5 most popular features for vehicle GPS tracking

Modern systems for fleet management and vehicle GPS tracking offer hundreds of features for every business domain. In general, companies use 20% of GPS software functionality. But there are must-have features to consider when choosing a system for your business.

We based our analysis on 10,000+ vehicles connected to FiOS fleet management systems. We analyzed how transport managers and dispatchers use the system and determined the demanded features and modules.  

Real-time tracking

100% of FiOS users track transport in real-time. There are several options for online vehicle GPS tracking.

Vehicle worklist

The system displays all vehicles that you track in the worklist. Here, you see extensive information about each tracked unit updated in real-time.   

• Location – the coordinates and address where your vehicle is now.
• Motion state – the icon shows if your vehicle is moving and if the engine is on. Check it to detect drivers having rest with the engine on during work hours. It will save fuel and enhance fleet utilization rate.
• Driver – the name and phone number of the man at the wheel to contact him if something happens.
• Trailers – the information about the cargo your vehicle transports and the type of trailer (refrigerator or canvas) the truck tows.
• Data accuracy – the indicator shows the number of satellites locating your vehicle. The more satellites, the more precise location you get.
• Connection state – if the GPS tracker stopped sending messages, it means it’s broken, disconnected, or worse, sabotaged by the driver. Anyway, in that case, you know nothing about what’s happening with your vehicle – it may be stolen or used for private purposes. When you see the “Connection state” indicator going red, contact the driver immediately.
• Sensor state – the indicator shows the values of any sensors installed in your vehicle.

1. If you installed a fuel sensor and the fuel level is low, the sensor widget will change its color, indicating the need for fuel filling.
2. For a vehicle with a seat belt sensor, it will inform you if your driver is unfastened.
3. If you transport heat-sensitive goods, the temperature sensor will alert you if the regimen is violated.

• Battery level – wireless, or battery, tracker is just like a smartphone – it may turn off when you need it most if you don’t control battery power. If this option is active, the system will tell you when the tracker battery power is low and needs charging.

Thanks to all the information above, you can track your vehicles in real-time, not even looking at the map. 

Map

On the map, you see all your vehicles moving smoothly relative to other transport, buildings, and areas of interest. You can find any object on the map in seconds via the monitoring worklist or “Search” tool. Zoom in the map to track vehicles in a particular area, or zoom it out to get all your transport in sight.  

In FiOS, you can choose between free WebGIS and OpenStreetMaps or connect Google Maps.  

Google Street View

If you track vehicles on Google Maps, at any moment, you can open a mini-window showing Google Street View at the place where your vehicle is now. As it keeps moving, Google Street View already updates the picture, so you see the road with your own eyes without video cameras on your vehicle.   

Notifications

“Notifications” is another module that will help to track vehicles without staring at the map all the time. 

If something happens with your vehicles – traffic violations, thefts, entering an area, freezer temperature variations – the system will send you alerts and notifications. FiOS can notify you in several ways: 

1. Pop-up window. A quick online notification in the GPS tracking system interface. To see it, the dispatcher should watch the screen all the time.
2. Email notification is a message sent to your inbox. Check your email frequently to stay up-to-date.
3. Mobile notifications. If you have FiOS mobile installed, an alert will pop up on your lock screen.
4. SMS. Notification sent directly to your smartphone – super fast and a bit pricy.
5. Messengers. Free online notifications sent to Telegram messenger installed on your smartphone.

Quick notifications will inform you about everything happening to your fleet you are – just take your smartphone with you.

Geofences

Geofences are areas that you mark on the map to control vehicles inside or outside it and vehicles entering or leaving the territory. Those who use geofences for vehicle GPS tracking usually mark the following locations.

Here are a few locations you can mark with geofences in FiOS: 

• Construction sites – to ensure that costly construction machinery doesn’t leave the site.
• Districts – to ensure that courier vehicles don’t leave the delivery zones.
• Clients’ offices – to control service and sales teams visiting clients.
• Roads – to control speed limits on them.
• Warehouses – to track vehicle loading time and make vehicles visible to dispatchers only after leaving the “Warehouse” geofence.

In FiOS, you can create several types of Geofences. 

• Circle. The simplest type of geofence with the radius you define – use it to mark points of interest, bus stops, route points, clients’ offices, and much more. In the latter case, for example, when a service vehicle enters the geofence, the system will mark the client visiting. It will automate client visiting control.
• Polygon. You can create a geofence of any shape to restrict territories – construction sites, cities, districts, parking sites. In the latter case, you can see how many vehicles are in parking, who was leaving it, and when.
• Line geofences are used to mark the roads. For example, if your vehicles are moving along the same routes, you can mark the roads with line geofences and control speed or route deviations using line geofences.

Special “Geofence-based” notifications will inform you about everything happening within the places of your interest. 

Vehicle tracks

The track is a colored line on the map showing vehicle movements during the specified interval. Let’s see how it works in practice. 

For example, you want to know where your sales guys have been during work hours. You go to the “Tracks” tab in the monitoring system, select his car, and enter the 9 AM to 5 PM time interval. You see that the driver made one trip from home to KFC, while he was supposed to visit ten clients. And the other one has been in all parts of Colombo and vicinities, while he was supposed to have only one meeting.

Tracks show where your vehicles were and how drivers performed at every point of their trips. 

For example, you can add event markers on every track. These markers will show where the driver stopped, parked, filled/stole fuel, violated speed limits, and much more. 

Moreover, you can configure track color to change depending on vehicle speed, sensor state, or other conditions. For example, in the city, your vehicle drives at 55 km/h but then accelerates to 90 km/h for some time. The segment of the track where the driver violates traffic laws is marked with a different color. Same with seatbelts. You can build the track showing the segments where the driver wasn’t fastened.

FiOS also offers “Track player” functionality. It looks just like an average video player, but instead of videos, it replays vehicle movements along the track. We call it, “play the track.” That way, you can see the history of vehicle movements as if in real-time.

In FiOS, you can create and play any number of tracks for up to 400 days.

Location sharing

You can share the location and movements of your vehicles with anyone – even people who don’t have access to the GPS software. In FiOS, you can do it via the Locator tool. Here are a few examples where you can use the tool:

• Share the location of couriers with clients waiting for delivery. The client will see the courier like in the Uber app and will know the estimated delivery time or catch him up on the way.
• Share the location of drivers coming for a corporate ride. The employees won’t have to wait on the street but come out of the building only when the driver approaches them.
• Share the location of the school bus transporting children with the parents. The parents will be sure that their children attend school safely.

In FiOS, location-sharing is done through a simple link. You create a link to a vehicle’s location and movements and send it to any person by email or messenger. The person opens the link and sees the car’s movements in his browser on a laptop or smartphone.  

Some additional FiOS features will make working with links easier. 

You can schedule activation time for the link. For example, if you know that students board the school bus at 8 AM. Then, you can create the link and share it with parents in advance, but it will become active only at 8 AM. 

Plus, you can specify the link’s lifespan. For example, if you know the goods should be delivered in 30 +/- 5 minutes, set 35 minutes as a life span – after the time passes, the link will be deactivated, and buyers can no longer track the couriers’ movements.  

It’s all about basic vehicle GPS tracking. As you see, even the basic functions of GPS tracking systems will allow you to control your transport remotely. Next time we’ll discuss advanced features of fleet management systems. Subscribe to our blog to stay tuned! 

P.S. If you prefer viewing to reading, check out all these features explained by Yasintha Vithanage, KLOUDIP’s Chief Technical Officer: