GPS tracking systems are becoming increasingly popular with businesses and consumers looking to protect their assets. For businesses, investment in a GPS system is highly recommended to avoid costly losses and theft incidents.

Here are eight must-have features of an effective GPS tracking system:

1. Advanced Analytics and Reports

Effective GPS systems provide real-time insights into fleet operations in order for businesses to make informed decisions. To be able to do this, the GPS system must have advanced analytics and reports that can be accessed at any time. The dashboard should provide a bird’s eye view of your fleet, which will allow you to make quick decisions in case something happens. For example, if one vehicle is speeding or traveling off course, the system’s dashboard will highlight this, and you’ll be able to quickly take action.

2. Vehicle Tracking History

A good GPS tracking system should provide a comprehensive history of a vehicle’s whereabouts. The report should allow you to see where the vehicle has been in the last few hours, days, or weeks, depending on how frequently you want the report to be generated. This will allow you to easily determine whether or not a particular vehicle has been in breach of its route, speeding excessively, or making unauthorised trips outside of work hours.

3. Customisable Alerts

Customisable alerts for fleet management are always at the top of the list of must-have vehicle monitoring system features. Receiving real-time alerts about driving behaviour or vehicle diagnostics can help reduce driving risk and improve fleet efficiency, both of which benefit the bottom line.

Real-time tracking notifications about wasted fuel due to bad driving habits or long idle hours, for example, may also give insight to areas for development. These changes will further increase fleet savings by enabling fuel cost reduction by 5-10%.

4. Driver Behaviour Monitoring

Failure to keep track of your drivers’ actions might be harmful to your company’s bottom line. Your drivers may slack off or engage in unproductive activities if they are not monitored.

However, all of these issues can be prevented with the use of a good vehicle tracking app. A good fleet monitoring system will provide you with information on a variety of driving patterns, keeping you aware of dangerous or unproductive driving behaviour, and enabling you to take action on driving improvement.

5. Integrated Dashboard Camera

Having recorded evidence of vehicle trips will offer a lot of information about the journey as well as provide an important record in the case of an accident or other issue. It can help settle costly legal issues if they arise since each record is time-stamped with accuracy. High-definition video recordings, when combined with modern analytics, also provide excellent training tools for educating drivers on poor driving behaviour such as tailgating, speeding, distracted driving and sharp acceleration.

As Integrated dashboard cameras allow fast access to real-time video records of aggressive driving situations, fleet managers can review data via a combination of instant alerts and driver score ratings.

6. Vehicle Maintenance Scheduling

Your operation’s lifeblood is its vehicles, therefore keeping them functioning will always be a top priority. You can keep track of your vehicles and assets using vehicle tracking systems that can check their health.

This feature entails detecting new maintenance issues, dealing with them as soon as possible, and ensuring that preventative maintenance is planned and done on time. If one or more vehicles are out of operation for an extended length of time, it may have a significant negative impact on your business. Using a vehicle tracking system will help you track fleet maintenance easily without fear of missing out on any one vehicle amidst an increasing fleet size.

7. Route Optimisation and Scheduling

Today’s vehicle monitoring solutions save businesses time and money by eliminating the hassles and potential mishaps that come with manually scheduling drivers’ routes. Prior to integrating vehicle monitoring technology, most companies have difficulties with overlapping routes, drivers driving too far, or not dispatching the next vehicle to the next job. There may also be a lot of time wasted chatting with drivers over the phone about their next stop or route updates.

Using a vehicle tracking system, fleet managers can view where drivers are heading and the route they will use at the start of each day. They can also plan the most cost-effective routes while taking into account factors such as customer requests or special delivery requirements.

8. Trip History

A useful feature that any good vehicle tracking system should have is trip history. You can track all of your vehicle’s trips using this feature, which allows you to see whether your driver has been making unauthorised trips or straying from the optimum routes for personal reasons.

The trip history feature displays information such as the vehicle’s distance travelled, acceleration, idling, and stoppages. You’ll be able to save money on fuel by planning more optimised trips while also keep track of your drivers’ activities using this information.

Conclusion

These top eight features are simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what a GPS tracking system can achieve. Other factors to consider are how user-friendly the software is, if the system has a mobile app, and also the advantages of its geofence features. Integration with third-party business software is also important for operational efficiency.

The important thing to remember is that the features you’ll need from such a system are totally dependent on the business issues you’re trying to solve. So, if you find that your fleet can benefit in a certain area from any of the above-mentioned features, try looking into a good vehicle tracking system which can fit your needs.

V3 Smart Technologies has been developing GPS tracking solutions for fleet operators worldwide for many years. Let us know how we may be able to help you.