Dude, where’s my truck? And other near-disasters

Here at Teletrac Navman we’ve been providing GPS fleet management solutions to our customers for a long time. And over that time we’ve heard a lot of stories about the types of incidents and behaviour that GPS tracking has uncovered. 

Dude, where’s my truck?

It’s not every day that your smartphone tells you that your truck has been stolen. But that’s exactly what happened to this customer. Whilst lying in bed, the customer was alerted by his phone that his truck was on the move. Knowing his truck should be parked for the night, he quickly rang the police and began his own pursuit of the wayward truck. Beating the police to the scene, he was able to recover his truck that night, and catch a couple of criminals in the process – all in a night’s work thanks to his GPS fleet management solution and his smartphone.

Engine Overload

How are your drivers driving your vehicles? This customer found out the hard way with a repair bill for $15,000 for his Kenworth truck. The customer didn’t understand how a fully serviced truck engine could blow up with no load. He suspected the driver was driving the truck too hard, but with no way to prove that, he had a GPS fleet management solution installed. Using the Safety Analytics feature which tracks and reports on driving style in real time, he found that the driver was mis-using the truck. The outcome was to use the information from the Safety Analytics system to retrain drivers who were performing badly, resulting in reduced costs in fuel and maintenance.

Speedy Delivery

The vast Australian desert can be the perfect opportunity for some people to speed and drive recklessly. But when this is done in a company vehicle, the owner of the company can also be held liable. A Teletrac Navman customer kept receiving speeding tickets but none of his staff would own up. At one point, the customer had a $3,000 bill on his hands. Deciding that enough was enough, he had a driver log-on system installed. All drivers were given a number to log-in before they drove, allowing him to know who was driving each of the company vehicles. Needless to say, the number of speeding tickets dropped right off. 

When managing a fleet, fleet managers never know what’s coming around the corner. And when it does, the surprise may be very unpleasant and costly. Our customers tell us that GPS tracking has made a huge difference to how they manage their business and their staff. With a GPS fleet management solution, fleet managers can go about their day knowing that they have full control of their vehicles, all at the touch of a button.