As a fleet manager, where do you look if you need to know the fine details of a missed delivery, or an example of supreme efficiency? Your trip tracking solution of course.
One of the main benefits often overlooked in having a vehicle management device and/or app is that you can always drill down into your fleet’s trip/route data; and see any any given time the where, the what, the distance, and the how long.
Trip tracking may seem like one of the most basic features, when you compare it with other things such as fuel and battery tracking. But it really helps you keep a closer eye on your fleet. And understand where you are going wrong or right.
Trip tracking: all your details on the table
Yes, many vehicle management solutions out there come with much more bells and whistles than trip tracking. But you have to ask yourself: what’s the feature you need most and is that feature easy to use? And does it give you the at-a-glance data you need to streamline your fleet’s efficiency? Our bet is that the answer will be trip tracking.
One of the main reasons we created Veturilo, for example, was to ensure that fleet managers can keep a closer eye on all trip details. This is the starting point. Moreover, the point is to have all of your vehicles’ trips with all the important, relevant information there to be able to refer to it whenever you need it.
For each one of your trips you will get valuable insights from both driver and vehicle on things such as drivers’ behavior. This information is critical for you to make any evaluation – and also for your business’ benefit in general. In addition you’ll also know valuable details about your vehicles’ condition. Like these:
- What was the total fuel consumption during any given trip?
- What was the total idling time in minutes during a specific trip? This way you’ll know exactly what happens to your vehicles when they are away. For example, if the majority of your vehicles have frequent stops for products/services deliveries, you’ll know whether your drivers were responsible enough to turn off the vehicle engine; reducing noise, fuel consumption and pollution.
- Dangerous driving. How dangerously did my driver behave during this trip? And more particularly, what was the max speed throughout this trip?
Were there any actions which made for unsafe and were harmful for your vehicle?
Number of:
- fast accelerations during each trip
- sharp turns
- hard brakings
- high RPM
All of the the above is marked out in terms of trip tracking on your route on the map. So, you’ll have a greater chance of knowing whether it was actually a matter of choice for your driver, or if there is an issue on that specific part of the road. In other words, he/she was driving a bit abnormally, or there is actually an issue with how the road is structured there, etc.
Keeping it professional and/or personal
As a fleet manager, trip tracking comes in particularly useful when you want to separate business with pleasure. Or in other words, the professional usage and personal usage trips.
Many fleets these days include options for drivers to keep the vehicle for personal use. So, this is important when you are trying to work out expense claims, etc. For example, in case you allow the use your vehicles for personal purposes, you can refer to the logged trips and check for location and route info; whenever you need that type of information. Very useful for a grey fleets. That is, vehicles owned by your employees and you have an agreement with them for that purpose.
Best of the rest
In which other areas does trip tracking help you keep a closer eye on things. Here are the best of the rest:
- Total miles and duration. You’ll be able to see the whole route on the map. For example, did my driver choose my suggested route (based on the directions/instructions given) or not? Or is there an alternative route I wasn’t aware of that I should prompt my other drivers to use as it saved time and we managed to serve our customers better?
- Exact departure and arrival time. Especially useful for repeated routes to regular customers. You can see that straight from your phone and will know exactly at what time you’ll need to get to the office, to synchronize your drivers (i.e. one is arriving and another one has to go); or if you need to go to there earlier to unlock a garage or for some other reason.
Trip tracking benefits reign supreme
As you can see there are so many ways in which trip tracking can help you keep a closer eye on your fleet. And the benefits, as we’ve explored, are multiple. The most important benefit, however, is in the bigger picture – i.e. how it will change your daily tasks. Here we sum up the main benefits that proper use of trip tracking can bring:
- Fleet maintenance
- Business management
- Drivers’ assessments/evaluations
- Costs in general: fuel consumption, idling, traffic violations & penalties
- For your business log in general for safety/security reasons
There are probably a few more that we have missed. So, if you can think of any examples that have helped your business, get in touch and tell us about it. And keep on trip tracking!