Fleet Management and GPS Tracking Blog

Increase Transparency with GPS Fleet Tracking for Local Government

Written by Rastrac Team | Aug 15, 2018 4:25:28 PM

Transparency is a vital factor for any local government agency, and it is one that all government organizations should seek to cultivate. No matter the size of your agency or department, GPS fleet management is an essential resource for local government fleet managers who want to increase the transparency of their organizations.

Transparency encompasses a variety of factors. Transparency helps you to show how public funds are spent concerning maintenance, repair, and fuel-related costs. It also encompasses employee transparency by showing how your organization’s government vehicles and equipment are being used by the people working in your organization.

Here are some of the ways that you can increase the transparency of your municipal operations with GPS tracking for fleet management.

Fleet Tracking Shows When & Where Fleet Assets Are Used

One of the most significant selling points of fleet tracking using GPS technology is that it enables you to know where every tagged asset is located with the utmost precision — no matter whether it’s parked or is on the move. GPS technology taps into the power of the satellites that orbit the earth to triangulate the position of the vehicle or asset you’re tracking with pinpoint accuracy.

What this means for your organization is that you never have to guess whether an asset is parked at its assigned night location or if an employee is using it after hours. Fleet tracking is available 24/7, 365 days a year and provides precise geographic coordinates for your vehicles, which you can track using fleet vehicle tracking software.

Fleet Transparency Shows How Employees Operate Assets

Fleet tracking for fleet management is an invaluable tool that is used worldwide by companies across numerous industries. As a fleet manager, we know that you want to trust that your employees are always doing the right thing. However, can you really risk the safety of your fleet by not knowing how the vehicles are being operated? We’re glad to say that fleet tracking helps you to increase employee transparency.

Contrary to what drivers and operators may believe, fleet tracking isn’t about spying on your employees; it’s about improving fleet efficiency and keeping drivers, operators, and fleet vehicles safe. Want to know whether your employees are brake-checking other drivers or are increasing vehicle wear and tear with hard braking? Using GPS fleet tracking, now you can track:

  • Driving routes (even on private roads)
  • Whether employees adhere to the routes or take side trips
  • Engine idle times
  • Travel speeds
  • How often they turn
  • How long the vehicles are running and driving
  • How frequently (and hard) they accelerate or decelerate
  • When they start driving and arrive at their destination

Plus, one of the greatest advantages of fleet management using GPS is that you can track this information automatically. You can access automated reports detailing what you want and need to know, such as mileage and performance data for each vehicle.

Fleet Management That Enables You to Track Service Areas

For some fleet managers, we understand that knowing where your vehicles are located isn’t necessarily your issue. Instead, the issue for your fleet may be ensuring that there is adequate and even coverage throughout your service area. This is why, at Rastrac, we offer StreetComplete as an optional service to our clients. StreetComplete allows you to track and monitor your agency’s government vehicles in real time on a color-coded map that ages. This shows time passing so you are aware of how long it has been since the area was last serviced.

Although this tool was originally intended for tracking snowplow operations, our development team rolled it out so that it is available to other areas of work, including sanitation, salt spreaders, law enforcement, and other first responder organizations.

Fleet Transparency Helps You Break Down Financial Costs

When it comes down to the cares of taxpayers, they ultimately want to know where and how their public funds are spent. A reliable and agile GPS fleet management system is something that can help your organization save money and time by increasing operational efficiency, ensuring vehicles receive regular preventative maintenance, and decreasing fuel usage costs. All of these advantages are likely to make even the most challenging members of the public happy.   

Rastrac is a global leader in GPS fleet management and fleet tracking solutions. We are trusted by our clients to track more than $1.5 billion in vehicles and other equipment assets. To learn more about our automated fleet tracking solutions for local government, get our complimentary fleet feature sheet now by clicking on the link below.