GPS technology is an excellent tool for any business or company. Delivery companies in particular are reaping huge benefits that GPS tracking has to offer in terms of efficiency, profitability, security, and precision. Installing vehicles with GPS monitoring units, for example, assures numerous benefits and endless possibilities. Its impact on fleet management has been invaluable.

In recent years, online delivery services have become popular as more and more people prefer home delivery, be it food items, electronic goods, or clothing. The delivery vehicles dispatched by these services carry numerous important items, packages, and even documents.

It's the delivery companies' responsibility to turn over the items safely to their customers. In businesses like this, promptness, safety, and customer satisfaction are obviously huge factors.

GPS trackers offer a smart location management system that enables delivery companies to easily track driver activities, vehicle location, and delivery status. The placement of these tiny devices will allow companies to easily track inventory items, monitor their status and position, and create a smart warehouse system.

With the help of GPS tracking technology, employees will be able to successfully prevent any losses, ensure safe storage of goods, as well as efficiently locate an item needed. Once goods are delivered or have arrived at a certain place, the manager is notified by a push message.

Being able to monitor products throughout will increase security and boost the quality of the products. This will help managers ensure timely deliveries, minimize theft, and have an overall view of the operation to help in decision-making.

Key Takeaways

• Efficiency and Security: GPS tracking enhances route optimization, reduces fuel consumption, and improves security against theft.
• Driver and Inventory Monitoring: Monitors vehicle performance, driver behavior, and cargo condition in real-time.
• Predictive Maintenance: Schedules repairs proactively, minimizing operational disruptions.
• Customer Satisfaction: Ensures timely deliveries and accurate ETAs, improving client relationships and reducing insurance premiums.

Speed and driver monitoring

Delivery vehicle information such as location, speed, acceleration, brakes, RPM, fuel efficiency, and engine data are among the vital information that some GPS trackers can gather and analyse. Its live tracking system allows you to receive this data automatically once the predefined limits are breached.

Tracking this data is necessary to avoid unnecessary wear and tear and vehicular accidents due to driving habits. Suitable GPS tracking devices like Tracki enable you to monitor all these.

Inventory monitoring

GPS trackers monitor not only vehicles but its cargo too. It's a big help in delivery monitoring and inventory by keeping a list and organizing the different types of cargo into the correct car. With delivery GPS tracking, losing or having items stolen can be avoided. Once delivered, time of arrival is automatically recorded into the system and can be seen by authorized remote users.

Freight condition

Some factories regularly receive shipments of perishable or sensitive goods that only stay fresh for a short time and/or require specific environmental conditions to maintain quality.

Using GPS trackers, you can now tag a crate of eggs or a barrel of milk and monitor the humidity in the storage area, the temperature of the product, and the shock and vibration levels these items experience during shipment. You can use this information to notify truck drivers of damaged shipments long before they arrive at your factory and to get a new shipment on its way.

Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance in GPS tracking allows delivery companies to monitor vehicles and predict quality issues and upcoming maintenance and conduct necessary repairs on schedule to help minimize disruptions to normal operations—instead of forcing companies and clients to react to sudden, unexpected breakdowns.

By providing insights into when and where parts are needed, delivery GPS tracking greatly helps reduce expensive, rushed shipping costs for spares, making it easier to save money.

By lessening time-consuming maintenance, predictive maintenance systems increase fleet availability.

Freight/cargo condition monitoring

Some factories regularly receive shipments of perishable or sensitive goods that only stay fresh for a short time, and/or require specific environmental conditions to maintain quality. Using specialized GPS trackers, you can now equip a crate of eggs or a barrel of milk and monitor the humidity in the storage area, the temperature of the goods, and the shock and vibration levels these items experience during shipment.

With immediate insight into potential damage, you can fix a temperature setting, send a replacement shipment, or warn your customer right away. In addition, you can identify exactly when and where the damage occurred and adjust your route accordingly for future shipments. You can use this information to notify truck drivers and clients of damaged shipments long before they arrive at your factory and to get a new shipment on its way.

Reduced fuel consumption

Recent studies indicate that transport industries have reported the significant reduction in fuel usage as the biggest advantage of GPS tracking. The use of a GPS tracking system mainly gives better route options for locomotive drivers.

Choosing which routes to take makes locomotive driving more efficient, saving companies time and money. In doing so, vehicles with GPS tracking can eliminate unnecessary costs and reduce unproductive work. This reduces the time a driver has to spend on the road, resulting in faster delivery arrivals and lesser fuel expenses.

Theft detection

Right now, one of the biggest areas of interest from top companies in various industries is reducing theft of property or products. With delivery GPS tracking, the logistics industry can implement preventative measures, reducing theft of goods and property for a minimal investment.

The geofence feature in GPS trackers detects theft by immediately notifying you when the cargo equipped with the device is taken outside a predefined safe zone or beyond business hours, thereby improving the security of goods. Moreover, delivery GPS tracking can alert operators whenever a vehicle enters or leaves the company premises.

GPS tracking systems can be designed to alert you when tampering occurs, and the system as a whole can be architecture to maintain security even if a specific device has been compromised.

Employee tracking in general

Various studies show that when field employees are aware that their performance is being tracked, including their driving behaviours, they are most likely to follow rules and therefore improve their productivity. Some employees are more efficient in the morning, others at night. In order to maximize performance, by tracking workers’ efficiency, you can then suggest certain employees that they can work in shifts in order to achieve their greatest level of efficiency. 

With GPS trackers, you will also be able to monitor your employees’ productivity—which of them are efficient and which are not. The tracking system can record the number and duration of each downtime, as well as unauthorized usage of company assets.

All you have to do is either have a GPS tracking app installed on your employee’s mobile device or have your employees carry stand-alone GPS devices. Geofence the building where your business is, and once an employee arrives at the building, the app or the GPS tracker will activate and start tracking their time.

Also, you can easily set up areas of coverage for different teams and workers. Simply use your GPS map, divide your town, geofence each area, and assign teams and workers to each one. This way, your teams will be more efficient and there won’t be any mix-ups. Each task will be allocated to an employee in a specific area of coverage, and all information can be easily checked and kept track of.

Lastly, a GPS tracker is one of the simplest and most effective ways of keeping your workforce safe. Choose an app or tracker like Tracki, which has an SOS button that can send an alarm message to administrators, informing you of emergencies.

Lesser insurance premiums

Many insurance companies reduce their premiums if a GPS tracker for delivery companies is installed. Companies do not need to sacrifice their current coverage by doing so, saving the company a lot of money. Additionally, a GPS tracking device can be beneficial in case of an accident involving your trucks. The device records every movement made in your vehicle, justifying that your driver did no wrong if false accusations were made. Contact your insurance company regarding their policies of GPS-installed vehicles.

Customer satisfaction

A bad habit that most businesses do is attracting new customers all the while neglecting the old ones. This more often than not results in a lack of growth in clientele. With delivery GPS tracking, companies can prioritize both new and old customers.

Company vehicles can deliver goods on time more often, relay timely reports of the condition of goods, help clients prevent damages, ensures that you would be able to respond to customers in case of delay, calculate the estimated time of delivery for them, and therefore maintain healthy business relationships with them through the help of GPS technology. Delivery GPS tracking, hence, increases employee productivity and positive feedback.

Conclusion

The world is entering a new era in logistics, one where it is feasible to supervise the complete supply chain in real time by tracking containers, pallets, trailers, trucks, cargo, and even employees anywhere, anytime, cheaply, and using little energy. The above are just a few examples of how GPS can be used to transform delivery companies and, ultimately, the logistics industry.

There is much more that the new technology can do to solve many delivery companies’ challenges. The transformation has already hit the ground, but more is expected in the next 2 to 3 years.