Fleet Beat

Very useful!

Tracking your vehicles may end up to be a legal minefield. If, for example, you are running a fleet of couriers (whom I regularly observe exceeding the speed limit) and you can track them via GPS, are you then responsible for reporting them if you notice that they are breaking the law? Ever heard of a logistics manager calling one of his couriers and telling them to slow down? If not, then maybe the LM may be at fault if said driver has an accident whilst in excess of the posted limit, if that driver can prove that his behaviour is in accordance with previous history and he has been rewarded for reaching certain goals. I can see the benefit of GPS tracking, including acquisition of streams of data for analysis (I love data!) if the purpose of the vehicle is logistic in nature, which could result in improved effeciency. However, both parties need to be honest and also understand their responsibilities once a capability is implemented. Many companies here in the UK utilise in-vehicle tracking systems, initially there were major staff/union problems but sensible discussions soon ironed this out.. The key to implementing any tracking system is communications with the staff, you are correct that you are tracking the company asset that staff are in but they will feel that you are targeting them, tell them what you are doing and why and very soon they will be fans of the system. In some cases where tracking is fitted to company cars there is the facility to switch the tracking off when staff are on their own time but, this also switches off the free fuel aspect of their driving and they have to declare this non-business mileage on their tax returns. Done sensitively tracking can be a great asset for vehicle utilisation and route planning functions at very little cost to the business, can assist in reducing the carbon footprint of operations and can give staff some assurance that someone knows where they are at all times, I have even seen these systems used to prove that a driver was not where he was alleged to be in speeding cases, this saved the drivers the possibility of a large fine, points on their licence or even in the worst case loss of their licence. That is a good point Graham (in regard to mileage). One aspect of fleet management I've been thinking about is driver reward for fuel misers. Of course it would have to be based around similar routes, but empoyees may respond well when their smooth driving results in perhaps an early Friday. Think of the savings a manager can make in regard to maintenance in the long term and fuel usage in the short term.

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