Fleet Tracking
Definition
Fleet tracking is the use of GPS devices in company vehicles to monitor location, speed, idle time, and driving behavior in real time.
What Fleet Tracking Means for Your Business
What it means
Fleet tracking puts a GPS unit in every truck and feeds that data back to the office. Managers see where every vehicle is, how fast it is going, how long it has been idling, and whether it made the stops it was supposed to.
Why it matters
Fleet tracking pays for itself through fuel savings, insurance discounts, theft recovery, and honest timesheets. It also powers GPS dispatch, route optimization, and accurate ETAs for customers.
How contractors use it
Shops install hardwired trackers in every truck and set geofences around the shop and customer sites. Daily reports flag excessive idling, speeding, and off-hours usage.
Real-World Example
An electrical contractor with 22 trucks cut fuel costs by $38,000 per year after installing fleet tracking and coaching drivers on idle time. The tracking system cost $7,000 annually.
Related Terms
GPS Dispatch
GPS dispatch uses real-time vehicle location data to assign the closest qualified technician to each new service call.
Route Optimization
Route optimization is the practice of sequencing a technician's daily stops to minimize total drive time and fuel cost.
Dispatch
Dispatch is the process of assigning field technicians to service calls and routing them to customer locations in the most efficient order.
Technician Utilization Rate
Technician utilization rate is the percentage of a tech's paid hours that are actually billed to customers as productive work.
Field Service Management
Field service management, or FSM, is the software category that coordinates dispatching, scheduling, invoicing, and mobile work orders for technicians in the field.
Put This Into Practice with Free Software
Kaldr Tech handles fleet tracking and everything else you need to run your shop. $0/month, 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction.