How Will Your Drivers Like Fleet GPS Tracking?

Every trucking company has one, a driver, probably goes by the name of Chuck or Tex. He has been with your company for about thirty years or more, getting a bit near the time that he should be thinking of retirement, and being a home a bit more with his family. He is a good driver, reliable and hard working. Seen a lot and done a lot. And you have the pleasant job of telling him that the company is about to install a GPS transmitter in all the company trucks, including his.

And you know what his reaction is going to be. Every other driver you have informed till now has been upset, some even angry. Accusing us of being like "big brother". And Chuck was the meanest and baddest of them all. So your approach Chuck, barely able to look him in the eye, and expecting to get met with a barrage of verbal abuse, in a language that only truck drivers can use. Imagine your surprise when you see Chuck looking down sheepishly, and with a smile on his face admits "I know they're good for the company, and every worthwhile trucking company has installed them a long while ago." Chuck stunned me by saying, "I was wondering when we were going to get round to installing them in our trucks."

With Chuck on my side, the rest of the drivers got onboard easily. I explained to them the savings in costs, and the rise in efficiency would bring such a major boost to our company's cost savings and boost our sales. And when I told them we would be giving them some of these savings back in the form of performance bonuses, their enthusiasm increased even more.

They were very receptive when I invited a representative of the company who would be installing the GPS transmitters into our trucks, to explain what the benefits would be. He explained the basics of the technology behind the GPS systems. They were told that location tracking is not a single technology. Instead, GPS is a convergence of several technologies, merged to create a system that can track inventory, livestock or vehicle fleets.

The three technologies that are being utilized to create location-tracking and location-based systems include:
  1. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - In order to operate the systems it is necessary to implement a global scale location-tracking grid, to capture and store all the geographic information required. Once implemented, GIS stores, analyzes and reports geographic information.
  2. Global Positioning System (GPS) - The GPS system is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites, originally launched by the US defence department for military purposes. At all times there are 24 satellites in operation, with three held in reserve? A GPS receiver, even the one in your mobile phone, can locate four or more of these satellites at any time. Data generated will calculate distance to each of the satellites, and deduce your location. For trucking companies this is very significant information to have at their fingertips.
  3. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - these small, batteries-less microchips that can be attached to anything to read certain pre-programmed signals. It is an excellent tracking devise to place in a vehicle, especially if it or the goods carried have been stolen.

At the end of the evening, off went our drivers, with Chuck leading the way, to down a few cold ones and discuss the wonders of Fleet GPS Tracking and how it was going to affect their lives in the future. And only for the better.