Future Technology News

Consider this: you manage a fleet of vehicles that are out on the roads every day. Your responsibilities include getting the most work from your crews while minding the amount of fuel, number of miles, frequency of stops, driving style, proper training, best practices (like speed limits), etc. Keeping all these parameters straight used to be a matter of sheer organization and brute willpower. It is difficult to imagine keeping track of it all. In the early days there were only written receipts and oral assurances that expenses were within proper parameters. Cash was the only currency and data was entered into ledgers. Once credit cards and fuel cards came along, there was one step in the process made simpler.  Fleet fuel cards, which could only purchase fuel, oil and other vehicle essentials made it easier to control or at least keep track of some expenses.

In the last few decades, the development of Fleet  Management  Systems and GPS fleet tracking has made it possible to track mileage in real time. Routes can be planned for maximum efficiency. Have you heard the one about the traveling salesman who got lost while on his way to the next town… Well, that joke will have to be rewritten. As more and better future technology finds its way into cars, real time data access increases. Now your maintenance can be scheduled with minimum downtime using fleet management tracking software. Fuel economy can be monitored, route deviations can be noted and corrected immediately, even GPS “geo-fencing” can be implemented, preventing a vehicle from running if it tries to drive too far off route.

If all of this sounds a little bit too “big brother” for you, think about a fleet of 100 cars, averaging 25 miles per gallon, driving 4 hours daily within city limits. In 1 month they would cover an average of  2500 miles each, meaning your company logged 250,000 road miles and purchased 10,000 gallons of fuel. Today that fuel averages well over $3 per gallon in some areas, so along with paying this crew for their work, their insurance, their vacation days, sick days and holidays, you also pay out over $30,000 for fuel each month. And guess what? Almost every car will be due for an oil change within the next month. Good fleet tracking systems can help accomplish that scheduling and notification. Otherwise you’d be pulling your hair out by now.

Every year, tires, insurance, licensing and other miscellaneous costs have to be tracked and inefficiencies eliminated. Since many companies have thousands of vehicles on the road, it only takes one detail overlooked to cost thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Inversely, a Fleet Management System that helps improve efficiencies could save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The costs of gps fleet tracking systems varies with the size, complexity and requirements of each company, but one of the more recent developments in “cloud computing” has made it easier to use even the most technically demanding fleet management system software without increasing the cost of hardware. You do not have to host the software on your own computer database or within your physical location. Fleet management systems companies are developing their own infrastructure to house the databases and software themselves, allowing users to log in to their company accounts to access information. One obvious benefit of this situation is that software and hardware upgrade costs will be borne by the providers, or at least shared amongst the companies they service.