Liviu Marcus
Commercial vehicles are everywhere, being seen on the road almost every day in our life, where they serve as a crucial part of so many of our lives. Commercial vehicles are used by different types of businesses, as a link of a supply chain or working as field service vehicles, within industries like construction, automotive, and electrical.
In some situations, the fleet of a commercial vehicle can amount to hundreds, and it represents a number of challenges to those responsible for care-taking the fleet. Fleet managers are required to handle a number of tasks on a daily basis and only such tasks are especially complicated when the number of vehicles in their fleet is increased.
Technology has been instrumental in facilitating the job of fleet managers for years. Vehicle tracking is one specific piece of technology that has had a large impact, especially with larger fleets. There are several main advantages of using vehicle tracking systems within a large commercial fleet, and here we are going to consider each of them more closely.
Customer Service
Good service should be a concern for any business with a commercial fleet. Regardless of whether the commercial vehicles are in direct contact with individual customers, or are a part of a larger supply chain, the timing information is essential. Vehicle tracking presents the ability for fleet managers to know the exact live location of all the vehicles in their fleet.
For instance, a delivery vehicle leaves a site, the client should be given information on when the delivery will arrive. At first, this is possible when the delivery route is designed. Nevertheless, since the real-time location of the vehicles is visible, customers will be also informed of a new delivery time should there be a delay at any point. Letting customers know when a vehicle is going to arrive would improve the customer experience and more business in the future.
Operational Efficiency
Ensuring operational efficiency with a large commercial vehicle relies on several factors. However, arguably the most important is route planning. With any commercial fleet, making sure the routes that drivers are taking to their destinations are as time-efficient as possible is vital. By using vehicle tracking technology, fleet managers have access to the historical journey data of their fleet.
Analyzing this data can allow for more efficient routes to be planned by fleet managers, by looking back to see where problem areas have occurred in the past and avoiding them. For example, routes may have been used that took drivers along a popular motorway as that was expected to be the fastest and shortest. However, because of congestion at certain times of the day, a slightly longer route which had fewer motorists actually proved faster. Journey data will show this and allow for better route planning which leads to other improvements, such as increased deliveries in a day, for example, and better customer service.
Driver Safety
With commercial fleets of any size, but particularly large commercial fleets that may be using larger vehicles, driver safety needs to be a top priority. There are some key features of vehicle tracking which have a positive impact on driver safety. Firstly, by seeing the live location of a vehicle, if there was ever an accident involving that vehicle, the exact location could be provided to emergency services.
Secondly, some companies offer in-cab coaching systems which are fitted into the cabin of commercial vehicles. These systems provide drivers with instant audio and visual feedback on their driving. They are alerted to actions that could be dangerous, such as speeding and harsh corning, acceleration, and braking. Another key feature of these in-cab systems can be the presence of an E-call (SOS) button, which provides a fleet manager with an alert, and the exact GPS location of the vehicle should an emergency take place.
All of these features not only improve the safety of the commercial driver but also that of other road users. Considering the numbers and presence of commercial vehicles on the road, this is of vital importance.
Environmental Impact
In the contemporary world, the influence of cars running on fossil fuel on the environment is clear. For businesses, that are running large commercial fleets, this fact would imply that they are the major contributors to CO2 and other dangerous gases being pumped into the atmosphere. The environmental impact of commercial fleets can be reduced by vehicle tracking in several ways.
Further to what has been said, commercial vehicles will get to their destination in a quicker time if planed in the best way. A vehicle has a smaller environmental impression when it spends less time on the road.
In addition, the coaching systems that deliver driver feedback can aid drivers in running their commercial vehicles more efficiently. Thus, by informing drivers of activities that lead to heavy fuel consumption, like idle running and speeding, drivers will find themselves using the amount of fuel they use per day. In addition, it is very environmentally friendly and can result in saving a large amount of money for businesses, as fuel costs for large fleets can be very high. A good alternative is to see a fuel comparison site such as iCompario.
In instances where data about a lot of vehicles may be scattered throughout the country at any one time, it will be absolutely necessary to be able to utilize a system that delivers the data as fast as possible and in an efficient manner. On the whole, vehicle tracking technology can bring about a number of tangible benefits to large commercial fleets for both the business and their clients.
