Your business embraces a great idea, an amazing product or service, and dedicated employees to support it and make it grow.
If part of your business includes managing a fleet, no matter the size, you shouldn’t overlook investing in a fleet management system to keep track of your vehicles, drivers, and valuable assets as one integral business tool.
Whether your vehicles are used to make deliveries, to transport your equipment and technicians, or offer a transportation service, taking control of your operations through a GPS vehicle tracking system is one of the most effective decisions you can make to help scale your business. It is the one tool that can help ensure that you are not one of the 50% of small businesses that fail within their first five years.
As of 2018, there are over 30 million small businesses in the United States, which accounts for 99.9% of US businesses. That's got to be some steep competition! The challenge of remaining competitive in the delivery or transportation industries, however, can be helped through the implementation of fleet tracking services.
According to Guidant Financial, 33% of all small businesses cited lack of capital as their number one challenge. The third largest concern was time management at 13%. The push for business owners to do more with less to stay competitive and profitable has never been more important for the survival of the business.
Advents in Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence and Big Data technology can be the helping hand for small businesses to scale their operations. New technologies are becoming a lot more accessible and affordable for small business owners than ever before. Gone are the days when businesses need to have internal IT teams and servers in order to deploy business platforms. With cloud computing implementation of systems can be done over the air.
BI solutions are designed to help business owners gain greater visibility into the bigger picture and overall perspective of their operations. Seeing where operations are draining the capital or time management can help owners implement process changes to improve productivity. Every business owner can appreciate how being able to do more in a day and save time on manual admin work is crucial for small businesses.
For businesses employing a fleet of vehicles or high-value non-powered equipment, having visibility into the current and past locations of each asset can mean saving precious minutes each day on locating, dispatching and tracking each business asset. Ability to track utilization and productivity of each piece of equipment or vehicle can help business owners determine if they are using their investments to the full potential. Why would you keep that one trailer that barely gets used and sits on your parking lot costing you in maintenance and upkeep fees?
Cut The Waste
In today’s competitive business landscape, it is integral to the success of your company that you can operate as efficiently as possible while delivering the absolute best service to your customers. You do not need to change your entire business model to see a 50% increase in your operation efficiency, however, a fleet tracking system can save you time, fuel, and stress through a streamlined dispatch and vehicle monitoring platform.
Efficient dispatch occurs when your fleet managers can easily see where your drivers are, choose the closest one, and quickly send them all the necessary information to get them on the road as soon as possible. This process can eliminate frustration between dispatch and your drivers while cutting the delivery time. How much time can your business save by dispatching the closest driver? How do you ensure you send the nearest driver to the job today?
Instead of the traditional two-way radio dispatch that can lead to confusion and possible miscommunication, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), a mobile dispatch app helps dispatchers better plan job distribution and get near real-time job status updates from the field.
Intuitive job booking dashboard increases the productivity of your entire dispatch team, requiring fewer people. If you were thinking of hiring 3 or 4 dispatchers, instead consider a fleet tracking system. The cost of tracking vehicles has significantly gone down over the past few years. GPS vehicle solutions today start from less than $15 per vehicle per month. Savings from reduced headcount can cover the cost of a fleet solution and then some.
While saving time and eliminating the need for additional employees is one of your key targets, running a leaner fleet often comes at close second. Idling, speeding, aggressive driving habits and poor vehicle upkeep all contribute to excessive fuel usage. Driving with Check Engine or MIL light on is wearing down your engine and is burning more fuel than a healthy engine. Having insight into the health of your vehicle can significantly prolong its service. As well, gas mileage can be improved through monitoring and rewarding good driving behavior, and scheduling timely maintenance based on odometer, engine hours or mileage.
Reduce Operational Liability
While saving fuel is a great incentive to monitor your driver activity, the long and short of it is that you are also responsible for the behavior of your drivers on the streets. If their behavior is dangerous for other drivers, you need to know about it. Many insurance companies, like HUB International, offer a discount on vehicle insurance if you have and use a fleet tracking system.
Increase Customer Service Capabilities
Small businesses, especially those prioritizing growth, know that it is incredibly important to retain customers by sticking to your values, guarantees, and ability to respond with as much information as possible — the first time. GPS tracking systems ensure that you know exactly where your drivers are. If a customer or a client calls in to inquire about their delivery, package, or when their service technician will arrive, you can easily provide a more accurate arrival time window.
Thanks to increased organization, the information available, and a reduced travel time, small businesses can offer a complete customer-centric service and continue to grow and expand by meeting the demands of their clients.
Your Vehicles Are a Marketing Tool — Save Your Reputation
Your cars, vans, or trucks have most likely been outfitted to represent your brand. Whether it’s a magnet, vinyl sticker, or painted on, your vehicles are out there on the road, raising your brand awareness and potentially attracting new customers.
However, if your driver is speeding, cutting people off, or has been overdue for repair for months, that won’t make the best impression.
Through fleet performance dashboards and driver scorecard, you can get a complete picture of what’s happening with your vehicles on the road. Maintenance schedules and engine functionality can be sent to your and driver mobile phone, and driving infractions can be a cue for driver coaching.
Fleet Complete’s Fleet Tracking System is easy-to-use and completely scalable for any sized business. Whether you employ 1-5 vehicles or expanding your operations to 100+, the system scales with your needs. Whether you have 1 user or more, can figure the system out on your own or need regular training sessions, the cost of the package is not affected. With Fleet Complete, you only pay for the monthly subscription of the GPS tracking service, our unlimited training and over the phone technical support is a complimentary service to all our customers.
Get in touch with our specialists to learn how our systems can help your business grow!
Jun 04, 2019
Yeniffer Padrino
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