GPS Insight Blog » fleet tracking solution

Jun 30 2012

More expensive GPS System beats that of a low cost one by $70/month

Category: Extreme Return on Investment,Fleet Tracking,GPS Fleet Tracking,GPS Tracking — rdonat @ 10:10 am

There is a fantastic article written by Chris Wolski which was just published in Automotive Fleet which talks about Telematics adoption and ROI rates over the past several years (2008-2011). [based on a survey taken by ARI, Donlen, and PHH]

The article is here.

It states that the range of MONTHLY ROI for a telematics initiative in 2011 was $185 – $225 (up significantly from $80-150 in 2008):

GPS Initiative ROI 2008-2011

What the article does NOT mention is service prices, and the fact that the range in monthly ROI is very likely attributable to the overall capabilities of the GPS tracking solution chosen (e.g. bare-bones vs. high-end).

Amortizing the survey’s stated cost of the hardware over 4 years makes a $3.13 monthly difference between low and high-end.

Today’s service prices tend to range between $25 and $33 per month per vehicle and correlate to hardware costs (e.g. higher priced hardware tends to have higher priced service and ultimately higher ABSOLUTE ROI).

I did some basic math in Excel and calculated the PERCENTAGE ROI (vs. the ABSOLUTE ROI of $185-$225 provided in Chris’s article).

I found the percentage ROI was 734% for the low end solution, and 733% for the high end solution. The percentage ROI is the SAME between low and high end solutions!

ROI % for high end and low-end GPS are both ~733%!

Therefore, companies are going to save an EXTRA $70 per month, per vehicle, according to the survey (taken by ARI/Donlen/PHH), by purchasing a higher end gps fleet tracking solution.

Within 2 1/2 months, the extra cost of the better solution has paid off for the incremental $150 in hardware and $3.13 per month.

And over the next 45 1/2 months (assuming a 4 year life on the hardware), an extra $3,185 flows to the bottom line PER VEHICLE.

For 100 vehicles, that’s $318,500. And that’s ON TOP OF THE LOW END ROI — a total ROI of $1,224,000!

Obviously your exact savings will differ, but if you trust ARI, Donlen, and PHH, 3 of the biggest fleet leasing companies in the space, the message is clear:

Buy a higher end GPS Tracking solution and SAVE MORE!

I always use the following analogy when talking about ROI between a low end and high end GPS tracking solution (e.g. one which has more reports, more adaptability, better alerts and maps, and more API’s, etc.):

If you can buy a bar of SILVER for $25, that’s a great deal, and will give you fantastic ROI.

If you can alternately buy a MORE EXPENSIVE bar of GOLD for $40, your ROI is VASTLY more than if you purchased the bar of silver.

Better ROI for paying extra for a bar of gold vs. silver

The bar of gold costs more, but will yield significantly more ROI if you pay the small premium.

We hear this ALL THE TIME — “we went with the lower cost solution.”

Unfortunately it’s not about absolute cost — it’s about the OPPORTUNITY COST of not going with a solution that will really fit your costly business challenges in a way that a higher end (and slightly more costly) solution does. And by the way, those customers usually cancel and go with higher end solutions later on once they determine this for themselves. I hope this article helps companies from making the wrong “penny-wise, pound-foolish” decision.

Thanks again for the great article Chris.

Here is a link to the charts in that article.

Thanks,

Rob.

Tags: avl system, Extreme Return on Investment, extreme ROI, fleet management system, Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking companies, fleet tracking solution, fleet tracking system, gps fleet systems, GPS System, gps systems, gps tracker, GPS Tracking, gps vehicle tracking, Vehicle Tracking, vehicle tracking system

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Jun 24 2012

Powerful new capabilities for Custom Categories and Attributes

Category: CUSTOM APPLICATIONS OF GPS INSIGHT,Custom Categories and Attributes,Fleet Tracking,Fleet Tracking System,GPS Fleet Tracking,GPS Tracking,Mapping,New Features,New Features — rdonat @ 12:57 pm

We recently added new custom categories and attributes to GPS Insight for any customer to add highly business specific data to their vehicles, drivers, users, landmarks, and hierarchy nodes.

There are some new ways to utilize this feature, as well as custom filtering coming soon to the 2D map screen. These filters will eventually support report, alerts, API’s, etc.

For instance, you will be able to click the new “attributes and categories” button on 2D mapping (shown below) and add HIGHLY CUSTOM filters for which vehicles are shown:

New Attributes and Categories in GPS Insight 2D Mapping

In this example, I am filtering on only vehicles which EITHER are Route Number less than or equal to #15 (e.g. 1-15) OR BOTH a Corporate Vehicle with BOTH a Compressor AND Winch:

Highly Custom Filter in GPS Insight

Once I save that filter, only some of the vehicles remain, and when I choose one (Andrew PNP) I can tab to the “Custom” tab in 2D mapping and see how that vehicle matches our filter:

Since it was EITHER [any] (not both), the fact that the route #8 is less than/equal to 15 which causes this vehicle to be chosen, not the Specialized Equipment, since it doesn’t have a Winch in addition to the Compressor and Corporate ownership.

Filter Vehicles in GPS Insight Mapping

Note that there is a convenient “Edit: Attributes” link which takes me to the proper screen where I can add that winch, or something appropriate:

Edit Categories and Attributes in GPS Insight

You just need to click the “green check” between “Specialized Equipment” and the vehicle icon at top to bring up the options available. Then edit the vehicle to include a Winch and next time you check, that data has changed:

New Category assigned to Andrew PNP

I also went and changed the “Any” to “All” so now ALL 3 restrictions must be met. Now very few (5) vehicles are shown, as the filter is much more restrictive:

GPS Insight map filter

Some of these capabilities exist already, and some will be released shortly. Filters will eventually be something you can save, and use with reports and alerts. We’ll keep you posted on when these capabilities make it to GPS Insight.

Thanks,

Rob.

Tags: 2D Mapping, avl system, custom categories and attributes, filters, fleet management, fleet management software, fleet management system, Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking companies, fleet tracking solution, fleet tracking system, gps fleet systems, gps tracker, GPS Tracking, gps tracking software, gps vehicle tracking, map filters, Vehicle Tracking, vehicle tracking system

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May 06 2012

Have it your way! — Add data you want to GPS Insight now!

Category: Ad Hoc Reports,Custom Categories and Attributes,Ease of use,Extreme Return on Investment,Google Earth,GPS Fleet Tracking,GPS Tracking,Landmarks,Mapping,New Features,New Features,Reporting,Reports — rdonat @ 2:43 pm

We just released our newest feature — CUSTOMER SPECIFIC CUSTOM CATEGORIES AND ATTRIBUTES.

This is a big deal.

Here’s how it works (silly example — but you’ll get the concept & can adapt to your needs):

Say your company is an ice cream delivery company and you need to know what type of ice cream each truck carries.

Launch Custom Categories and Attributes here:

Open Category/Attribute creation screen

Then click on “Create new Attribute” (you can choose to treat it like a category, which is a set of pre-populated values, in the next screen):

Create a new Attribute (or category)

Then make some changes in the highlighted fields and create your category (this is for Ice Cream Type).

Create a Custom Category

Do the same to create your Attribute (Freezer Capacity in Gallons):

Create a custom Attribute within GPS Insight

Then click on one of the available green “checkmarks” to assign values to your vehicles. Note that Custom Categories and Attributes can be assigned to Users, Vehicles, Drivers, Landmarks, and Hierarchy Nodes:

Click on a category "checkbox" to assign values

Click on a category "checkmark" to assign values

Now you can assign your pre-determined Category values by clicking on each vehicles’ list of options and choosing one. Soon, you will be able to use a new interface to choose multiple options, and we will allow for spreadsheet import assignment of custom values to vehicles & other GPS Insight Object types.

Assign Ice Cream Types to your trucks

Then assign your freezer capacity values:

Assign freezer capacity values

And now, you can click on the “Custom” tab within GPS Insight’s 2D mapping to see the custom categories/attributes and the vehicle’s values. This is helpful when referencing business specific information on a particular truck, and can be customized to keep track of ANYTHING you want.

Custom Category and Attributes displayed in GPS Insight maps

We also show this data in free-form format within 3D mapping when choosing a vehicle:

GPS Insight 3D Mapping with custom category and attribute information

And you can re-use that category in order to assign it to landmarks (or anything) — let’s say our distribution centers need to ALSO be labeled with a particular Ice Cream type:

Edit a Category to assign it to another object category

Check the “Landmark” checkbox:

Add Landmarks to a custom Category

And now you can click on the NEW green checkmark to start editing the values for your landmarks:

Edit Landmark Category Values with one click

Just click, enter, and OK each landmark (this will use our new rapid edit screen soon for even quicker entry):

Edit values for a landmark's Ice Cream Type

And now when looking at that landmark, it will show you that information informationally:

Show custom information about a Landmark within GPS Insight using Categories and Attributes

And when it’s time to “clean up” (as I need to do after using a customer for this example…) you just click on the trash can to delete the Category/Attribute and all associated data (we ask you to confirm first):

Delete a Category/Attribute after you're done with it

And coming soon, you’ll be able to use Categories and Attributes when filtering vehicles on a map, vehicles to appear in a report, and as parameters and filters in alerts (e.g. you’ll be able to set a “max number of minutes idling before alert” on different vehicles and alert whenever that threshold is exceeded).

Here is a sample screen (proof of concept):

Filter vehicles using Category and Attribute values

This is REALLY POWERFUL STUFF and will help us to do even more custom work for our customers easily. Between the Hierarchy capabilities and the Custom Categories and Attributes, the sky is the limit as to how granular we can get in your mapping, reporting, and alerting capabilities.

Please let us know if you need some training on this powerful new capability.

Thanks,

Rob.

Tags: attributes, categories, custom categories and attributes, Fleet Tracking, fleet tracking solution, fleet tracking system, fleet tracking systems, gps fleet tracking, GPS Tracking, gps tracking system, gps vehicle tracking, highly customizable, Vehicle Tracking

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