4 Ways To Reduce Costs With Telematics

As a business owner, improving your bottom line while maximizing your fleet’s productivity can seem like an impossible task. Safety, fuel, maintenance and labour inefficiencies are some of the main contributors to the high costs associated with fleets. But what if there was a way to cut costs while improving operational efficiency? Well, through simple GPS telematics systems, you can. By closely monitoring your fleet's behaviour, Geotab can help you leverage data and insights through vehicle tracking analytics and easy-to-understand reporting. Let’s discuss how you can cut down on fleet costs within four core areas of your operations with the use of GPS telematics platforms like Geotab.

1.  Keep Your Drivers Safe & Sound

From not wearing a seatbelt to reckless driving, driver safety is imperative for fleet management and, if not closely monitored, can put both your employees and your business at risk. Putting safety at the forefront can help avoid all sorts of unnecessary costs. The results of unsafe driving can include collisions, increased vehicle wear and tear, higher insurance premiums, fuel waste and liability costs that could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

With the use of GPS telematics from Geotab, driver safety scorecards make it easy to monitor vehicle behaviour and identify unsafe driving practices, giving you the opportunity to intervene and correct it before a collision occurs. And in the event one of your drivers is wrongly accused of being at fault, collision reconstruction reporting allows you to retrieve factual road data to protect the driver, fleet and company from false claims.

2.    Keep Fuel Costs Low

Unless you plan on moving towards building an all-EV fleet, costs associated with fuel might be some of the highest operational expenses your business will incur. Thankfully, with fleet telematics systems, there’s a more cost-effective way to keep your fleet trucking along. To combat inefficient routing, GPS monitoring lets you stay informed about where your drivers are going and how long it takes them to get there. Telematics can also give you important information on other fuel insights by monitoring when and where a driver is stopping at the pump. Not to mention, these systems can provide insights like monthly fuel trends and benchmarking so you can see how you stack up against competitors.

3.    Keep Your Fleet Running its Best

Re-tuning maintenance is an essential expense to ensure your commercial vehicles are running at the optimal level. By establishing a fleet maintenance plan, you can stay on top of routine services when it's most cost-effective. For example, a comprehensive preventative maintenance program can allow you to schedule routine repairs – such as oil changes or tire rotations – when they will impact day-to-day operations the least. Additionally, by monitoring vehicle health through your telematics solution, you’ll be alerted to fault codes or other signs of an emergent maintenance and safety issue before it becomes a budget-draining problem, avoiding significant costs and downtime. Telematics can also help you accurately time when a vehicle needs to be replaced — saving the costs related to maintaining a vehicle beyond its depreciation value.

4.    Improve Productivity

Keeping tabs on your drivers is another important practice that can minimize fleet costs. Use GPS telematics to track uncharacteristically high idle times and vehicle utilization and optimize routing, which can significantly improve productivity. By improving overall productivity, you can cut labour costs and increase the number of appointments per driver – with the added benefit of increasing your customer satisfaction.

The Bottom Line for Your Bottom Line

While the savings from each of these individual operational areas may seem incrementable, they most certainly can add up over time, giving a clear indication of how much money your business could save on any given quarter. Geotab Telematics makes it easy for real business owners to find inefficiencies in their fleet operations, helping them make confident money-saving decisions that directly impact profits.

For more information on how Somerville can create a fleet management solution that includes GPS telematics, contact us today and one of our specialists can get you started!