I’ve talked to more fleet managers and company owners than I can count. Though fuel costs are a big issue for all, fleet labor costs have been a bigger issue than I had originally imagined. GPS vehicle tracking of company trucks and vans allows these company owners and managers to virtually eliminate costs from unauthorized employee activities. GPS truck tracking allows employers to know where their people are, when they arrive at their destination, and when they leave.

Let’s consider a few examples:

One of my favorite customers (she has a local bakery, can you blame me?) owns a catering company. For a long time, she has suspected that one of her delivery truck drivers was wasting time and burning more fuel than was reasonable. So, she added a GPS tracking device to her truck.

The first day after getting her GPS vehicle tracking device installed, she was able to monitor her driver stopping at home for 30 minutes while on delivery run. Imagine if that happens every day in a 5 day week. That’s 2.5 hours per week. If that driver makes just $10 per hour and you expect 50 weeks of work, that means that employee could cost $1,250 annually. So, once the problem was corrected, her investment in her truck tracking system was recouped in about 5-6 months. Figure in fuel savings on top of that, and the ROI is complete in about 2-3 months.

Another customer was having issues with one truck driver that had a fuel bill that was 4 times the cost of the other trucks in the fleet. The driver’s actions were costing the company as much or more than $11,000 each year. In this case, truck monitoring system paid for itself in the first month. The same GPS tracking solution ensured that the time-sheets from this employee and the others are now correct. (ok – this is a fuel issue, but it was incredibly crazy).

An HVAC company I talked to was having issues with employees reporting time incorrectly. GPS truck tracking and monitoring allows the owner to know when the employees are done with their day. He suspected that he was losing at least 2 hours a week for each employee. At a rate of $35/hour, that works out to $3,500 per year per tracked vehicle. Being able to verify the time the employees leave allows for a savings that recoups the vehicle tracking costs for a year in less than 3 months.

These simple numbers show why every company with a fleet can benefit from GPS fleet tracking system for their trucks, cars, vans, etc… The process is simple and the payoffs are potentially huge. With every fleet owner I have talked to, none feel that they are losing money from paying for fleet tracking solutions. I can’t think of any other industry where that can be said.

Trust your instincts about your company’s employees, they are probably correct.

Steven Van Ooyen

CEO of Rhino Fleet Tracking