If a company owns a fleet of vehicles there is a good chance that some drivers are using the vehicle for personal use. This could include running errands, going home during work, or worst of all doing side jobs. Most managers are aware of this, but have a hard time managing it.

The unauthorized use is costly in time, money, and liability. If a company loses control it could cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year. Personal errands are a waste of company resources and expose the company to additional risk. Side jobs cost the company more money because in addition they are taking revenue that should be going to the company.

GPS Tracking Can Help Stop Unauthorized Vehicle Use

One of the best ways to make sure that your fleet is being used properly is to use a GPS tracking system. A tracking system will tell you every location that your vehicles have visited. You can mark unauthorized locations and receive an alert if a vehicle visits it.

A GPS system provides an accurate record of the vehicle’s activities. A complete log is kept that can be searched at any time. This can help eliminate disputes between the employer and employee.

Most GPS tracking systems are web based and easy to use. You can monitor your fleet from any computer and in most cases from your smart phone or tablet.

GPS Tracking Tools

There are some basic tools in any GPS tracking system that are useful in preventing unauthorized use. They are geofences and landmarks. A geofence is a boundary that is drawn on the map. The GPS system will track when a vehicle enters and exits all the geofences. A geofence can be drawn around any location that you do not want your fleet to visit. An alert can then be sent to your phone or email.

A landmark is similar to a geofence, but instead of a boundary it is a marker. A landmark is easier to create, but is less accurate than a geofence.

In most cases the unauthorized use will stop almost immediately once the drivers know that GPS tracking has been installed. A quick review of the GPS logs will indicate if any unauthorized stops occurred. The logs can be shared with the driver to help correct the behavior.

Efficient Fleets is a logistics company that uses GPS tracking and mapping to make your fleet safer, more efficient, and less expensive. For more information please contact us.

The post GPS Tracking Can Help Stop Unauthorized Vehicle Use appeared first on Efficient Fleets GPS Tracking.

A landmark status is an attribute that can used to describe the condition of a landmark. For example, if you have fueling sites as landmarks you could set their status to “active” to indicate they are working. It is not necessary to create a status in order to use landmarks.

Create Status
1. Go to Tools and Settings.
2. Click on Create Landmark Types and Status.
3. Click on Landmark Status.
4. Select the Landmark Type that you want to associate with the status.
5. Click on Add New Status. You should now see the Landmark Status Editor.
6. Choose an image.
7. Enter a Status Name.
8. Click on the Save button.

The post Landmark Status appeared first on Efficient Fleets GPS Tracking.

A landmark type is an attribute that you can add to a landmark to help organize your points-of-interest (POI). For example, a “customer” type would indicate that a POI is a customer. The type can be set when creating or editing a landmark. You can update a type in the landmark detail page.

Create Type

1. Click on the Tools/Settings tab.
2. Click on the Tools and Settings link.

3. Click on Create Landmark Types and Status.

4. Click on Add New Type. You should now see the Landmark Type Editor dialog box.
5. Choose an image.
6. Enter a name.
7. Click on the Save button.

The post Landmark Type appeared first on Efficient Fleets GPS Tracking.

The Fleet Management System can record every time a vehicle visits a landmark. The system records the date and time of every arrival and departure. You can run the Landmark Entry/Exit report to see the data. Follow the steps below to setup landmark visits.

1. Click on the next to the landmark that you want to edit.
2.  Click on the Additional Settings tab.
3.  Enter a buffer size into the Landmark Buffer (mi) textbox. See Importance of Buffer Size below for more details.
4.   Optional: change the Buffer Alert if you want to know when an item leaves a landmark. By default it is set to In, which tracks when a vehicle arrives at a landmark.
5.   Optional: click on the Generate Alerts? checkbox if you want to setup an alert whenever a vehicle enters or exits a landmark.
6.   Click on the Save button.

Importance of Buffer Size

The buffer size helps determine when a vehicle has visited a landmark. If the buffer size is set to .25 then every GPS location within ¼ of a mile of the POI will be considered to have visited that landmark. In general a smaller buffer is preferred because there will be less chance to catch locations that did not truly visit the landmark. For example, if a landmark represents a store located inside a shopping center and the buffer size is too big then a vehicle that was at stopped at the intersection would be considered visiting the landmark.

The post How to Setup Landmark Visits appeared first on Efficient Fleets GPS Tracking.

1. From the Dashboard, click on a group to enter the Group Editor.
2. Click on the Landmark tab.
3. Click on Add New.

4. You should now see the Landmark Detail page.
5. Enter a Landmark Name.
6. Enter an address, city, state, and zip code (optional).
7. Click on the Map Location button. You should now see the location of the landmark.
8. Click on the Save button.

The post How to Create Landmark or Point-of-Interest appeared first on Efficient Fleets GPS Tracking.