Fleet Management: Everything You Need to Know

Fleet Management is a solution that allows companies to minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improve efficiency, extend both worker and equipment productivity while reducing their overall costs.

How is Fleet Management used in Construction and Rental Fleets?

A fleet management solution uses telematics to track equipment, diagnose problems, record operating hours, and track vehicle maintenance. Most involve using a GPS tracker and telematics to transfer data from the equipment to a server, where the data is interpreted, then and displayed online for the fleet manager to view.

Fleet Management is different than Vehicle Management, which is primarily concerned with truck location, direction, speed, fuel use, and driver behavior.

How Does Fleet Tracking Work?

Simply put, the tracker is installed on your equipment, and uses satellites to locate its position and cellular service to report data back to the Fleet Manager. The data includes the equipment’s location, movement history, battery status, operating hours, and other useful functions. To learn more, view the complete explanation.

How can fleet management improve the life cycle of my equipment?

Fleet management can improve the longevity of your equipment in two ways:

SolarTrak tells you exactly when and for how long your equipment is operating. This is crucial for accurate billing, but the engine-hours also tell you how hard the equipment is running. After all, a shovel rented for 2 days but only used an hour each day will last longer than one rented for the same time but operated for 12 hours each day

By using Maintenance Reminders, you’ll ensure that your equipment will have a long and productive life. Getting parts serviced regularly is the equivalent of the equipment going regularly to the gym and the doctor: parts that are well-maintained and replaced when worn will enable the equipment to earn more money over its (longer) lifetime.

What kind of ROI can I expect from fleet tracking and in how long?

This is a tricky question because it depends on so many variables. It’s like asking all the dog owners on staff whose dog is the best (mine is).

If your fleet has a mix of new and older equipment, using SolarTrak’s maintenance alerts and reports can certainly keep income flowing by extending the life of all the equipment. By using the Engine-Hours report, you’ll be assured of capturing every billable rental hour. If your fleet is particularly large or scattered geographically, just being able to pinpoint location will be hugely beneficial.

Ask your sales rep for a rough idea of all the areas where SolarTrak will save you money. Or use our Cost Calculator.

Can small fleets benefit from fleet tracking?

Of course! In fact, many of our customers own 50 or fewer trackers. Using GPS trackers is one way owners of small fleets can erase the advantage that larger competitors have. If you can find and deliver equipment faster, work more efficiently, bill accurately and keep your fleet working longer, you win – regardless of size. Especially at such an affordable price!

What do I need to know before choosing a fleet management solution?

You should consider what data is most important to you, and how you’d like to manage it. But while you are deciding which solution to buy, here are some useful questions you should ask yourself:

How frequently do you need to check on your equipment? Vehicle trackers made for transportation companies check in nearly constantly – and cost more because of it.

Who needs to know the data? Spend some time investigating the Administrative Rights and general organization of the data. Your crew chief may be able to use Maintenance Alerts to plan the repair crew’s schedule.

Consult with your Equipment Manager as to whether Internal or external antenna would be safer or more effective for your particular equipment. Equipment that gets banged around a lot or is a prime theft target may want to hide trackers internally – whereas water tankers and generators generally are parked out of harm’s way.

If you are located in an area with poor cellular service, ask about the trackers reception.

Here’s more info on the features you’ll find most valuable:

Your next step…

Call us for a demo, and we’ll show you how SolarTrak works. Have more questions? Read how SolarTrak works with construction and rental fleets.