labor, increase productivity and improve customer service.