Fleet Tracking: The Commercial Application of GPS Tracking

As we have mentioned time and time again on this site, GPS tracking has a ton of different applications in a variety of different solutions.  It works great for lots of consumer focused tracking applications – the person who wants to track a spouse to see if they are cheating, the father who wants to track their teen to see how they drive, or the parent who wants to track their child to keep them safe from predators and other safety threats.  But up until now we have steered away from one of the most prolific and widely accepted use of GPS based tracking in the world – fleet tracking.

How Fleet Tracking Works

GPS fleet tracking works off all the same basic principles that have been discussed all across the this blog. It all begins with some satellites that are currently orbiting the earth broadcasting this signal that can be picked up by specialized receivers. These receivers than give that information to a small computer which does some math called trilateration that calculates the exact position of the receiver when it received the signals. This information is then sent to another part of a GPS tracking device where it is then transmitted wirelessly across the great expanses of space and time until it appears on a server somewhere.

On this server somewhere the position information is then ran through some fleet tracking software which makes the information palatable to a business owner or dispatch operator. This individual then uses this information to better run the business, route drivers effectively, monitor worker activity, or schedule necessary maintenance on vehicles. It is all rather simply yet amazingly complex. The process is simple and clearly defined, and yet the theory and technology behind the process is shrouded in mystery and even has the allure of a magic-like quality to it. For many people, GPS tracking just is and there is no need to explain it.

Fleet Tracking Software

But this is a good tie into talking a little bit about the nerve center of any good flee tracking system – the software package. Most GPS tracking devices are going to do a great job of calculating their position information and then sending it to a server somewhere for it to be processed. If you think about this information, which is usually just simple information like position coordinates, speed, and direction, it is not going to be very useful to a business person trying to make real time decisions that will benefit their company right now.

Sure, it would be good to know that your truck has just made a delivery to coordinates 30.299691,-97.951401 and that they are now heading south by southwest at 25 mph – but how is that going to help anyone get this truck to its next stop? It isn’t. A dispatcher would have to go to a mapping software like GoogleMaps and enter the information gather by the fleet GPS tracking device manually to find that they are on Hacienda Ridge in Austin, Texas. This is doable, but it will take a lot of time to find the closet truck to a new service call if you have a fleet of 3 or more vehicle.

This is where fleet tracking software comes in. All the things that you might want to do by hand with all the information you gather from your real time tracking device can be done automatically and displayed to you on the fly when using fleet tracking software. Want to get a birds eye view of all the vehicles in your fleet at any point in time? Want to know if any of your drivers have left their area of operation for any reason? Want to see if one of your vehicles has been idling for more than 30 seconds? This is the type of information that commercial grade GPS fleet tracking devices and fleet tracking software can provide you.

Heck, there is even a very decent free fleet tracking software package called OpenGTS. It is featured on our list of free GPS tracking software suites. It is open source and complete free to use. You do have to jump over some technical hurdles if you are not already familiar with setting this type of thing up, but for some companies this can be well worth the extra effort.

Using a GPS Fleet Tracking System Effectively

Now that we all know the low down on how fleet tracking works from a technical standpoint we should probably try and figure out how we can leverage this technology to make businesses better. If you are a business owner you are already having ideas pop into your head about how a GPS fleet tracking system can make your business more efficient, make more service calls, and end up making you a lot more money. And this is exactly the outcome that many small business owners experience when they install fleet tracking systems in your fleet. According to an Aberdeen group study, small fleets (1-10 vehicles) saw an completed work orders increase by 25% after two years of using a tracking system.

Here are a few things that a business owner can do to make the most out of their tracking devices:

  • Use it to identify wasteful employees – cutting off the fat from your operation or turning the fat into lean muscles through some disciplinary action will help you get more bang for your salary buck
  • Use it to more efficiently route drivers to new service calls – getting the closest driver to the service call will save the company two invaluable assets: time and fuel.
  • Use it to incentivize performance – getting workers to work harder by rewarding hard work is a great way to increase the overall effectiveness of an operation

And those are just a few of the ways that a fleet vehicle tracking system could be used to benefit a business. There are more too.

Isn’t This Crazy?

It is clear that GPS fleet tracking is a very effective way for businesses to streamline their operations, cut costs, and improve overall worker output. Finding a good fleet tracking solution is as simple as going to the internet and finding one of the many different service providers that have fleet tracking components in their arsenal of products. It might take some time to research the best service providers and best prices, but that is the type of investment that you need to make if you want to take your business to the next level with a fleet tracking system.

Picking Your GPS Vehicle Tracking System

Like with most other forms of GPS tracking, when it comes to vehicle tracking using GPS there are two main types: real-time tracking and passive, logging tracking.  Depending on why you want to track a certain vehicle will determine which method of tracking you employ.  However, it is important to note that GPS vehicle tracking is more viable today than it has ever been in the history of GPS or vehicle tracking so there are going to be a lot of different options for the person serious about finding an option that works best for them.

There is also going to be a distinction between those who want to track a vehicle with GPS for personal use and those that want to employ vehicle tracking for a business.  The equipment and the systems used will differ in quality and design, but not necessarily in how they work – they will be using GPS tracking technology to find, record, and report the location of a vehicle to someone.  As we will see, it is how these devices do this that matters.

Real Time GPS Vehicle Tracking

When most people think about GPS based vehicle tracking they think of tracking that occurs in real time.  If a vehicle is at 101 North Main Street then a person is going to want to be able to look at a computer running some GPS tracking software and be able to tell that.  If the vehicle then turns left down Michigan Street they want to be able to tell that this has occurred within a reasonable amount of time – say 5 seconds.  This is the power of real time GPS tracking.

But there are several things that you have to realize if you are going to choose this type of GPS vehicle tracking system:

  1. Tracking devices that offer updates in real time are often anything but cheap.  It can run you hundreds of dollars just for the hardware that gets the tracking off the ground.  On top of the hardware purchase there is going to be a service fee of some amount depending on the company that you choose to service your GPS tracking plan.  Different companies will work with different hardware and some companies will charge you more than others for access to your real-time tracking information.  Most companies are going to make your tracking data available through a GoogleMaps-like interface, so it should come down to who is going to offer you the best price for the services that you really need.
  2. Not all GPS tracking devices are created equal.  The more modern the device the more likely it is going to have the latest technology in terms of GPS receptiveness and communication technology.  For example, the newer SiRFstarIII chipset is widely accepted as being superior to other previous GPS chips.  It acquires a signal much faster and can even get a GPS signal where many other older GPS chipsets cannot.  You are also going to want to make sure that your GPS has access to GPRS, a system that will allow your GPS tracking device to transmit the data it gathers on the vehicle to the software that will display it for you on your computer screen.
  3. In addition to the paid services you can get some GPS tracking for free.  Probably the best vehicle trackers are cell phones, especially since there are tons of free GPS tracking applications for them.  While you won’t get a lot out of this type of free service, if you put some thought and work into you can use a free tracking program to do all sorts of cool stuff.  It normally doesn’t scale too well, so this type of tracking is only really going to work for an individual, a family, or a small business that want to track their vehicles with GPS.

Most people who choose to use real time GPS vehicle tracking fall into one of two categories, they want to use it for GPS fleet tracking or they want to track a single person.  The reasons that business would choose to track their vehicles with GPS are obvious.  Most small businesses that employ some form of GPS tracking generally see an increase in the number of services orders that their fleet fulfills in just two years time.  The average increase they see is around 25%, making GPS tracking a very useful tool in the chest of a business owner.

If used appropriately, real time fleet tracking can improve worker productivity, create a positive work environment, improve vehicle routing, streamline fleet maintenance, and encourage efficient work habits.  This can be a win-win for employees and employers alike if deployed with tact.

Then there is using real time GPS tracking for personal use.  Here is a list of some of the reasons that a person may choose to use a personal GPS vehicle tracking system:

  • Track a teen with GPS while they drive.
  • Catch a cheating spouse in the act.
  • Know when a spouse with an erratic schedule is on their way home.
  • Keep connected with family members while on a long road trip.

This list is by no means exhaustive and is simply supposed to be a small indication of the different things that a person can do with this type of technology.  The possibilities are really limited by our imagination and ingenuity.

GPS Vehicle Tracking Loggers

Data loggers are a completely different beast.  While they do work off the same basic GPS principles that real time trackers work off of, they do not have the all important real time capabilities that GPRS gives a real time tracker.  Loggers are mostly used in covert GPS vehicle tracking done by police or by private parties to help them get a better understanding of a person’s activities.  For example, there was a GPS vehicle tracking logger at the center of the warantless GPS tracking case.  This device was used by police, who had a warrant by the way, to track down the activity of a suspected stalker.  They installed it on his car and waited about two weeks.  The evidence was then downloaded on the police computers where they were able to place the suspect at the scene of a stalking incident that happened during the time when the GPS tracking was active.

The GPS vehicle tracking equipment used in this type of tracking is often much cheaper than other their real time tracking counterparts.  You can generally get one of these devices for under $200 and they can provide location information for months since they track vehicles passively.  Also, you won’t have to worry about an expensive service fee because these devices have no such fee.  They don’t use GPRS nor do they need to communicate with a third party.  All GPS tracking software is going to be installed locally on one of your own computers so no one else has to know about the data that you gather.

Also, data loggers (like GPS tracking sticks) generally have a much longer active battery life than do real time GPS trackers.  This is because transmitting data via GPRS can be very taxing on a units power supply.  Without constant power it can be difficult to get real time information on a target that you want to track in secret and going back to the scene of the tracker could lead to having it found out by the person you want to track covertly.

This makes it great for covert GPS tracking or for tracking a person in secret.  While real time tracking is certainly going to be more useful if you want to take action on data while something is actually happening, data logging can be just as useful for vehicle tracking.

Which GPS Tracking Solution Best Meets Your Needs?

When you come to the final analysis you will have to weigh your budget constraints with your tracking wishes.  I don’t think that there are many people who would prefer a data logger over a real time tracker, but money is a serious limitation for some people and they simply cannot afford the cost associated with live tracking capabilities.  No matter which option you go with you can be certain that there is a GPS vehicle tracking device out there for you, your needs, and your budget.