|
GPS: More than Just Navigation for Business
By George
Bardissi, President Bardissi Enterprises
The innovation of
GPS has definitely become a hot topic item over the past 2
to 3 years. GPS otherwise known as Global Positioning System
has been around for several years starting around the early
to mid-90’s and has just recently within the last 4-5 years
become economical enough for the average consumer to
purchase as well as the businesses who deploy them in their
service vehicles or fleet vehicles.
For the consumer, just being able to
navigate from point A to point B is the main reason for
having a GPS unit. There are a plethora of manufacturers in
the market place who offer these products such as: TomTom,
Garmin, Magellan, and so on. For businesses, navigation is
an important task but not the only one. Yes, the driver of
the vehicle that utilizes a GPS will, no doubt, have the
advantage of being able to maneuver to the destination
faster and with more ease then by common road knowledge and
maps. However, the need to be able to track driver’s
movements has become a very big topic in businesses today.
What else can GPS systems really provide for
my business if not just for navigation? A lot more than you
think is the answer to that question. Let’s go over a few.
First, virtual map tracking of vehicles is step one. This is
the ability to see all of your vehicles, or the vehicles
that you wish to equip, on a map at any point in time. Some
of the long time providers of such a service require you to
have a software package that would be on your computer to
see the movement of your vehicles on screen. The newer more
advanced technology now allows an unlimited amount of users
the ability to log onto any computer with broadband internet
access on-line to see vehicle movement without installing
any software.
Second, once you are able to track your
vehicles, the next step is to be able to send messages to
your driver from your office to their GPS unit in their
truck. You and your driver can communicate through the unit
back and forth without having to pick up a telephone. This
becomes a very good feature especially if you have a lot of
drivers on the road because it enables you to communicate
faster and more efficient without having to put people on
hold due to multiple calls at the same time from multiple
drivers.
Third, is the ability to handle
case/service/order management through the on-line or
software base system and your drivers GPS unit. You can
utilize the GPS system to track service appointments or
pick-up/drop-off by sending the service tickets from the
office to each vehicle very easily and effectively. This
gives the driver the opportunity to have all the information
from each customer and already have their unit have
directions ready to go from one stop to the next without
having to manually enter address information. It will also
have the customers’ contact information including name,
address, and phone number if they should need it. The driver
will also have the ability to signal the office through the
GPS unit when they are in route to the client, at the client
doing the activity, and also when they have completed the
activity without having to pick up the phone all through the
GPS unit. Another nice feature is the ability for the GPS
tracking system online to notify the office if according to
the estimated time of arrival they will not be able to get
to the customers’ location within 5 minutes of the scheduled
time. This will give the customer service representative the
ability to contact the customer and let them know the drive
is running late.
Fourth, is mileage tracking and reporting?
Many companies are starting to feel the squeeze in the bank
account when it comes to fuel. The question always arises
whether the company driver is using their vehicle for
non-business use and claiming that it is travel when indeed
it’s not. The good thing about the GPS tracking that is even
if the person has turned off the vehicle unit continues to
transmit information. The online system continues to track
movement 24 hours a day which means that at any point in
time a manger or supervisor could run a report and see a
historical day by day report of where, when, and how long
vehicles have been in movement and how many miles they have
been using.
Fifth,
another very nice feature is alerting. For example, if
vehicles are not supposed to be moving during let’s say
night hours, you could set an alert to notify someone if a
vehicle left the home office during the night. The alerting
can be sent in the form of a text message, or page to a
supervisor or manager who can then handle the alert
accordingly. This becomes a nice piece when a vehicle gets
into an accident and acknowledges this on his unit so that
the home office will get an alert right on their screen
without having to pick up the phone. This also becomes a
nice feature if the vehicle is stolen you can use the GPS
tracking system to find out where that vehicle is and where
it has been since it moved until since you went to track it.
This becomes a nice feature also when you want to see what
route any vehicle took at any time through the day, week, or
month.
These were just some of the many features
the companies gain by investing in this type of technology.
The return on investment hits in many areas from
accountability to time efficiency to savings on fuel due to
reduced traveling from unnecessary routes due to drivers
being lost. The list could go on and on if I had enough
time. What would it take per vehicle to set this up? You
would need a GPS receiver for each vehicle as well as a GPS
unit if you want the driver to get turn by turn direction
and the ability to communicate with the office. Once these
two pieces are installed, the only thing left is a monthly
service payment you would need to allocate for each vehicle.
This fee could be anywhere from $15.00 -$50.00 per month
based on the type of system you are using and the feature
set you are looking for. My recommendation is that you do
some homework and find out what system out there really
addresses your needs the best and can help you make the most
of your time and your resources.
|
