Managing By Exception- Real Time Alerts

One of the greatest benefits of InTouchGPS is that the GPS fleet tracking we offer allows you to manage by exception.

Management by exception (MBE) is a practice where only significant deviations from a plan or guidelines are brought to the attention of management. The idea behind it is that management’s attention will be focused only on those areas in need of action.
One of the ways we do this is by having real time alerts. You define the thresholds and the parameters of the alerts and also the delivery method ( text or email) These alerts are powered by GPS tracking give you some insight into any problems with your vehicles and drivers. While there are many different alerts you can receive, these three can be the most helpful for your business.

1) Speeding Alert
The first important alert that you get with fleet tracking is the speeding alert. There are two reasons you want to have the speeding alert for your fleet: safety and fuel consumption. The alert will let you know if your drivers are going over the speed limit and when they are doing so. When your drivers speed excessively it is always burning fuel unnecessarily. Speeding is also bad for your reputation, and most importantly dangerous to your driver and the public.

2) Excessive Idling Alert
Our system reports every two minutes when the vehicle is on and hour when the engine is off. If there are three consecutive readings as “engine on” but they all have zero speed our system will report and previous readings as idling. Other a complete waste of fuel, it is horrible on your engine, requiring more maintenance.

3) Working Hours
Our system allows you to define when that vehicle is authorized to be moving. To prevent or stop moonlighting or theft this alert is great if you have a quick response rate.
There are other alerts that we have. To learn about these and other features that our application has and how those benefit you, contact InTouchGPS today.

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What is the ROI of Fleet Tracking?

It is in the combination of reducing costs and increasing profits that the value of our application  really shines.We have fleet managers who may have had significant issues with payroll and overtime being abused and GPS fleet tracking saved them several thousand, whereas someone else it didn’t make a great difference in that area, but helped extensively with fuel costs.

We threw some low estimates in as examples to show how various companies would profit, but the ROI is dependent on your company and the problem it is solving.

8 Ways To Discover ROI Through Fleet Tracking

If we look at an individual average annual basis, assuming one driver per vehicle, we use an employee total cost of $30,000 and a vehicle cost of ownership of $12,000. We try to use conservative numbers but when combined, it’s $42,000. If we apply that to ten vehicles, it’s an investment of $420,000. If we look at twenty-five vehicles, that’s over a million dollar investment.

When presented with that scenario “How do you make sure that you’re realizing the greatest return on your investment?”

The answer is InTouchGPS.

GPS fleet tracking can impact your business in two ways: by increasing your revenue and reducing your costs. We’ll look at each of these ways individually.

The first way is by increasing your fleet’s productivity. With GPS Fleet tracking, your employees know that they are always on the clock. They’re held accountable for every second of the workday. You eliminate all frivolous stops. Ideally you will increase the number of service calls, appointments and stops. If you were to add only two additional service calls, appointments or stops per week at a $50 profit point, that would be up to an extra $2,600 per employee per year.

The second way is to help you win more clients. If you’re in an industry where your product and service is similar to others, letting the customer know you utilize fleet tracking is a way to differentiate yourself. You can provide guaranteed service times and appear more professional because you have invested in cutting-edge technology to serve them better. What is the value of adding one additional client every single month due to having GPS?

The next way is by retaining current clients. If you can provide better customer service to your clients through instant and accurate location details of where your employees are and what they’re doing, would that be of benefit to you? Would your clients appreciate it you could produce feature rich reports that would provide solid proof of service. Another factor is the reduction of response times for service calls.  We can improve your routing through our dispatch tool to help determine what the most appropriate vehicle would be to send. Do you have any clients that would appreciate you providing them with all this information?

Let’s  talk about how to eliminate or cut your costs. The first way would be to cut your payroll cost. You’ll be able to eliminate all the billed minutes that weren’t actually worked. There are many times when an employee may be padding their time card. InTouchGPS prevents that. You also can reduce accounting cost, because you can create a virtual time card and set that for automatic creation every week. You can eliminate time spent by employees having to record all their times. You can potentially reduce having to pay expensive overtime wages if they weren’t truly earned. Normally 20 minutes per day of payroll savings at $20 per hour – that’s savings of $1,620 per employee every year.

Another way is by reducing vehicle wear and tear.  You can eliminate all unauthorized driving, use driving tools to cut down on unnecessary mileage driven and use our dispatching feature to find the closest vehicle to a client location. You can also track all your scheduled maintenance required for the vehicles and be alerted when tasks are due, allowing you to minimize out-of-service time and avoid the larger problems that will be caused by late or forgotten service.

InTouchGPS can help you create a green initiative by reducing your environmental impact. Looking at the numbers, only five miles per day or eliminated drive time, with the cost of $0.35 per mile maintenance cost (as well as depreciation), equals the savings of $420 per year per employee. Anytime you’re putting less mileage on your vehicles, you’re also reducing your total fuel spent. We help you create a speeding policy to realize better fuel economy. InTouchGPS helps you eliminate unnecessary idling, savings gallons of gas. Only two gallons of gas saved per week can save as much as $300 per employee per year.

Let’s discuss how we can decrease your overall liability. You can ensure vehicles are not going places that will tarnish your reputation as a company as well as eliminate off-hours liability exposure.  For many of the companies we work with, if their drivers are in an accident on the weekend, they’re still liable even if they weren’t supposed to be driving the vehicle at that time. You can create and enforce speeding policies to possibly reduce accidents and negative attention in the community. Having live antitheft protection on each of your vehicles  gives you a peace of mind. You can often reduce your vehicle insurance and workers’ compensation premiums– something you can check with your provider.

In the past three years, have you had any company liable accidents or reports of poor driving by your employees? What value would having proof of their driving behavior provide to you?

Another way to reduce costs is by eliminating billing credits. You can provide proof of service and always know when and where your fleet is. There’s no way for your clients to say, “You weren’t here.” You can also eliminate those credits due to customer complaints of lateness, especially if you provide an on-time guarantee. You’ll know for sure if your driver was there or if they weren’t. And if they were, you can prove it to your clients. You end up gaining customer trust because you can provide that proof of service. Have you ever been forced to give a billing credit that you couldn’t verify the validity to claim? If so, how will it help to know who was to blame, whether it be the client or your driver?

So now that you have seen what we can do for you, would you like to see how we accomplish this? Please contact us today to see of a demonstration of our application and understand further how we can specifically help YOUR organization get the best possible ROI.

 

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4 Reasons Why People Choose InTouchGPS

Reasons Why People Choose InTouchGPS

When a business owner or fleet manager decides to implement GPS fleet tracking there are many companies to choose from.

We are honored when someone selects us and we believe that it is usually for one of the following four reasons.Reasons Why People Choose InTouchGPS

1)      No Contracts – There are many advantages to not having contracts. At InTouchGPS we understand whether it is seasonal, business related or vehicle related that your fleet needs  ebb and flow. One of the reasons that we don’t require contracts is that We don’t  believe that you should be paying for something that you aren’t using. However, it goes beyond that. At  InTouchGPS, we believe that we need to earn your business every month, every day. We don’t want you tied in because of some piece of paper and legal jargon, we want you utilizing us because we make your life easier and your business more profitable.

 2)      Experience –  InTouchGPS  was an early pioneer in providing GPS fleet tracking services. We have been focused on fleet tracking AND ONLY fleet tracking for many years.  Over that time we have had the opportunity to work with almost every kind of company and help them overcome almost any fleet- related challenge.  A lot of people may offer a similar tool as InTouchGPS but similar to a paintbrush, the end result also is defined by who is welding it. We have dedicated staff that will make it a point to understand your business’s fleet needs and show you how the application can solve any issue.

 3)      World Class Support – We have an incredible support team based out of the Orlando area. We have high standards in hiring top shelf talent and follow that up with rigorous training to make sure that our Client success specialist are able to support your needs. We have various ways for you to get help for any need. Whether it is device related, a billing question, an application question or anything else,  you can call us directly, submit a trackable trouble ticket, watch training videos or look for answers through our knowledge library for FAQ’s and their answers. If a case is submitted during the workday someone will get back in touch with you within one hour and if after hours or on the weekend by 10 AM the next business day. We are here for you.

 4)      Training – InTouchGPS knows that there are hundreds of different ways that you could use our system.  For this reason we have a dedicated personnel to help with onboarding.  Once you receive your devices this person will follow up with you and schedule a time convenient for you that we can understand why you decided to implement GPS Fleet tracking and what you want to accomplish. Next we will show you how to set up the application to do just that. Although we pride ourselves on the ease of use of the system you always have our team that you can call and ask about the best way to use the system to solve a specific problem. Whether it’s setting up landmarks and alerts to find out if a vehicle is moving outside of approved hours or showing you how to automate timecards to streamline manual processes this person will walk you through it whether you are just getting started or have been with InTouchGPS for quite a while and just wanting to solve a different issue than the original.

 For these reasons and many others, InTouchGPS is often selected as the company of record for GPS fleet tracking services and devices for businesses across America.

Contact us today to learn what InTouchGPS can do for you.

 

 

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Fleet Tracking & The Customer Experience

The Customer Experience

In today’s economy price is often a determining factor. When prices are similar what makes a customer go with one company or another. More importantly what makes a customer stay?

The answer is the level of customer service and how they are treated by your company

Does your customer feel that they matter to you?

InTouchGPS has seen company after company benefit from enhancing their customer service and overall customer experience with the integration of GPS fleet tracking.

How does fleet tracking from InTouchGPS.com

1)      Our application is cloud-based. This means that from any web-enabled device that you can access the application and see where your vehicles are at as well as gain other information that allows you to make other real time decisions. Need to deploy a vehicle to a specific location quickly? Fleet tracking can tell you which one is closest and send dispatch notes to that vehicle.

2)      Searchable application- InTouchGPS works with any size fleet . Some of the fleets we work with have one vehicle and some fleet’s have several hundred vehicles. When you are dealing with many vehicles you can easily get lost in the quagmire of too much data. Our application has filters and search functions built in to easily find the vehicle or vehicle related information you are looking for very quickly.

3)      In this fast paced world we live in, time,  is our most precious commodity. Especially in areas when dealing with services in a timely manner matter (plumbing or AC emergency for example)  customers satisfaction levels quickly diminish as time goes on without your serviceman there. With GPS fleet tracking you can quickly and correctly manage customer expectations, provide ETA’s and updates to your customer.

There are a myriad of ways that GPS fleet tracking can be used and the benefits can be tremendous. To learn more about what InTouchGPS can do for you, contact us today.

 

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A Fleet Manager’s Guide To Fleet Tracking

For those who participated in scouts as a child, they remember that they often carried a field guide to help them to do things like start a fire, build shelter etc. Life would be easier if everything came with a guide.

Luckily, if you are a fleet manager or business owner, there is a guide to Fleet Tracking and its name is InTouchGPS. You can call our training department or support team at any time and they will help define a solution for your fleet related problem.

InTouchGPS is not only a respected provider of GPS fleet tracking devices and services, but even more importantly we are experts in it’s usage. If asked, here are 5 ideas from a collection of experience we would call upon to craft:

The Fleet Manager’s Handbook

1) Have clear and concise goals both directions on the ladder.

If you are a fleet manager, know exactly what is expected of you and what metrics are being used to define those goals. For example- Lower fuel costs is not as strong as lower fuel costs by 3 percent across the fleet within three months. If you manage the fleet drivers- discuss what you are tracking, what you are not tracking, and you and your company’s goals and expectations for each area.

2) Automate. Automate. Automate.

One of the best things about the InTouchGPS system is that it lets you automate so many tasks. Instead of using your time to create tons of data points, simply schedule a report and forget it. These reports can be things such as timecards, first and final movement, trips, and many more.

3)  Create alerts to allow you to manage by exception, instead of pouring over data to see if someone broke the rules.

Speeding, movement, landmarks and working hours are just of the few alerts that you can choose to receive.

4) Use the application to solve your biggest issue and then tackle the next in priority- you don’t have to do everything all at once.

5) There are multiple ways to find ROI through fleet tracking- discover your largest loss and solve.

Think of some of your challenges and discuss with us different ways that you could use the application to come up with a solution.

To learn about other benefits and how to take advantage of them, contact InTouchGPS today.

 

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Fleet Tracking Provides Business Intelligence

Fleet Tracking & Business Intelligence

While many people utilize our application in order to see where their vehicles are, it is just as important to see where your vehicles have been. What business intelligence can you gather from looking at historic trends?

At InTouchGPS we keep all of your data for a full year. Combining the functionality to; easily be able to export any data schedule and automate daily, weekly or monthly reports to be sent to your email; and real time alerts to notify you of driver behavior.  Our application is a veritable house of information.

Don’t let this intimidate you. The way it is structured was purposefully meant to be very easy to navigate through. The first step of any journey is first determining where you want to go or in this case what information that you are looking for.

Here are three issues that business intelligence from Fleet tracking allows you to solve:

1)      Customer Complaint of Lack of Service- Fleet tracking allows you to count for your drivers whereabouts – every minute…And in turn you can report to the client with irrefutable evidence that your people were where they said they were.

2)      “Case” for or against employee. You can showcase great habits of a certain driver for merit or bonus or if necessary for HR , show just cause for termination or use data to create an appropriate program plan with behavior evidenced on system. ( Ie Speeding routinely)

3)      America is land of laws and regulations. Driver and fleet audits are becoming more and more routine. If ever necessary, fleet managers can go back and show proof of compliance, vehicles history, maintenance history and other historical data artifacts.

Managers can now look at the long view in order to establish trends, route inefficiencies, driver performance and other aspects that allow them to become better at their job.

Contact us to schedule a no pressure demonstration of our application to learn more about what InTouchGPS can do for you today.

 

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Fleet Tracking For Start-ups

Fleet Tracking and Start-Ups

The start-up company is the epitome of the American dream. Take an idea and finally have the resolve and dedication to make it happen. The challenges of a start-up are different than a second stage company and completely different than a mature company.

The largest difference between the stages these companies are in is often cash flow. While profitability is incredibly important, the compliment to it- reducing costs- is equally as important.

Fleet vehicles are the backbone of so many types of companies- from service industries, to construction, energy, telecommunications and so many others. Cutting costs related to these fleets is a quick way to increase your bottom line.

Fleet Tracking

GPS Fleet Tracking allows for the ability to reduce operating and fuel costs while providing the insights that can help your business increase productivity and safety.

Business Intelligence gives you the knowledge about what is really going on in your fleet and with this knowledge the power to quickly make decisions and changes that affect your fleet.

The ROI gained through fleet tracking is powerful. Fleet tracking becomes a force multiplier and can be the defining factor between a start-up company failing or thriving.

Fleet tracking software is an investment that will prove its worth and continue to cut costs as your small business or startup grows.  As you grow, the ROI of fleet tracking grows as well- often exponentially instead of linearly.

Discover what fleet tracking can do for your organization by contacting InTouchGPS today.

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Ask The Fleet Tracking Experts

At InTouchGPS, we are more than a provider of GPS fleet tracking services and fleet tracking devices.

We are GPS fleet tracking experts. After serving  thousands of clients in almost every vertical and helping them maximize ROI we understand the many challenges that a business owner or fleet manager may have to endure…but more importantly many ways our system can be used to solve these challenges. Here are some specific common problems and how InTouchGPS can solve them.

Fleet Tracking Problem #1   – Fuel costs are outrageous.

In many companies fuel is the third highest expense (behind payroll and the cost of the trucks themselves). While we can’t completely eliminate fuel costs, we can help ensure that drivers are ONLY going where they need to be. Our application also can help with minimization of fuel used by providing the dispatch a way to see which vehicle is the most appropriate to send. Lastly, you can define working hours for each day and know if a vehicle is being operated outside of those hours

Fleet Tracking Problem #2 – Proof of Service

How many times have you heard “Your driver was late or never here”?

You talk to your driver and he says he was there at the right time.

Do you give a credit or refund of some type? Discipline the driver? Believe the driver? Tell the customer they are wrong?

How about this conversation instead?

“Your driver was late or never here?

“Ma’am/Sir, in order to provide better service to you our company has invested in the use of technology called GPS fleet tracking. This technology allows us to pinpoint where our vehicles are and were at any given time. The vehicle in question stopped at your house  at 1:57 and stayed there until 3:04 and then left.

“Oh, okay, thanks for checking”

There are more fleet related problems than we can list, however we have never been dealt something that we couldn’t help tremendously with through the aid of our GPS fleet tracking experience.

What fleet related issue(s)  are you trying to solve?

Contact the fleet tracking experts at InTouchGPS today to learn how we can help.

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Fleet Tracking For Large Companies

Enterprise Fleet Tracking

InTouchGPS prides itself on being the right solution for any size fleet, regardless of the number of vehicles or their types. We work with fleets with one vehicle to fleets with several hundred vehicles in almost every industry. Every company has its own reason for considering fleet tracking, however many of the benefits of fleet tracking are universal. The challenges and deployment of fleet tracking in a small company differs from those in a large company.

Large organizations usually have many moving parts to their organization. Often large companies are defined as an enterprise. In the industry a common term is enterprise fleet tracking, referring to a larger entity.

Listed below are some of the challenges and how our software answers those challenges.

Challenge- Large number of vehicles to import/assign into system

Answer- Our software allows you to name each device assigned to each vehicle. There are filters set up through the application to allow you to search by name, IMEI number, as well as group/division assigned

Challenge – Different management for different drivers and territories

Answer- You have the ability to assign vehicles to specific groups and also edit permission levels in the background to the access level granted to any specific user.

Challenge- So much data to sift through

Answer- Our system has dashboards that are customizable per user to their goals. This allows a quick easy visual snapshot of the fleet activity that is important to that user.

Challenge – Software takes up resources

Answer- Our application is Cloud based. No software to download or update or roll out- accessible from any web enabled device.

Challenge- Data takes too much time to pull

Answer- For every report our application offers, we also have an automated feature where we can have it sent to your email daily, weekly, monthly for the data that you want.

There are other features that allow large fleets to be successful in addition to the ones above.

What challenges are you facing?

Contact InTouchGPS today to learn how we may solve those as well.

 

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8 Ways Drivers Benefit From Fleet Tracking

At  InTouchGps, we often write and discuss the advantages of fleet tracking from the perspective of the business owners and fleet managers; frankly because they are the ones using our system.

However, our system has incredible benefits for the fleet drivers as well.

8 Ways Drivers Benefit From Fleet Tracking

Your drivers are the foundation of your business and the lifeblood of your growth. It is important that your drivers know and understand how GPS fleet tracking benefits them. Your drivers are the backbone of your business. It is important for your drivers to understand the benefits that GPS fleet tracking offers to them. Instead of the “Big brother” and “you don’t trust me arguments” you can show them how it benefits them. You can enhance employee work satisfaction and create an even better work environment by now having the ability to:

  1. Validate with proof that they were where they said they were.
  2. Keep all employees at the same work level, since no one can “cheat the system”
  3. Reward and potentially incentivize driving behavior that now that it is measurable (for example lowest idle time per month gets Itunes gift card)
  4. Still be able to produce accurate trip and time log if they forget to write down their hours
  5. Dispatch is able to see where they are and provide ETA to customers without having to continuously call or interrupt driver.
  6. Quickly provide directions to lost drivers to where to go from current location
  7. Better chance of keeping a job if their company is fiscally stronger
  8. Weather and traffic features allow for a more optimized dispatch so less “windshield time” for the drivers

Fleet tracking has strong advantages for the company, for the fleet managers and for the drivers themselves.

Contact us today to discover what GPS fleet tracking can do for your company.

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