Businesses today are very well accustomed to the increasing benefits that can be delivered through the considered and appropriate application of technology. These potential benefits extend into the application of GPS vehicle tracking systems to provide a basis for substantial increases in fleet dispatching efficiencies.

Of course GPS vehicle tracking is not a new capability. It has been used by ambitious company owners for years. The first adopters of vehicle tracking technology were quickly able to deliver their companys a competitive advantage.

Because it was able to deliver clear immediate benefits, GPS vehicle tracking has quickly gone mainstream. The technology is being employed by a wide variety of SMEs including plumbers, heating/HVAC, electrical and general contractors, trucking, landscaping services, construction companies to name but a few, as well as several other business sectors that utilise fleet vehicles.

Just one of the ways in which GPS fleet tracking is able to provide a tangible benefit is through improved dispatching. When dispatchers know the exact location of company vehicles, they can clearly dispatch the vehicle closest to any job site with a much greater degree of confidence. in addition to saving fuel and cutting the need for phone calls to drivers in the field, this improved efficiency will often also increase customer satisfaction through significantly improved responsiveness.

This goes hand in hand with routing efficiencies. By watching vehicles en route, dispatchers can monitor drivers to ensure that they take the most direct route to any job site.

In addition, many tracking solutions can show both present-time location and also a record of the route so far, so owners know where their drivers have travelled and where they are heading. By combining this location and time-based information, fleet owners can track the exact number of hours to apportion to customers as well as verify employee hours worked.

With historical data, GPS tracking can also provide a record of when an employee starts a vehicle, when he arrives or leaves a job site, and when the vehicle is shut off. Fleet owners can thus easily establish precisely how long each employee has worked at each site and how long they worked during the entire day.

Some GPS tracking systems can also be extended to incorporate time/billing information into back office applications to automate payroll. By eliminating manual time sheets, fleet owners save considerable time in back office productivity. In addition, automated payroll often translates into more accurate billing and fewer overtime hours.

Another major benefit of GPS vehicle tracking is the capability to record any unauthorised usage. This includes out-of-hours usage by employees, as well as protection from theft. If a vehicle is used during unauthorised times, business owners can be alerted. If a vehicle were to be stolen, then the vehicle tracking device will be able to giv ethe vehicle's precise location. This considerably improves retrieval times and reduces the amount of damage that a vehicle may experience if stolen.

To conclude, for businesses with vehicle fleets, the ability to track the fleet and make intelligent use of this data can lead to very substantial operational savings.