Compare fleet tracking systems for your business

Fleet tracking is a complete solution that provides active monitoring of your fleet, drivers and all your rolling assets. Basically, it’s the same as a telematics system.

Fleet tracking solutions are designed to help fleet managers to boost their fleet productivity, cut costs such as fuel and maintenance costs, and improve fleet security.

A fleet tracking system consist of GPS tracking devices that not only transmit the location of your vehicles, but also collect a wide range of data from your vehicles to help you manage your business more efficiently. This data is cloud-based, which means you can access it any time, from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

Fleet tracking systems receive data from battery-wired GPS trackers installed on your vehicles.

Using SIM cards, these devices transmit data continuously to a cloud-hosted software platform, where fleet managers and business owners can check it from any internet-connected PC or mobile device.

The data transmitted includes the vehicle’s location by GPS, from which the software can calculate the vehicle’s speed. You can see the vehicle’s live location on a map, its past movements, start and stop times, as well as locations and times where the vehicle went over the speed limit.

An accelerometer installed with the fleet tracking device allows you to identify possible collisions and aggressive behaviour demonstrated by your drivers. You can tackle these issues and train your drivers to decrease risk of accidents, wear and tear and fuel waste.

There is no simple answer. Costs of fleet tracking solutions and systems depend on your needs and what features you want to add. Tracking systems can start from less than £10 a month for the most basic subscription and can go up to several hundred pounds for fleets with detailed or unusual tracking needs. Special offers can be available for fleets with a high number of vehicles.

Prices increase in proportion to the amount of hardware you have installed and the data volume you are collecting. Prices also vary depending on the quality of hardware you choose and the number of other services you opt for. For example, if you have vehicle cameras you will pay for them as well.

This is a high concern for business owners who want to know they can rely on the solution they choose.

The short answer is that it’s very difficult to disable a GPS tracker. Also, any loss of power can trigger an immediate automatic alert to the vehicle owner or business manager, advising that the vehicle tracker has been tampered with, which in most cases will be followed up immediately by a call to the police.

Besides the regular GPS tracker wired to the battery, many vehicles also have another anti-theft asset tracker with its own internal power supply. These can be hidden absolutely anywhere on or under the vehicle. They are used by national recovery teams who work with the police to track down stolen vehicles. Apart from the GPS signal they transmit two other types of signal as well, which even work underground.

There are many ways in which fleet tracking can help you optimise your business operations. You have real time access to your vehicles location, you can answer ETA questions immediately, you get notified instantly about any breakdown or accidents, you can monitor, spot and tackle inappropriate driving by your drivers, you can plan more efficient routes.

GPS fleet tracking is a real stress reliever. The reassurance it provides lets you focus your energy to where your business needs it most, lets you focus your time and energy elsewhere.

There are two types of devices you can get for your business, each with their pros and cons. It’s important to know the differences between them and make an informed choice.

Self-install trackers are the cheaper option. They are simple to install and are powered automatically, without driver involvement. However, they don’t provide driver performance reports. Being that easy to install, they’re also easy to remove. We wouldn’t recommend these for a fleet.

Hard-wired tracking devices are the better tracking option. They are installed by professionals, so they cannot be easily removed and tampered with. You get detailed reports based on which you can analyse the driving habits that cause wear and tear, waste fuel and increase the risk of accidents. Hard-wired trackers are slightly more expensive because they need to be installed by an engineer, but offer increased reliability and are the more appropriate choice for a fleet.