The technological advancements in the fleet management space continue to skyrocket. This is a direct result of current market demands. Fleet managers/owners are continuously demanding more and more functionality from the GPS fleet tracking suppliers, which forces these suppliers to meet the demand or lose business. In order to meet this demand, the suppliers either have to develop the technology themselves, or partner up to integrate with companies with niche products.
Some technologies currently in demand are:
Using GPS Fleet Tracking for Driver Safety/Coaching
Driver and fleet safety applications are in high demand with “Safety” being the biggest hot button for fleets at the moment. Fleet managers want features such as seat belt use alerts, crash detection, panic buttons, driver scorecards, and driver coaching.
Driver coaching initiatives can be accomplished in two ways. One is proactive, to have an in-cab device that buzzes or lights up when a driver triggers an event such as excessive speeds, idle time, etc. The other is reactive, where the driver’s behavior data is gathered on a driver scorecard for management to review and go over with the driver. Either way, driver coaching is very important in increasing fleet safety.
Integrating GPS Tracking Data with Fuel Cards
Everyone wants to decrease their fuel costs, but are more and more interested in going beyond the typical monitoring of speed, idle, routes, unauthorized usage, etc. and want to attack fuel costs directly from the pump.
GPS fleet tracking suppliers are partnering with fuel card companies to provide fuel card reporting that provide details about each transaction, fuel efficiency, and consumption information. Customers find these very valuable in detecting fuel fraud.
Third Party Mapping
Fleets have been asking for some type of third party mapping integration for quite awhile. For example, ESRI integration with location data overlaid and others like outage management mapping to see lines (NISC) with location data overlaid. These integrations give these businesses the insight they need to run most efficiently.
Maintenance Software Integration (run time, mileage, trouble codes, etc.)
Some GPS fleet tracking suppliers offer a maintenance module within their platform, but they typically are not as robust as the maintenance software platforms available.
When businesses already use maintenance software, they may want data to be shared between it and the GPS tracking software. Typical data fed to these maintenance platforms include run time, mileage, engine trouble codes, etc.
Connecting GPS Fleet Tracking Data with Accounting Software
Being able to seamlessly tie in location data with accounting software is also in high demand. This makes invoicing less time consuming and almost completely automated by sending the total time taken to complete a job. GPS tracking software also simplifies payroll, by feeding data on hours worked by each driver.
