Why drivers benefit from vehicle tracking

Posted by Satrak on 24.04.2017

Drivers are often wary of vehicle tracking technology, especially if it is not their idea to install it in the first place, but the benefits both to drivers and to their employers are many and varied.

Here are just a few of the compelling reasons why vehicle tracking technology is good news for drivers, and not just for their employers.

Drive safely

Over time, any driver can slip into bad habits – setting off a bit too sharply, braking too late, and not making the best use of the gearbox during acceleration.

For fleet owners this means wasted fuel, but there are also safety concerns for the driver, who might leave it too late to attempt braking in a large lorry with a heavy load, especially in adverse weather conditions.

Monitoring the driving style over time can allow you to help individuals identify aspects of their driving that they could give more attention to, and keep them safely on the roads for longer without incident.

Never alone

For some long-distance drivers, solitude is a welcome break from being surrounded by other people all the time, but it can also be a vulnerability if an incident occurs when nobody else is around to see it happen.

Vehicle tracking gives you full visibility of every vehicle in your fleet to within two metres, every two minutes. If a car, van or lorry is out of place, you can spot it immediately and attempt to make contact with the driver.

If you can’t get an answer from the driver, you have an exact location of where the vehicle is, and can call out the emergency services if necessary to check that nobody has been hurt or that the vehicle may have crashed.

Quick recovery

If your fleet has specific drivers for specific vehicles, it’s likely that your employees feel quite attached to their particular car or lorry, and in many cases it may be a more constant companion than any of their human colleagues are.

When a vehicle is stolen, it can leave the driver without their own set of wheels, or facing the task of familiarising themselves with a new car or truck without any prior warning.

Vehicle tracking technology makes it much more likely that you will recover a stolen vehicle, that you will do so within 24-48 hours, and that it will still be in a drivable condition.

It can also serve as a deterrent against vehicle theft, or increase the chances of catching the thieves, and all of this demonstrates to your drivers that you care about protecting their car or van, even if it is company-owned.

Fuel goes further

Refuelling a heavy goods vehicle en route is a hassle – it can take half an hour from leaving the motorway to rejoining the carriageway, once you factor in the time taken to park in the right position and actually top up the tank, and that’s without even allowing for a comfort break.

Vehicle tracking technology encourages smoother acceleration and braking, which in turn maximises fuel economy, so that you get the most miles out of every litre or gallon in the tank.

In turn, this keeps your vehicles moving for longer between refuelling stops, allowing you to plan tighter schedules or allow longer for rest stops and to negotiate any road works or congestion – all of which should make the job a lot more enjoyable for your drivers, who are less likely to be put behind schedule by unplanned pit stops.

Take it with you

Finally, as Satrak vehicle tracking technology can be transferred from one vehicle to another, it means you can keep the same tracking device allocated to the same individual driver when they get a vehicle upgrade.

In this way you get consistent reporting of their driving style and can easily compare whether anything has changed once they take the wheel of a new truck or car.

Changing vehicle can be challenging for even the best of drivers, but vehicle tracking technology means that once again, your driver is not alone, but has the full support of you as their employer when it comes to monitoring any potential risks in their driving, and helping them to improve their use of the new vehicle.