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By Greg Bartlett

Businesses are always trying to minimize expenses and maximize profits. They are continually conducting studies and brainstorming new ways to streamline their business to be the most efficient. Although these systems work for many different areas of the business world, one of the most beneficial areas is in the area of fleet tracking.

Business & GPS

Recently a company in the United Kingdom started monitoring all of their vehicles with GPS tracking systems, estimating a savings of $95,000 a year. Most of the money they saved by using this system was focused in two different areas. The company was keeping inaccurate records on both mileage and employee overtime, which greatly increased their expenses.

Midland Door specializes in installing and servicing commercial doors, gates, and shutters. In order to keep their 24-hour call system from backing up, the employees overestimate the amount of time that they will need to do a specific job. While this might sound good for scheduling purposes, it is a bad business practice. When this is combined with the fact that employees were running personal errands during business hours, the company was wasting a significant amount of cash.

Thanks to GPS tracking, every vehicle in the company’s fleet can be viewed on an electronic map. This allows the managers to keep track of each employee’s location at all times. The knowledge that their driving was being monitored with the GPS tracking device was enough motivation for the employees to save their personal errands for after business hours. This saved Midland Door a significant amount of money, but the GPS tracking systems also trimmed down the extra time that was built into every stop, allowing them to streamline their installation and delivery.

If this wasn’t a big enough advantage, the GPS tracking systems make several other beneficial changes. If one employee gets stuck in traffic or takes longer on a specific job, another employee can fill in for one of their installations. Also, GPS tracking makes it easier for companies to cut down on overlapping routes, which keeps employees in different areas of town so they spend a minimal amount of time on the road.

Although the combined saving of overtime and fuel expenses was well worth the purchase of the GPS tracking systems, these devices have benefited Midland Door in other ways. Whether they choose real time trackers or passive trackers, companies that start using GPS tracking systems will soon discover additional benefits of the systems.