How GPS Tracking Technology Can Save Your Business Thousands

Rising fuel prices can be catastrophic for some businesses--especially those with mobile employees, vehicles or equipment.But with the right technology, despite the recent surge in gas prices, you can cut your fuel costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create a more efficient and profitable company.
When creating a business budget, there is always that one line item that worries because it is so unpredictable, fuel prices. This year's record high gas prices are causing many business managers to be under profit and over budget. Not a good place to be.
Regular unleaded fuel has risen 78 cents in the last 12 months, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Diesel gas prices have risen over $1.02 per gallon over the last 12 months. As of March 29, 2011, the US average diesel fuel price is $3.96 per gallon.  One year ago, diesel gas was $2.94.
Cutting down on travel, transportation and fuel costs is essential for many businesses to survive and thrive in this economy. But across the country, gas prices continue to rise, and expectations are that they still may have a ways to go.
Generally speaking, fleet management is the process of maximizing the return on investment companies make in their vehicles and equipment. In practical terms, this means getting as much production as possible from equipment, at the lowest per hour cost, over the longest period of time, while obtaining the highest sales value at end of life.
Although this is a challenging set of tasks, it can be done. Today there are technologically advanced yet affordable fleet management solutions available that can help businesses accomplish this.
For example, telematics-based GPS tracking and fleet management technology can help you accomplish all of this. To start with, you need to monitor and manage the following activities:
Vehicle tracking: Just as it sounds, vehicle tracking is the process of knowing where a piece of equipment is at a specific time and date, or where it has been over a period of time. Functionally this means answering questions as diverse as "are they where they can be the most productive?" and "where did they go today?" Vehicle tracking can ensure that employees work a full day, helps you to add more jobs to their workload each day, and eliminates mobile employees from getting off track.
Productivity: Managing productivity means being able to understand when and how much a piece of equipment is running, idling, working, moving, etc. This information should be specific to the tasks the piece of equipment is performing as well the project on which it is working. For example, a backhoe might be working but not moving about the job. The system needs to account for this.
Maintenance: Knowing how much a piece of equipment has been running, idling and working allows a construction company to know an equipment's hour meter reading very accurately and in real-time. In addition, sensors on the equipment can identify when and measure how long or how far a piece of equipment is being run in reverse, how many lifts or dumps have been made and a host of other activities. This knowledge makes it possible to accurately employ a very effective preventive maintenance program.
Theft mitigation: Closely related to traditional vehicle tracking, theft mitigation allows a company to know if a piece of equipment is being stolen. Data gathered for theft mitigation includes when a piece of equipment is started outside of normal working hours, when a piece of equipment is moved (with or without engine start), when the equipment is being transported and where the equipment is at any time.
Operator behavior:  While you can't directly measure operator behavior, you can infer it from other data collected while the operator is using a monitored piece of equipment. Knowing when a piece of equipment is started in the morning, how much time the equipment runs during the day how much time the equipment idles during the day, how much time the equipment moves during the day and how much it worked can be interpreted to get a reasonable view as to operator behavior. This is particularly powerful when management has the ability to look back over months of data and identify trends.