Why Choose Safety Track for Your Fleet Tracking

The GPS Fleet Tracking System by Safety Track is designed for service and distribution business who want an easy-to-use, cost effective, scalable solution to manage their fleet.

There is no software to buy or install; customers can simply log in to the password protected website for quick, 24/7 access to real-time information and management of their fleet from any web-enabled device.

The Safety Track Advantage:

·         2-way dispatch and messaging application

·         Vehicle routing and driving directions

·         Vehicle maintenance report

·         12 real-time alerts

·         Automated email report delivery

·         2 minute updates are standard

·         90 days of historical data archived

·         No software to buy, or map controls to download

·         One monthly service bill (No additional fees from wireless carriers)

Safety Track’s customers universally experience reduced costs and increased overall operational efficiencies. Our customers experience dramatic decreases in fuel usage, speeding, personal use of vehicles and overtime. Combine this with significant increases in driver productivity and customer service, and you’ve got a healthier bottom line.

·         Increased driver productivity

·         Real-time dispatch tool

·         Decreased overtime

·         Reduced fuel expenses

·         Improved customer service

·         Reduced response time

·         More accurate billing

·         Validation of service calls

·         Benefits of virtual time-clock

·         Lower insurance costs (5-15%)

·         Decreased driver speeding

These benefits explain why Safety Track Fleet Management products and services are currently used by over 5000 companies in The United States and Canada. Key industries include HVAC, plumbing, construction, transit and distribution. Safety Track is proud to have leading businesses such as LKQ, Keystone Automotive, Alpine Power System, and M. J. White as our customers.

Fleet Safety Tip of the Week - News - Automotive Fleet

Here’s some advice from the Connecticut DMV on the art of driver scanning. You may want to pass this along to your drivers as a friendly reminder.

To be a good driver, you must know what is happening around your vehicle. You must look ahead, to the sides and behind your vehicle. Scanning helps you to see problems ahead -- vehicles and people that may be in the road by the time you reach them, signs warning you of problems ahead, and signs giving you directions.

To avoid last-minute braking or turning, look well down the road. By looking well ahead and being ready to stop or change lanes if needed, you can drive more safely, save on fuel, help keep traffic moving at a steady pace, and allow yourself time to better see around your vehicle and along the road. Looking well down the road will also help you to steer more straightly with less weaving. Safer drivers tend to look at least 12 seconds ahead of their vehicles. This is the distance that your vehicle will travel in 12 seconds.

In the city, 12 seconds is about one block. When you drive in city traffic, you should try to look at least one block ahead. On the highway, 12 seconds is about four city blocks (or a quarter of a mile).
Here is how to figure how far ahead you are looking:

Read More….

Fleet Safety Tip of the Week - News - Automotive Fleet

Safe Driving...
http://www.safetytrack.net/

DOT & EPA Officially Release 2017 - 2025 Proposed Fuel Economy Standards - News - Automotive Fleet

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled their joint proposal to set stronger fuel economy standards for model year 2017-2025 passenger cars and light trucks on Nov. 16. The proposed program requires manufacturers to increase their average fuel economy to 54.5 mpg.

There will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the proposal for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Public hearings will take place in January in Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco to allow further public input.
Although the agencies expect this proposal to add about $2,000 to the cost of each vehicle in 2025, they expect consumers to save up to $6,600 in fuel costs for the lifetime of the vehicle, with a net lifetime savings of up to $4,400.
The proposal extends fuel economy standards set for model years 2012-2016, which will raise fuel efficiency equivalent to 35.5 mpg by 2016.
According to the release, auto manufacturers are already heavily invested in developing advanced technologies that can significantly reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions beyond the existing model year 2012-2016 standards. Technologies are available for automakers to meet the new standards, including advanced gasoline engines and transmissions, vehicle weight reduction, lower tire rolling resistance, improvements in aerodynamics, diesel engines, more efficient accessories, and improvements in air conditioning systems. The agencies also expect the standards to spur manufacturers to increasingly explore electric technologies such as start/stop, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles. The model year 2017-2025 proposal includes a number of incentive programs to encourage early adoption and introduction of "game changing" advanced technologies, such as hybridization for pickup trucks.
California plans to issue its proposal for model year 2017-2025 vehicle greenhouse gas standards on December 7 and will finalize its standards in January, according to the agencies.
For more detailed information, visit the NHTSA webiste.

DOT & EPA Officially Release 2017 - 2025 Proposed Fuel Economy Standards - News - Automotive Fleet

www.safetytrack.net/info/blog

Jeff Stoker

Fleet Safety Tip of the Week

This week’s driver safety advice, provided by the Tennessee Department of Safety, concerns the "No-Zone" for large vehicles. You may want to pass this along to your drivers as a friendly reminder.

Many motorists falsely assume that drivers of trucks and buses can see the road better because they sit twice as high as the driver of a small vehicle. While trucks and buses do enjoy a better forward view and have bigger mirrors, they have serious blind spots into which a small vehicle can disappear from view.
The No-Zone represents danger areas around trucks and buses where crashes are more likely to occur.
1. The area approximately up to 20 feet directly in front of a large vehicle is considered a No-Zone. When small vehicles cut in too soon after passing or changing lanes, then abruptly slow down, trucks and buses are forced to compensate with very little room or time to spare.
2. Unlike small vehicles, trucks and buses have deep blind spots directly behind them. Avoid following too closely in this No-Zone. If you stay in the rear blind spot of a large vehicle, you increase the possibility of a traffic crash. The driver of the bus or truck cannot see your vehicle and your view of the traffic ahead will be severely reduced.
3. Large vehicles have much larger blind spots on both sides than cars do. When you drive in these blind spots for any length of time, the vehicle's driver cannot see you. When passing, even if the vehicle's driver knows you are there, remaining alongside a large vehicle too long makes it impossible for the driver to take evasive action if an obstacle appears in the roadway ahead.
4. Truck and bus drivers often cannot see vehicles directly behind or beside them when they are attempting to safely negotiate a right turn. If you cut in between the truck or bus and the curb or shoulder to the right, this maneuver greatly increases the possibility of a crash in this "right turn squeeze."

Fleet Safety Tip of the Week - News - Automotive Fleet

Fleet Tracking and Cost Savings

With the down turn in the economy, the question arises of the ROI of GPS Fleet Tracking. 

Small business owner, feeling the pinch in lower sales may question do I want to spend the money and track my fleet vehicles.

Here are a couple of things to think about.

Fleet productivity seems to increase once the drivers know that they are being watched.  “We have seen a reduction in overtime and an increase in productivity” says Bob S, plant manager for a local parts distributor

Idle time. This has been the biggest eye opening area of Fleet Tracking. Customers are seeing through new eyes what exactly is happening once their trucks leave the premise.

With our fleet idle calculator, you can see just how much fuel is being wasted just from the idle time.  A typical truck can waste one gallon of fuel during idling. If you trucks idles for three hours during their deliveries, then you driver unknowingly can be wasting $14.00 a day in fuel. If that be the case in a year time you could be wasting over $3500.

http://www.safetytrack.net/st-m3g/

http://www.safetytrack.net/info/idle-calculator

Jeff Stoker

jstoker@safetytrack.net

GPS Fleet Tracking from Safety Track is growing in popularity as fleet managers discover the many benefits of being able to follow their vehicles in, as well as the reports you can get on worker’s activity.
But will it expose their business to a lawsuit. Is it legal to use Safety Track’s GPS Fleet Tracking to track staff?
What is GPS Fleet Tracking?

What are we referring to when we talk about GPS Fleet Tracking? Basically it is where an employee’s vehicle is fitted with a GPS Fleet Tracking device to track their movements throughout the day. The Company can use this information to know where workers have been during the day, as well as other GPS-related information such as time on the job or vehicle speed.

There are two types of GPS devices – Live or Passive. A Live device will send out a signal that can be tracked by an authorized user in real-time. This information is sent of over the air through Cell phone technology. It transmits the longitude and latitude location to a server, which marries it to mapping software and sends it to the computer you’re using. On the other hand, a passive device will store that information on a device and someone has to retrieve the device and download the data to their computer in order to review the data. There are pros and cons for both types.
A connected device can be a more popular choice because it gives employers the ability to act quickly on time-critical information, such as knowing who is closest to a job and can respond faster.
The employer may use a web-based service, such as Safety Track, to track these GPS devices so they can view them from anywhere that has an internet connection, normally in the office. They may receive instant alerts when certain ‘rules’ or parameters are breached, such as speeding, driving dangerously, entering off limit areas.
So now you’ve decided to install GPS fleet tracking devices on your vehicles so you know what you’re staff is doing throughout the day – the next question is, will you get into trouble with the law?

Is tracking your fleet legal?

There seem to be a variety of opinions on how legal it is, some will say it is a ‘gray’ area but the general consensus is that, if done properly, then you won’t have to fear a legal challenge from an employee.
The difficulty seems to be balancing the rights of a business to know how company equipment is being used and what employees are doing while on the clock, with a worker’s right to privacy.
The answer seems to be as open as possible with your staff on what you are tracking and why. The chances of running in to legal problems are greatly increased when GPS tracking is done in secret, without an employee’s knowledge. Not only does that give them grounds for defense but may result in legal action for invasion of privacy.
Use a GPS Fleet tracker on company property only
Inform staff before beginning GPS tracking and have them accept this as part of using company-owned equipment
Only collect and store information that is interferes or impacts on their job performance
Explain the benefits of using GPS tracking, possibly providing incentives to drivers now that real-time performance can be accurately measured
When done for the right reasons and with your staff on board, you’ll find it far less likely that you’ll run into legal problems, instead enjoying the safety, productivity and efficiency benefits lots of fleets are enjoying with GPS tracking.

Safety Track
888-286-9829

Fuel Savings with a Fleet Tracking System

We did training today with one of our new customers. They have 160 plug and play tracking units, the ST-400’s installed in their fleet of vehicles.

Now one of the biggest cost savings that a tracking unit can save a company is by understanding the idle habit of the drivers. Do they ever turn off their trucks?

We were going through a certain segment of this customer’s fleet and we noticed that one driver had over 24 hours of idle time in one week. We discuss that for each hour of idle time, a vehicle will burn about ¾ of a gallon of fuel. So this one driver used an additional 18 gallons of fuel for this one week. With fuel being $3.50 per gallon and that is being pretty gracious, this driver wasted $63.00 of fuel alone. Now multiple that times 52 weeks and you get $3276.00 in wasted fuel cost. Now take that times 160 trucks and you could be wasting over ½ million dollars in fuel. 

Once the customer caught his breath, he said that his fuel bill for the year was 3 million dollars!!!  If you cut just 10% of that bill, you savings would add up to $300,000.00 per year in savings.

It’s hard to run a fleet of vehicle without knowing what is going on. What are my drivers doing? Are they idling to long?

Tracking your Fleet with a GPS Fleet Tracking System can give you the data you need to manage your fleet better.

For more information contact:

Jeff Stoker

jstoker@safetytrack.net

http://www.safetytrack.net/