5 shocking Ways GPS Vehicle Tracking Has Been Used

We often talk about the benefits of GPS fleet tracking from a business operations perspective – and there are plenty.

Trucking companies who use fleet tracking find they’re able to make better use of their drivers’ time by sending them on more efficient routes and cutting out paperwork. They’re also making better use of the maintenance and back office team’s time by efficiently tracking telematics details that feed into invoices, timesheets and can lead effective maintenance schedules. Construction fleets can improve asset utilisation by gaining valuable insight into where and when equipment is being used, making data-driven decisions around assets.

Over the years, we’ve also heard some fun, surprising and shocking stories about how our customers have used our GPS tracking system. Brace yourselves:

1. Finding stolen assets costing over US$160,000 — Sherwood Construction, who are based in the Midwest of the US, used our software to solve equipment theft. The GPS tracking data led them — and the police — to the exact barn their stolen loader backhoe was in. The technology also revealed the location of another stolen skid-steer loader. These would have cost over US$160,000 to replace and recovering either by itself would have paid for the entire technology system.

2. High-speed police chase — A limousine company customer found themselves in a similar scenario with a stolen limousine. The fleet manager was able to use the vehicle tracking data and acted as dispatch to the police, as they chased down the limo.

3. Catching a wife in the act — Shopping, that is. One fleet owner decided to put a GPS tracking system on his wife’s car, setting up geofencing to alert him when her vehicle was headed into the carpark of their local mall. We assume there were some cost-savings made in that situation.

4. Prevent a “Gone in 60 Seconds”-like theft — Trailer and transport equipment company Atlas Copco opted to have GPS tracking devices installed right on at manufacturing line. When one of its trailers disappeared at a rental location, corporate used the GPS tracking to bust the “inside job” and recover it the very next day…. from a local ship yard, ready to transport it overseas.

5. Tax payer savings of over US$170,000 per year – While we can’t say who, one government entity in the US that we worked with was able to uncover US$170,000 in annual cost savings by reallocating vehicles that often sat unused in one office’s parking lot to another nearby office that was constantly having to rent or buy vehicles for its workers.

To learn more about GPS vehicle tracking and how you can use it, click here.