FleetTracker

Advanced Power Technologies has a very interesting story to tell. Here is a very enlightening interview with their fleet manager on how FleetMatics has helped the company in fuel costs, manpower and idling time. He also describes how they found a stolen truck which paid for the FleetMatics system all by itself!

Security is a measurable thing. It is not some fantasy of feeling safe. There are things you can do and  should do that as stated in an earlier blog help remove some of the risk of doing business and at the very least minimize it.  For example your computer network should have adequate protection, firewall, antivirus, antispam, antispyware to keep your system and data safe. There are many companies in this sector but I like Sunbelt Software a computer security firm based in Florida.

Protecting your fleet from theft and misuse is also important. This is where FleetMatics comes in to play. Through real-time reporting you always know where each vehicles is located, whether it is idling, delivering or picking up on time and you can optimize routes which leads to better fuel and manpower usage. This is an investment that pays for itself in short order. Check out the online demo!

According to a recent article: “There’s a simple equation when it comes to calculating insurance premiums: the better run a fleet, the lower the accident rate; the lower the accident rate, the lower the insurance premiums.”

So what do we mean by Risk Management? We are talking about the identification, assessment, and prioritization of your company’s, i.e., fleet’s risks and then minimizing, monitoring and/or controlling them through a coordinated effort. When it comes to a fleet risks are accidents, negligence in driving, wear and maintenance, etc.

FleetMatics has found the best way to minimize these risks. Companies using the FleetMatics GPS Vehicle Tracking Solution have improved control and efficiency over these risks. The system monitors vehicle usage, location, speed, idling, start up and shut down anytime/anywhere, 24/7. FleetMatics clients benefit from:

• Increased employee productivity
• Fewer overtime hours
• Reduced fuel costs
• Lower vehicle mileage
• Improved customer satisfaction

Why not give your company a competitive edge to not only get through the tough times but prosper as well. The FleetMatics solution can be put to work for you right away and you can see results in your bottom-line almost immediately.

FleetMatics announced today that the FleetMatics GPS Vehicle Tracking Solution will now include Google Maps API Premier™ in its software to give fleet owners unparalleled control in managing their vehicles off-site.

Google Maps™ functionality, including the ability to visualize real-time asset locations and deliver optimized routing and driving directions, will be seamlessly integrated with the Fleetmatics software, which delivers pertinent vehicle data such as such as speed, idle time and start/stop times. All current FleetMatics clients will be automatically upgraded to the FleetMatics GPS solution with Google Maps, which provides a complete real-time, location-based system for optimizing fleet management based on GPS tracking.

When looking for a mapping partner, we wanted to team up with a provider that offers the ease-of-use and speed our clients expect combined with accuracy and cutting-edge technology Google Maps API Premier enables us to exceed what our clients expect from FleetMatics GPS tracking.

With this new partnership, FleetMatics and Google will provide fleet owners with a faster, more accurate and more comprehensive mapping platform to make intelligent location-based decisions and maximize fleet efficiencies
“When looking for a mapping partner, we wanted to team up with a provider that offers the ease-of-use and speed our clients expect combined with accuracy and cutting-edge technology,” said Jim Travers, FleetMatics CEO. “Google Maps API Premier enables us to exceed what our clients expect from FleetMatics GPS tracking.”

With the addition of Google Maps API Premier, fleet owners now have the ability to more accurately track their fleet vehicles anytime, anywhere with in-depth traffic reporting, satellite views, hybrid satellite/street name views, terrain views, powerful zoom features and more.

“Since fitting FleetMatics to our fleet, we have made substantial savings in our fleet running costs. In our first year we saved $73,000. Now with the upgraded versatility of Google Mapping added to our system we have even greater clarity and control over what our drivers are doing in the field,” said Lynda Silvestro, owner of Hoyt Livery, one of New England’s prestigious limousine services.

The FleetMatics GPS vehicle tracking solution is designed to go beyond traditional fleet tracking. The fleet tracking system is designed with a unique combination of managerial features and enhancements that make this solution very versatile and effective for increasing productivity as well as lowering fleet costs.

“With this new partnership, FleetMatics and Google will provide fleet owners with a faster, more accurate and more comprehensive mapping platform to make intelligent location-based decisions and maximize fleet efficiencies,” said Daniel Chu, Director, Maps API Premier, Google Enterprise™.

Imagine a solution that not only improves efficiency and production but actually reduces your insurance costs.  You can put the FleetMatics GPS tracking system to work for you. This is an investment that pays back dividends.

For example our GPS fleet vehicle tracking saved McEnany Roofing about $300,000. FleetMatics GPS tracking provided a sure-fire, cost-effective way to manage their entire fleet via the Internet.

In addition to reduced costs and increased productivity, GPS vehicle tracking also helped McEnany Roofing decrease their insurance, which essentially paid for the GPS system by ten-fold.

InformationWeek: Google Maps Helps Track Truck Fleets

“The FleetMatics GPS Vehicle Tracking Solution lets businesses track their vehicles. And now it works with Google Maps API Premier. This allows businesses to include Google Maps that display the location of corporate vehicles on internal and partner Web sites. Such maps can also include vehicle speed, idle time, mileage, and start/stop times.”

The latest buzz word is sustainability. But what does that really mean. In a recent study more than half of the respondents (53%) defined sustainability as the need to balance financial, human and natural resources for the long-term benefit of business and communities. Sustainability or going green is more than just a buzz word. Your customers are buying it.

Harris Interactive’s recent poll showed that despite the economy, 73% of consumers said they still buy green. Sustainability is all about the environment, corporate social responsibility, ethical investment, fairness and community health and well-being as current trends in advertising.

As a fleet owner this directly affects you.You may not believe in various reports about the climate but the bottom line is that it concerns your customers and can government regulation be far behind the U.K.’s Carbon Reduction Commitment will be implemented in 2010. And 63 of the respondents to the AMA/FH study believe that new U.S. presidential administration policies will further accelerate the adoption of corporate sustainability programs.

Cleaning up your fleet and putting in best practices before regulations come into play is the most viable solution.

And your customers may think as Walmart does.  They are leading the way with its commitment to regulate sustainability down the supply chain. “A company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products. And cheating on the quality of products is the same as cheating on customers,” said CEO Lee Scott last year at a meeting in China with Walmart suppliers and Chinese government officials. Those are some very heavy words and how many more customers will start thinking the same way?

But more importantly, your going green could positively affect your bottom line. Installing FleetMatics GPS Tracking will empower your employees and increase productivity while cutting down costs.

Take a test drive today!

We sat down with FleetMatics Systems Training Manager James Slavet to pick his brain once again. This time James told us how easy it is to create users on the system.

“Customers often want to know what I recommend for setting up users on the system. There are two things that customers need to understand about users before they decided what to do. Number one is that any number of users can be signed in under one username at one time. This means customers do not need to set up usernames just because multiple people will be using the system. Usernames are created to give people with different permission levels different levels of access to the system.

Which brings us to the second thing customers should know about users: we can limit access to the system in three main ways. One way is simply what vehicles the person has the ability to see so that a customer with multiple locations can give store managers access to just their vehicles. The second way to limit access is by what users can edit/create/delete so a manager may have the ability to see everything but he can not create other users, edit vehicle names, or delete points of interest.

Finally we can limit the users access to different features on the system, every tab and every thing that drops down from that can be given or taken away at will. So the customer might want someone to have reports and live fleet, but no admin, or something of that nature.

With this in mind the customer can make a more informed decision about what users they would should create. I advise that everyone with one level of access should be on the same user. This means that if there are 3 branch managers of the same location they should all share one username rather than have 3 separate users. This makes the system simpler and more uniform for both the customer and the support team.

Thank You James!