Page 19 - Oil & Energy - March 2013

March 2013 • 19
times it’s not supposed to
or leaves a geographic area
when it’s not supposed to.
An automatic alert can
be sent if a driver/vehicle
exceeds preset parameters.
Alerts give managers real-
time, actionable information
they can use to maximize
fleet operations in any area, whether it’s a
Speed Alert for driver safety, vehicle move-
ment with an After Hours Alert to guard
against theft, or an Idle Alert to reduce your
wasted fuel.
Used properly, such an application can
save significantly on insurance premiums,
fuel and overtime costs, and vehicle
repairs. It also helps to increase produc-
tivity and enhance customer satisfaction.
Because SignalTrack provides an integrated
approach to fleet and asset management,
it helps even the busiest fleet managers
stay abreast of fleet movement, repairs, and
driver performance.
ENCOURAGE SAFE DRIVING
While commercial trucks are involved
in only 2.4 percent of all car accidents
each year, that equates to one person being
injured or killed in a truck accident every
16 minutes. When a fuel tanker is involved,
the damage is often catastrophic for both
the driver and those in the passenger
vehicle(s) involved. SignalTrack allows fleet
managers to track the speed at which their
drivers travel and how many hours they log
behind the wheel on any given day, which
keeps drivers fresher and more aware, thus
reducing accidents. In fact, because drivers
are driving the speed limit accidents are
reduced by as much as 30 percent after the
installation of an integrated GPS monitoring
solution like SignalTrack.
Other safety enhancements include an
Electronic On-Board Recorder (EOBR),
which helps a company stay in Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA) compliance. A dispatcher can
see on a color-coded dashboard their hours
of service and keep drivers apprised of
potential hazards by using a GPS-based
navigation package capable of alerting a
driver to avoid situations like going under
a bridge that’s too low, or a restricted road
for that particular tanker style.
REDUCING FUEL COSTS
Another benefit to driver performance
tracking is reduced fuel costs. The largest
expense of any transport company, fuel
costs for fuel tankers are even more of
a chunk of the operational budget with
today’s high per-gallon diesel rate. Installing
a GPS solution that keeps drivers driving
the speed limit can reduce fuel costs by 20
percent or more.
Right up there with fuel costs is the
cost to insure a fuel tanker fleet. Insuring
a tanker is quite different than covering
a vehicle weighing 95 percent less. The
damage from stopping the momentum of an
85,000-pound truck moving at high speeds
can be catastrophic. Because GPS fleet mon-
itoring is considered a safety device as well
as a tracking device by many commercial
insurers, a system could reduce insurance
costs as well. Together, savings alone from
insurance and reduced fuel costs has been
reported to cut operational costs in half.
Tablets such as iPad and Android
devices can also be used as an added layer
of reporting and communication for the
driver in the field. SignalTrack’s paperless
form feature is a powerful mobile data
collection application that provides simple
and intuitive user interfaces for collecting
textual data, numeric data, date/time, single
choice answers, multiple choice answers,
barcodes, signatures, sketches, pictures,
video, audio notes and GPS locations.
Paperless inspection forms enable drivers
to report problems instantly via electronic
form delivery.
Even with the incentives towards
alternative energy development, fuels
transportation will continue to power
commerce, industry and business in
America. The companies that operate
smarter by cutting expenses without
sacrificing safety or reliability are the ones
that will carry us into the next decade of
energy demand.
Smart Fleets
ANY FUELS FLEET MANAGER KNOWS,
keeping up with America’s thirst for oil
and gas requires precise planning and rigid
asset control. In a perfect world, those two
things alone would make for a perfect
delivery record.
But the world is far from perfect, and
operational risks remain as the demand for
fuel grows. The U.S. currently uses about 11
million barrels of oil a day, according to the
Department of Energy. We are home to only
5 perfect of the world’s population, and yet
consume 26 percent of the world’s energy.
That means fuels delivery via tanker trucks
is an important part of our transportation
grid to keep America running.
REAL TIME TRACKING
So how can you deliver more, arrive
more safely, and cut costs? End-to-end
fleet management systems that use sophis-
ticated GPS solutions simplify tracking,
reporting, and fleet monitoring and take
into account the special requirements fuels
shipping requires. These systems allow
fleet managers to track cargo in real time,
taking into account everything from the
number of hours a driver logs in a week
to the speed at which they travel. Built-in
features like paperless reporting further
automate the process and make informa-
tion available to multiple parties with the
push of the enter button.
The proprietary SignalTrack application
by Pennsylvania-based GPS North America
is one such solution. Platforms like ours
offer an intuitive web dashboard that can be
viewed from any Internet-connected work-
station. It gives managers and dispatchers
real-time visibility into fleet status and helps
them make better decisions faster.
With a web dashboard, a manager
can view in-the-moment and historical
information about the performance of the
entire fuels fleet. Through customizable
reports, managers can monitor employee,
vehicle, and overall productivity. They
can identify and address recurring issues.
They can even track vehicle maintenance –
helping ensure that preventative service is
performed as scheduled.
Automatic alerts generated by an appli-
cation like SignalTrack can help identify
a problem before it becomes one. For
instance, let’s say a tanker moves during
Intuitive, Interactive GPS Adds
Safety, Efficiency and Savings
By Todd Lewis, President, GPS North America