A low cost GPS Solution for Companies and Fleets that works!

A low cost GPS Solution for Companies and Fleets that works!

Does your company have drivers? Do you need to know where they are? Do your customers ask where their delivery is? Well that was the case with us, however we didn’t want to spend a ton of money on GPS hardware. Especially when some of our drivers are contract drivers who use their own vehicles.

We decided to try out a mobile solution, which was the most cost effective way. We knew that it wouldn’t work as well as an actual GPS solution, but this was our best option at the moment. We tried a few different software solutions, but none really worked the way they were supposed to. I will not name the ones that were horrible, just because I am not here to bad mouth a certain product. The updates were really late, data was incorrect, interface was very hard to use. Just when I was ready to give up on a mobile solution, I decided to give My Car Tracks a try.

The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that I was able to see our drivers in real time, the way its supposed to. The other software I tried had delays. Secondly, there is a button I can press called “Actual Positions” which allows me to “Ping” all or a certain driver just in case the signal was lost GPS didn’t catch a signal. The 3rd thing, this is purely web based, so I was able to log in and see everything from our iPad, as you can see in the picture above.

Mycartracks is compatible with IOS and Android devices, however I chose to go with IOS for this one. And of course some Otterbox cases to protect the devices. As much as I hate the bulkiness of Otterbox, I have personally seen a phone survive a battle against a Semi-Truck, that was repairable because it was in a Otterbox case.

At the time of purchase, we paid $7 / Month per vehicle, which is the highest plan, which also includes Unlimited Reports, integrated Google Maps….Live Traffic…pretty much all the bells and whistles.

We have been using mycartracks for about 6 months now, and so far I must say that it has more than paid for itself. We can even send a link to other employees, that will show just a map of the drivers current positions, without giving access to the options or report data.

If there is any downside of mycartracks, it is the fact that it is on a mobile device. The issue here is a driver may “Accidentally” turn off the device, or turn off GPS, which will stop the software from working.

However to remedy this, I installed Kids Zone on our devices. With Kid Zone installed on the devices, it prevents the phone from being turned off or GPS disabling. Kids Zone was $4 per device, a one-time fee.

JANUARY 1, 2019 BY DAVIDIN