Vehicle Fleet Tracking

GPS vehicle fleet tracking is a growing industry as more and more business realize its benefits. Vehicle fleet tracking is the process of tracking multiple vehicles within a business by using GPS tracking technology. Many companies, such as flower delivery shops, home service and delivery, taxi services and, delivery services all have fleets, which are a group of vehicles. Business owners of these fleets have discovered that the ability of being able to track their vehicles actually saves them money and improves their customer service. They can also reduce their liability by having a record of how fast their drivers are going and also keeping track of where they are. GPS fleet tracking also brings up employee privacy issues but that is another conversation in itself that can be very interesting, and quite heated at times.

Most vehicle fleet tracking uses a technology called telematics, which is a tracking technology that uses satellite signals to determine the position of a specific object anywhere on the face of the earth.

Vehicle Fleet Tracking Telematics combines the power of computers and computer systems with remote communications technologies (such as global positioning systems, wireless, cellular, etc.) to obtain information about remote vehicles.

For a fleet management supervisor, fleet tracking uses technology that enables the company to send and receive data (e.g. next job, location, hours worked etc.) between the vehicles in their fleet and their base that is relevant to the operations of their fleet. It's how they use the fleet tracking data to make their operations, more economical, efficient and productive.

Some of the features included with a fleet tracking system:

- Automatic vehicle location (AVL) - Using GPS tracking, vehicle location is determined for tracking, monitoring and exchanging information with vehicles in the field
- Automatic vehicle identification (AVI) - Truck identification and electronic payments and cargo reporting in restricted areas, toll booths, border crossings, etc.
- In-cab computing & communication systems - Paging & messaging services, multi-modal communications (satellite and cellular voice and data), Internet access, and portable mobile data terminals
- In-vehicle navigation systems (IVNS) - This may be GPS, proprietary satellites, or fixed reference stations
- Electronic reporting - Data downloads to business reporting programs for vehicle and driver documentation, regulations compliance to law enforcement officials, hours of service documentation, state highway usage reports, etc.
- Driver performance monitoring system - Tracks hours of service (HOS), highway use statistics by state, speed limit compliance, braking incidence, route compliance, etc.
- Stolen vehicle tracking and shutdown - Tracks location of vehicle and/or cargo/equipment, and in some instances, remotely shuts down vehicle.
- Remote diagnostics - Over-the-air remote reporting of the vehicle's operational data to ensure that maintenance schedules are kept and to warn of potential mechanical problems