Tracking the trucks: How GPS can save your deliveries

MANILA, Philippines - Fleet managers have long set their hearts on a technology solution to address the growing issue of managing risks involved in deploying moving vehicles on unsafe roads to transport high-value goods.

The solution is now at hand through the creative use of GPS or Global Positioning System, a radio navigation technology now widely used in aid of navigation, tracking and mapping.

Through the help of a GPS tracking device, it is now easy for fleet managers to monitor the exact location of all their moving vehicles in real time, determine if they are following the intended route or if they are questionably idle longer than a normal traffic or lunch break for drivers would cause, and if they reached the intended destination on time.

A GPS tracker thus ensures on-time deliveries, increased protection for trucks and cargo, and a more efficient delivery system.

Joseph Aguilar, director for supply chain management of Nestlé Philippines Inc., an early adaptor of the technology in the country, attests that the technology solution offers transparency and visibility for the vehicles of their business partners transporting Nestlé goods and help ensure the safety and security of trucks and other company assets as well as drivers and other employees.

“By adopting a solution that can help mitigate risks, we are not only helping ourselves in terms of our company deliverables but helps our business partners manage their risks better and bring down their incidental transport costs,” he said.

Aguilar noted that ever since they subscribed to the services of the Globe Tracker GPS, they were able to bring down the risk of carjacking by as much as 50 percent.

“What happens normally is that when a GPS tracker (installed in the trucks) goes offline, it is an indication that something is wrong. Our monitoring team can now call the truck directly or the owner of the delivery truck to raise an alarm,” he said.

So far, he added that the responsiveness of local authorities to their call for help whenever there are incidents of attempted carjacking, robbery or other crimes has been good.

The good thing about the GPS tracker is that it can determine if the trucks are idle for a questionable length of time or if it is monitored to have deviated from the original route. It is usually a signal of possible hijacking or other road troubles.

“If you look at the environment of the Philippines where there are so many islands or we have so many different locations where our infrastructure is still developing, there is a need to monitor how our trucks and delivery vehicles are performing,” Aguilar said.

“In the Philippines, the incidence of crime and security issues is something our business partners usually deal with on a daily basis. If you want to drive efficiency in a way performance is measured, a solution can be there. But if you want to bring further the cost down in terms of risk, then you may want to enhance their safety and security as they take products of Nestlé from the pick-up point to the delivery destination,” he added.

The advantage of using the Globe Tracker GPS is that it can give highly precise location data from any point in the Philippines and sends regular reports to a central monitoring station, including a bird’s eye view of all the trucks, satellite images for security purposes and text logs for analytics such as usage, performance, trace route, among others.

Jesus Romero, enterprise segments head of Globe Business, said that with all the data being generated from the field, more components could be added to the solution or service.

“We haven’t scratched the tip,” he said. “What is important here is for people to connect information and plan their fleet. We have many ideas in mind, especially as GPS capability grows and as the technology is now widely used. There are many things we can talk about. We have many components to the solution like maps, portals. What is important is we have clients who know what they want and we understand what they want to do and can therefore use the technology to solve the problem.”

Globe Telecom introduced the GPS Tracker service in April 2009 and so far has attracted the interest of enterprises managing fleets and involved in product deliveries.

The service is now available both to big and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at a minimal cost of P2,500 one-time initial fee and a subscription fee of P1,800 to P2,500 per month per truck. A minimum of 10 subscriptions for enterprises and five subscriptions for SMEs is required.

“Let me just say that this is still a bit in the initial stage but what we are trying to do at Nestlé is really bring up the level of creating shared responsibility between a corporate entity like Nestlé and Globe and law enforcement agencies or the government. This is something that cannot work if it is Nestlé alone,” Aguilar said

“So in terms of visibility and transparency, we are given assurance that over time the improvements will come and that’s just for the initial risks we are talking about – risks to property and risks to products that Nestlé is selling to the Philippines. It is really uplifting everybody’s stake, all those who participate in the initiative and for the transportation industry in general in the Philippines.”