Can rental vehicles be tracked
Due to the increased innovations in technology as well as other modern amenities, there are specific issues connected with the safety measures of rented Vehicles. It is intriguing question, whether rental vehicles can be tracked and what this means for a person on a trip. This article’s intent is seeking to give the reader an insight regarding the tracking of rental Vehicles, its functionality, advantages as well as its impact to the safety of renters together with the business entities.
What is GPS Tracking?
GPS, also known as Global Positioning System, is a method of determining location and time through the application of satellites. GPS tracking identifies the real-time location information of an object possessing a GPS device. Similarly, GPS tracking is used by a company when renting Vehicles to get to know the whereabouts of their Vehicles and to make sure if they have been taken somewhere else or not and is being used by anyone.
How to Track GPS Enabled Rental Vehicles?
Rental Vehicles use GPS technology as it uses GPS receivers and appropriate software. Instead, rental car companies place a small device or a portable GPS tracker in their vehicles that is connected to the car’s onboard diagnostics (OBD). It has always been in direct contact with GPS satellites transmitting location data to a central server. These programs then process this data as well as the car’s speed in which the direction it is moving in and how far it has travelled in real time.
GPS Tracking for Rental Vehicles – Advantages
Improved Security: Certainly, one of the biggest strengths that people associate to GPS tracking in rental Vehicles is security. If an officer feels the car has been hijacked or used in some crime, law enforcement can easily find the car from GPS data.
Better Maintenance: GPS also assist rental companies to monitor the health of their vehicles with a view of providing them with services such as maintenance and repairs in good time. This not only extends the shelf life of the vehicles on the organization’s fleet but also leads to less time off which is always a pro in regards to cost controls.
Fraud Prevention: The rental car companies can also use GPS to find out the position of their Vehicles, thereby reducing the scope of the fraud. For instance, some of the customers may request to change the agreed duration of use or take a car from one location and drop it in a different location without permission. GPS tracking allows contracting organizations to notice such activities so that their Vehicles are used correctly.
Enhanced Customer Experience: Real time position information obtained by the use of GPS tracking can enhance customer experience by allowing customers to know the status of the vehicle at anytime. It can be useful in case of a vehicle failure or if the car involved in an accident as the customer can access assistance much quicker and without much discomfort.
Insurance and Liability: Today GPS tracking is a very useful instrument in case of an unfortunate accident, or any damage to the rented car because it will help to establish the truth that has to be between the renter and the rental car company. Ultimately, the correct and precise localization data issued by the tracking device can be most valuable while establishing personal culpability or compensating damage within insurance cases.
Efficient Fleet Management: Using GPS tracking, it becomes possible to track Vehicles on rent for the effective management of fleets. They can track the driver behavior, plan best routes for delivery of goods and services, maintenance and minimize on fuel wasting.
GPS tracking in the rental companies
The different ways that rentals companies employ the use of GPS tracking to improve on their services and to protect their assets.
Some of the standard applications include:
Preventing Unauthorized Use: This means that rental companies can always track the location of their vehicles and produce an alert if a car is outside the permitted region. This goes a long way to reduce misuse, theft cases and unauthorized rentals.
Monitoring Driver Behavior: It is also possible to track movements of their customer using GPS such as speed, hard braking and sudden acceleration. This data can be employed so as to recognize the reckless drivers and ensure that relevant action is taken that will help to minimize on the number of accidents.
Tracking Maintenance Needs: Rental companies can track various aspects that requires maintenance and repair services by the vehicle. This goes a long way in helping to increase the lifespan of the vehicles, avoid much down time on the vehicle and at the same time cutting costs greatly on the general maintenance expenses.
Customizing Rental Agreements: As it was mentioned above, with the help of GPS tracking, rental companies are able to analyze customer’s demands, in return for which it is possible to adjust rental agreements of car rental. For instance, if a customer often violates the speed limit, then the company will suggest to them extra insurance for a potential accident.
GPS tracking challenges for rental car business include
However, we need to present several hazards which may be connected with utilization of the GPS tracking devices.
These include:
Privacy Concerns: Some clients may decline to rent a car with the GPS tracking feature. They may also fear that it will relay other parties with the private information such as travel frequency and travel destination.
Initial Investment: The use of GPS tracking devices and putting in place software applications to analyze the data collected by the latter can be expensive for rental companies. Although this point could be justified by advantages offered by GPS tracking, it may mean significant one-off costs.
Reliance on Technology: GPS tracking is based broadly on satellite signals and electronic systems. With regard to satellite coverage and interference, especially in relation to vulnerable electronic devices, GPS tracking is susceptible to operating ineffectively.
In this way, GPS tracking in rental Vehicles has and will likely have many advantages for both renters and rental car companies. With a view of locating the position of rental vehicles as well as their physical condition, GPS tracking has a number of benefits including increases security, efficiency in the management of fleets, and effectiveness in maintenance among others.
However, there are certain areas that GPS tracking may cause problems to the industry but compared to the advantages it may bring, GPS tracking is definitely a good tool for the rental car business. Thus, GPS tracking technologies are likely to develop increasingly in the future including enhancing the technology application of rental Vehicles as both the renters and rental companies need to protect from any lousy incident in future.
