All business owners want to run an operation that is efficient and cost effective, no where is this truer than in the world of fleet management where the management of vehicles can make or break the profitability of the business. Fleet management tracking tools can help business owners and managers keep track of their mobile assets and the activities of their employees at any point throughout the working day. By having access to this information the task of increasing efficiency is made that much easier.

GPS fleet management tools are a simple and effective way to track company vehicles. As such, this technology and the fleet management solutions it provides is one of the fastest growing technological markets on the planet today. No matter what the size of your company it maybe worth investigating GPS technologies as a way to increase your business' efficiency. However, choosing the right fleet management package can be difficult, seemingly the options are endless and if you are new to this variety of technology you may be understandably baffled. Fundamental in your choice is determining what your company needs and how a GPS tracking system will increase the efficiency of your operations.

First in your list of decisions to make should be the rapidity of the updates you will need. Predominantly this will fall into two categories, 'real time' or 'passive'. Both will provide you with the information you need to make your business more efficient including details of vehicle speed, direction, stops, routes and location.

Real time fleet management tools allow the user to view all of the information above, as it happens. This is rapidly becoming the most popular form GPS tracking for the rate at which it gives the manager information. In addition, many systems give the user live updates by email or text even if they are away from the system of any incidences of speeding or going off-route.

The main benefit of this type of fleet tracking system is that by providing real time data it allows the user to monitor operations making it easier to find ways to increase efficiency. For example, by monitoring vehicle idling, a process that uses fuel when the vehicle is stationary, it is possible to reduce the occurrence hence making fuel bill cheaper; some companies have found that fuel usage has gone down by around twenty percent purely by monitoring the idling times of vehicles.

Passive tracking differs from real time as it does not give the manager live feeds on what company vehicles are doing. Instead of live data, a GPS recorder fitted to all vehicles in the fleet; it records all the relevant data and is the downloaded to a main terminal at the end of each working day. This download can either be carried out manually or wirelessly as the vehicle enters the yard. While they do not provide information in real time, they do allow company managers to increase efficiency using data built up over time.

These are the two main types of fleet management system that will allow you to increase the efficiency of your business. Depending on how you run your business operations each will have its own benefits and downsides. While it may be tempting to go for the all singing, all dancing model; be sure to look around and shop wisely to find a great deal.