The MIT Sloan Management Review reports the results of a study that found that 31% of corporate respondents say that sustainability is contributing to their profits. 2/3 say that sustainability is necessary to being competitive. According to the report, a new group of ‘Harvesters’ are emerging, not only implementing initiatives such as lowering carbon emissions, reducing energy consumption or investing in clean tech, but also driving significant organizational change.  The good news is these change agents are getting the support they need from the boardrooms.  This is encouraging news sustainability leaders and companies who are just starting to adopt the initiatives and are looking for confirmation that this is the right path.

While the whole sustainability movement may seem a bit out of reach for many small businesses, a simple start with GPS tracking provides fleet managers with the information they need to reduce emissions, lower fuel consumption and maintain their vehicles better for longer use. With a high ROI, it’s a win-win – for your bottom line and for the Earth.

Today’s article in the Financial Times “Big Brother takes the wheel” provides one example of how GPS technology is being embraced by governments as a way to gather information for improving driver safety. In that vein, the EU has required that all new cars have telematics technology by 2015.  And, yes, it has caused many discussions related to invasion of privacy for this purpose and the potential use for other purposes.  The article discusses the insurance industry’s use of the technology to date and their hopes to gather more accurate data when the new law is imposed for developing insurance premiums based on specific driving behaviors and assigned to that particular insurance subscriber.  While many of us don’t like the implications of  Big Brother in our personal vehicles, but we do need to take note of this trend as it works its way to the US.

Our focus at BlackBox GPS, of course, is on trends in the commercial fleet industry and how it affects our customers.   I’m a firm believer that knowledge is power.  The more conscious drivers are of the risks they are taking, the more likely they are to improve driving behavior.  That’s a good reason to track the driving behavior such as speeding, hard braking (a pattern with indicates tailgating and aggressive driving), hard acceleration, etc. and use the results over time to train fleet drivers.

Insurance companies have long used  statistics to develop their insurance premiums based on risks due to accidents, driver citations, age, gender, metro vs. rural driving, etc., so that is nothing new.  With GPS tracking data, they now have a way to track this data better and to allocate that risk to specific drivers based on their individual driving behaviors.  Ideally, that means lower-risk drivers will experience lower premiums–I’m sure you get the drift.  Fleet managers using GPS tracking services can use that data now, providing essential feedback to the drivers of fleet vehicles, reducing risks in the process and preparing for the day when insurance companies catch up to the technology available.

This is a time of gratitude and reflection. Best wishes for a joyful, restful holiday with family and friends. From all of us at BlackBox GPS

GPS Tracking has many business benefits including cost reduction (payroll, maintenance, fuel, insurance premiums) and improved efficiency. It is quickly becoming a necessity as well for risk management as fleet managers need better ways to control risks associated with rolling stock (e.g. your trucks and the assets in them). Of interest in particular is how to best use the data collected from GPS tracking systems to get better at educating drivers and their managers by engaging them in a positive way. As with any interaction with employees, how the message is delivered will often determine how well it is accepted and how effective  is the response.  Tracking specific events rather than using general statistics will increase validity of the message as well.

GPS tracking allows the fleet manager to gather data in real time instead of relying only on vehicle inspections or driver representation. With our BlackBox GPS 3S Locator, for example, the fleet manager can receive alerts for hard braking and hard acceleration events in addition to speeding. One such event occurring by itself does not give us enough information to determine if any behavior change is warranted. But looking for patterns by comparing driver statistics over a period of time, multiple drivers in a fleet of similar vehicles and route conditions (e.g. city vs. highway), etc. will provide the most revealing information that can be used to educate drivers about driving behaviors and their effects on the vehicles and increased potential for accidents.

This analysis holds true with other employee patterns too, such as start and stop times, entering and leaving identified areas, idle times, etc.  Various uses and analysis can be made to understand employee behavior, the impact on operations and the potential for risks.  The power of GPS tracking is not only in routing features, location services, event notifications and other real time uses, but the data available over time is most revealing and provides the best research for educating– that which is unique to the fleet and drivers being managed.

Welcome to our blog….this site is contributed to by our BlackBox GPS employees as we hope to inform or comment on issues relevant to the GPS tracking world and fleet management. Forgive us if we occasionally digress into other business issues that may seem tangential, but well, that we are interested in, excited about or feel you might just benefit from knowing more about it!

More later…..thanks for visiting!