The electrical industry has been faced with a very unfavourable economic environment and many companies have been forced to abandon growth plans and focus on maintaining turnover. As a consequence, employing shrewd operating tactics has become essential for those striving to keep a lid on costs and increase business efficiencies. Investment in innovative technologies can play a major role in helping to achieve these goals. For organisations with fleets of vehicles, leading the way in these technologies is vehicle tracking.
Regardless of fleet size the effectiveness of vehicle tracking in reducing operating costs, improving efficiency and increasing productivity is well documented. Companies are known to have saved hundreds of thousands of pounds through enhanced vehicle routing, eliminating private or unauthorised mileage and achieving better allocation of vehicles to jobs.
Increases in productivity can be generated in a number of ways. For example, Navman Wireless’s combined tracking, messaging and navigation technology makes vehicles visible at the click of a mouse – allowing companies to locate, communicate and direct drivers to the nearest job within seconds. This negates the need for employees to plan routes in advance and stops them getting lost or taking indirect routes and covering unnecessary miles.
Recent research by the Institute of Transport Management (ITM) has shown that vehicle tracking cuts 14% off an average fuel bill. Vehicle tracking can also supply employers with detailed data, not only of where vehicles are, but also about how they are being driven. This allows companies to significantly lower fuel costs as well as important knock-on reductions in carbon emissions.
Fuel-saving features include over-speed reports which provide information on how economically vehicles have been driven – a valuable tool considering recent research has shown that driving at 90mph can use as much as 60% more fuel than at 70mph.
With evidence suggesting that every 10 minutes of vehicle idling burns one tenth of a litre in fuel, users will also benefit from alerts that show when vehicles are stationary but engines have been left running. Indeed, one Navman Wireless customer recently calculated an impressive saving of more than £25,000 a year by cutting back on vehicle engine idling times alone.
A recent survey by ATS Euromaster suggested that up to 45% of businesses are victims of expense fraud, including missing petrol receipts and exaggerated mileage claims.
Having full visibility and control over its mobile workforce helped one Navman Wireless customer - operating seven vehicles – to eradicate unauthorised use of company vehicles and saving the firm £31,000 per year.
A case-study of Coventry-based commercial and industrial cabling provider J&B Electrical also highlighted the cost-savings that can arise from vehicle tracking’s timesheet reporting function – a facility which helps users minimise inaccurate overtime claims. Andrew Johnson, operations director at J&B Electrical said: "After installing the technology we immediately started saving £500 per week in and within the first month of use, the technology had paid for itself."
With cash continuing to be viewed as king, investment in new technologies isn’t regarded as a priority for many. However, the returns on investment on vehicle tracking solutions are compelling - by cutting just four miles a day in avoidable mileage for a transit van, businesses can expect to save enough on fuel alone to pay for the technology.