Many national and regional construction companies already use vehicle tracking in their fleets but is it suitable for smaller firms? Professional Builder takes a look at the latest technology to find out.
Vehicle tracking used to be all about location, location, location – helping big companies to keep an eye on every van and truck in their fleets. However, recent technological advances enable these little black boxes to do much more than tracking. And products are now coming to market aimed at both smaller fleets and owner-drivers – ideal for builders and other trades professionals.
Payment
Some companies allow you to order and pay online; others insist on a phone call or a visit from a sales rep. Typically, payment is in bite-sized monthly chunks, or even quarterly, with discounts for taking contracts longer than the standard 12 months.
Installation
Most providers will send out an engineer to hard-wire the device to your LCV or car. Be aware that you might have to pay a fee for installation – and will definitely be charged for a technician to uninstall the device at the end of your contract. So factor this into your total costs.
A more flexible, hassle-free option is a plug-and-play device, such as Trakm8 Prime. These self-install units take seconds to plug into the vehicle’s on-board diagnostics (OBD) port, meaning you don’t have to worry about vehicle downtime for installation; and there are no hidden removal fees at the end of the contract. Another benefit to self-install units is that you can easily transfer them to new vehicles, for example if you have a van on hire or lease.
Achieving ROI
A self-install unit like Trakm8 Prime costs £12.99 +VAT per vehicle, per month, so it is important to measure your return on investment. The key benefits that vehicle tracking brings to your business are: increasing productivity, improving safety, and cutting costs.
Cutting Costs
The single biggest impact on fuel economy is the driver – far bigger than a heavy payload, the wrong tyre pressure, or external racking. Because the tracking device is connected to the vehicle’s CAN Bus system, it can identify events that impact on fuel economy. These include speeding, harsh acceleration, heavy braking, and sharp cornering – it can even tell you how long you’ve had the engine idling.
During every journey, the tracker logs all of these events, and tallies them up to create a unique score card for the driver. The higher the score, the more fuel-efficient the driver has been. This type of ‘driver behaviour’ technology is proven to boost your fuel economy by up to 15 per cent, so it doesn’t take many miles before the savings start to stack up.
The person responsible for company vehicles – typically the business owner or manager – can view these score cards for all drivers by logging onto a web portal, or using a smart phone app, while each driver can only see their own scores.
Driver Safety
Not only does smoother driving increase MPG and minimise vehicle wear and tear; it is also proven to reduce the risk of being involved in a road traffic incident. Some insurance brokers are now offering a discount on your premium if all your vehicles are fitted with driver behaviour technology.
Boosting Productivity
Most vehicle tracking solutions include downloadable time sheets. The better ones also offer useful technology such as geo-fencing and business/private mileage management. Geo-fencing creates digital boundaries around a real-world geographic location. It is particularly useful for providing alerts on vehicles arriving at and departing from a work site – and can also help drivers avoid road pricing areas such as the London Toxicity Charge Zone.
Filling in P11D returns is never a welcome chore, so look for a vehicle tracking solution that includes business/private mileage management. This should just require a simple click on each journey, to record whether it was for work or personal purposes – and it should be equally easy to export the data in spreadsheet format. With HRMC continuing to crack down on non-payment of taxes for personal use of company vehicles, this data is evidence that can protect you from hefty fines.
Vehicle Health
Because devices like Trakm8 Prime plug into your vehicles’ OBD port, they can now monitor vehicle fault codes and communicate issues before they result in a breakdown or non-start. The ability to quickly check that your battery is in good health – and receive alerts if it starts to go flat – could end up saving you a fortune in missed work and even breakdown recovery fees.
Not many providers offer vehicle health alerts, so it is best to check in advance if you want this useful feature.
Try Before You Buy
The best way to find out if there is a business case for vehicle tracking is to try it out. Some providers will only offer you an online demo to showcase their software. However, others, such as Trakm8 Prime, will offer you a free trial, typically for one device, and lasting up to a month. This is a no-risk way to discover whether telematics is right for your company, and a great opportunity to try out the latest technology.