Vehicle Tracking

What Are the Most Common Vehicle Tracking Reports?

Reports from a fleet management solution can provide a wealth of insights about how to use your vehicles more safely and efficiently. If you’re new to using fleet management software, the number of insights available might seem overwhelming.

A great starting place, though, is seeing what other fleet professionals use as their go-to reports. Whether you are implementing a safety program, launching a green initiative, or improving your customers’ experience, these often-used reports can be the cornerstone of your effort.

Here are the top five vehicle tracking reports (in descending order) that Responsible Fleet customers use so far in 2021 and the challenges they solve with that data.

5.   Landmark History

Landmarks are a useful feature – our clients have found some creative ways to use geofencing for significant locations, as well.

The Landmarks report enables fleet managers to get a quick glimpse of visits to known locations. They can easily filter by vehicle/group, date, landmark/group, and duration.

This can allow you to verify that vehicles are where they should be and also not going places they shouldn’t. In addition, landmarking job sites or service locations is helpful to better understand the time actually spent on a job and the ability to bill a customer for service.

Clients can also run reports for: Landmark Group (stop/idle time in a landmark group); Landmark Log (landmark visits in order); Late Start (vehicles that haven’t left or returned to a landmark by a certain time) and Unmarked Stops (stops outside known landmarks).

4.  Stop Detail and Idle

This vehicle tracking report is consistently one of the most used – and for good reason. High idle time has a rippling effect across a fleet and causes different issues. Long idle times lead to higher fuel costs and faster wear and tear on vehicles.

There are some things to keep in mind: In some climates, drivers might need to run the vehicle early before departing to either warm up or cool down the cab depending on where they are located.

However, Responsible Fleet customers have found that the majority of high-idle cases come from drivers leaving the vehicle running while at a stop either completing a delivery, eating lunch inside the cab, or other similar reasons. Using the data from idle time reports can help control fuel costs, wear and tear, and their carbon footprint.

The stop-time portion of the report is also helpful in a few different ways. First, if your customers call in asking why your employees arrived late, were only there for half the time they should have been, and/or didn’t complete the job, then the Stop Detail and Idle Time Report will lay these claims to rest.

How much money have you had to reimburse customers because it’s their word against the driver? With the Stop Detail and Idle Time Report, you can either confirm a customer’s claim or vindicate the driver by revealing what time they arrived at a location and how long they were stopped there.

The added benefit of including idle information in this report is to spot patterns in idle times to help curb this behavior. Responsible Fleet customers have used this report to reduce the operating costs by vindicating the driver while at the same time providing a better experience for their customers by providing same-day billing.

3.  Activity Detail Report

The Activity Detail Report is extremely versatile. It shows all of the data that is gathered from the device and reported back to the server every two minutes. Speed, odometer, and distance are some of the data points in this report.

Responsible Fleet customers find it most useful when they need to research different situations such as an accident, or even input monitoring showing when snowplows, buckets, and other equipment were engaged.

2.  Posted Speed

Safety challenges are the common thread between fleets of all sizes and industries. Speeding tickets and accidents are issues many businesses face, no matter how many or what type of vehicles you have.

The Posted Speed Report is one of the most-used scheduled reports by Responsible Fleet customers because it tells a story that the Speeding Violations Report does not. With a Speeding Violations Report, you, the user, are determining what constitutes a speeding incident. For instance, if you only want to know the times in which your drivers are traveling over 80-mph, then that’s the threshold you define and the only information you will see.

But what happens when your drivers travel 35 mph in a 20-mph school zone or 70 mph on a 55-mph road? The Speed Violations Report doesn’t tell you this part of the story – and that’s where the Posted Speed Report comes in. It uses mapping information to know the posted speed of the road and you determine what threshold over the posted speed you would like to see (i.e. any instances when drivers travel 10 mph or more over a posted speed limit).

1.   Driving Violations Summary

Responsible Fleet clients who want to see a great overview of their employees’ habits should definitely get familiar with this report to increase the safety of their fleet

You can set the report to analyze based on pre-set time frames or customize your own. You can also set it to report based on miles driven or run time. The report includes columns for hard turns, idling, speeding, and braking along with violations per 100 miles and distance.

You can also see which vehicles and drivers are associated with the statistics. The Driving Violations Graph is also valuable because it shows a breakdown of violations by type, which can help you target dangerous driving habits.

Just Outside the Top 5 Most Common Vehicle Tracking Reports

The Odd Hours report sometimes makes an appearance in the Top 5, but not this time. Still, it’s worth mentioning since it’s great for preventing personal vehicle use and side jobs.

Whether your organization requires vehicles to be returned to the yard at the end of the day, or if allows your drivers to take them home at night, unauthorized use and vehicle theft can be significant challenges.

Responsible Fleet customers manage and combat these issues with the Odd-Hours Report and alert. Fleet managers who know times of day when vehicles shouldn’t be in use define this as “odd-hours.” If any vehicle moves within that range (i.e. 9pm-6am), then they are notified either in real time with the alert or they can see a history of odd-hours data through the report.

Organizations use the alert for real-time action against theft, while the report is handy when trying to manage personal vehicle use or side jobs.

Use the Data Relevant to YOU

Revealing the top 5 reports that Responsible Fleet customers use is a helpful starting point for you. Keep in mind, though, that every organization has unique challenges. Your needs might differ, so be sure that the reports you schedule address your organization’s needs.