How do I monitor my trucks? Explained!

If you belong to the transportation business, before we go ahead, I would like you to answer this simple poll below. Indeed, majority of the transportation business owners all over the world are facing the challenge of monitoring trucks. Additionally, increasing fuel costs and heavy maintenance expenses are rotting the truck business from within, restricting growth.  

Therefore, it is practically impossible to keep an eye on the fleet of trucks operating for your business, hence, technology is the only way forward. 

Amid this, a solution that has become the need of the hour is IOT i.e. Internet of Things. In this write-up, we will talk about IOT and its role in logistics and transportation. 

But before that, let us take a look at why monitoring truck is important. 

Challenges and Importance of Monitoring Trucks

Poor maintenance

The first and foremost challenge truck companies face is maintaining their trucks. However, if you are a fleet owner, you must have experienced difficulty to monitor trucks. 

It includes the driver’s behavior, what speed he is driving the truck at, whether he is driving rashly or not, and many more such things that are vital for the longevity of your truck. For eg. In case of an accident, it gets difficult to judge whose mistake it was. 

Truck maintenance is a costly affair and negligence can cost you a big buck. If controlled, on the other hand, the expenses can be reduced and the profit increased. 

Also Read

Why Last Mile Delivery Logistics Solutions Can Disrupt Logistics?

Heavy fuel costs  

In a truck business, the majority of money is spent on fuel. This results in fuel bills that can touch the sky if the truck is not being driven properly. 

It involves rash driving, over-braking, wasted mileage, and much more. However, if the driving is proper, the truck will give better mileage, and imagine how much cost it would be saving. 

Mismanagement 

Surprisingly, drivers hand over your truck to an unknown person, which can lead to serious damages or offenses. It can even lead to loss or theft of your truck. 

To avoid these kinds of circumstances, a fleet management system is a must that lets you track your truck in real-time and also reveals the location of your truck. 

What is IoT? 

The Internet of things is referred to as a process of interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data. 

For eg. Adding internet to the telematic control units in a vehicle. 

Additionally, IoT has a lot of benefits and can be a great boon for the transportation and logistics industry. That results in industry growth at a rapid pace and offers solutions to a lot of problems in the trucking industry. 

One of them is truck monitoring. 

Truck Monitoring and how it works? 

Truck monitoring is the process of tracking your truck through a GPS device. The GPS (Global Positioning System) relies on a global radio navigation system and uses data from a satellite network.

It gathers information about the location of a truck and sends it to a central location. Not only the location, GPS trackers are smart hardware devices that, when installed in your truck, can reveal a lot of data about the behavior of your truck to the software integrated with it.

GPS tracking is utilized today not only in trucking business but in many other applications too. 

Here’s how a GPS truck monitoring system works in your fleet:

• Install a GPS tracking device in each truck or asset you want to track.
• Signals are transmitted from the satellite to the receiver.
• The receiver calculates the distance between itself and the satellites in real-time.
• A report is created showing your truck’s travel distance or movement, coordinates, and speed.
• A wireless or cellular network transmits the data to the GPS server.
• GPS servers allow end-users to access reports in real-time from their computer, smartphone or tablet.
• End-users can set up automated alerts for the information that is most relevant to their needs.

Source: Monitor Your Truck

Benefits of a Truck Monitoring System

Real-time tracking 

GPS allows you to collect important data about the movement of your truck. 

It tells you about the exact real-time location where your truck is traveling and when it is stopping in between. 

It provides the current status which also aids in allocation. 

Performance Monitoring

The GPS monitors the behavior of the driver, the driving pattern, and the performance. GPS can detect over-speeding, rash driving, over-braking, and forceful acceleration. 

It also creates a detailed report of the drivers performances so that it becomes easy to analyze their behaviors and provides concrete info on vehicle usage by the drivers. 

Continuous monitoring of your vehicle leads to more safety and less insurance costs. 

Also Read

What is Vehicle Management and why is it important in Warehouse Logistics?

Fuel consumption

A GPS device can also tell you about the truck’s fuel consumption. It can give you metrics like the total distance covered and fuel consumption in a day. 

It also alerts you of the idle time, wasted mileage, aggressive driving, after hours usage, speeding and many more other things that are essential for fuel saving. 

Route Optimisation 

Another big benefit of a tracking system is route optimisation which can save you fuel and overall costs. GPS provides you with the best and shortest route possible. Also, it lets you find the nearest driver to your destination for allocation. 

A fleet tracking system is a must for your business in today’s scenario. It provides you with flexibility and transparency so that you can run your business more efficiently. 

If you are interesting in integrating IOT to grow and optimise your business, we are here to assist you.

Look no further and contact us today.