Category: Competitive Edge

Welcome to the world of marketing and GPS fleet monitoring! In this post, we will discuss some slick marketing ideas with GPS fleet monitoring.

What is marketing?

First of all, let’s start with marketing. Here’s a quick question – what does marketing mean to you?

Most people would link marketing with ads or coupons. While ads and coupons does fall within marketing, marketing is not just about advertisements!

Marketing is about maintaining a relationship between a business and its partners. In other words, marketing includes creating new products, finding new customers, and keeping customers happy.

How does GPS for fleets help marketing?

In 2018, a lot of fleets are using GPS fleet monitoring to boost their marketing initiatives. For instance, 3 ideas include:

• Engaging company drivers with in-house contests
• Creating a new product line, and
• Acting on customers with geofences.

Let’s discuss each idea.

Idea 1: Engaging Company Drivers

Marketing Challenge: Attracting and retaining talent.

One of the biggest fuel management challenges is finding and keeping good drivers. For instance, consider a recent study. By 2020, Canada is expected to have a shortage of 33,000 drivers. This is because older drivers are retiring and fleets are struggling to fill the gap. Hence, fleet managers are scrambling to find new ideas to keep good drivers.

Solution: Using data to engage drivers.

One trucking company used telematics to build relationships and run contests with drivers.

Firstly, fleet managers used data to market towards the drivers. “We feel that a lot of companies are missing the potential of GPS fleet monitoring,” explained a manager. “Rather than focusing on punishing drivers, we used telematics to monitor things like driver birthdays, job anniversaries, and so on. We then used this data to build our family culture by celebrating employees on internal newsletters.”

Secondly, fleet managers used telematics to incentivize drivers with contests. “We ranked drivers according to contest rules, like who drove the safest or who saved the most fuel,” said the manager. “Drivers enjoyed competing for gift cards and company recognition.”

Idea 2: Creating a New Product

Marketing Challenge: Standing out within an industry.

Auto insurance marketers face a tough challenge. The industry is repetitive; most insurers offer the same plans, just at different rates. Because of the competition, marketers have to think outside the box to stand out against the crowd.

Solution: Using telematics to make a new product.

Some insurers, however, are finding success by creating “premium pricing” plans with telematics. Here’s how the idea works.

First, insurance companies install tracking devices into their customer’s vehicles. Second, these devices track driver safety habits. Finally, the devices create reports to indicate driver performance. In the end, everyone wins. Why?

On the driver side, good drivers are rewarded with steep discounts. It’s a big incentive for them! On the insurer side, the company discourage risky drivers from their portfolio. As a result, the company saves on payouts.

Idea 3: Acting on Customers

Challenge: Communicating with customers on-the-go.

A big challenge for on-the-go businesses is communicating with potential customers. For instance, a company started a non-profit recycling project where customers trade used electronics for other goods at certain sites. How can marketers remind customers to show up when the truck shows up?

Solution: Using geofence alerts with an email and social campaign.

In this case, marketers used a geofence within a marketing campaign. Before we dive into how the campaigned worked, let’s discuss geofences. Geofences are a powerful GPS monitoring tool where users can draw zones on a map. With geofences, users get a vehicle’s estimated time of arrival (ETA) to a location and get alerts when vehicles arrive to the location. Now, how did marketers use this tool?

There were a few steps:

1. First, marketers created a customer list by promoting the recycling initiative. Potential customers then registered on email and social media lists.
2. Next, marketers used web analytics to categorize customers into different locations. Each location is then assigned to the nearest geofence.
3. Finally, as the truck approaches the geofence, the marketing team automated emails to tell customers that their truck is arriving in a few hours.

As a result of geofencing, the marketers improved communication with potential customers and increased their recycling drive success!

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EY: The Quest for Telematics 4.0

Wireless car tracker devices are multimedia! They are showing up in various media including TV shows, movies, and video games.

In this blog, we discuss two questions:

#1 – Why are wireless car tracker devices showing up in popular media?

#2 – What are some examples of tracking devices in popular media?

Why are wireless car tracker devices showing up in popular media?

One of the reasons is called product placement, which is a neat marketing trick! Product placement means that characters on a TV show, movie, or game use a product. It’s a clever marketing tactic to subtly teach consumers about a product.

In other words, rather than annoying people with commercials about wireless car tracker devices, marketers make people say, “Ah-ha! I remember those devices from that show!”

What are some examples of tracking devices in popular media?

“Breaking Bad”

Media: TV show

“Breaking Bad” is one of the highest rated TV shows in recent history. It features anti-hero Walter White.

Walter is a chemistry teacher who is suffering from a terminal illness. Walter only has 1 item on his bucket list, which is finding a way to provide for his family after he dies. He settles on cooking drugs, and with his chemistry skills, develops a popular drug.

During the episodes, Walter dives into the illegal drug trade. Throughout Walter’s journey, several people use GPS trackers. For example, a drug producer uses devices to track and manage his distributor network. In another example, a cop plants a tracker in a car and monitors a suspect.

“Batman”

Media: Comic books, movies, TV shows, and video games

“Batman” is one of the best known superheroes. He protects Gotham City from criminals with his vigilante brand of justice.

Batman is so popular that DC Comics published several series. Each series takes place in its own “multiverse”, which means each Batman has his own story.

However, across all of the multiverses, Batman uses similar gadgets. One of these gadgets is Batman’s tracking device. Batman uses either wireless car tracker devices or phone trackers to hunt down fleeing criminals.

“Pokemon GO”

Media: Video games

Pokemon is a popular kids show. The show features trainers who travel around the world and capture creatures called Pokemon. The trainers then bond with their Pokemon, and train them. After training their Pokemon, trainers compete with other trainers to see whose Pokemon is stronger.

Pokemon, just like Batman, is in many forms of media including video games. One recent video game is Pokemon GO. Pokemon GO is a mobile game that takes place in our everyday world. Users can download the game app and hunt for Pokemon that appear in real-life locations. Users would then capture the Pokemon by going to marked locations.

One of Pokemon GO’s features is a GPS tracker for other users. After reaching a certain user level, users can locate other users’ phones. Gamers can then meet up and work together (or battle to see who has the stronger Pokemon!).

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The Balance: The Delicate Art of Product Placement Advertising

The Section 179 Deduction is an important tax benefit that may allow you to fully deduct from your taxes the cost of GoFleet equipment purchases. This is important because, In general, when a company buys new equipment it must write off the equipment’s cost over a series of years in “depreciation.” The theory is that when a company buys new equipment it does not necessarily lose money immediately. Instead, the new equipment becomes a cost over time as that equipment slowly wears out and gets closer to needing replaced.

Section 179 has been deployed repeatedly in recent years as a way to stimulate the economy. The deduction has been a part of the tax code since 1958, when companies were allowed to immediately deduct up to $2,000 of the cost of newly-purchased equipment. In the 1980s and 90s the allowance was raised to $5,000, then $10,000, then $19,000, and finally $25,000. At that point, the deduction became popular as an economic stimulus tool. President George W. Bush included a temporary increase from $25,000 to $100,000 in his 2003 tax cuts that were aimed at boosting the U.S. economy in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

President Obama extended the deduction and added a bonus depreciation in his 2009 Stimulus Bill. A subsequent bill in 2010 raised the expensing allowance to $500,000. It was extended again in 2012 and 2014, and by that time businesses had become so used to the “temporary” increases in expensing allowance that it was difficult to let the deduction expire. So, at the end of 2015, Congress made the increased Section 179 expensing limit permanent. Congress touted the “certainty” in making the tax break permanent and representatives of the business community called it “easily the most positive thing Congress has done for small business in the past several years.” There is mixed evidence about the effectiveness of the tax break in stimulating the economy, but there is no doubt it can be beneficial to individual small businesses.

The current law gives companies in all lines of business the option to expense the cost of new and used qualified equipment in the tax year when that equipment is put into service. The maximum deduction allowed is $500,000. The deduction is subject to two limitations. First, if deduction is phased out based on overall investment by the company, so that if a company invests more than $2 million in equipment in a year it will not be able to take the Section 179 deduction. Second, a company may not deduct more than its taxable income. Additionally, the ability to carry the deduction forward into subsequent years is very limited.

At GoFleet, we encourage all our US customers to consider the Section 179 Deduction. Our small business customers should all be able to deduct the full amount of all our hardware products. You should confirm your eligibility with your own tax advisor, but the experienced professionals at GoFleet are always happy to discuss our tools and the financial arrangements that best benefit your company.

Customize your company reports to gain tailored fleet information

Organizations are constantly looking for new ways to improve their yearly profits. With growing competition and rapid technological advancements, countless companies are turning to telematics for vehicle cost savings, driver management and improved insurance rates. Fleets posses the ability to extract an enormous amount of valuable data from their vehicles. This data when turned into meaningful information can help management make smarter fleet choices as well as improve their ROI.

With GoFleet, understanding your fleet behaviour can be further made simple with custom reporting. Reports within the database can be easily accessed and generated for decision making and driver behaviour analysis. With over 30 standard reports to choose from and the ability to create limitless custom reports using excel; information on driver events can be downloaded, customized and scheduled to be emailed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Understanding your Reports

Using excel to create custom reports allows for limitless options when analyzing your fleet data and driver behavior. Variables that best align your business objectives can be included to create graphical reports that match your organizations requirements and can also be placed on your dashboard for a summary view. Below is an example of a safety report that can be enabled on the dashboard.

The Driver Score Card Report: Data concerning risky driver behaviours based on accelerometer data and rules created around sensitivity is used to generate the report.

This report can help:

• Management understand driver performance and measure how their habits affect fuel efficiency and safety
• Easily measure driver behaviour trends and take any appropriate action to improve performance
• Compare individual drivers against organizational targets and recognize employees for good driver behaviour

Customizing Reports

Customizing reports within the software solution is fairly easy. You would select the specific report and customize either of the following options.

• Report View: allows you to decide who can view the report
• DashBoard: allows you to display the report on the dashboard. Select the date range of the information (This week, Last week etc) and who can view the report on the dashboard
• Email Report: allows you to add email receivers, select the date range of the information to be sent and the type of report to be sent

Custom reports progress and provide you with a means of comparing data withing certain periods of time and also measure company growth. The numbers can help your company formulate your budget and implement strategies to improve vehicle costs. In addition to helping you make decisions about the company and it’s future, reports help keep a trail of vehicle history which can be used for so many purposes such as maintenance records, employee behaviour trends, insurance purposes and more.

For more information on the important features of GPS fleet tracking, and how it could help your business save thousands of dollars, contact one of our highly trained fleet consultants today!

 

[email protected] | 1-888-998-1122

Gain A Competitive Advantage With A Fleet Management Program

You often hear that implementing a fleet management program will give you a competitive advantage but what exactly does that mean? It means that customers will choose to do business with your company instead of hiring your competitor.

In addition to reducing overhead costs, GoFleet’s fleet management program helps business owners get more business by giving them a competitive edge. There are a few key reasons a customer would choose to do business with a company with a GPS fleet management program over a company without one.

Faster Response Time: Customers are more likely to hire a company who can respond quickly for service calls, especially when they have an emergency service need. A company with a fleet management program can track their vehicles in real-time and tell the customer, within seconds, that a technician can arrive at their location with an accurate time of arrival. Your technicians will arrive at the job site quickly with efficient routing. Word of high level service spreads fast and before you know it, your company will be gaining a lot more business.

Short Service Windows: Customers are looking for a company with a short service window. They do not look forward to sitting at home all day waiting for a technician to arrive because they are told the technician will be at their home between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. When you implement a fleet management program from GoFleet, you will be able to give your customers an accurate time of arrival; you’ll be able to tell your customers that a technician will arrive at their location within 30 to 45 minutes with traffic.

Proof Of Service: With a fleet management program billing issues will be completely avoided; you’ll be able to provide accurate reporting about service times including the exact time your technician arrived and departed the job site. You will not have to rely on what the employee or customer said because you will know for sure how long the technician was on site. Your customers will appreciate being billed accurately for the service they received.