Too many people assume that fleet vehicle tracking is all about catching out dishonest or lazy commercial drivers. To be fair, it certainly can be used to identify employees that use company vehicles in ways they should not, but that is just one way this kind of technology is commonly utilised. There is a lot more to it than surveillance of the workforce.
Vehicle telematics can also be used for security purposes, but perhaps the most important application of tracking technology is in analysis and subsequent improvement of working practices. City driving is a complex thing and there is almost always room to make positive changes.
Human beings are creatures of habit. They tend to drive the same route over and over again, and in a business context, often at the same time of day. These days the route is often calculated by a GPS unit with limited information and re-used continually. Of course, the route may not be the best option, but without detailed analysis it is usually impossible to say for sure. Precise fleet vehicle tracking can collect the data to feed that analysis.
It is often possible to identify common points of delay that may be avoided, traffic blackspots that appear regularly on a particular route, and roads that are so congested that the vehicle tends to move slower than the GPS assumes it would. Vehicle telematics systems and the software associated with them can help businesses optimise their driving routes.
Driver performance can also be measured against a number of useful metrics- there is a big difference between careful fuel-efficient driving and getting to the destination in any way possible. When combined with optimal route selection, optimal driving (or even just improved driving) can save businesses serious money on fuel bills and cut down the time it takes to get from A to B.
Vehicle telematics, fleet vehicle tracking