Tracking Small Vs Large Fleet: Top Things to Consider

When you hear the word ‘fleet management,’ what do you remember? Your mind traces a vision of entire yards full of trucks and taxis, right? There is nothing wrong in that. Still, there are many small businesses that handle a handful of vehicles every day. So, how do you manage the fleet of these businesses?

Small Vs Large Fleet

As you all know, a fleet consists of a number of trucks and other vehicles that are operated every day to improve the business performance. When it comes to the size of the fleet, there is no pre-determined threshold value, to be considered as small, large, or medium. But a fleet can be labelled as a small fleet, if it has 50 vehicles or less. Any number more than this will be considered as medium and a fleet with hundreds and thousands of vehicles will be considered as a large fleet.

No matter what’s the size of your fleet, fleet management is a difficult job! As a fleet manager, it’s your ultimate goal to reduce costs, reduce liabilities, and increase the safe and effectiveness of your fleet. If your business has a large or small fleet, having a vehicle fleet management strategy is a solid foundation to create a professional fleet.

GPS and Small Fleet Tracking

There is a common belief that GPS tracking is only for large fleet. If you are one among them, then you are absolutely wrong! When choosing a GPS technology for small fleet tracking, there are a number of things to consider.

Challenged Faced by Small Fleet Tracking

A small fleet has only a few vehicles to keep an eye on, but that doesn’t mean managing a small fleet is less challenging and less time-consuming. According to a recent research report, small fleet face may of the challenges experienced by a large fleet. Here we’ve listed a few among them.

• One of the greatest challenges of small fleet tracking is the expense of maintaining vehicles and drivers. It’s difficult for small 2. businesses to ensure they are getting a good return on investment.
• Retaining drivers is another notable challenge faced by small fleets.
• Other challenges include increased idling time, missing fleets, slow delivery, and more.

Things to Consider for Small Fleet Tracking

As mentioned earlier, when it comes to small fleet tracking, there are a few things to consider. Not all fleet tracking solutions are equal, and you do not want to end up choosing one that’s much larger and powerful than what you need. Well, here we’ve listed a few things that every small fleet owner must consider for small fleet tracking.

The Type of the Business

The type of your business really matters when it comes to choosing the right solution for your small business tracking. Identifying the nature of your company is essential to choose a GPS tracking system with the right features and capabilities that are crucial for small fleet tracking.

Preventative Maintenance

Repairs and downtime are the greatest hurdles of any small business as they cost your business and slow down the growth. But, incorporating the right preventative maintenance schedule minimizes the occurrence of any major issues, and ensures your compliant for any vehicle inspections. Today, GPS trackers used for small fleet tracking are equipped with maintenance alert alarms, which sends you alert messages about the scheduled maintenance. This prevents you from missing out any preventative maintenance service and improves the efficiency and functionality of your fleet.

Good Driving Behavior

According to some research data, one of the biggest downsides of a small business with a fleet is increase idling time. This driving behavior affects the cost, liabilities, reputation, and more. Encouraging good driving is important because efficient drivers use less fuel and get in fewer accidents. The GPS technology used for small fleet tracking has features that monitor the idle time, diagnostics, driver behavior, and much more.

Geofencing

Geofencing helps small businesses to create a virtual perimeter around a location they serve. When you are using GPS devices that are equipped with geofencing features, you’ll receive alerts any time an asset enters or leaves the perimeter. You can also identify whether your asset is in operation after hours, and this reduces theft of your assets. This will also help you to track idle time, which is typically something managers like to reduce across fleets.

Some of the other features that the latest GPS tracking systems for small fleet tracking indicate includes,

• Fuel consumption
• Idle time
• Hours of service
• Engine diagnostics
• Asset tracking
• Regulation compliance
• Maintenance scheduling and alerts
• Fuel card integration
• Utilization
• Route optimization

Wrapping Up

Small business owners often think that getting a GPS tracking system for small fleet tracking is too expensive. But, the usage of an effective GPS tracking system to monitor fleets improves the ROI of a small business by 25%, which is larger than the return on investment from other solutions. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us now to find the best GPS tracking solution for your small business fleet management.