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With the high costs of gas and labor these days, any trip by a service vehicle that takes the long way around can have a noticeable effect on the bottom line. Knowing where your crews are, how they got there and where they stopped along the way is information worth having. Keeping track of all your service vehicles throughout the day and providing your service personnel with the best routes for all stops can improve productivity and reduce fleet expenses.

Installing a wireless GPS device that transmits ground positioning and performance information over a wireless or cellular network to an Internet-based computer system is a smart choice for electrical contractors who want to watch the dollar, boost customer service and eliminate vehicle abuse.

A well-equipped automated fleet tracking and management system can keep track of every service vehicle, 24 hours, seven days a week, ensuring that time and gas are spent efficiently on company business.

Fleet tracking systems are categorized as either active (real-time) or passive.

Active solutions are Internet based and feature real-time monitoring, for which users pay a one-time activation fee and a monthly service fee. They use a wireless, cellular or satellite system to receive and transmit data between each vehicle and the office or a wireless mobile device. The software may download data gathered constantly at intervals ranging from as short as a minute to, perhaps, hourly.

Passive solutions utilize a GPS transceiver/data recorder in each vehicle and PC equipment and software in the office (typically purchased outright, with no other fees involved). The data is transferred to the office software through a local wireless connection or a memory stick when the vehicle is brought back at the end of a shift or day, at which point management can view or print reports of the vehicle's activities.

Common recording options available with both active and passive systems include speed and mileage traveled by each vehicle (which can help identify overly aggressive speeding drivers and help improve safety), time of the trip, time at each stop (service or otherwise), and whether the vehicle has exceeded the boundaries of the geofence (the virtual boundary of your geographic service area), which could aid in detecting an unauthorized side job on company time or unauthorized after-hours use of company vehicle. Some solutions also indicate whether or not the engine is idling for extended periods, which squanders gas.

Full-featured systems also may include data-collecting on rate of acceleration and deceleration and vehicle diagnostics. Other types of reports may include fleet summary, which can reveal work flow patterns of individual technicians and can be used to corroborate timesheets, and fleet status, which can show dispatchers the location of every technician's vehicle.