Vehicle tracking in the haulage industry Due to the fall in construction work and other trade areas, haulage firms are looking at the way they do business in order to cut costs. The companies that are taking this approach seem to be the ones that look most likely to successfully survive this recession.
The recent fall in construction work due to the economic downturn has meant that hundreds of building contracts across the country have been cancelled. This has had an effect on the haulage companies and has led them to look at ways of cutting costs and running their businesses more efficiently. Add to this the spiralling fuel costs, constant legislation changes and requirements to monitor driver behaviour, we would think that it would be asking too much from a piece of technology to solve these problems. Well vehicle tracking might be the answer as it seems to have helped considerably in this area.
Vehicle tracking technology allows the tracking of a vehicles location in real time with information on where they are going, how fast they are travelling, while allowing other calculations such as how long before a vehicle reaches the next destination. The information that is generated from a
vehicle tracking device is extremely valuable as once outputted into management reports, you are able to get insights into a number of things such as finding out how efficiently a driver are working. Is he sticking to work routes or taking on personal journeys on company time? Are drivers taking the most efficient route and are they using the vehicle efficiently by taking the shortest routes and switching off the engine when stationary for long periods of time. You are also able to get automatic alerts once a driver is approaching working time directive limits.
Recent reports have shown that the cost saving by using vehicle tracking technology have been huge and therefore look to be used as standard by haulage companies in the future.
There has been recent interest in regards to the value of vehicle tracking technology due to the increase of
the cost of fuel and the impact of motorway speed limit increase on UK business. Check out the article.