The trucking industry operates with razor-thin profit margins, and fuel is the second-largest expense behind labor for fleet operators. While fuel prices are beyond the control of trucking companies, there are several ways to improve fuel efficiency through better driving habits, proactive maintenance, efficient route planning, and more.

Let’s look at some of these practices and how telematics can help implement them to maximize fuel efficiency across your fleet.

Fuel is the second-largest expense for trucking companies beyond labor—are you taking the proper steps to improve fuel efficiency? Share on X

Improving Driver Habits

Drivers are the biggest expense for trucking companies, and they heavily influence the second largest cost—fuel.

According to data from the EPA, fleets could save thousands of dollars per truck each year by limiting excessive idling and reducing maximum speed limits. When multiplied across an entire fleet, these cost savings could amount to tens of thousands of dollars per year or more—even for a modest-sized fleet.

The most common way to improve driver habits is through proper training and education. In fact, two trucking fleets in Canada documented the impact of driver training and found 18% and 20% improvements in fuel efficiency, respectively. It’s one of the easiest ways to get started.

Of course, positive reinforcement helps improve compliance over the long term. Telematics solutions measure driver behavior in real-time, including speed, braking, acceleration, and other habits, making it easy for managers to reward good behaviors and address any problems early on.

Powerfleet’s LV-9000 makes it easy to track speeding, harsh braking, idling time, over-revving, and other driving behaviors.

Predictive Maintenance

Anyone that owns a car knows the importance of proactive maintenance to improve fuel economy and avoid breakdowns.

Regular and proactive maintenance is essential to improve fuel economy, satisfy federal regulations, extend vehicle lifespans, reduce the odds of emergency repairs, and increase fleet uptime. After all, a single roadside breakdown can cost thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

There are several critical parts to maintain:

• Lubricants reduce friction and wear-and-tear on the engine, transmission, and drivetrain. Using synthetic lubricants can improve fuel economy by at least 3%, saving nearly 500 gallons of fuel each year while reducing wear and maintenance.
• Underinflated tires produce heat and rolling resistance, reducing fuel economy by 0.5% to 1% per 10 psi below recommendations. According to a recent survey, less than half of tires were within 5% of the recommended inflation pressure.
• Old components often weigh much more than newer lightweight components, reducing fuel economy. Replacing these components with aluminum, metal alloys, metal matrix composites, and other lightweight components can improve your mileage.

Tracking all these maintenance items can be a nightmare when you multiply them by an entire fleet of trucks. Moreover, mileage-based maintenance may not be the best way to plan maintenance since it doesn’t necessarily correlate with actual maintenance problems.

Predictive maintenance involves using telematics to track vehicle usage patterns and predict optimal maintenance times. For example, different drivers may have separate braking habits that influence brake pad and engine health, creating unique maintenance requirements.

More Efficient Logistics

Inefficient logistics operations can lead to trucks traveling empty, unnecessarily idling, and using longer or congested routes.

By some estimates, 15% or more of annual truck miles may be empty miles that don’t generate any revenue. Typical long-haul trucks could be driving 15,000 miles per year and consuming over 2,400 gallons of diesel fuel without cargo in these instances.

Idling consumes about 0.8 gallons of fuel per hour. While idle time is often necessary (e.g., when outside temperatures are low), there may be an opportunity to significantly cut down on fuel usage if you can reduce unnecessary idling time.

The combination of telematics and intelligent routing software can help improve logistics:

• Intelligent routing software optimizes routes based on driver hours of service, vehicle size constraints, equipment availability, and other factors to maximize fuel economy.
• Telematics can help track detention times and enforce shipper or receiver fines. You can also identify internal materials handling teams that may be causing unnecessary detention times.
• Telematics can show the real-time locations of fleet assets to proactively alert receiving docks before a truck arrives, enable live-loads, and avoid empty trailers.

The EPA estimates that a mere 1% reduction in empty miles could save over 100 gallons of fuel and increase ton-miles by nearly 20,000 per year. At the same time, reducing idling time by 5% could save another 100 gallons of fuel each year, resulting in a far superior fuel economy.

Powerfleet’s Vista Dashboard – Source: Powerfleet

Powerfleet’s cutting-edge software makes it easy to realize these benefits. For example, fleet managers can instantly see all their fleet assets on an interactive map and configure alerts for excess idle time.

Identifying EV Possibilities

Trucks waste a lot of energy during deceleration and braking, especially when they frequently stop or slow down.

Hybrid engines recapture energy from deceleration and braking and store it in a secondary power source that provides extra power when climbing a hill or accelerating to pass a vehicle. As a result, short-haul trucks can improve fuel economy by 30% to 50% using hybrid engines.

Electric vehicles will play an essential role in the future of trucking. While the electrification of long-haul fleets might be a long-term goal, there may be opportunities to electrify or hybridize short-haul or medium-weight vehicles as part of your normal replacement cycle.

In addition to electric vehicles, many large automakers are developing hydrogen fuel cell-powered semi-trucks. These trucks will be quiet, smooth, and powerful without emitting anything other than water. Fuel cells could also have a range of about 300 miles with fast refueling.

The Bottom Line

Fuel is the second-largest expense after labor for trucking companies. While fuel prices aren’t controllable, there are many ways to improve fuel economy through better driving habits, proactive maintenance, and better logistics. Trucking companies may also want to consider hybrids or EVs.

The best way to improve fuel economy is through the use of telematics. Powerfleet provides a wide range of telematics solutions designed to track everything from driver behaviors to fuel economy and maintenance needs. Fleet managers can track these data points in an easy-to-use dashboard.

Browse our product catalog or contact us to schedule a free consultation to start reducing your fuel costs today!

Telematics and dash cams provide a lot of obvious benefits for fleet management, spanning both safety and productivity, which combine to create a fast payback period and a high return on investment. However, some drivers may be wary of having video technology in the cab with them. That’s why it is important to explain why your company is implementing these technologies to build trust with your drivers.

Let’s look at the benefits of cameras and telematics and some strategies to get buy-in from your drivers.

Cameras and telematics provide a host of benefits for fleets, but it's essential to get buy-in from drivers before adopting the technologies. Share on X

Why Cameras & Telematics?

Fleet managers are under a lot of pressure from stakeholders and customers to do more with less. The rise of e-commerce and two-day shipping has put stress on supply chains, while stakeholders are always looking for ways to cut costs and improve profitability. Fortunately, dashcams and telematics can help address these challenges.

There are several reasons to consider these solutions:

• Increased Safety: Identify unsafe driving habits, encourage safe driving, and retrain/coach those with unsafe driving behaviors.
• Better Fuel Economy: Alert drivers when they suddenly brake or accelerate or excessive idling to improve fuel economy.
• Lower Insurance Costs: Reduce legal risk and fraudulent claims with video recordings and telematics data.
• Reduced Maintenance: Go beyond arbitrary scheduled maintenance to proactively maintain vehicles and trailers based on actual usage to avoid on-the-road breakdowns.
• Greater Productivity: Gain real-time visibility to optimize asset utilization.

Dashcams augment telematics data with visual evidence that can exonerate drivers and aid in security and theft recovery efforts. For example, dashcams can provide visual evidence of a driver’s behavior, as well as road view footage, if an accident occurs.

Powerfleet provides a full range of telematics and dashcam solutions and has helped thousands of customers improve their safety operations. All of these solutions connect to a software platform that provides holistic visibility of your fleet and helps you make data-driven decisions.

How to Get Driver Buy-in

Drivers are the lifeblood of any fleet, so it’s critical to secure their buy-in when implementing these technologies. Without explaining the reason for installing cameras and telematics, it’s easy for them to assume that you don’t trust them or that you will spy on them. Simple communication can eliminate these concerns and build trust with drivers.

Some important things to communicate include:

• Why are you installing cameras and telematics? Explain that cameras and telematics can help lower insurance premiums, maximize available resources, and improve visibility. In addition, remind drivers that these same technologies can help defend them in the event of an accident and minimize dwell times.
• How will you use the technologies? Drivers may worry that you’ll record personal information or inappropriately use the footage. Give drivers a clear policy that explains who will access the information and clarify that no one will even log in to watch them on a live feed from the device to reassure them.

Before implementing these technologies, fleet managers should meet with drivers to give them a forum to voice any concerns, ask questions, and for you to explain the benefits of these technologies from a business perspective. These meetings can be invaluable in making drivers feel heard and determining the right technologies to implement where everyone feels comfortable.

Fleet managers should communicate all information in a written drivers’ guide or as part of other written driver materials. In addition to addressing frequently asked questions, these guides provide an easy-to-enforce set of rules and clarity during any disputes. Onboarding processes should also cover these policies in detail.

Addressing Driver Concerns

The average cost of a commercial fleet accident is about $74,000, according to Drive Safe, and that figure jumps to $500,000 or more if the crash causes a fatality. On the whole, vehicle accidents cost employers upwards of $60 billion each year in legal and medical expenses, property damage, and lost employee productivity.

Telematics and dashcams may naturally shed light on poor driving habits. For example, you may begin to notice that drivers are aggressively accelerating, harshly braking, or speeding regularly. So the next question becomes: How do you address these concerns without hurting your relationship with drivers or increasing turnover?

Start with a few steps:

1. Develop a baseline. Record initial individual and overall driver scores over some time and use them as a benchmark.
2. Concentrate resources. Focus on high-risk drivers rather than trying to address all drivers at once.
3. Identify common behaviors. Determine the most common behaviors and focus education efforts there.

Next, consider implementing a few strategies:

• Driver feedback. Some telematics solutions provide real-time driver feedback to help them become more aware of poor driving habits. In other cases, you may need to coach drivers with poor driving habits after the fact to help them improve.
• Rewards programs. Recognizing good driving behaviors with a rewards program is an excellent form of positive reinforcement. For example, you may choose to send gift cards to good drivers or create a leaderboard with prizes for each month’s top person.
• Enhanced screening. The benchmarks from telematics data can help screen future drivers. You know what behaviors to look out for, and a preliminary driving test can help weed out poor drivers before you commit to hiring them on the fleet.

The key to success is focusing on rewarding positive driving behaviors and explaining how drivers can benefit from technology solutions. When they enable rewards programs, drivers may be much more receptive to implementing these technologies, especially when paired with less legal risk and other fleet-wide benefits.

The Bottom Line

Telematics and dashcams are transformative technologies for fleets, but before they are implemented, it’s important to put together a driver relations plan. By communicating the intent and limitations of these technologies with drivers, you can avoid tension and ensure everyone is on the same page while realizing the full benefits of these technologies across your fleet.

Fleet managers should also ensure that they plan to address poor driving habits identified with these solutions. By focusing on rewarding good behaviors, you can increase buy-in from drivers and maximize the effects of these solutions on driver safety. The data can also help improve screening processes when hiring new drivers.

If you’re interested in adding telematics and dashcams to your fleet, contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

Fleet owners have experienced a lot of headwinds over the past few years, from recruiting drivers to rising insurance premiums. The good news is that new technologies are helping to ease some of these concerns and help fleets become more safe, efficient and profitable. In fact, these technologies may offer more benefits than many fleet owners appreciate.

Let’s look at some of the most common safety and productivity benefits of telematics and dash cams, as well as three unexpected benefits.

Telematics and dash cams offer a wide range of well-known benefits, but there are a few unexpected benefits that might surprise you. Share on X

Improving Safety & Productivity

Telematics and dash cams provide a lot of obvious benefits, spanning both safety and productivity, which combine to create a fast payback period and a high return on investment. From route optimization to vehicle maintenance, the cumulative effect of these solutions can make a huge impact on a fleet’s growth and profitability.

Some of the most common benefits include:

• Fuel Efficiency: Telematics solutions that track driving habits can be used to encourage and enforce better driving behaviors. For instance, a driver that is consistently speeding or braking hard may require additional training to encourage more efficient driving.
• Better Maintenance: Telematics solutions go beyond vehicle miles to better predict when maintenance may be required. By being proactive with maintenance, trucking companies can avoid costly breakdowns on the road.
• Improved Scheduling: Telematics solutions provide real-time GPS locations for trucks, trailers and other fleet assets. Armed with these data points, fleets can better schedule assets in order to maximize efficiency and improve return on investment.
• Actionable Data: Telematics solutions generate a tremendous amount of data that can be leveraged to make data-driven decisions. For example, you can easily figure out the most profitable drivers or underutilized assets with just a few clicks.

While these benefits alone are enough to justify an investment in these technologies, there are many other unexpected benefits that come along with embracing them. Fleet owners should factor in these benefits when conducting a cost-benefit analysis or making the case for integrated telematics and dash cams into their fleets.

#1. Lower Insurance Premiums

Many auto insurance companies have begun offering discounts of up to 40% for drivers that agree to install monitoring technology that tracks their driving habits. While consumers can access significant cost savings, insurers can plug these statistics into their risk assessment models to fine-tune premiums across their entire customer base.

Telematics and dash cams could help lower insurance premiums for the same reasons. In addition to monitoring driver behavior, dash cams can be invaluable when proving who’s at-fault in accidents, which could potentially prevent nuclear verdicts. Trucking companies can also use the data from these solutions to proactively negotiate lower rates.

#2. Eliminate Fraud Claims

Every industry experiences different levels of fraud and the commercial trucking industry is no exception. From staged accidents to cash-for-crash schemes, some schemes can lead to large insurance payouts and higher insurance premiums. Abusing fuel cards and other schemes may not cost as much upfront, but they can quickly add up over time.

Telematics and dual-facing dash cams can help prevent fraud with hard evidence. In addition to speed, braking habits and other telematics data, video footage makes it crystal clear what happened before and after an impact to see who’s at fault. Fuel metrics can also help address fuel card abuse and other forms of fraud that can add up over time.

#3. Prevent Theft & Aid Recovery

Vehicle theft may not be common, but it can be extremely expensive. In addition to the vehicle cost, fleets must also grapple with the hit to productivity and the impact on relationships with customers. Only one-in-five vehicles are recovered and one-third of those that come back have significant damage that takes more than ten days to repair, on average.

Telematics solutions can play an important role in avoiding these rare incidents. For example, telematics with GPS can be used to quickly track down stolen assets (and catch the criminals responsible) while dash cams can provide valuable evidence in court. Door sensors and other technologies can also help prevent cargo theft through proactive monitoring.

Choosing the Right Telematics

There are many different companies that provide telematics solutions, but few have Powerfleet’s advanced technologies and expertise. From advanced ELDs to reefer monitoring solutions, we provide a wide range of solutions to unlock the benefits of telematics and dash cams across your fleet and drive a near-term return on investment.

• In-cab ELD compliance solutions go beyond regulatory compliance to provide real-time position reports, engine performance information, two-way communication with the driver and full TMS integration.
• Dry van solutions provide freight cameras and tags for visual and environmental conditions without the need for external power (e.g., solar powered).
• Reefer solutions work with all major refrigeration unit brands and optical sensors to allow for complete remote control—even if the trailer isn’t hitched.
• Chassis solutions put a stop to billing disputes with comprehensive data on billing start and stop times and advanced sensors to alert you of any movements.
• Container solutions provide full visibility in real-time for containers in order to help you increase utilization and reduce transit cycle time.
• Cargo solutions provide images, door sensors and cargo-area environmental sensors for true freight visibility to help with root cause analysis for claims.

Powerfleet’s powerful software consolidates all of this information into actionable insights that fleet owners can use to improve safety and efficiency.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation today!

The Bottom Line

Telematics and dash cams provide a lot of well-known benefits, but there are also some unexpected benefits along the way. From lowering insurance premiums to recovering stolen assets, these solutions can help your fleet avoid costly safety incidents, lower operating costs and improve overall efficiency to make your business more profitable.

In addition to bumper-to-bumper telematics solutions, Powerfleet’s software helps fleet owners make sense of the data. The platform provides you with a full set of key performance indicators to drive decisions while self-learning capabilities help increase accuracy over time to streamline your operations and grow your business.

Learn more about Powerfleet’s options or contact us today!

Industrial trucks are the mainstays of materials handling operations and effectively managing them is key to safety, productivity and cost management. In addition to their impact on productivity and related costs, OSHA found that more than 11% of forklifts are involved in some type of accident each year, making them a major safety hazard.

Vehicle management systems, or VMS, can help control safety risks, maximize productivity and contain costs through access control and real-time telematics. You can easily determine if operators are driving safely, how long it takes to accomplish tasks, whether more vehicles are needed, where to focus labor resources, and much more.

Let’s take a look at five reasons that you need a VMS for your industrial truck fleet.

VMS can help control safety, maximize productivity and contain costs within your industrial truck fleet through access control and data-driven insights. Share on X

#1. Maximize Employee Productivity

Data collected from more than 55,000 VMS installations shows that operators are paid for three to four times more hours than actual material movement time. During a typical eight-hour shift, the data shows that operators are logged into the truck for four hours, the truck is in motion for two hours and the truck is moving with a load for only one hour.

VMS provides the key insights needed to improve productivity. With access to vehicle level data, you can pay incentives based on an operator’s productivity or integrate a warehouse management system, or WMS, to dynamically assign tasks. A single extra hour of motion with load time per shift could double your productivity!

#2. Improve Fleet Management

It’s not uncommon for managers to see unused trucks in a facility while fielding requests to acquire more trucks to meet demand. Oftentimes, these disconnects arise from unauthorized drivers—such as contractors borrowing trucks without returning them—and a lack of real-time visibility into vehicle locations within a facility.

The access control systems that come with VMS ensure that only authorized drivers have access to vehicles. If they fail to return the vehicle, you can easily identify them as the culprit and remind them to return vehicles to the correct location. VMS also provides real-time visibility into vehicle locations to minimize the time spent looking for vehicles.

#3. Optimize Your Budget

Managers are always being asked to do more with less. While improving driver productivity plays a critical role, you also have to optimize the number of forklifts in a facility, make rent versus buy decisions, and allocate vehicles across facilities. These decisions can be extremely difficult to make without the right data points on hand.

VMS can provide the data needed to make these decisions. For instance, you can measure the average and maximum number of vehicles used at any given time, compare that to the number of vehicles at a facility and identify opportunities to re-allocate vehicles to reduce costs. Many of our customers have used reallocation to avoid buying new trucks for years.

#4. Keep Employees Safe

Materials handling is a dangerous business. According to OSHA, forklift accidents cause over 34,900 serious injuries and 85 fatalities each year. OSHA requires employers to ensure that only trained operators can use forklifts while drivers are required to inspect vehicles for unsafe conditions prior to using them—and violations can be dangerous and costly.

VMS enforce daily vehicle safety checklists as well as track and authorize drivers’ access to vehicles. In addition to complying with OSHA regulations, these technologies can help identify who’s responsible for anonymous damage at facilities and enforce safe driving at all times. The cost of a single safety incident is enough to justify the cost of VMS.

#5. Remain Competitive

Domestic manufacturing operations face steep competition from offshore manufacturing, which has sharply lower labor costs. VMS is essential to remain competitive with these facilities and keep manufacturing operations onshore. Every dollar saved in manufacturing and distribution translates to a $5 to $10 increase in sales.

How to Choose a Vendor

There are many different VMS solutions out there and each has its own pros and cons. When choosing between different options, there are several important factors to keep in mind that can help you avoid costly mistakes or create unintended consequences.

Some of the most important factors to keep in mind include:

• Warranty: Ensure that the proper concurrences are in place from the original equipment manufacturers and dealers to ensure that the VMS will not interfere with UL approvals or other key safety endorsements.
• Extensibility: The VMS should be installed on all trucks in order to realize the most value. In order to avoid vendor lock-in, you should ensure that VMS works with any type of truck with consistent data capture.
• Experience: VMS solutions may look similar on the surface, but experienced providers account for edge cases the best. For example, what happens if an operator forgets his badge? You should seek out companies that have been around for a long time.
• Integrations: VMS should integrate with existing maintenance, warehouse management systems, and safety databases in order to provide the most value. At the same time, you should make sure they don’t burden an already-busy IT department.
• Return on Investment: VMS should provide a relatively short return on investment. VMS providers should work with you to meet your goals while completing your existing day-to-day work without deployment becoming a full-time job of its own.

The Bottom Line

Vehicle management systems, or VMS, make it easy to improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance safety across your industry truck fleet. In many cases, these solutions provide a return on investment in less than 12 months and help ensure compliance with OSHA regulations.

Powerfleet is a leading provider of VMS and other telematics solutions for industrial truck fleets. From out-of-the-box solutions that don’t require an IT department to advanced solutions for high-density fleets, we have solutions for industrial truck fleets of any size with over 25 years of experience in the industry and 100,000+ units deployed.

Contact us for a free consultation to learn more!

The Industrial Truck Association’s 8th Annual National Forklift Safety Day webinar will take place virtually tomorrow, June 8th, bringing together customers, policymakers and government officials to discuss forklift safety, training and equipment checks.

With over 34,900 serious injuries and 85 fatalities each year, it has never been more important for manufacturers and warehouses to implement the technologies and policies needed to keep workers safe and avoid costly legal, medical and other liabilities.

Let’s take a closer look at forklift safety and some tips that you can implement this Forklift Safety Day to improve your operations and reduce risk.

With over 34,900 serious injuries and 85 fatalities involving forklifts each year, it has never been more important to implement the policies and technologies to keep workers safe. Share on X

OSHA Safety Regulations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA, has several safety regulations in place to ensure a safe work environment. Any failure to comply with these regulations could result in fines of between $13,653 to $136,532 per violation.

The two regulations covering forklifts include:

• Vehicle Inspections: Before use, drivers are required to inspect vehicles for unsafe conditions. These examinations must take place at least daily. When forklifts are used around the clock, they should be examined after each shift. When defects are found, they should be immediately reported and corrected.
• Operator Training: Employers must ensure that only trained operators can use forklifts and similar equipment. Under the Final Rule for Powered Industrial Truck Operator Training, employers are required to provide operator training and licensing along with periodic evaluations of operator performance.

These standards provide a baseline for forklift safety, but they shouldn’t be the only safety standards in place. States may operate their own Occupational Safety and Health Plans and workplaces may go above and beyond with other safety requirements of their own.

Safety Best Practices

OSHA and state-level safety standards provide a baseline, but businesses should go above and beyond these requirements to ensure safety. These policies should be put into writing or posted in areas where drivers can readily view them.

Some best practices to consider include:

• Traffic: Separate forklift traffic from other workers where possible, or even better, limit some aisles to workers on foot only or forklifts only. Install physical barriers and ensure that workstations are isolated from aisles used by forklifts. And, restrict the use of forklifts near time clocks, break rooms, cafeterias and exits.
• Maintenance: Conduct preventive maintenance of forklifts to ensure that they are properly running at all times. Consider using telematics solutions to create the most effective maintenance schedules. Repair and maintain cracks and other defects on loading docks and in aisles where they can create safety risks.
• Driving: Install technology to monitor driver behavior and take the appropriate action. Drivers should slow down and sound the horn when crossing aisles, alert workers when they are nearby and use flashing lights instead of (or in addition to) horns when in areas with a lot of ambient noise.

Vehicle Management Systems

Vehicle Management Systems, or VMS, are instrumental in controlling safety, productivity and damage issues that occur in most fleets. While safety regulations define standards, VMS are necessary to enforce these standards and ensure compliance.

There are several ways VMS can help:

• Safety Checklists: VMS enforces daily vehicle inspections and safety checklists by preventing the vehicle from operating until the checklist has been completed. Operators don’t need to reference any external materials or rely on memory to know what to check, which helps increase compliance and actually find potential issues.
• Access Controls: VMS authorizes and tracks drivers’ access to vehicles. That way, you can ensure that only trained operators are driving the vehicles, as well as hold drivers accountable for vehicle, product or facility damage that occurs on their watch. You can even identify unsafe driving behaviors and detect impacts in real-time.

While VMS implementation has a cost, the cost of a single accident can often more than justify the investment in VMS technology to help manage these conditions. And that doesn’t include the potential to reduce maintenance costs and improve productivity.

Benefits Beyond Safety

Vehicle Management Systems provide benefits that go well beyond enforcing compliance with safety standards. Along with other telematics solutions, they can help ensure that an entire manufacturing or warehousing operation runs smoothly and minimize risk.

Some key non-safety capabilities include:

• Productivity Measures: Operators are paid three to four times more hours than actual material movement time, which creates a lot of inefficiencies that could be addressed with more information. For example, VMS along with Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) can tell people where and when to complete tasks.
• Management Tools: VMS provides critical visibility into the real-time location and status of each forklift. Rather than guessing, supervisors and managers can assign drivers and see their progress in real-time to keep them engaged and active.
• Maintenance Costs: VMS makes it easy to schedule predictive maintenance using actual motion hours rather than hour meters or calendar time. In fact, most companies can cut maintenance costs in half while avoiding on-the-job breakdowns.

VMS is quickly becoming a workplace standard. In particular, manufacturing companies in North America . and other high-cost countries have embraced these technologies as a way to cut down on costs and remain competitive with outsourced manufacturing businesses.

The Bottom Line

There are nearly 35,000 forklift accidents and 85 fatalities each year, according to OSHA, while more than 10% of forklifts will be involved in some type of accident each year. While OSHA and states have adopted safety regulations, Vehicle Management Systems (VMS) and other technologies are critical to enforcing and complying with these regulations.

While VMS involves an upfront cost, most companies can realize a return on investment in less than a year thanks to improved safety, productivity gains and reduced maintenance costs. In fact, VMS have become a workplace standard and have been transformative in helping manufacturing and warehousing businesses compete in today’s global economy.

Powerfleet provides a wide range of telematics solutions for numerous industries, including Vehicle Management Systems for forklifts. From our basic out-of-the-box Powerfleet Essence (OC-53) to the Powerfleet Enterprise (VAC4S) for ultimate global visibility in high density fleets, we provide companies with real-time visibility into their assets, accountability for their employees and tools to improve workplace safety.

For more information, contact us or find your local sales representative.

To attend the free National Forklift Safety Day webinar, visit the ITA’s website.