If you run a business with numerous moving parts, keeping track of your vehicles, computers, and other equipment can be a monumental task. Incorporating an asset or fleet tracking system into your tech stack provides you with precise, real-time information about your assets or fleet location—minimizing the time it takes to sift through log files or other paper-based records.
So, when it comes to asset vs. fleet tracking - which one are you tracking for your business?
Let’s take a deeper look at each.
Are You Tracking Assets or a Fleet?
While asset tracking and fleet tracking are essentially done the same, they each focus on the tracking of different things. One focuses more on all of your assets, while the other focuses more on your fleet and vehicles. Maybe you need one, or both. See the table below.
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Asset Tracking
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Fleet Tracking
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Deals with all assets that the company owns or manages and are not for sale
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Deals with only the vehicles that the company owns, their crew, and the cargo transported
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Involves an analysis of asset performance
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Involves keeping track of how the vehicles are used during and after work hours
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Involves calculation of the assets' value and depreciation
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Consists of an analysis of driver behavior and vehicle diagnostics
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Learn more about the Benefits of Using Fleet AND Asset Tracking Systems here.
Asset Tracking
Asset tracking is how businesses track the location and status of their physical assets. Real-time asset monitoring can help businesses of all sizes keep track of the assets across their entire company and throughout their area of operations.
What are the Benefits of Asset Tracking?
Incorporating an asset tracking system into your operations will empower you to do the following:
Increase Value With Asset Utilization Reports
You can create reports showing how your assets are being used and what they could generate. Such information can help you understand how much the asset enhances sales and marketing efforts and the potential losses if the asset is stolen or damaged.
Improve Asset Lifecycle Maintenance
Having a system that allows you to monitor your assets' lifecycle will help you manage maintenance and repair schedules better. Such a system will also enable extra management support between maintenance and product sourcing departments.
Increase Asset Value
With the help of asset tracking software, you can create a valuable and profitable asset database. It will help you grow your business by increasing sales, reducing your inventory costs, and opening up new business opportunities.
Keep Assets Safe
Asset tracking helps keep an eye on your vehicle's and cargo’s location. That way, you can have peace of mind that your assets are safe and receive alerts for thefts and other security threats.
Learn more about the benefits of asset tracking in this blog.
Key Components of an Asset Tracking System
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Accountability: With an asset tracking system, you will be able to track and monitor your assets, which helps reduce losses and wastes on revenues associated with "ghost assets" that are out of inventory, even though you still need to pay for them.
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Simplicity: Whenever you revamp your business operations, you can encounter various complications that may disrupt your business's smooth flow. To simplify things, you can invest in an effective asset tracking software to better your operations and increase the ROI.
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Flexibility and Customization: Depending on the system you choose for tracking your assets, it should adapt to how your business runs. Therefore, the system should be customizable to suit your organization's needs.
Fleet Tracking
Fleet tracking is a computerized system that tracks your vehicle's location, movement, and maintenance in a centralized location. Typically, it involves connecting a GPS unit to the vehicle's electronic system and sending a message to the designated person or an app that tracks the vehicle's location.
What are the Benefits of Fleet Tracking?
With a fleet tracking system in place, your business will benefit in the following ways:
Reduction of Insurance Costs
This especially applies to companies paying large sums of premiums for their large fleet of vehicles every month. Installing GPS trackers on the vehicles can help you get discounts on insurance premiums, consequently reducing the monthly costs of premiums.
Vehicle Tracking
This is a great way to track the assets on your fleet and the people ferrying them. It provides insights into their movement, driving habits, and maintenance. This will help you determine how efficiently your fleet is performing.
Increases Security
You can keep an eye on your fleet's movements and reduce the chances of theft and vandalism by simply monitoring it with a GPS tracker. This also helps businesses in handling claims of damages caused by unauthorized people who gain access to your fleet's vehicles.
Key Components of a Fleet Tracking System
- Live & Historical GPS Vehicle Tracking: A necessary feature for any fleet business. It ensures that you have the correct information about your vehicle's location, performance, and usage.
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Driving Behavior Analysis: Helps determine the driving habits of your fleet's personnel. It helps you identify unsafe driving habits that may lead to accidents, thus helping to curb them early enough.
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Route Planning and Monitoring: This allows you to plan your fleet's routes and manage the movement. It also allows for data analysis and comparison among different fleets, thus helping you maintain efficiency.
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Diagnostics: Helps you gain insights into your fleet. Data captured from your fleet’s historical movements and maintenance schedules allow you to quickly check the health and performance and make data-backed decisions.
Whether you’re tracking assets, only your fleet, or both, in order to choose a tracking solution that works best, there are a couple of things you should consider for your business.
Learn more about the Benefits of Using Fleet AND Asset Tracking Systems here.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Suitable Tracking System for Your Business
The Type of Business
Before settling on a tracking system, ensure you conduct a thorough analysis of your business. This step will help you determine the software needed to suit your business needs. Consider the current options and verify whether they can handle the present and future needs of your business. If you plan to add more assets or vehicles to your business, for instance, the software will be able to support them.
Technology
For a company to get the most out of its fleet, it will need an up-to-date system. The preferred system should be compatible with both current and future technologies. This is especially essential in a world where innovation occurs daily. Your choice of software should anticipate upcoming developments and be ready to adapt accordingly.
Cost
Fleet and asset tracking software can attract hefty installation and implementation costs. Therefore, ensuring that you get something worth the investment is crucial. Otherwise, you could end up with software that's out of your league, wasting money that you could otherwise spend on other things.
The Takeaway
GPS tracking is a go-to solution for companies looking to manage and optimize their operations and improve efficiency. First, it’s important to make sure the solution has everything your business needs –whether it’s for tracking assets or tracking fleets. At Spytec GPS, we make innovative IoT technology accessible to businesses of all sizes. Companies can track their fleet and optimize their assets easily through our platform, regardless of size or location.
Get in touch with our team for a demo and see our solution in action.
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