7 Benefits of Vehicle Tracking for Fleet Operators

Successful businesses use the best tools available to them. When it comes to fleet management that means taking advantage of the multiple benefits of vehicle tracking and its related software.

This article will explain exactly what these benefits are, and demonstrate why this kind of technology is so valuable to fleet operators up and down the country.

In a nutshell, vehicle tracking and telematics is vital to getting the best out of your drivers, vehicles, and the routes they drive on. It can help you to stay on top of crucial information for safety, efficiency and cost savings, leading to a smoother operation.

Let’s dive in.

Top 7 benefits of vehicle tracking

According to a survey of US fleet operators conducted by our expert insights team, the two most popular benefits of vehicle tracking is the ability to easily locate vehicles (29% of respondents answered this) and the ability to improve the safety of drivers (27%). Let’s start with these two and then go through some of the other benefits from our research.

1. Easily locate vehicles

The most obvious benefit of using GPS tracking is complete oversight of where your vehicles are and what they are doing, especially if you are using active GPS trackers that send real time data to your fleet management software.

The ability to easily locate vehicles allows you to intervene if something goes wrong or make quick decisions in real time about your drivers and routes. You can also make improvements to route times on the fly and make sure drivers get to their location quicker if necessary.

2. Better driver safety and security

27% of the fleet operators we surveyed saw this as a key benefit of vehicle tracking and it’s not surprising – better driver safety and security improves the performance of your drivers. For example, real time vehicle tracking allows you to proactively deter dangerous events such as speeding and harsh braking, which improve fuel efficiency, as well as preventing accidents.

If accidents do occur, however, you will be able to respond quickly to the incident. Real time tracking also gives you accurate information at hand for any insurance claims that could arise.

When it comes to security, GPS tracking also alerts you to any misuse. For example, if a van driver makes a personal trip using company fuel, this would be evident. Or, if a vehicle is stolen, you can track its location if the GPS tracker is hardwired into your vehicle. Unfortunately if you use an ODT tracker or a battery powered tracker these will likely be removed in the event of a stolen vehicle.

3. Data-driven decisions

GPS tracking feeds real time data into your fleet management software, giving you the insights to make accurate, informed decisions about your drivers and routes. With real time data at hand, you can improve route mapping to arrive faster at your destination, optimize fuel consumption, improve driver performance and behavior, and predict potential scenarios and have plans in place to deal with them effectively.

The data gathered from GPS tracking can also help you make better decisions around scaling your operations. For example you may discover you don’t need as many drivers on the road to hit your targets and this saves on wages and fuel consumption. Also if you need outside investment to scale up your operation, the data from GPS tracking gives you hard evidence to show investors.

4. Impactful savings across the fleet

Before GPS tracking and fleet management software became widely available, fleet operators and managers wasted a lot of money. Inefficient fuel consumption, poor route planning and poor driver behaviors like speeding and idling were just some of the factors that caused money to be wasted when it didn’t need to be.

With accurate, real time vehicle tracking you can eliminate practically all of this. You can use historical GPS tracking data to plan routes that save the most on fuel consumption. You can see if drivers are stopping for fuel too much or too little or if they are wasting fuel through speeding. From your fleet management software you can produce reports based on this data to show the wider business where impactful savings can be made.

5. Fleet compliance and regulations

In the US all fleet vehicles and operators must be Department of Transport (DOT) complaint, meaning they must follow the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) regulations. Compliance is about keeping extensive and accurate data about your fleet and GPS tracking plays a big role in this.

GPS technology is also integral to vehicles electronic logging device (ELD), which is used to record driving time and Hours of Service (HOS). Commercial fleets in the US must be ELD compliant to operate. Overall GPS tracking backs up every action your drivers take on the road and the key to complying with any regulation is to have as much information about your fleet as possible.

6. Positive environmental impact

We’ve already looked at fuel consumption from a purely financial perspective but GPS tracking can also help you when it comes to fuel consumption and the environment. Businesses in every sector now have to think carefully about the environmental impact they have and fleet operators are no different.

According to a report cited by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation accounted for 29% of US greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Fleet operators can play an important role in lowering this by managing their fleet sustainably. GPS tracking data can help you plan routes better so less fuel is consumed and plan driver rosters more efficiently so less drivers are needed on the road at the one time.

7. Improved customer experience

Improving customer experience increases the chances of repeat business and higher recurring revenue. For fleet owners and operators, GPS tracking can help improve customer experience. Real time location information gives your customers a complete picture of where their delivery is and informs them if any delays happen. This helps decrease customer frustration if they are kept informed of where their delivery is.

Will vehicle tracking benefit your fleet operations?

As we’ve laid out in this article, there are numerous benefits to integrating GPS vehicle tracking into your wider telematics and fleet management operations. It raises the standard of your fleet operations as a whole because you have complete oversight over your entire fleet. This means you can take data backed decisions early and accurately, positively impacting your fleet performance overall. In fact, according to a recent survey of fleet managers, 57% of them saw a big improvement in operations when they implemented GPS tracking.