Fleet managers must look after every excruciating detail related to organizing commercial vehicles over a large geographical area.
This includes maintenance of the trucks, best navigation paths for quick and reliable delivery, routing through the safest and fastest tracks, and collecting information regarding the weather and traffic.
Moreover, it makes the stakes much more complicated when the consignment must be delivered before a specific time or involves carrying perishable goods.
Maintaining the operational efficiency of the fleet is crucial, and one major factor that contributes to that is asset tracking.
What Is Asset Tracking?
The process of tracking and monitoring the moveable and fixed assets of the organization is known as asset tracking. It involves receiving updates on the location and status of your fleet.
Real-time tracking is important from the perspective of financial accounting, theft- avoidance measures, hours of service (hos), and operational efficiency.
As one can imagine, fleet managers must track their assets for timely deployment. Plus, corrective action can be taken after instantly analyzing the status, thereby effectively utilizing the fleet.
By using fleet management software, managers can simplify asset tracking and utilize the potential of technological advancement for real-time monitoring of vehicles.
Not only does the software provide useful asset data, but it also helps in building insights for better management of the fleet.
Advantages Of Asset Tracking
The asset tracking system provides the geographical and other essential details for the swift movement of the fleet. Here are the multiple benefits of using this system:
Improved Productivity
Fleet management involves making multiple changes in services, deliveries, and routes. But in the case of drivers, monitoring all the required changes can be very distracting.
With the help of a GPS-enabled asset tracking system, fleet managers can convey the message without making calls to the drivers.
The system logs the changes made during the delivery and navigation, thereby alerting drivers without distracting them.
The data captured by the tracking system can be used to address the changes required in equipment management and shortages, allocation of resources, and timely action in case of emergencies.
Improved Customer Service
A happy customer is a blessing to any business. By using advanced technology, fleet managers can ensure timely delivery of the products and get requests for more services.
Asset tracking can help drivers convey the exact time of delivery to the customers and avoid any unforeseen delays caused by bad weather or traffic jams.
Being on time is a tremendous advantage over your competitors and will help in generating more business and improving your revenues.
Theft Prevention Of Vehicles
Drivers realize that leaving the truck unattended has some real consequences. Despite being very careful, multiple cases of vehicle theft continue to crop up.
However, due to the lack of geographical data and exact information, it becomes difficult for the organization to recover, regardless of the nature of the crime.
On the plus side, the asset tracking system can keep the fleet managers updated about the real-time location of the vehicle, so any change in the route can be tracked easily.
In the case of longer halts and unprecedented delays in the delivery, the system sends the manager an alert, allowing them to keep a check on the movement of vehicles.
Tracking Mobile Assets Made Easy
Fleet managers have to be vigilant and keep track of location, trajectory, elevation, speed, and positional coordinates of moving assets.
A fleet management system is perfect for the real-time tracking of mobile assets. It provides information about terrain, geographical information, and weather-related data via sensors.
By using the tracking system, it becomes easier to check alternate routes and navigation paths to reach the desired location faster.
It gives managers a good opportunity to check for road closures, traffic jams, and unsuitable driving conditions. Thus, the trip can be pre-planned to prevent such obstacles and situations.
Another interesting aspect of tracking mobile assets is getting access to accurate data for analysis that can be utilized for better management and deployment of the resources.
The system can also be customized as per the fleet requirements – be it ensuring safe driving conditions for the drivers or planning fleet movement.
Simplifying The Process Of Tracking Fixed Assets
Managers and dispatchers can avail of the best fleet management software to track fixed assets as well.
Fixed asset tracking provides information related to hyper-local weather conditions crucial for mountain terrains like wind speed, prediction of heavy snowfall, or rains.
The fleet benefits a lot more from fixed asset tracking when the delivery of perishable and fragile materials is involved. The data enables managers to postpone trips in case of bad weather and protects drivers as well.
Sensory devices can be fixed to buildings, truck stops, parking facilities, and on the poles of remote areas through which the vehicles pass.
The same devices are used by the local service providers to check unfavorable weather conditions and post the road clearing crews at the right places.
Adaptable Tracking Systems
The tracking devices used with the system are flexible to be used for either a large and heavy fleet or a fleet of small loaders.
IoT tracking devices are the latest advancement for providing high-level assistance and the necessary technical tools to manage large fleet operations.
The alert systems embedded in the tracking devices can be customized as per the industry type and geographical locations.
The humongous data captured by the tracking devices can be fed into the system to create practical insights and increase the overall efficiency of the fleet.
These days, artificial intelligence systems provide a reliable model to understand the data and create efficient models of operation.
Conclusion
Fleet management software is expandable and customizable for large and small organizations. It is an effective tool to solve the challenges of asset tracking.
In a bid to prevent truck theft and harsh weather conditions, there is undoubtedly some serious demand for asset tracking systems in the fleet industry.
By gathering data from both mobile and fixed assets, managers can create a broad network for guiding drivers during deliveries and navigation. The tracking systems make the job of operating a fleet much easier.
