The 3G Shutdown Is Coming – Is Your Fleet Prepared or in the Dark?
From future innovations to the farm gate to dinner plate culinary shows, Fieldays 2018 will open its gate to New Zealand and the world from 13 – 16 June celebrating the best of Aotearoa’s primary industries.
The Teletrac Navman team are excited to be part of Fieldays 2018. We’ll be showcasing RUC Manager, our electronic road usage charges solution that uses GPS technology to automate RUC licensing and off-road rebates. We’ll have both the hardware and software on display for the first time at stand PA4/PA5.
GPS tracking is an effective management tool for rural businesses, which can help save time and money, improve safety and give useful insights.
Here are five ways to use GPS tracking in agriculture:
1. Streamlined road user charges
Across New Zealand, agricultural businesses must regularly purchase RUC licences for their diesel vehicles. Managing the distance-based licences is time consuming and the off-road rebates, that businesses are entitled to, are often left on the table.
Using GPS technology to track distance travelled, RUC Manager automatically purchases and displays up-to-date RUC licences in real-time. It calculates off-road activity, using the data to fill out and send rebate forms directly to the NZTA - meaning fleet managers no longer have to do complex and cumbersome manual calculations of on-road versus off-road mileage. With the NZTA-approved RUC Manager, rural businesses can regularly claim accurate and maximised RUC rebates, and ensure that they’re always compliant with the licences.
2. Mileage accuracy
Businesses in all sectors are increasingly turning to technology to provide an easy and accurate way to monitor mileage. By tracking and recording detailed GPS data, you’ll have a detailed record of distance and time for each vehicle.
A rural vet, for example, can use the GPS tracking technology to track the mileage for call-out visits, and the time taken for the consultation. This insight makes it easy to charge both mileage and time fairly and quickly.
3. Effective management of site visits
Haddrell’s of Cambridge produces top quality bee-based products from their 16,000 hives. Owner Richard Haddrell says they’ve used Teletrac Navman’s DIRECTOR to see how much time is spent at each site looking after the bees. “The report shows us which site was visited, when and how much time was spent there. We are finding the Teletrac Navman system to be a good management tool.”
Geofencing is a feature that uses GPS to outline a virtual boundary around a geographical area, and can be applied to manage particular sites. “We’ve put geofences around all our hive sites which makes it much easier for the drivers to find them,” notes Haddrell.
Geofencing lets fleet managers know which vehicles have entered a specific zone and when. It can be used to set defined vehicle speeds within specific locations, such as dangerous or unstable areas, and alert managers in the case of any restricted vehicle access.
4. Driver safety
New Zealand is a spread-out country with many lone workers in primary industries. “As we’re often operating vehicles in remote areas over rough terrain, we’re conscious of the risk of accidents,” says Ivan Allanson, National Fleet Manager for Taratahi Agricultural Education Centre. “If an accident occurred, the GPS tracking system would allow us to quickly locate exactly where the vehicle was so we could send help. We can also use the software to replay how the vehicle was driven in the lead up to the accident. This would help us work out what occurred.”
5. Traceability and transparency
GPS improves the visibility and traceability of all drivers, vehicles and assets in real-time by pinpointing exact locations. For nation-wide rural providers, this gives a detailed overall picture of the location of vehicles and assets.
If you want to learn more about GPS tracking and RUC Manager, come say hello to the Teletrac Navman team at Fieldays, stand PA4/PA5.