Things To Consider When Choosing a GPS Fleet Tracking Provider

  • How often do they provide vehicle locations?

    There is a fine line between having specific enough location updates versus being overwhelmed with too much data.  The industry standard system updating times are every 2 minutes when the vehicle is on and every hour when the vehicle is turned off, which is exactly what we offer.  However, many companies will give a monthly monitoring price which seems appealing, but they are only providing you with updates every 5 or 10 minutes when your vehicles are moving. You may think you are getting a deal, but they pay much less for data being used and your location updates are much less frequent.  At the same time, there are companies that will tell you that you need to get updates every 10 or 15 seconds.  While this will give you location updates much more frequently, many businesses ending up paying much more for extra data and when they run reports or track their vehicle “live”, they find the extra data to be useless.

  • Are they reselling another Fleet Tracking Solution?

    This is a VERY important question to ask and know the answer to.  You may find a company that was setup to merely resell another Fleet Tracking Solution.  This could be a problem when it comes to getting direct communication from the people actually providing the solution, if something were to go wrong with your account.  Moreover, you MAY find that going directly to the source would get you a lower cost.  We are not saying that buying from a reseller is a bad thing necessarily, but it is important to know if that is the case.  Especially because you may talk to two different companies and they may offer you the exact same solution if they are reselling another Solution.

  • Does their system work for you when you aren’t sitting at a computer?

    While GPS Fleet tracking systems can be very powerful tools, they also can require a lot of your time unless they offer features that allow you to receive their benefits without having to sit in front of the computer.  Two great examples of this are REAL-TIME ALERTSand AUTOMATED REPORTING, both of which we offer.  While many companies have some alerts, make sure they offer a variety which can be configured to apply to either one or various vehicles and also that they can be set up to run at your desired days and hours of the day.  It’s vital to have reporting features, but make sure that they also offer a way to schedule specific reports to be automatically sent to you at specific time intervals of your choice.  What we find is that if a company is forced to spend a great deal of time using their fleet tracking solution, they won’t take advantage of all that it has to offer.

  • Do they force you into a long-term contract?

    This is very important!! Many fleet tracking companies will give you a monthly monitoring fee price and then tell you at the last minute about a contract you are required to sign which can be as long as 3-5 years!  In our current economy, most businesses simply can’t be locked into a long-term agreement with such an unclear financial market.  Beyond that, when locked into a long-term contract, what incentive does that Fleet Tracking provider have to provide stellar service?

  • Is their product easy to use?

    There are many GPS Fleet tracking options on the market that are powerful and offer amazing features.  However, they can also be difficult to understand and take a while to feel comfortable using.  We feel that is important for you to fully know how to operate our solution within 20-30 minutes so that you will quickly and continually take advantage of what it has to offer.  We hear constantly from our clients that they had previously purchased an expensive system with many “bells and whistles” only to use about 15% of what had been offered and they were paying an outrageous price for the service.

  • Do they offer vehicle-specific features?

    Many Fleet Tracking companies offer features that will have to apply to all of the vehicles on their platform.  However, when utilizing features such as Geo-Fences and Alerts, it’s important to be able to set these specifically for each vehicle because each vehicle has a different driver with their own individual needs.  We are able to provide this for you and will show you how to make use of each employees tracking needs.

  • Do they offer all of the features you need to create the ROI you demand?

    Another very important question to consider! While there are a number of systems on the market that are very appealing to look at and have a great map, they are essentially useless because once you spend an hour staring at the computer screen you realize that they are missing vital features that are needed to help you add money to your bottom-line.  A few examples of vital feature are having various alerts, dispatching capabilities, geo-fences, automated and specific reporting and the ability to view a driver’s address using geo-coding… some companies will only offer you their longitude and latitude which is usually not helpful information.

  • Do they answer their phone and provide live telephone support and training?

    When you purchase GPS Fleet Tracking for your company vehicles, you are buying a product, but more importantly you are establishing a relationship.  The GPS units themselves are essentially useless until installed in vehicles and they reach their full potential once you know how to not only use them, but make them work as required for your company needs.  It’s important to know your providers hours of operation, if a live person will answer the phone and if you will immediately get the assistance you need from a person that knows your product.  Beyond that, will they provide the on-going training you need to get the most from your fleet tracking system?   With Virtual Fleet Supervisor, the answer to those questions is “absolutely”!  Nothing is worse than buying a product, not learning how to use it fully, and then it sits under-utilized.  That will not happen when you become a client of Virtual Fleet Supervisor!

Have any questions of your own?  Please call us now!!  800-746-5170