Do you support GPS fleet tracking and truck cameras?

Fleet tracking and dash cameras are standard in field businesses now, and they sit slightly outside normal IT. Being clear about who does what saves confusion later.

Us: helping you evaluate vendors, the accounts and user access, the web portal and how it fits with your other systems, the integration with dispatch where one exists, getting the data into a usable report rather than a dashboard nobody opens, and the security and access control around who can see vehicle and driver data.

Not us: physically installing hardware in the vehicles. The vendors have installer networks, they do it faster and better, and a badly installed unit in a work truck is a genuine problem.

Things worth thinking about before you buy, which are mostly not technical:

• Decide what you actually want it for. Routing efficiency, insurance discounts, disputes about time on site, and driver safety coaching are four different goals and they point to different products. Buying for all four means buying a system nobody uses.
• Cameras change the conversation with your techs. Inward facing cameras especially. There are good reasons for them and they will be received as surveillance unless you explain why, say plainly what will and will not be watched, and follow through. We have seen this handled well and handled badly, and the difference was entirely in how it was introduced.
• Know your own policy on the data. Who can view footage, how long it is kept, and what happens when someone asks to see it. Decide before an incident, not after.
• Check what your insurer will actually credit. Discounts are often quoted as a selling point and are sometimes smaller than implied. Ask your agent directly.

If you are evaluating a vendor and want a second opinion on their security practices, we will look at it. These systems hold a lot of data about where your people are, and not every vendor treats that carefully.