Vehicle Tracking

Will Mobile Worker Applications Be Bigger Than Vehicle Tracking

James — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:06:31 +0000

Vehicle tracking systems are an invaluable management tool for many businesses and have revolutionised the way they work. Their effects are felt at all levels of an operation and can often be the stimulus for a positive change in culture.

Vehicle tracking systems are however inherantly limited by the very fact they are fixed to the vehicle and whilst they provide crucial business information they cannot be used to interact with customers or improve processes outside of the vehicle.

Mobile Worker Applications are different, they go with the driver, are not limited to the vehicle and we have all come in to contact with them at some point. Whether it’s the courier company asking for your signature or the customer survey in the high st they are everywhere and they are predicted grow exponentially over the coming years.

In a recent survey by TrackCompare industry experts predict market penetration of Mobile Worker Applications of 4% compared to the predicted penetration of vehicle tracking of only 2%. There have been many false starts with Mobile Worker Applications which have been held back for years whilst the devices are made more user friendly, reliable and robust and the data networks coverage and speed improved.

Whereas previously most Mobile Worker Applications were tailored specifically for the company they were going in to, now they are available off the shelf with minimum work required to integrate them in to the companies own back end system and to replicate the paper forms and processes the company uses in to an electronic format.

Mobile Worker Application developers have been working hard on getting the commercial proposition right and the software and hardware working together to offer business a real opportunity to get rid of their paperwork and streamline their business. TrackCompare launched its mobile worker comparison service in June 2010.

Is Leasing Vehicle Tracking A Thing Of The Past?

Amy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:50:37 +0000

There are growing rumours in the tracking industry that the way vehicle tracking sales are financed could be set to change. For years the most popular way of buying a tracking system has been using business leasing and with no upfront payments and low monthly costs it is easy to see why. However what looked like a lucrative market for the lenders has quickly turned in to a headache with many underwriters having already pulled out of the market.

So what is the problem, why are lenders shying away from such a successful sector? As with most markets the lending criteria before the credit crunch was probably too easy, some customers have defaulted on payments but this has been no higher in the tracking sector than it has for new car sales. The key issue with the tracking market is not the customers defaulting it is the suppliers failing, because without them their tracking systems don’t work, leaving the customer with a worthless system and an outstanding lease which they do not want to pay.

The majority of costs associated with tracking a vehicle are for software licenses and data, both of which have no value to the lease company and cannot be re-sold. Lease underwriters have tried to address this by insisting that they will only finance the hardware costs, the actual black box that goes in to the vehicle to report its position. Lease providers however feel that the costs of hardware are being over inflated by some companies in order to achieve a bigger initial payouts from the finance company, further exposing them to risk.

Around the start of 2010 several big lease underwriters including ING decided they would only deal with a select few tracking companies. TrackCompare have however learnt that this could soon change again with the major underwriters pulling out of the market all together. So where will this leave the tracking sector?

Many companies have already put in place their own monthly payment schemes such as Pay As You Go however this does require an upfront payment and is in most cases more expensive than a lease. TrackCompare understands that some vehicle tracking providers already have plans in place to underwrite their own credit deals but for smaller companies this may not be an option. For these companies specialist ‘high risk’ brokers may be the only option but this could mean higher interest costs to customers and further pressure on profit margins for the supplier.

Reducing Company Vehicle Accidents Saves Lives & Costs

James — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:41:42 +0000

A study by Lex Autolease has uncovered some disturbing results for fleet managers all over the UK. From their fleet alone, 78% of the accidents that occurred in company owned vehicles were found to be the fault of the drivers. This is coupled with the news that over the space of a year, half of all company vehicles in a fleet will be involved in an accident. Important issues need to be addressed about the situations that are evolving to cause these accidents.

A company called Total Accident Management have done a study which shows that the majority of incidents involve broken glass, employees driving into the back of the vehicle in front, and collisions with objects (such as fences, walls etc). Addressing these issues could potentially save a large fleet thousands of pounds, improve the safety of your drivers, (meaning they will be more productive as they will be off the road for less time), and improve your company’s efficiency and image.

Companies often find even with mobile phones and laptops that their employees do not treat these items with the care and respect that they normally would because they do not own them. The same applies for company cars, and this mentality might go some way to explaining the accidents rates.
The pressures of working could also be a factor in how many driving related incidents your drivers have as they may be unfamiliar with the car, and driving in locations they have not been to before. These two elements could significantly affect a driver’s ability to concentrate, but when they are coupled with things like commission based targets and journey planning, the effect is much more pronounced. Another indisputable fact about company vehicle drivers is that they spend more time on the road then domestic drivers on a day to day basis, thus their accident rate will naturally be higher.

When a company’s accident rates are high, they also run the risk of more accidents as the drivers who remain on the road have to pick up some of the work from the employees who are injured or are waiting for their vehicle to be repaired. It is estimated that the real cost of every repair is 3 times higher than the actual cost of mending the vehicle; time off the road, administration and loss of sales all need to be factored in. For all the reasons above, it is important for companies to have good driver training schemes to combat their accident rates.

Driver training needs to ideally be introduced as soon as an employee joins the company, so that the employee knows right from the start what is expected of them. Managers need to ‘practise what they preach’ and have a good safety record themselves, else employees might not ‘sign up’ to what they are being taught. Encouraging employees to put forward their suggestions is another way of getting them involved. Psychologists have stated for years that the more involved, and interested, an individual is with what they need to remember, the better they will achieve. So employers need to take an active role in listening to the opinions of their employees and finding ways for their suggestions, providing they are sensible of course.

Regular employer paid for eye tests are a good way of assessing your driver’s needs, and the first test should be conducted as soon as the employee joins. Upon employment, copies need to be taken of driving licenses and all road related fines, penalty points etc declared. Fleet Managers have found that monitoring driver’s individual incident rates, and comparing these results to their colleagues can provide a basic insight into an employee’s driver behaviour. However, more detailed analysis is required in order to target an improve problem areas, and that is where technology such as vehicle tracking systems can really help your company. These systems allow businesses to monitor their employees driving behaviours in real time. Vehicle tracking systems are able to keep fleet managers informed of poor driving behaviour that can lead to accidents such as speeding, harsh acceleration, braking and cornering in the form of email alerts/notifications allowing them to take immediate action where necessary.

Vehicle tracking solutions are ideal for companies that want to ensure that their employees are driving responsibly and not putting theirs and other road user’s safety at risk. In addition, these systems also help businesses to comply with Health & Safety & Duty Of Care legislation.

Go Green With TomTom WORK

Amy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:00:23 +0000

Recently TomTom work announced a new addition to its WEBFLEET product, a vehicle, management and communication system. The addition has been designed to help businesses manage their carbon footprint and reduce the impact they have on the environment at present.

This new features means that fleet managers can run reports on individual vehicles, their entire fleet or a selected group of vehicles. WEBFLEET will then automatically be able to calculate carbon emissions from the mileage that has been recorded on that or those vehicles.

The idle feature which is part of the LINK 300 tracking device which makes part of the WEBFLEET solution is place into every vehicle. Idle time records can show the fleet manager how much time has been spent on each vehicle or a group of vehicles sitting still with the engine running and therefore burning unnecessary amounts of fuel.

As well as this WEBFLEET looks to promote a more Eco friendly style of driving by the detection and reporting of speeding and harsh braking which again increases fuel consumption and the effect of carbon emissions.

Other features of the WEBFLEET system include:

• Instant two-way communication
• Efficient planning
• Reports
• Vehicle Tracking and consignment tracing

NHS Teaching Hospitals Substantially Benefit From Vehicle Tracking

James — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:24:44 +0000

According to an article published by Fleet News Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has reduced their fleet size by 20% and reduced its expenditure by thousands of pounds, whilst still retaining its previous staff levels. The fleet now travels over 200,000 miles less per year but despite all the savings, has achieved an increase in growth and improvements in services.

These changes were achieved when the NHS Trust decided to invest in vehicle tracking solutions and now they are finding that they are able to do more work with smaller overheads. Dave Taylor, the Trust’s Transport Facilities Manager says that the tracking system has ‘improved our planning, enabled us to use the fleet more effectively and helped us be more efficient’.

The Trust’s vehicle tracking solution allows them to see where their vehicles are at any time of day or night using a computer screen. The tracking device is mounted on the glove box and can be fitted in any type of vehicle. The decision to install the tracking system was taken after managers realised the limitations of a paper based system and discovered that if they had total visibility over their fleet at all times then their logistics would run much more efficiently, and this would be of benefit to the Trust and to the service users.
One of the main problems with how the service used to run was that vehicles were crossing over on their journeys, just because they were being used for different departments or functions. Telematics gave the Hospital Trust an opportunity to look at where these incidents were occurring and affirmed to them that they made the right decision to purchase more ‘multi functional’ vehicles. Another benefit was that if an emergency request came in for one of the vehicles, operators could see immediately which vehicle was closest to the location, and deploy them, saving valuable time and money. An example of the type of situation this could revolve around is if results were needed urgently for a patient that was in danger, and the next stage of their treatment depended on it, the closest vehicle could be sent to pick the sample up and drop it at the lab.

The timing of the Trust’s decision to install a vehicle tracking solution revolved around them needing to update their fleet. They decided to install vehicle tracking and purchase more multi functional vehicles. The savings projections that the transport team presented were strong enough to get this passed by the Hospital Board. Access to the tracking system has been granted to the departments that the vehicles are allocated to. They are not able to directly influence the drivers through the system but knowing what time scales the fleet are running to helps them to plan their resources better around the requirements of the patients.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust participated in a significant amount of ‘high response’ work. This is where the drivers report directly to an operating theatre and pick up the specimen (or organ/tissue), and take it straight to the laboratory for diagnosis. Sometimes the next stage of operations cannot be completed until the results are back. With the vehicle tracking system, the pathology department can see when the driver is setting off from the theatre and can on standby to receive it. This system can help the NHS Trust to save lives.

The Hospital Trust have found that they are becoming more ‘commercially minded’ through seeing the results from the vehicle tracking system. There are a number of essential services that the Trust could complete itself now the fleet is running more efficiently, but these are currently being sub contracted out at quite a large cost. If the Trust could run thee services itself then they would save a huge amount of money every year. This money can then be re-invested in patient care.

This case study is a very good example of the creative ways in which a business can apply a vehicle tracking system and of the savings and benefits that can be achieved by doing so. To find out how much a vehicle tracking system could save your business use TrackCompare’s Vehicle Tracking Benefit Calculator.

Trafficmasters Reports and Research

Amy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:00:41 +0000

Trafficmaster are continually active in the development of a public policy agenda and therefore create reports and briefings on congestion and intelligent driving.

Please find below some examples of these:

Trafficmaster Congestion Report: This is publishes in conjunction with the RAC foundation and is produced every six months. The report looks at different aspects of congestion. Regional studies are also looked and copies of these reports can be downloaded from the Trafficmaster website.

Trafficmaster and the Environment: Trafficmaster see being green as how we drive not just as what we drive. They believe that intelligent driving technology has an impact on the way we drive and positive effects on the environment
Trafficmaster and Navigation: As we depend more heavily on navigation systems, Trafficmaster feel the more they must become smarter. Trafficmaster have involved themselves with working alongside the government, manufacturers and suppliers to help with the continuing development of these systems and helping with reviews and study’s where needed.

Trafficmaster reduction of driver stress: Driving can be stressful for anyone and even more so when it is a full time job. Trafficmaster believe that by using intelligent navigation and tracking, driving become less stressful as drivers will always know where they are, where they are going and be aware of any traffic jams.

CMS SupaTrak Case Study, S & L Catering

Amy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:00:14 +0000

CMS SupaTrak provide vehicle tracking systems for a wide range of industries and have many case studies ranging from the Food & Catering industry to passenger transport and building and construction.

S & L Catering who is a Huddersfield based business have already benefited from CMS SupaTrak’s tracking products and have them fitted throughout their chilled delivery fleet.

S & L Catering have a wide range of customers including hospitals and schools to which they deliver around eight million sandwiches every year. They needed a system that could help them make better use of their fleet of chilled vehicles and locate any vehicle at any given time.

The basic tracking system that CMS SupaTrak provides has 60 second updates as standard with an option of taking this to 30 second updates.

With commitments to stick to with customers such as the NHS, S & L Catering knew that with a tracking system installed they would be able to offer a much better service with delivery timescales being far more accurate within a tight time frame.

Tracking systems also offer increased security to both driver and vehicle and an overall streamlining of the any business making it more efficient and productive.

Whilst having this system S & L Catering continually work alongside CMS SupaTrak to further progress the system to meet their needs and introduce a number of options that will give the company accurate reporting facilities to reflect their business requirements.

S & L Catering feels that this system has not only met but exceeded their expectations.

Cut Out Customers Disputes With FleetMatics

Amy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:00:49 +0000

A day spent without complaints or customers on the phone complaining is a day much sought after by any fleet manager. This can be achieved by simply installing a GPS Tracking system by FleetMatics.

Fleet GPS Tracking can monitor your entire fleet and provide daily reports on time drivers arrive on site, how long they have spent on site and when they started and finished their day. In the service industry this can help with billing and much more. Tracking systems provide accurate information which helps to reduce time spent on administration and therefore more focus can be put on improving customer service and providing the best service as possible.

Customer service staff using the FleetMatics system to advise customer where the driver is either an engineer or delivery will come under less pressure as they can provide accurate information that the customer requires and of course is entitled to.

Drivers can also be re routed if needed when traffic is heavy or certain roads are unsuitable to travel down.

So all in all, happy staff and happy customers make for a more successful business and all achievable by installed FleetMatics tracking units into your fleet, large or small.

Keep Fleet Costs to A Minimum

James — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:29:12 +0000

Fleet managers are not just responsible for keeping their fleet moving, but for managing the fleet’s costs as tightly as possible. This is very important because, for a company whose main income is generated by their employees travelling to either business meetings or delivering goods/services to their customers, fleet costs will be one of the largest overheads that they have. Among the many areas where expenditure needs to be tightly controlled are insurance services, vehicle purchase/lease/hire, fuel and tyres.

Tyres

It is estimated that over £2 million per year is spent on tyres in Welsh public services alone, so tyre expense needs to be effectively managed. Companies generally keep their tyre replacement limits at 2-3mm. However, the lowest legal limit for tyres is 1.6mm. If records are kept of how often tyres are being changed on each car, and comparisons made between employee’s miles per tyre ratios then fleet managers can ascertain as to whether tyre degradation is due to careless driving or not. Employees also need to be encouraged to check the tyre pressure at regular intervals, as under inflated tyres increase fuel consumption. Companies that have had ‘green tyres’ installed on their company vehicles have noticed that fuel consumption can be lowered by up to 5%.

Fuel Cards

The popularity of fuel cards is increasing and in addition to the savings that can made on fuel through their use, fleet managers can get reports which show if fuel is being claimed for correctly on monthly expenses, and usage compared amongst employee to see if there is any inappropriate usage happening. Fuel in some companies, usually larger ones, can be issued through large onsite tanks. This needs to be constantly monitored, along with the amount of fuel that is put into each vehicle and at what intervals, need to be recorded. This is to stop fuel being siphoned off, and identify and stop it if it is.

Driver Training

Employee education and training is also an important factor in keeping fleet running costs down. With an effective vehicle and road awareness training scheme, your employees should be able to drive their vehicles more efficiently, reducing your fuel expenditure and the amount of accidents your employees have. Training and awareness are things that need to constantly evolve, it’s not good enough to just inform employees of how you want things to be done, they need to feel involved and this will help get the lessons of safe driving across. Managers should also ‘practise what they preach’, so employees see that everyone is adopting ‘best practise’ approaches.

Insurance

The insurance provider that a company uses needs to be carefully considered and tendered out to at least 3 service providers, if possible. This is because insurance is a highly lucrative market and prices can vary hugely between providers. Insurance providers often provide breakdown and maintenance contracts as part of the deal. In this instance, employees will be given a card with the telephone number they need to call in the event of a breakdown or accident, and the policy number they need to quote. The overall package insurance providers offer needs to be considered because some with have lower monthly payments but no extras. Others will have slightly higher monthly payments but if the extras prevent the need to buy the other services separately, then overall you could save money. Breakdown and maintenance cover can also sometimes be offered if you are purchasing a vehicle outright, but this will vary hugely amongst manufacturers and brokers.

To reduce your insurance premiums you could consider installing a vehicle tracking system, as many insurance providers up to 30% in premium discounts with the installation of a vehicle tracking solution. In fact vehicle tracking systems can further assist businesses to reduce and control their fleet costs. As mentioned earlier in this article driving behaviour can have a significant impact on tyre degradation. Vehicle tracking solutions allow business to monitor instances of harsh acceleration, braking, cornering and speeding. Through monitoring driving behaviour, preventative measures can immediately be applied to the employee in question.

Fuel cards provide businesses with an immediate way of reducing fuel expenditure but a vehicle tracking system can be used to further build on those savings by allowing fleet managers to ensure that their drivers are using the most efficient routes and keeping fuel wasting activities, which include engine idling and speeding, to a minimum. Additionally, businesses can also ensure that employees do not use their vehicles or fuel for private journeys, making sure that company paid fuel is only used for business purposes.

Further Reports And Alerts with Navman Wireless

Amy — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:00:50 +0000

Navman Wireless have a wide range of reports and alerts built in with their tracking system that help fleet managers collect data and look back over historical data.

Among Timesheet & Idle reports there are the following reports that are beneficial to many businesses:

Maintenance Status Reports: Keeping up to date with vehicle maintenance requirements is imperative to staying legal on the road. Get reports on when your vehicles need to serviced, MOT’s are due and insurance is coming up for renewal. Running these reports can help fleet managers schedule a vehicle downtime to minimise any impact it may have on the business. Maintaining a fleet well helps a company carry out their duty of care obligations to staff.

Vehicle Trip Report: View reports on a single vehicle or entire fleet. These reports can identify jobs attended to by each and every driver and any stops taken in the day that was not on the daily plan. Length of time spend by each driver on site can also be ascertained and invoicing carried out more easily.

Navman’s tracking system also offers a number of alerts such as:

Stationary Vehicle Alert: The fleet manager can receive an alert if a vehicle has been stationary for a longer period than predetermined in the system. This is used to ensure driver safety and transparency of delays on or off site.

Geofence Alerts: Set a geofence and if a vehicle goes out of those area the fleet manager will be alerted. This can be useful in cases of theft and drivers using vehicles for personal use.