Tracking – Buying guide

Choose a vehicle tracking software (for a van or any other commercial vehicle) to monitor your fleet of vehicles anytime during the day. You can manage their next tasks according to their van location and communicate your instructions through the tracking device. The perfect way to improve the efficiency, strategy and time management of your company.

What you need to know about vehicle tracking

Understanding how tracking works makes business owners and procurement officers quickly realize that modern fleet management solutions bring many benefits: streamlined fleet management, better customer service, accurate maintenance planning and fuel monitoring, increased security and asset surveillance all add up to result in lower operating costs. But these benefits will heavily depend on whether an “active” or “passive” system has been installed. A series of manufacturers and providers offer either hardware, software or full service packages for individual vehicles or large fleets, with a wide range of products and plans at various prices.

Fleet management systems: basics

All fleet management systems are not equal. To start with, there is a world of a difference between so-called “passive” and “active” systems. They work differently, require different hardware and related services. Although both kinds of systems will bring most of the benefits related to tracking, active systems will have many extra advantages.

How vehicle tracking works? The systems fall into two broad categories: active systems and passive systems. A tracking device is installed in the vehicle and the device is in turn connected to a tracking server. The data is retrieved on the terminal using specific software. The benefits of fleet management systems include: streamlined fleet management, better customer service, accurate maintenance planning and fuel monitoring, increased security and asset surveillance.

Truck tracking specifics: Road haulage companies will look into additional benefits, such as driver education and timesheet automation, depending on whether they have reviewed and selected the right truck-specific tracking features in their system, such as web-based management, historical reporting, engine diagnostics monitoring. 

Tracking system suppliers and service costs

Since fleet management involves many hardware, software and service components, prices will greatly differ depending on the equipment and level of service chosen. To make it easier - and sometimes, though not always - more affordable for interested companies, several providers have introduced full-service plans, including the lease of the equipment and all related services.

- Suppliers: While some suppliers limit their offering to the onboard devices only, many also provide their customers with all related services such as installation, data transmission and retrieval software. Some mapping providers - mapping is a key component of a good system - also provide hardware and 360 degrees service.

- Costs: There are several factors which determine the price of the equipment and service. Depending on the number of vehicles in the fleet, sophistication of the hardware, but also on the features selected, which may be optional or not, purchasing the whole equipment may or may not be a more interesting option as compared with leasing.