Wireless Matrix GPS Fleet Tracking Software

Before we begin, a point of order: yeah, yeah, Tuesday’s Big Five is going up on a Wednesday. It’s been a busy week here at Wireless Matrix as we prepare for the forthcoming FleetOutlook release 5.9 – hot fun in the summertime if you’re a FleetOutlook user. We’ve all been crashing the backboards to make this release a success, so watch this space for imminent developments, or follow us on Twitter – WirelessMatrix – for the occasional peek behind the curtain.

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Finding a new efficiency in your fleet operations is like sticking your hand in your pocket and coming up with money you didn’t realize you had. Part of you knew it was there all along, but with everything else going on, you lost track of it.

Every single action of your fleet has an impact on your bottom line. If you’re not tracking your vehicles and managing your fleet operations, you’re leaving a lot of money behind – capital that could be better used to expand your operations, add new services, pursue new customers or make the company more secure for the future. You wouldn’t toss a roll of quarters in the street every day, so why would you leave it sitting on the table?

Here, then, are five piggy banks just waiting to be broken open with a fleet management solution:

1)      ON-TIME STARTS – Your drivers’ first appointments are at 8:30 am – but when do your drivers really start?  If they take vehicles home, are they going to the depot first?  How often do they make that first job of the day as scheduled?  If you’re not hitting your start times, the line of dominoes made up of your day’s appointments is at risk of being toppled. Ensuring that your drivers get off to a productive start positions your fleet to accomplish more during your day, increasing your revenue.

2)      IDLE TIME – I beat the fuel drum often, but that’s because it’s such a no-brainer to attack. Unless you run a tourist carriage in Central Park, you need to make friends with your fuel usage. Nothing burns fuel faster with less to show for it than idling the engine. A fleet management solution can help you reduce unproductive engine cycles, which will save you money at the pump, no matter how high gasoline goes.

3)      DUPLICATION OF EFFORT – You lose if you have three truck show up to do the same job. You lose if you have one of your trucks block in another while they’re servicing the same street address on separate calls. You miss out on additional jobs and opportunities, and you run the risk of your customers thinking you don’t know how to run your business. A vehicle management solution can help keep you from duplicating effort with your assets, freeing up resources to address more calls and more customers.

4)      OVERTIME – When you know how long a job should take, and you know how many jobs you have, it’s frustrating to have to go into overtime to finish that last job of the day. The nibbles and bites to catch up at the end of the day and close out the activities you scheduled can add up, costing you twice: in lost productivity and in extra wages paid. Tight fleet management can let you reassign work dynamically to compensate for unexpected delays during the day, reducing the need to pay extra for things scheduled during normal service hours.

5)    SPEED – On the surface, getting from job to job as quickly as possible sounds efficient and agile. But speed can risk your drivers’ safety and public safety, can increase your liability, and can cost you in terms of fuel, vehicle wear and tear or, in the worst case, expensive vehicle or property repairs and insurance costs. Using fleet tracking, you can better guide your vehicles to get them from job to job without the need for speed – saving you money, protecting your assets, and maybe costing a little less over time with your insurance agent, too.