GPS Insight is now offering a complementary publication, 2013 Buyers Guide, which offers fleet managers a method for acquiring telematics right for their operations. The guide starts with “Top 5 Criteria to Keep in Mind During the Buying Process.” One of these methods is taking a good look at your return on investment when making the telematics purchase. Calculating how much the technology will reduce your fleet costs is a starting point. Finding applications that are highly configurable and that look at the widest range of fleet metrics is another part of the analysis. Your fleet may need to access and analyze metrics that are insignificant elsewhere, such as an urban delivery fleet versus a sales force sedan fleet.
Another section of the whitepaper offers questions to ask that typically come up for fleets these days – such as mobile applications accessible from smart phones and tablets. Another issue is finding out if the system allows for precise landmark creation – a critical part of the process for fleets to integrate a new technology that fits their driver routines. With that comes the alerts specific to your fleet, and they need to be configurable to effectively manage for driver safety and efficiency. Another good question when analyzing telematics is how well the GPS system integrates with your fuel card provider. What data is needed, and how is driver identification managed and protected?
GPS Insight also made another announcement recently – the company has upgraded its dashboard mapping and browser-based mapping to Google Maps. Users now have access to more functionality and faster load times. Through Google Maps, GPS Insight users can now access best of class maps, addressing, traffic, satellite imagery, as well as a new “Street View” option for customers which provides actual photographs of a vehicle’s location.