With benefits like lower fuel costs, GPS location tracking, alerts for preventative maintenance, and even insurance discounts, why wouldn’t a company consider adopting fleet-management technology? Cost? Fear of Big Brother? When it comes to connecting fleets, it’s hard to deny the benefits of this M2M (machine-to-machine)-enabled technology, which are first and foremost focused on the data.
From construction to pizza delivery, there are all kinds of industries that can benefit from gathering realtime tracking and telematics information from their fleets. By equipping vehicles with connected devices capable of capturing and transmitting mission-critical data, companies can better protect assets and reduce costs related to fuel consumption and fleet maintenance.
A new tracking device from TomTom, www.tomtom.com, is one of the latest fleet-management solutions on the market. By providing information on a vehicle’s position and movements, companies have more visibility into the efficiencies of the driver, the vehicle, and its routes.
TomTom’s new device, the LINK 510, reports fuel consumption, over-revving, and fuel levels, which is especially important considering today’s rising gas prices. The company says the device works alongside TomTom’s online fleet-management system, WEBFLEET, to break down vehicle utilization and driver behavior—including speed, harsh steering, braking, and idling.
Another company, GPSTrackit.com, www.gpstrackit.com, also has a new fleet-management solution. The Locator 2000 is a GPS-enabled trailer-tracking unit that provides updates on vehicle location, along with other actionable alerts such as low battery. The device is designed to be compact, reliable, and weather resistant for enterprise applications.
By adding visibility into fleets via connected technologies, companies may even be setting themselves up for an insurance-rate reduction, which can add to the bottomline each and every month. These types of benefits factor into figures like Berg Insight’s, www.berginsight.com, prediction that there will be 3.8 million commercial-fleet-management systems in place by 2015—a 29.5% market-penetration rate.
Tracking and telematics are two themes that will be taken on this summer at the 2012 Connected World Conference, which will be held June 11-13 in St. Charles, Ill., just outside of Chicago. GPS tracking is being used not only in business, but in the consumer realm as well, and there are plenty of controversies surrounding the technology.
Register today to secure a pass to the event. |
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