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Photo: Getty\/Creative-Touch<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n Over the past decade, telematics technology has increasingly become a crucial tool in the fleet toolbox. It has provided transparency into every aspect of fleet operations from vehicle health to driver behavior, driving efficiency, and bottom-line savings.<\/p>\n While a fleet and its company may be hard pressed to come up for a reason not<\/em> to implement a GPS tracking solution, the decision to add this game-changing technology shouldn\u2019t be taken lightly or rushed. Following are the four steps that you can take today to lay a foundation for a successful telematics implementation.<\/p>\n Even with about 45% of U.S. fleets using a telematics solution, according to Deloitte research, this doesn\u2019t mean that your organization must jump on the technological bandwagon.<\/p>\n Work with company stakeholders and decision makers to determine if the challenges facing your organization warrant implementing a telematics solution. With its extensive functionality from routing to vehicle health diagnosis to the ability to remotely manage field personnel, it is likely telematics will be a fit to help you address your fleet and even your organization\u2019s most pressing operational pain points.<\/p>\n During this initial step, however, it\u2019s important to prioritize the problems you want to solve. This will help you zero in on how you will address them. For example, if you want to cut fuel expense, it may be through a combination of idle reduction and monitoring driving behaviors running in parallel with rigorously enforced policies and comprehensive training. Remember, telematics is not a panacea. It is simply one of many tools available to fleet managers, and should be used in concert with every technique and technology appropriate to meet a challenge head on and solve it.<\/p>\n Knowing what challenges you need to address will help narrow down the field of providers to those that are the best fit for your organization.<\/p>\n When you begin your research, the first thing you\u2019ll learn is that there are many providers on the market today. This is why it is crucial to both identify your challenges and take time to evaluate telematics providers. Not every telematics provider is created equal, and not every provider will be the right partner to help you solve your problem.<\/p>\n Beyond having a technological compatibility, it\u2019s important to choose a partner whose business principles align with your vision. Fundamentally, your goal should be to choose a partner with an established reputation and proven ability to provide consistent coverage, innovative solutions, and an ability to grow with you as the needs of your organization evolve and new technologies are made available.<\/p>\n While it might be tempting to make your choice based on price alone, it can be risky to settle on a low-cost fleet tracking system that could result in the need to switch providers, replace solutions, and re-start a lengthy (and expensive) implementation process. An established provider may cost more initially, but the investment is sure to pay off through benefits, including reliable and ongoing customer training and support, a progressive mindset that inspires innovation, the ability to offer the latest solutions, and a proven track record that gives you peace of mind. Read more about Choosing a GPS Tracking System<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before making a final decision, ask the provider to either perform a comprehensive demonstration for you, your team, company stakeholders, and drivers to determine if the solution will:<\/p>\n If possible, you may want to consider doing a pilot your top two or three provider finalists using a small, randomly selected, but statistically significant number of your vehicles. The pilot should be designed specifically to address one or two of the specific challenges your fleet is facing, e.g., idling or harsh acceleration, during a period that\u2019s long enough to get relevant data.<\/p>\n Review the results of the pilot to identify if the solution addressed your specific challenges, if it identified any other areas of inefficiency, and how well the provider supported the product, your drivers, and back-office staff.<\/p>\n During this period, you should also ask the provider for customer references who will honestly discuss their experience with the solution and the provider. You should also read online reviews and check with the better business bureau for any complaints against the provider.<\/p>\n Doing your due diligence before implementation is crucial for long-term success.<\/p>\n Meeting the challenge of today is important, but you have to anticipate the needs of tomorrow. This is why it is crucial to plan for the future, including:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to make sure that your finalist providers can scale up with you. Do they have the same resources (or more) as your company to meet the demands of growth? Can they put you in touch with customers that have scaled up their operations? What were the challenges that company faced during this process and did the provider meet these needs?<\/p>\n From a business relationship perspective, does your provider have a future and in it for the long haul? This is an important question to answer, since it gets to the heart of the whether the telematics provider is the right fit for your operation. If you get a sense that the provider is simply trying to \u201cmove\u201d product without supporting it and, more importantly, viewing its business relationships as anything more than transactional, you should probably look elsewhere for a solution.<\/p>\n A provider who is invested in its fleet customers for the long run will create a win-win environment for both provider and customer.<\/p>\n While you shouldn\u2019t rush into implementing a telematics solution, at the same time the days of \u201cwait and see\u201d are over. If you decide to delay, your competition likely won\u2019t leveraging the real-time alerts, customized reporting, electronic record-keeping, automated scheduling and dispatch, route optimization, and other features that make telematics crucial for fleet operations and its company\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n Start with free quotes from top suppliers of GPS tracking systems at businessfleet.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: https:\/\/www.automotive-fleet.com<\/a><\/p>\n Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n With the information obtained, we\u2019ll elaborate a report that holds the overall status of the fleet management as well as the suggestions, recommendations and the measures to take in order to cut costs and optimize the fleet management activities.<\/p>\n CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE PROPOSED FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT:<\/p>\n Contact:<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Miguel Fern\u00e1ndez G\u00f3mez<\/p>\n 34 678254874<\/p>\n info@advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com<\/p>\n4 Steps to Take Before Implementing Telematics<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n#1 Identify Your Needs<\/h3>\n
#2 Research Providers<\/h3>\n
#3 Take the Solution for a Test Drive<\/h3>\n
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#4 Plan for the Future<\/h3>\n
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Get Going and Keep Going<\/h3>\n
FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n
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Fleet Management Audit AFMC<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n
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