GPS Tracking For Trucks 101

GPS tracking your truck fleet gives you real-time location of your vehicles and drivers. This is made possible by pinpointing location, to about two feet accuracy, anywhere on the planet using the Global Positioning Satellite system.

GPS Tracking Device

The tracker gets a fix from the satellite and that information is put on your tablet, smartphone or computer by showing you on a map where that vehicle is. The more vehicles you operate, the more points on the map.

But you can get way more done with GPS truck tracking. It is easy to optimize routes, reduce operating costs, improve safety, security and keep your fleet running well.

What are optimized routes? Whether urban or long-distance, knowing how to get somewhere efficiently and economically is a big plus for any size truck fleet. Combining location, driver habit fuel efficiency, geographic and environmental data provides a very complete picture for calculating the best route, time after time or the ability to change and optimize that route based on real-time changes such as road maintenance etc., You can locate the closest driver and get them to the customer easily. In the case of short-run urban delivery this optimization can constantly calculate and update the best delivery route.

With careful planning you can reduce fuel costs and keep your fleet running on time, all the time. Dispatching decisions can be way more effective in real-time and that means more control of your bottom line.

GPS Tracker For Trucking

Tracking can build an accurate picture of driver habits. Telematics, the information technology that you are using with GPS Tracking, can analyze and show you a very complete picture of driver performance. It can show up unsafe driving events, like speeding, excessive acceleration or braking as well as unaccounted idling or stops. You can create a comparison of drivers on the same routes and figure out the best practices to make that route safe and profitable for all. If a driver is showing unsafe habits you can do something about that too. For many the fact that their performance is being tracked is only going to improve their habits anyways.

Understand that you can know all this in real-time, on your phone or tablet, and that you can set up powerful alerts to keep on top of situations that could otherwise cost you real money. Setting up geofences, locations that you know are important, like your fleet lot, can easily alert you to unauthorized use or late arrivals or departures. These locations can be set up anywhere you need, so you could get an alert if a driver deviated from an optimum route and immediately find out why. The applications are only limited by your imagination, so if you want your driver to stop when they get to Kansas and pick up barbecue sauce, you can do that too!

The same data is a big plus for compliance and insurance. Modern trucking is highly regulated by the Department of Transportation. Driver safety, drive times and fuel, amongst many factors, have to be closely monitored and reported. With GPS tracking and telematics you can save your drivers a lot of time and keep full records easily, making compliance easier to achieve. Insurance can be kept low, with logs that show your drivers are driving safely, and can also be vital in the case of any claims. Should a vehicle be stolen, tracking has been proven to be invaluable tool in recovery, often leading law enforcement to locations with multiple stolen trucks.

Fuel costs can be lowered with intelligent routing, good driver habits and real-time tracking. If you know that you can take another highway and save gallons of gas in doing so, without being off schedule, then you’re going to do that.

Maintenance and repair are another important area that GPS tracking can help you with. Telematics let you easily track and monitor data down to the VIN of the vehicle, engine hours, mileage, fuel economy and service alerts. Critical mechanical failure can be tracked, allowing repairs to be scheduled and performed in real-time with minimum down time. Keeping track of the service schedule for multiple trucks could be a real headache without telematics. But once you are up and rolling with the right GPS tracking solution it can be as easy as keeping a calendar on your computer. You can log parts, vendors and repair records all in one place. Providing service histories to a potential buyer when you upgrade your fleet becomes easy, but most importantly you have more control over repair, maintenance and fleet costs than ever before.

Customers can be given access to real-time location data too. Being able to see where their delivery is and know when it’s going to arrive is a big plus for customer service.

Speaking of service, One Step GPS has become an industry leader because of our foundation in customer service. We’re here to help you get the package you need. Our prices our very competitive, we don’t have contracts and you don’t pay for the hardware. We’ve kept growing because our customers trust us and pass on our name. We want to do the same for you. Please contact us today.