Technology is evolving at the speed of light these days and that means big changes for businesses in every industry. When it comes to vending machine delivery and repair companies, there are a variety of technological advancements that can benefit you as you go about your business. These are a select few you’ll want to make sure you have on board, so you don’t get left behind by more technologically advanced competitors.
Robotic Lifters
Using hand trucks or a two-man team to lift and maneuver heavy vending machines is utilizing yesterday’s technology. Today, your options for delivering and picking up vending machines for your repair business are boundless thanks to the advanced technology robotic lifters off. Save the backs of your drivers and technicians with these technological marvels that take all the heavy lifting out of, well, heavy lifting.
GPS Fleet Tracking
Whether you’re delivering 22 vending machines in a day or 202, GPS fleet tracking can help you maximize your fuel efficiency, so you can work more deliveries into an eight-hour window of time. The more trucks you have in your vending machine delivery and repair fleet, the more money you stand to save by using GPS fleet tracking to do the following:
- Schedule accurate appointment windows.
- Plan fuel-efficient routes for multiple vehicles.
- Plan routine vehicle maintenance to keep trucks operating efficiently.
- Monitor driver behavior for route deviations and/or aggressive driving patterns.
- Greatly reduce unnecessary idling.
- Provide instant electronic notifications of pickups and deliveries to customers.
This is just a small sampling of the benefits GPS technology has to offer your vending machine delivery and repair business. If you’re not already utilizing this technology, you should be.
Automated Alert Systems
These are perhaps one of the more valuable tech tools available to you if you offer on-call repair services to your clients. This system will notify your clients, instantly if there are malfunctions within their vending machines so they can contact you right away.
How does this help you?
Because you’re the next call your customers are going to make. If their vending machines aren’t operating, then they aren’t making money. The faster they can notify you of potential problems the faster you can repair them so that they are back in business. Everyone wins!
Technology is making waves around the world as it expands a little more each day. Make sure you take advantage of what it has to offer you so that your competitors don’t gain an advantage you didn’t see coming.
Different fleets have a variety of problems. Any one of these problems can cost you time or money. In some cases, the problems may cost you both. In worst case scenarios, they can cost you valuable customers and damage your reputation. While GPS fleet tracking can’t solve all fleet problems, these are five problems it can help you solve.
- Wasted Time
Are your drivers spending company time and resources on personal errands? Are they napping on the job? Are they simply taking longer than they should to complete certain jobs? GPS fleet tracking can allow you to keep a closer eye on what your drivers are doing when you aren’t around. This improves driver accountability and helps you reduce labor costs significantly – while increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
- Wasted Fuel
Fuel is a huge expense for fleets. Fuel is necessary in your business, but often wasted in a variety of ways – many of which can be aided with an effective GPS fleet tracking system, including fuel wasted by excessive idling, inefficient routing, traffic congestion, and drivers deviating from their assigned routes. You can not only passively monitor these things looking for signs of waste, but also actively track them by setting up text alerts when idling time exceeds a certain number of minutes or anytime drivers deviate from their routes.
- Preventable Breakdowns
Perhaps the biggest headache for fleets are breakdowns resulting from overlooked of missed maintenance. These are what you would call preventable breakdowns and they not only take your vehicles out of service, but they also place an additional burden on other fleet vehicles while repairs are being made.
GPS fleet tracking systems can schedule routine maintenance so that many of these preventable breakdowns are actually prevented, keeping your trucks on the road and in service. Additionally, by taking care of routine maintenance, you can extend the life and productivity of your vehicles by years.
- Theft
Theft is a bigger problem than many fleet owners care to admit. GPS tracking can be beneficial in helping to catch thieves in the act in more ways than one. Not only can it help detect unplanned stops for things to be offloaded from your vehicles and detect the theft of your vehicles in real time, but it can also be used to track small GPS devices loaded in with targeted freight – allowing you to track where the merchandise goes so you can coordinate with law enforcement for prompt recovery.
- High Insurance Premiums
Believe it or not, GPS tracking can cut your insurance premiums by up to 15 percent off the top. That’s before you begin reaping the benefits of safer driving practices, fewer accidents, lower incidents of theft, and better maintenance – which all help to cut insurance premiums over time.
These are just five problems GPS fleet tracking can help your fleet solve. There are countless other benefits it stands to offers as well. Aren’t you ready to see what it can do for your fleet?
If you’re looking to solve any or all of the above top five problems, give us a call at LiveViewGPS to discuss implementing GPS tracking for fleets. 1-888-544-0494
GPS tracking has been used to help answer a variety of questions over the years. From questions about your precise location to getting turn by turn directions to unfamiliar locations, and a variety of questions in between, it has been instrumental in helping man. Now, it is being used to help beasts.
One case that is currently making headlines, involves a manatee – a female by the name of Carolina, who recently spent six weeks in the Jacksonville Zoo’s critical care facility recovering from symptoms of “cold stress.” Now, she has been deemed healthy enough for release into the wild, but does so, equipped with a bright, shiny new piece of jewelry around her tail – a GPS tracker.
The trackers were provided by the Sea to Shore Alliance in hopes of monitoring the movements of these beautiful and surprisingly sociable beasts of the sea. Manatees were once endangered species. Through significant conservation efforts, they have been updated to “threatened.”
Today, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources reports that there are approximately 6,000 of these creatures swimming around in U.S. waters. Despite the recent population “boom” among manatees, they are still quite vulnerable and this winter, with its colder than average temperatures and rare snow falls dipping far more southerly than usual, has placed more than a few manatees in distress, including one manatee that was recently found dead on a Hilton Head Island Beach.
Manatees need water to be at least 70 degrees to survive so these cooler temperatures are putting them at risk. The hope is that by tracking the movements of manatees and how well they adapt when returning to the wild after experiencing rehabilitation, like Carolina. Sea to Shore Alliance also seeks to study the foraging habitats of manatees, migration patterns, and behaviors and characteristics of these noble sea creatures.
The GPS trackers used to monitor these movements and behaviors poses no threat to the creatures themselves and are specifically designed to function naturally with the manatee. It includes three parts: a padded belt, a float, and a flexible tether. The design has been well-researched and enhanced over several decades to provide minimal interference with the manatee’s normal activities and to pose no risks for potentially dangerous entanglements.
