Vehiclepath

You’ve no doubt noticed that the price of fuel is slowly creeping upward after months of decline. No matter who you feel is to blame for this slow rise, it looks like the days of below $2-a-gallon gas won’t be back for a while, if ever. And with increased government interest in the proposed VMT tax (for vehicle miles traveled), fleet vehicle managers will need to squeeze every last cent out of their budgets to remain competitive.

Fortunately, a technology is in place that can help do that and more: GPS fleet tracking. When installed in fleet vehicles, GPS tracking delivers many benefits. One of the most obvious is vehicle-speed reporting, which tells managers which drivers are exceeding speed limits, where speeding offenses occurred, and offers the potential to reward or penalize drivers. Once speeding is under control, fuel efficiency is sure to improve.

GPS fleet tracking also gives managers the ability to:

• View all vehicles at once and check where they have traveled
• Receive detailed stop/move mileage/time reports weekly or monthly
• See detailed maps or satellite images anywhere in the United States, Mexico and Canada
• Find the closest vehicle for intelligent dispatching
• Receive Instant Locates to know a vehicles location is between updates
• Disable the starter to prevent a vehicle from being driven
• Unlock fleet vehicles’ doors from the web or any telephone

As for the VMT, fleets with GPS tracking installed may be in a better position to pay their share fairly. The upcoming state budget in Oregon calls for a highway tax based on vehicle mileage rather than gas purchased - although the deduction would still be taken at the pump, thanks to GPS fleet tracking-type technology. Whether that means vehicle locations can only be tracked from gas station to gas station is not addressed.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “A state task force will look at equipping every new vehicle in Oregon with a Global Positioning System to record every mile driven and where.”

A blogger on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution site writes, “Collecting revenue through tolls or a massive GPS-monitoring system is far more intrusive, complicated and expensive. (Do we really need to attach GPS systems to our cars so government can track our every move? Does the concept of privacy have no meaning anymore?)”

An editorial on iStockAnalyst.com states, “Tests show the concept can work, but we can’t help but wonder how long it would take for GPS hackers to ‘reduce’ their miles driven, or how frequently the system would fail.”

We think an article on NewWest.net has the most balanced view of the whole VMT issue. In addition, we think any company that uses a GPS fleet tracking system would attest to its many benefits.

Tags: GPS fleet management, GPS fleet tracking, gps fleet tracking and employee accountability, gps fleet tracking and highway taxes, GPS tracking unit

Filed under: Fleet Management, Fuel Economy, GPS fleet tracking, Implementing GPS Fleet Tracking, ROI by Glenn