5 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Vehicle Tracking

If you're thinking about introducing fleet tracking to your fleet, you're likely to have encountered the odd misunderstanding. 

Most businesses understand the benefits of fleet tracking, but worry about the possible difficulties of introducing it to their company. Many are concerned it's too expensive, some think their business is too small and others are concerned about how staff will embrace the technology.

Here are the five misconceptions we frequently hear while talking to businesses about fleet tracking.

1. "It's too expensive"

Cost is understandably the first thought when purchasing anything, but with fleet tracking, management must consider how technology like this can help save money in the long term.

Think about all the unnecessary hundreds of pounds spent on business inefficiencies every month – ineffective routing, excess overtime, unapproved journeys, dangerous driving etc, this all equals to higher fuel, maintenance and labour costs for a business.

With the adoption of a fleet tracking system, businesses can identify these costly inefficiencies with a monthly investment that is far less than current costs. In many cases, a tracking system actually saves money.

"Before we installed our tracking system, we consumed over 1 million litres of fuel a year. Since 2013 we have added around 30 new vehicles to our fleet and even with these new assets included, consumption is around 875,000 litres because of the data provided by tracking. At current rates, this equates to a saving of £150,000 a year! 

Customers typically expect to make a return on their investment within the first few months. And remember, the best thing about fleet tracking software is that it can actually demonstrate all the inefficiencies across a  business, so management can make the changes necessary to make savings add up.

2. "We trust our staff, so we don't have a need for fleet tracking"

A fleet tracking system is not there to observe and scrutinise employees every move. Yes, it will monitor driver behaviour, and help to improve employee productivity, but it also offers a whole host of benefits for an entire team.

Fleet tracking is about reducing inefficiencies and operating costs to encourage growth within a business. It's not about whether or not staff are trusted, it's about the overall added value a telematics system can bring to a business in the form of:

• A reduction in monthly fuel costs
• Better customer service
• Enhanced health and safety of drivers
• Reduced administration time and the ability to log driver hours quickly and efficiently
• Increased dispatch and routing efficiency

3. "Fleet tracking is too complicated to install and use"

For those not familiar with tracking technology, it's understandable that they're concerned about how complex installation can be and how easy the software is to use. However, it's actually all relatively simple. All that is needed is a GPS receiver in each vehicle, and tracking software installed on an office PC in order to organise and present information that is collected.

A reputable GPS tracking provider will install each component seamlessly to get a company up and running, and provide all the support that is needed for interpreting data to improve operational efficiencies.

Put simply, a good tracking provider will offer accessible technical knowledge and guidance to suit the needs of a specific business.

4. "I don't need a tracking system; my mobile phone does that for me"

Mobile phones can be great for communicating with a driver when he/she is in a safe location to do so, but they can't offer the necessary tools fleet managers need. Mobile phones can track people, but they can't effectively relay the data management require to visualise the bigger fleet picture. As such, mobile phones have proven to be an inefficient way to manage a mobile workforce.

Drivers can easily turn their phones off, leave their phone at home or run out of battery, but a tracking device can tell a driver's location in real-time, their stop and start time history, engine status, fuel consumption, mileage and speeding patterns. This gives anyone in charge of a fleet highly accurate data immediately, something many are unable to experience with a simple phone managed fleet.

5. "Vehicle tracking is not accurate enough"

Ok, it's no longer the early 2000's. GPS technology has been widely used to track objects and pinpoint exact locations for a long time. The underlying technology is recognised as an effective method for GPS navigation, as seen by popular brands such as TomTom and Garmin.

It's steadily rising in popularity to reduce operational costs and increasing the productivity of fleet teams. At Teletrac Navman, we've helped over 17,000 customers since 2001 and connected over 220,000 vehicles. A massive 93% of our customers tell us they've saved money and are happy  with the new and effective methods for managing their fleets.

Now we've debunked the myths - it's safe to say with such a high customer satisfaction rate - fleet tracking for commercial use is an accurate and valuable tool for any business fleet.