How to Select Your Perfect Fleet GPS Vendor

By Neil Zawacki
Updated: August 22, 2011

Many small businesses that decide to purchase a fleet GPS system have difficulty choosing a vendor. This article will provide step-by-step instructions on how to find the best match for your company.

You should start by identifying your company’s specific needs. Ask yourself:

How many vehicles are in your fleet?
Do you want to keep drivers away from specific areas?
How frequently do you want a driver’s location reported?
Do you need to a historical record of where the driver has been?
Do you want the fleet GPS system to be hidden?

You’ll want to then compare these aspects:

Cost – The cost of fleet GPS tracking solutions can vary significantly between different vendors. If a solution is too expensive for your business, you’ll need to remove them from your list. If they’re on the cusp, you may want to keep them on for now, especially when you take other factors into account.

Training – You’re going to have dozens of employees (or more) who are going to need to learn how to use the GPS fleet tracking system. It can be quite costly to train each of them, so you should see if the vendor offers the service for free. If they charge for the service, make sure to keep this in mind when determining the overall value.

Features – Most vendors offer a standard set of features with a fleet GPS system: speeding alerts, two-way text messaging, customizable reports, and warning when a driver leaves a specific location. Some vendors will have special features, however, like the ability to disable the ignition of the vehicle from a distance. If you think something like that might be useful, be sure to keep it in mind when looking at fleet GPS vendors.

Customer Support – There’s a good chance you’re going to experience problems with your GPS fleet tracking system at some point. The software won’t work as expected, or the whole system will go down. You should thus make sure that the vendor offers a solid level of customer support for the solution.

You may also want to request a 14-day trial of the fleet GPS solution. This will provide sufficient time to try out the vendor’s system and determine whether it’s a good match for your company. You’ll also be able to test the special features and see how useful they might be for your business. You may have to go through the process a few times, but you should eventually find the perfect vendor for your business.