by: Todd Cavanaugh
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Managing any fleet of vehicles is a complex and stressful job. The larger the fleet, the more valuable the cargo, or the more critical the fleet to business operations, the more stressful the management task will be. If you manage a fleet of vehicles of any size you need to know that GPS fleet management makes your life easier.

You might know that GPS fleet management equipment allows you to see (on your laptop) exactly where every vehicle is at a particular point in time. But do you know that this same equipment also maintains a complete history for each vehicle of where, when and how that vehicle has traveled over any time-frame? If you notice an anomaly at any time, you can download a report of the history of each appropriate vehicle and analyze the cause for the anomaly and determine what corrective action is appropriate.

GPS fleet management software also allows you to sit at your computer and watch the movement of all of your fleet vehicles in "real time." What you might not fully understand is that the same GPS fleet management equipment will also let you set conditions, events, actions, etc. and either receive an instant alert or build a history of such things as when the vehicles are moving, idling or stopped; when any vehicle moves outside a specified area; and when the drivers are either driving unsafely or in ways that increase fuel consumption.

A GPS fleet management system that includes a system for scheduling maintenance will not only simplify your job, but it will ensure that everything stays on track. Even more, the system will send you an alert if a maintenance or engine problem is starting. This allows you to fix it quickly and prevent a costly interruption of service or a more costly repair.

You can achieve phenomenal fuel savings with a GPS fleet management system. Tuning your engines, choosing your routes, and rewarding driving habits that reduce fuel consumption will extend the life of the vehicles, significantly reduce fuel costs, and reduce carbon emissions, thereby helping to protect the environment.

Because your GPS fleet management equipment allows you to instantly locate a stolen vehicle, some systems also allow you to take steps to disable vehicles while they are parked overnight. These features qualify all GPS equipped vehicles for discounts of about 15% from most major insurance companies.

A GPS fleet management system will save you time that you can spend working with your drivers to find the routes that are optimal for time and fuel saved. You can even coach your drivers on fuel-efficient and safe driving habits.

If you manage a fleet of trucks that make deliveries to various distributors throughout the country, for example, you might have different drivers or different vehicles traveling the same routes at various times. On a particular week you notice that the mileage for a particular run seems much higher than you remember the mileage when someone else drove the route the previous week. Using your GPS fleet management reports, you discover that the driver assigned to the route this week clocked 250 miles more than the driver who covered the same route the previous week. You also find that the driver was on the road three days longer - and all of the extra time was on the outgoing leg of the trip. By comparing other reports from your GPS fleet management system, you discover that this is consistent whenever the specific driver covers any route. With just a little more study of the reports, you find that this driver makes at least four extra stops on each trip.

You can work smarter with GPS fleet management. These are just some of the things it can help you accomplish:

- track all movements of every vehicle and maintain a full history on the movements of every vehicle

- monitor driving habits for use in coaching drivers in achieving greater efficiencies and saving fuel, time and costs

- stay on top of maintenance schedules and issues without the headaches

- prevent robberies and help police locate a vehicle if one is stolen

- improve employee productivity

- manage vehicles for greater efficiency and longer life.

By installing GPS fleet management devices in all of the vehicles in your fleet you can begin to see cost reductions immediately. On average, companies that install GPS fleet management systems report that they pay for the system and a whole year of monitoring with the savings they achieve in the first 90 days or less. So, what's stopping you when you can save money for the company and work smarter?

About the Author

To learn more about GPS fleet management, get the free report "7 Ways Your Company Can Save Thousands of Dollars With GPS Fleet Tracking." A number of companies have boosted their revenue and lowered their costs by implementingGPS vehicle tracking for their fleet. To calculate the ROI for your company in under 30 seconds, click through to the Fleet GPS ROI calculator.

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