The towing industry benefits greatly through the judicious use of GPS tracking devices. They are chockfull of fantastic features that improve efficiency, speed and quality of operations. Here’s a look at how they assist the towing industry.

• Get to incident location quickly and efficiently with informed driving. GPS trackers provide detailed driving directions, traffic updates and weather updates to ensure you get to the incident site in record time.
• Track vehicles precisely in real time anytime, anywhere. Assess vehicle location as well as vehicle condition and be on top of your game.
• GPS trackers offer failsafe communication. Traditional tow trucks rely on radios to communicate and radio frequency is often hampered in rugged and hilly terrains. GPS trackers operate via satellite and provide an infallible means to communicate within the fleet.
• GPS tow trackers determine accurate taxi location in real time and dispatch continuous feed and updates via satellite or cellular network. This information is continuously passed on to a central server where it is stored and can be retrieved at any time.
• Real time location of drivers and vehicles allows for better customer service. Maintain logs, schedule quick dispatches, communicate within fleet and create a situational awareness that will lead to better and safer driving experiences.
• Call for backup easily by setting custom alerts. In case of repair and maintenance, quickly send a backup or repair wagon to fix up the stalled vehicle. This saves costs, time and improves customer service.
• Maintain driver logs; receive continuous vehicle feeds to ensure more responsible driver behavior. Two way communication and continuous surveillance speeds up process and ensures better performance. GPS trackers also allow for photos of the tow truck to be taken remotely.
• By monitoring fuel and speed, reduce fuel costs and increase vehicle longevity. To preserve the car's battery level, GPS trackers also turn off ignition, turn on headlight, turn on taillight, open/close doors etc.
• Prevent theft by setting up designated geo-fences, custom alarms and execute remote operations such as emergency door locking and engine shutdown.
• Make better delivery estimates to clients by monitoring distances from destination e and giving accurate timelines.
• Eliminate paperwork and simplify billing through easy to use GPS tracking software solutions.
• With GPS tow trackers, identify and dispatch closest available driver to incident locations.
• Understand vehicle condition. With GPS tow trackers maintain logs on Engine and vehicle conditions, including fuel levels, tire pressure, cut off fuel gauge, engine temperature, battery status, engine RPM, throttle position, computed odometer and a lot more. This ensures better vehicle maintenance thereby reducing repair costs.
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The Challenges:

Though the benefits drastically outnumber the faults, here are a few challenges that the Towing industry may encounter with respect to GPS technology

• A high cost of satellite tracking equipment in some cases, leads to a preference of installing cellular based tracking as opposed to Satellite tracking devices.
• Most GPS systems run on battery. The older versions of tow tracking systems are heavily dependent on Battery power.
• Costs of fully equipped GPS systems can become quite substantial for smaller fleets. And a fully integrated GPS system might not be cost efficient for some tow companies.

The Solutions:

With awareness, improving technologies and informed choices these hurdles can soon be overcome.

• By combining high tech satellite tracking with traditional Radio Frequency (RF) communication and tracking will stay top notch. RF transmitters send signals through walls, basements, garages and even building without the necessity of a cellular network but need closer range receivers. Satellite technology allows you to receive data anywhere in the world.
• An assessment of cost VS efficiency can be done. Most GPS tracking equipment manufacturers provide consultancy services for upgrading your systems and do an analysis of your business to ascertain cost VS efficiency benefits to help you zero down on the right type of GPS system for your fleet
• Integrating GPS battery with the Car battery system or having a robust battery backup will solve the GPS system's heavy need for battery power.