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A vehicle tracking system is increasingly becoming essential for companies or individuals that deal with a fleet or even just a single automobile. It comes with great benefits, the chief of which is increased safety. Other equally important benefits include increased productivity, reduced operating costs, corporate channel expansion, adoption of smart logistics, and many more.
All these benefits notwithstanding, settling for the best vehicle tracking solution can be another mountain climbing. This is because, with the increasing need for tracking systems, not all providers have the best features that offer the best solutions. When you don’t get the most versatile features, you cannot edge past your competitors in reaping the benefits of a vehicle tracking system.
So, you should know what features to watch, whether you are contemplating installing a tracking system or have reasons to change allegiances from your current providers. The following features should be on the priority list:
Availability Of a Mobile App
With the growth of technology, people use mobile phones more everywhere to perform various tasks, especially with applications designed for different services and operations. Different vehicle tracking service providers offer other monitoring solutions. For easy accessibility of updates anywhere, anytime, it is reasonable to settle for systems with a vehicle tracking app that can help you keep abreast of information even when you are out of the office or workstation.
Considering this, you should check the reviews in the app store to see what other users say about the particular app. There are many unproductive apps with poor integrations; therefore, you should not just be satisfied that a specific service provider has a mobile application.
Real-Time Tracking
Have you ever heard the phrase “dots-on-a-map”? This statement is the brainchild of a vehicle tracking system and gives some insight into the way tracking updates transpire, especially in the intermediate stages of vehicle tracking technology. Location tracking is fundamental to fleet management and enhances quick responses in emergencies and guidance to your drivers when in transit.
Unfortunately, not all trackers offer real-time updates. For some, the updates are clustered in time durations such that the updates trickle in, say after every five, two, or three minutes. Periodic GPS updates may not be effective in helping you continuously track your vehicles, significantly when the waiting period is extended. You cannot belittle the power of a minute or two on the highway. Be careful to ask your potential provider about the frequency of their updates and ensure their solutions suit your needs.
Modifiable Alerts and Announcements
Apart from real-time alerts and updates on your fleet, you may need to enhance certain aspects to make your tracking more effective. Such enhancements may result from evaluating your tracking updates for a given period and finding loopholes or areas where you may need to bolster the performance and profitability and manage risks and losses.
Modifiable alerts and updates are close to their name. It has to do with fine-tuning alerts to cover the various aspects you need to receive updates on or consider a significant priority. Such alerts could focus on odd hours, long idle times, and over-speeding alerts. On the other hand, you could customize your announcements on essential reminders, like when specified maintenance is due, to help you put things in perspective and operate proactively rather than reactively when there are system breakdowns.
You should be keen to ensure that you pick a tracking system that can allow you to have various modifications to help you focus as closely on your changing tracking goals as possible.
Driver Behavior Monitoring
It is essential to realize that your drivers’ behavior will always affect your business for better or worse. Just as a Human Resource manager is keen on his workforce, you must be eager to know how your driver handles the business. Yet this can be one of the most difficult things to handle and significantly affect your business.
As you do this, the goal should be to enhance efficiency and not the bossy mentality of micromanaging your employees and making them work from points of fear of your all-seeing eye. The critical areas in the driver’s behavior that a tracking system can give you include how fast they drive, emergency responses like breaks and their frequency, and the stopovers in areas outside of the official route of duty. Monitoring driver behavior can help you know areas of improvement and possible reasons for additional costs other than the stipulated ones.
Analytical Dashboard
In most cases, great decisions are based on great drivers of opinions, like quality analytics. To achieve this, you must dump your ordinary dashboard and invest in an analytical dashboard. What difference does an analytical dashboard make? Unlike the standard dashboard that offers the overall view of your fleet, an analytical dashboard offers in-depth analytics into your vehicle operations.
The analytical dashboard of fleet management software shows subtle and game-changing insights in the form of analyzable graphs and charts. In-depth analyses of your fleet operations are vital in making investment and cost decisions, which can significantly increase your profitability.
Geofencing
Ever heard of geofencing? Geofencing is a location-based technology service in which a mobile, desktop, or cloud-based app or other software uses GPS or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag or mobile device enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location, known as a geofence. Geofencing gives fleet managers an upper hand in keeping track of their operations because they get alerts whenever the assigned vehicle enters or leaves the geofence.
Compatibility With Sensors
Vehicles require industry or sector-specific sensors to achieve their tracking goals. Sensor compatibility is non-negotiable because you cannot achieve any result with it in the first place. Therefore, it is essential to ask for the compatibility of the software with various types of hardware. Keep a stock of all devices and technology you want to apply and ensure the sensors are compatible. You can also be open to more advice from your service provider because technological growth is continuous, and more versatile features keep bombarding us.
Conclusion
A vehicle tracking system is crucial in transport management, enhancing fleet and logistical operations. However, with more providers of such services flooding the market, one must be keen to get the best option calculated to help them achieve their tracking targets. The seven features discussed in this article will ensure you edge above your competitors.
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