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How GPS Fleet Tracking Can Reduce Your Business’s Operating Costs?

Published on Jan 17th, 2024
Fleet manager calculating how to lower fleet costs

GPS fleet tracking allows you to monitor vehicles in real-time. You can make impactful fleet optimization decisions with accurate speed, mileage, fuel consumption, location, and driver behavior data. Affordable GPS tracking ultimately results in fleet cost reductions in fuel, vehicle maintenance, labor, and insurance premiums.

Reduced Fuel Requirements

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) statistics show fuel prices have declined gradually since the peak in 2022. If these government forecasts are correct, the trucking industry expects fuel prices to average about $0.60 per mile for 2023, with potentially lower fuel costs moving into 2024. Despite this recent decline, the American Transportation Research Institute reports the average fuel cost per mile in 2020 was $0.43, indicating a notable increase over the years despite the current downward trend.

For fleet cost reduction, optimization of fuel usage remains a key factor to impact your business’s operating costs. The best GPS tracking helps reduce fuel costs with:

Route Optimization

GPS tracking map with route optimization

Implementing GPS tracking allows you to plan the most efficient routes. GPS goes beyond looking for the shortest route on the map. Now, each trip considers factors like traffic, road conditions, and locations, avoiding unnecessary stops, detours, and idling. Route optimization is ultimately fleet optimization, reducing your business’s operating costs.

Less Misuse and Lowered Fuel Theft Rates

GPS tracking helps your businesses prevent misuse by detecting unauthorized vehicle use. An affordable GPS tracking system monitors for fuel siphoning and fueling up vehicles for personal use. Accurate data and specific alerts let you identify suspicious activity. With irrefutable proof, you can directly address vehicle misuse and fuel theft.

Driver Behavior Monitoring

Driver behavior is a significant factor that drives high fuel consumption. Using fleet GPS, you can reduce fleet costs by tracking and improving driver behaviors like rapid acceleration, harsh braking, and speeding in real-time. With feedback and training based on accurate data, drivers implement more appropriate driving habits.

Vehicle Maintenance

Fleet Manager vehicle maintenance

Inappropriate driver behavior also increases vehicle wear and tear, increasing maintenance expenses. GPS fleet tracking reduces your fleet maintenance costs by:

Preventative Maintenance Scheduling

Most preventative maintenance scheduling uses fixed intervals to determine when vehicles might require service. Scheduling preventative maintenance using accurate GPS data reflects the actual use and condition of your fleet vehicles. Exact information in reports outlining engine hours and mileage avoids costly repairs and surprise breakdowns while complying with emissions and safety regulations. Ultimately, fleet preventative maintenance scheduling extends the lifespan of vehicles and reduces fleet costs, which improves the bottom line.

Vehicle Maintenance Records Management

GPS fleet tracking systems manage vehicle maintenance records. At your fingertips, you can access reports on service history, warranties, or recalls for each vehicle for complete fleet optimization. You can use the platform on your GPS system to store and organize all your vehicle maintenance records.

Reducing Labor Costs with GPS Fleet Tracking

Payroll expenses are a significant portion of fleet operating costs. Fleet tracking impacts labor costs in two significant ways.

Paying Less for Overtime Hours

With fewer overtime hours, your affordable GPS tracking system quickly demonstrates a significant ROI through monitoring driver activities and vehicle hours. It begins with efficiently tracking driver start and end times and continues by recording driving times and breaks. This makes it easy to ensure every driver maintains compliance with Hours-of-Service rules. Plus, GPS tracking reports create accurate timesheets for payroll, which eliminates entry errors and provides evidence for disputes.

Productivity Means Profitability

Dispatchers and drivers can use real-time GPS data to make highly productive in-the-moment decisions efficiently. Dispatchers know the location and status of each vehicle, so assigning a driver to a trip becomes a data-driven strategy. Quick responses reduce the impact of emergencies and run changes. Plus, your team can effectively manage customer expectations with updated delivery schedules. With less downtime and fewer, shorter delays, your fleet becomes more productive and, therefore, more profitable.

Lower Insurance Premiums

Affordable GPS tracking supports cost reductions with lower insurance premiums by:

Acting as Evidence

By recording and storing data, GPS fleet tracking provides irrefutable evidence for accidents, claims, or other disputes. Every vital detail, like dates, times, locations, speed, and directions of the vehicles, adds up to prove innocence or liability while expediting settlement processes.

Improved Safety

Improved safety for drivers and vehicles comes from real-time alerts from the vehicles, reducing the severity and frequency of accidents, lawsuits, and claims. This transfers directly into lower insurance premiums.

The Fleet Technology Trends Report results show that 90% of GPS fleet users report business benefits from the technology, and 42% report a positive ROI within the first year. Affordable GPS fleet tracking tools support your business to reduce operating costs. Contact us today to learn more about how GPS fleet tracking can reduce the operating costs of your business.

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