How GPS Tracking Improves Trailer Fleet Management

In today’s competitive business environment, being able to utilize your resources to their fullest potential is critical. If your company uses over the road, cartage and storage trailers maximizing the value of those rigs requires that you have real-time information on the location of each one as well as how the fleet is performing overall. This applies both to semi trailers you own and also on a semi trailers for rent or lease.

GPS tracking makes that data readily available, which is why our trailers have state-of-the art Spireon GPS tracking. Gone are the days when drivers needed to “check in” periodically and their location had to be extrapolated from their last contact. Fleet managers today can know exactly where a semi trailer is whenever they choose to check. And having that enhanced visibility makes managing a trailer fleet effectively and profitably much easier.

Operational Benefits of Semi Trailer GPS Tracking

When an over the road, cartage or storage semi trailer leaves the yard, being able to track its location does much more than simply provide a comfort level with where it is and how it is progressing along its route. There are many tangible benefits from using GPS tracking, whether for an owned trailer or a trailer for rent. They include:

• Simplified routing. GPS tracking takes the guesswork out of determining semi trailer locations, which makes it easier to dispatch rigs in the most efficient and effective way.
• Lower fuel costs. By identifying the best travel patterns, you reduce inefficiencies and wasted fuel, which decreases your expenses.
• Vehicle maintenance alerts. Diagnostics from GPS tracking systems can generate alerts that help ensure maintenance is performed as needed.
• Trend identification. By applying analytics to GPS tracking data, you can spot operational trends and take action to correct or continue them as appropriate. For example, you might see that one of your locations appears to have a trailer shortage while another has trailers sitting idle. If that is the case, you can reallocate resources to resolve the issue.
• Productivity tracking. Monitoring driver performance enables you to make assignments in a way that maximizes productivity and profitability.
• Behavior identification and training. Actions such as speeding or long idling times can have a negative impact on business results. GPS tracking allows you to identify those behaviors and provide training as needed.
• Theft deterrence. Semi trailers that have location tracking and breadcrumb trail functionality are not an attractive target to thieves. And, if a theft does occur, tracking technology makes it easier to find and recover the trailer.
• Enhanced compliance. The operation of trailers involves complying with a number of rules and regulations. GPS tracking provides data that can help confirm you are in compliance or make changes to achieve and maintain compliance.
• Geofencing. Tracking capability can be used to create virtual fences. Then, the system can tell you when and how often trailers are inside and outside the boundaries you have defined.
• Need-driven fleet growth. When all of your semi trailers are being used to their maximum potential, you don’t have to add to your fleet to accommodate poor scheduling practices. Instead, additions can be made as needed to accommodate business growth.
• Improved customer satisfaction and more business. Being able to tell a customer the precise location of the shipment they are expecting gives them confidence in your capabilities, creates a positive impression, and can lead to more business with them as well as possible referral business.

From aggregate statistics to individual trailer details, the availability of real-time data is very eye-opening and tends to produce immediate and significant operational and behavioral changes.

Semi Trailer Fleet GPS Tracking by the Numbers

The list of benefits of semi trailer fleet GPS tracking above is not based on conjecture. There is plenty of real-world data to support it. For example, survey results published by Spireon on small- to medium-sized businesses using tracking solutions showed that:

• 100% reported fuel savings (50% reported savings of 10%)
• 33% reported a reduction in idle time (by as much as 10%)
• 46% reported reduced driver speeding
• 62% reported increased business efficiency
• 35% reported improved fleet safety
• 10% reported downtime reductions (by as much as 53%)
• 86% reported increased driver location awareness

How can your organization benefit from the use of GPS tracking and to what degree? That, of course, depends on the specifics of your operations. However, it is clear that the technology provides the opportunity for significant improvement.

GPS Tracking: Simplifying Semi Trailer Leasing

At Boxwheel, we live by the motto “Trailer Leasing Made Simple.” The Spireon GPS tracking on our trailers is one of the ways we make it easier for you to manage your fleet. Where, specifically, can you put that capability to use? We’re happy to talk with you about your business goals and how real-time tracking can help you achieve them. Let’s talk and put our motto to work.