Monday, June 15, 2009

GPS Fleet Tracking Helps Firms Weather the Tough Economy

Below is an excerpt from the Aberdeen Group in the UK - but it applies here in the US:

Yet another research report confirms that in this tough economy, GPS fleet tracking is helping companies maintain customer-satisfaction levels, optimize vehicle usage and control service-related costs.

The recently released report titled “”Service Workforce and Fleet Management: Driving Utilization with Location Intelligence,” published by the Aberdeen Group, found that major firms are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to “increase visibility into all service resources via GPS.”

Fleet operators who responded to the study report that they currently monitor and track the location of 35% of their workers and 47% of their vehicles. That’s up from averages of 23% for workers and 35% for vehicles in 2008. The respondents also indicated they planned further investments in GPS tracking systems in 2010.

“These results are indicative of the value offered by GPS-enabled tracking, navigation and routing solutions in meeting cost containment and customer management pressures faced by today’s service and manufacturing organizations,” an Aberdeen senior research analyst said.

The survey said responding firms have seen the following average improvements in key service performance indicators since they installed a GPS tracking system:

•25% reduction in idle times
•32% increase in fleet utilization
•22% decrease in fuel costs and a 31% drop in daily mileage
•23% boost in workforce productivity
According to the survey, responding firms are “significantly more likely than all others to actively integrate captured location information and intelligence into their field service scheduling and parts management systems to drive overall service delivery efficiency.”

The recent surge in similar reports confirms for us what we’ve known all along: There’s no better solution than GPS fleet tracking to help fleet operators rein in costs and improve employee productivity.

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