Calculating Vehicle Tracking ROI for your Business
By Mark Schneider

Investing in GPS technology often yields immediate results for businesses by providing visibility into driver behaviour and fleet activity which can be used to improve business performance and increase customer satisfaction. But the quantifiable benefits come when you calculate the potential savings that you can achieve for a range of fleet expenses including fuel, vehicle maintenance and payroll.

Your potential return depends on your business situation – there is no magic calculator

As with any capital improvement project, it is good business practice to calculate what kind of return on investment you can expect from GPS tracking prior to investing in the technology. That being said, there are no standard rules or universal assumptions that will tell you how much fuel or payroll you will save. Your potential return will depend entirely on your business situation so beware of GPS providers that offer handy ‘ROI calculators’. They are often based on assumptions that will be vastly different from your business. You are the best person to calculate ROI because you know your business and where savings might be found.

We suggest you consider the following expenses when calculating your potential return:

Fuel Savings

GPS vehicle tracking is proven to decrease fuel costs be improving daily routing, reducing aggressive, fuel-heavy driving behaviours and eliminating fuel theft and unauthorized travel. Understand your current monthly fuel costs and kilometres travelled via your fuel cards and log books, and then consider how much you could save by implementing GPS tracking.

Payroll Savings

A recent client noted that her GPS devices would pay for themselves “within a month” due to the amount of false overtime claims she dealt with. GPS vehicle tracking helps business take back control of their payroll and time sheet issues by monitoring unauthorised stops, extended lunch breaks, late starts and falsely claimed overtime. Once timesheet discrepancies become apparent, it doesn’t take long for businesses to resolve the issue and begin saving.

GPS tracking may also allow you to find additional payroll savings by reducing administrative office work and increasing productivity of drivers through quicker dispatching and improved routing efficiency.

Maintenance Savings

Keeping track of fleet maintenance can be time consuming and unscheduled breakdowns, engine wear caused by aggressive driving and forgotten servicing all contribute to additional maintenance expenses. GPS tracking allows you to monitor vehicle maintenance, offer servicing reminders and send alerts when engine exceptions such as temperature are reached.

If you’d like to discuss GPS tracking or would like more information about calculating ROI for your business, contact Fleetdynamics today.


A Tradies Guide to Managing Vehicle Expenses
By Mark Schneider