Greener Driving with GPS Vehicle Tracking Software

(The following is a sponsored review… of a way cool service)

I used to work for a local computer company. We had a warehouse and 9 stores spread out across the Wasatch Front — right along the I-15 Corridor. That doesn’t present much of a delivery/routing problem — or so one would think. Most  of our stores were within 20 minutes of I-15, but the time of day and the direction of travel made a very noticeable impact on delivery times.

Back in the day we were limited to trial and error, which didn’t take well with those that were expecting our deliveries. Sure, GPS was available back then, but there wasn’t any good software back-end to help route/re-route based on shortest distance/fastest time.

Fast-forward to today

Even with our dinky number of stores, we could have saved fuel, time, and money by using a smart-routing service.

We could have found more optimal routes, we could have found which stores were taking longer to unload than others, and even where the driver was taking that twenty-minute nap that he swore didn’t really exist.

There are many options out there, but most fall within two categories: software and services.

Software usually costs a pretty penny up-front, is usually per-vehicle, and usually has to reside inside the vehicle. Services on the other hand usually don’t have much of an initial cost, rather, you pay per vehicle per month (or some other time period). Services also allow for a more central location to get your data (which is growing more and more important with today’s office-less workforce).

GPS Insight vehicle tracking system

GPS Insight vehicle tracking system is a service that does all that, and more. No longer is GPS-based tracking and routing an option, not even for a one-truck setup like we had. These days, it’s absolutely necessary. GPS Insight costs around $1.50-2 per day per vehicle, which is offset by a whole slew of benefit (no more labor paid when people aren’t really working, fuel savings, routing efficiencies, etc.). GPS Insight uses GPS satellites and cellular technologies to provide you with highly accurate vehicle locations every 2 minutes throughout the USA and Canada.

From their website:

GPS Insight is a hardware and web software-based vehicle tracking product which is the technical leader in the GPS tracking field. We have the only hardware which is trivial to install (plugs directly into the vehicle’s diagnostics port), we have same-day-shipping, we are the only product which gets direct engine diagnostics (fault codes, speed, fuel consumption, odometer readings, idle time, etc.), and our product gives 2 minute updates with VERY high-end map options and customizations.

GPS Insight gives you the ability to report on:

• Activity Detail
• Fuel Consumption
• Speed Violations
• Vehicle Performance (Trouble Codes)
• Landmark Activity
• Odd Hours
• Geofence Violation
• and more…

They target service (HVAC, roofing, plumbing, construction, sales force, etc.) and trucking (delivery, long-haul, etc.) companies. If you’re not pigeon-holed into one of those categories, your company will probably benefit from what GPS Insight has to offer, too!

Keeping on top of the latest online technology trends, GPS Insight support wiki for customers offers a true wiki experience for service and support (think Wikipedia for GPS Insight). Additionally, they have a Blog for GPS vehicle tracking to keep customers (current and future) up-to-date with breaking industry news and service updates.