If you run a fleet of five vehicles or more, you understand the time it can take to schedule your deliveries on a daily basis. Sometimes, it can feel like you spend half the day just planning the day ahead! It’s a big commitment of time and effort, particularly if your delivery requirements change on a daily basis depending on orders received the day prior.
Modern GPS vehicle tracking technology such as mTrax Pathfinder provides route planning and delivery scheduling solutions that offer a range of benefits in fleet management, customer service, operational efficiencies and cost savings.
They let you know where your vehicles are in real time, help you plan more efficient routes and keep your business compliant with regulations. But often the best laid plans go out the window as soon as your drivers leave the warehouse or depot, when factors out of your control (traffic and weather for example) conspire to derail your perfectly planned delivery schedule.
Connecting your GPS vehicle tracking solution, or more accurately, putting it the hands (and cabs) of your drivers via an App, can prove to be the missing link to create a complete delivery scheduling solution.
We’ll cover that later. But first, let’s consider the overall benefits of a GPS vehicle tracking solution such as mTrax Pathfinder.
Why use GPS vehicle tracking technology?
Monitor vehicle efficiency
Knowing how your vehicles are performing out in the field can be a valuable source of management data for better insights into a range of factors including:
- Vehicles speed
- Engine performance
- Distances travelled
- Time spent idling
- Fuel efficiency
All this information can be used to identify issues before they become real problems (such as vehicle breakdowns), improve scheduling, manage drivers and more.
Track driver behaviour
You and your business are responsible for both the safety of your drivers, as well as other road users. Regulatory bodies require full compliance with rules around safe driving and fatigue management, and GPS tracking technology puts accurate information in your hands. You can use it to determine:
- Non-compliant driving (after hours, nighttime)
- Instances of speeding
- Acceleration and breaking habits
- Occurrences of erratic driving
This information can be used if you need to provide evidence as part of an audit of your fleet operations, and also to educate your drivers to ensure better, safer driving habits.
Better driving means reduced fuel and maintenance costs, and safer driving means fewer accidents and lower insurance premiums.
Improve driver safety
Long haul or interstate truck drivers can be on the road for days at a time, often in very remote locations. GPS vehicle tracking technology can alert you in the event of an incident or accident that might expose a lone driver to harm or injury.
Delivery scheduling and route planning made easy
Along with monitoring your fleet and drivers, scheduling software can reduce daily scheduling preparation time from hours to minutes. This helps to:
- Save time and money so human resources can be deployed elsewhere
- Increase operational efficiency with more jobs per vehicle per day, and less down time
- Create efficient delivery schedules that reduce fuel costs and vehicle wear and tear
- Implement load-based sequencing to ensure efficient off-loading
- Track progress against a schedule in real time to provide customers with up-to-date delivery times
Delivery, scheduling and route planning software such as mTrax Pathfinder works with factors that are unique to your business, and uses Artificial Intelligence to create the most efficient and effective schedules to optimise your fleet assets and human resources.
Driving customer satisfaction
GPS vehicle tracking technology offers a range of benefits in managing fleets and drivers. Beyond the benefits outlined previously, there is one other clear business benefit – improved customer satisfaction.
Transport and logistics is a very competitive industry, and finding an edge is critical to create competitive advantage. Using technology to improve delivery scheduling and keep customers informed of the status of their orders goes a long way to creating happy and loyal customers
Making real progress with your delivery scheduling
While a lot of focus is (rightly) on the broader business benefits that integrated GPS solutions such as mTrax offer fleet and scheduling managers, it is important not to forget your team out in the field – your drivers.
A new App from the creators of mTrax, Progressions Onboard, is the perfect tool for drivers out on the road and in the field to help keep them on task, and on track with their deliveries.
Beyond the provision of delivery schedules and routes as planned by the scheduling manager, Progressions Onboard puts more information at the fingertips of drivers. The App can recalculate deliveries for the remainder of the day in the case of unexpected delays caused by traffic, longer than expected offloading or unscheduled driver stops.
Drivers can save the safest and most convenient delivery location, which can be immensely helpful in large shopping or warehouse complexes with multiple delivery and entry/exit points.
Customers can also be directly messaged by drivers for real-time updates of delivery status, which is especially useful with time-sensitive freight such as restaurant food deliveries.
Monitoring delivery progress, updating drivers and the ability to inform customers helps to close the loop with delivery scheduling and route planning software, and completes the picture for optimised fleet and delivery management.
A smart business choice
If you need a GPS vehicle tracking solution, mTrax is the perfect combination of smart technology and local knowledge. Developed and locally supported in Australia, mTrax is owned and operated by Arvia, a company that has provided automated vehicle location and monitoring services since 2006.
mTrax Pathfinder is used by operators of large and small fleets to reduce scheduling time, increase efficiencies, provide cost savings and improve compliance. Offered ‘as-a-service’, mTrax is a cloud-based software platform that is customised, installed and supported by a local team.