How To Choose GPS Trackers For Your Trucks In 2023?

How To Choose GPS Trackers For Your Trucks In 2023?

Trucks are both expensive and significant assets for many businesses. Trucks are utilized in a variety of industries, including construction, oil and gas, rentals, field services, and landscaping. The prosperity that these enterprises enjoy is largely down to how efficiently they manage their truck fleet. By tracking how these trucks are utilized and monitoring their upkeep, business owners and managers can operate effective fleets.

Truck GPS tracking is an excellent investment for any company that manages a truck fleet since it streamlines fleet operations, delivers real-time vehicle information, and improves driver safety. GPS monitoring devices assist in prioritizing efficiency, staying in compliance with laws, and saving money.

However, with so many options on the market, selecting the finest truck GPS trackers and GPS monitoring system provider for your organization can be difficult. With fleet operations becoming more reliant on truck GPS monitoring, it’s more critical than ever to select a reputable system supplier. One that can provide both a dependable solution and assistance that is tailored to your company’s current and long-term fleet management needs.

Read on to learn more about GPS trackers and how to choose the correct one for your trucks.

How Does GPS Tracker for Trucks Work?

GPS (Global Positioning System) trackers for vehicles employ satellite navigation data to deliver real-time information on your car’s location, speed, direction, and distance. The benefits of vehicle monitoring include theft prevention, improved young driving safety, and insurance reductions.

What are the Types of GPS Trackers Available for Truck Owners?

GPS tracking devices have come a long way. In today’s work, different types of tracking devices are available for your trucks:

  •  Portable GPS tracking devices- These devices are suitable for you in case of short term-tracking. These devices are also known as battery-powered tracking devices that contain a rechargeable battery or a few alkaline batteries. These devices can often be programmed to offer more or less frequent location updates to preserve battery life, with settings that can be tailored to your needs.
  •  Vehicle-mounted GPS tracking devices-  These devices are connected to your trucks and don’t need to get charged from time to time as they don’t have batteries. These are also called hard-wired trackers and are useful for tracking a truck for a long period. These devices will not lose power until your truck does and will let you know via warnings or notifications.
  • Hybrid GPS tracking devices- There are some GPS trackers present in the market that combines the best features from both portable and mounted GPS trackers. These trackers can not only be mounted in trucks but also has batteries in them, in case the truck’s power runs out. 

How to Choose the Best GPS Trackers for Your Trucks?

There are various things you must consider when choosing a GPS tracker for your truck. Listed below are some factors that will help you get a suitable tracker for your needs:

The tracker should be compatible

One of the first things you need to ensure that is you compare the compatibility of the tracking device with your truck’s model when shopping for a GPS device. This ensures that the device can gather all of the information it provides and that you can use all of its features without problems. This also allows you to determine whether the gadget has any negative effects on the performance of your car.

Because most trucks have a common OBD-II interface, any high-quality OBD-based tracking device should work with your vehicle. However, before purchasing, make sure that it is compatible with the exact make and model of your car.

Compare the affordability 

It is a common misperception that passive tracking devices are less expensive than real-time alternatives. People believe that the monthly cellular costs increase the expense of the real-time system.
That, however, is not the case. Wireless prices have recently dropped significantly, making the alternative more economical than passive systems. 

On the contrary, the Wi-Fi infrastructure necessary for routine maintenance of the passive tracking system raises the cost. Ideally, selecting the GPS tracking system that best meets your needs is the best option. Importantly, prices might change owing to the addition or absence of various accessories like fuel sensors, impact sensors, and so on.

The device should be stable 

The importance of stability cannot be overstated. GPS tracking devices should always be connected and record data without becoming unreliable. A GPS device is not of much use if it can’t collect important cellular data for maintenance. In the worst-case situation, this might result in delayed data transfer or failure to capture the position. 

As a result, be certain that the gadget you purchase is stable and does not experience periodic disruptions. Additionally, ensure that the gadget has sufficient cellular data support that cannot be easily disrupted. To impress your customers, you must integrate your GPS devices with the appropriate fleet software.

Ensure that the device provides notification features 

When choosing a GPS tracking device, ensure that it offers real-time notifications and alarms. The passive mechanism forces fleet managers to continually watch the vehicle till it arrives at its destination.

On the other hand, with real-time solutions, the operator may simply follow the trucks 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even from a remote place. Such characteristics are extremely important because, with real-time tracking, you will continue to get notifications and alerts through mobile devices or email.

A quality tracker also allows you to set up notifications based on your needs. You can set up alarms for bad driving habits, excessive speeding, idling, and entering or departing undesirable/undetermined geographical regions.

Check the frequency of data update

The data refresh rate is the frequency with which your app’s data points are refreshed. The less time lag, the better. This means that the tracker is continually refreshing data points, allowing you to see information in real-time. The ideal GPS tracker has a data refresh rate of a few seconds, so you’ll have the information as soon as it happens and may respond accordingly.

Check the quality of the hardware 

When it comes to GPS tracking devices, hardware quality is critical. There are several low-quality tracking gadgets on the market. Before purchasing a GPS tracker, you should exercise caution and look for high-quality, waterproof, heat-resistant, and impact-resistant gadgets. Your tracker must be able to survive extreme weather and environmental conditions depending on the vehicle type.

What are the Benefits of GPS Trackers for Truck Owners?

Running a business is not easy, especially when you are in charge of a fleet of trucks. You will have to rely on guessing if you do not know the exact position of each truck in the fleet. And this is a bad thing since you have deadlines to fulfill and obligations to uphold. But with GPS trackers it becomes possible to monitor your truck and manage them efficiently.

Here are the benefits of GPS trackers for trucks:

Helps to save time 

People in the transportation industry have discovered how accurate the phrase “time is money” is. There can be times when your truck will be stalled in traffic for many minutes. With a suitable GPS tracker, you will be able to instruct truck drivers in real-time to avoid congested roadways which will help them save time.

Driver Safety is improved 

Driver safety is unquestionably a significant issue for any trucking firm. The first step is to monitor driver behavior and ensure that safe driving procedures are followed. Most GPS trackers include accelerometers, which can warn drivers and managers of patterns of bad driving behavior such as hard braking, acceleration, turning, and speeding. With AI-enabled dashcams, fleet managers can gain even more insight into inattentive driving, tailgating, and red-light violations. This will help them come up with strategies that can lower the chances of accidents while improving the safety of the drivers.

Resource optimization 

GPS tracking systems enable you to monitor your trucks in real-time and provide precise insights into fuel use, driver behavior, engine idle, and other factors. Most fleet tracking companies feature digital maintenance packages that assist in the creation of maintenance plans and give automated warnings depending on odometer readings or planned repair. Faults may be detected and corrected quickly with adequate inspections and maintenance actions. You can properly use your resources and find major money-saving areas using data from a fleet tracking system.

Recovery from theft 

Trucks are among the most precious assets that your company possesses. As a result, it should come as no surprise that one of the main benefits of GPS monitoring is theft recovery.
When your vehicles have GPS tracking installed, your organization can simply monitor their whereabouts, create calendar templates for expected use, and instantly discover strange or illegal use. Receive quick notifications when a truck departs from its assigned area or during working hours. If a truck is stolen, GPS tracking can assist authorities in recovering the asset, lowering the cost of replacement and insurance.

FAQs

What does a GPS tracker for trucks look like?

GPS trackers are often shaped like a little black box the size of a deck of cards. Trackers come in a variety of styles, but they all contain three primary components: a GPS receiver, a cellular transmitter, and a power source. 

Why is the GPS tracker quality important?

Budget GPS trackers are constructed of low-cost electric components, have worse signal reception, have less precise coordinates, may function in an unstable manner, and can require a frequent restart or even reset. These gadgets have limited functionality and should not be used for business or legal purposes. Be warned that the market is rife with counterfeit/clone gadgets. We recommend contacting well-known GPS tracking device manufacturers to obtain authentic devices and warranties; they will ensure that you receive what you paid for.

What’s the cost of truck GPS trackers?

GPS truck trackers may cost hundreds of dollars. GPS tracking is typically included with other dashboard technology in a pre-installed bundle that can cost several thousand dollars for newer trucks. However, the majority of aftermarket devices cost between $50 and $200.

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