Questions to Ask Yourself Before Purchasing GPS Tracking

Before you make the decision to purchase GPS tracking software, it’s important that you’ve done your research and you know exactly what you’re looking for. Depending on your specific needs as a business, certain solutions will be more suited to your requirements.

When considering which GPS system to invest in, we suggest that you ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why do you need GPS tracking software?

The first question you should ask yourself is an obvious one: why do you need GPS tracking software? You’ve probably answered this question already in your head. However, we often find that it can be helpful to actually write down the key reasons why you need the software.

• Do you want to track the efficiency of your employees?
• Do you want to keep an eye on the speeds that your vehicles are travelling at?
• Do you want to coordinate your workforce?
• Do you want to see the location of your staff both in real-time and historically?
• Do you want to manage the fuel consumption of your vehicles?
• Do you want your employees to be able to easily find points of interest and important locations?
• Do you want to see which routes your employees and vehicles travelled along?
• Do you want to manage a fleet of vehicles or just one?
• Do you want to track mobile devices or GPS trackers?
• Do you want to track staff, vehicles, equipment, assets, or something else?

As you can see, GPS tracking software solutions serve many purposes. You may only need GPS software for one specific reason, or you might need it to do 10 different things. Nevertheless, you should be clear on what you need the software for, so you can find the right solution for your needs.

2. Are there any hidden costs?

As with many purchases, there are often hidden costs associated with GPS tracking. Before you seal the deal, you should find out the following:

• Are there any installation fees? – if you are purchasing GPS hardware, you should know that some businesses charge fees to install the trackers for you. Other businesses (like Dropapin… hint, hint!) bypass installation fees by allowing you to install the trackers yourself. Our trackers can be installed easily in less than 5 minutes.
• Do the trackers come with SIM Cards? – some businesses might hide the costs of SIM cards until you get to the point of purchase. Be wary of this and always make sure you’re paying a fair price by comparing the price of the SIM card with other businesses.

3. What devices can the software connect to?

Find out what devices the GPS software can connect to. The more trackers it is compatible with, the better. If you plan on using GPS tracking over a long period of time (e.g. 5+ years), it is possible that you will change the type of tracking hardware you are using if they become damaged or obsolete. Therefore, choosing a software that is flexible in terms of its compatibility is vital.

If your goal is to track your employees, then you may wish to track their mobile devices. Not all GPS tracking software has the ability to track mobile devices, so be sure to double-check whether the software you’re looking into has that capability.

4. What are the terms of the contract?

When researching GPS tracking software, you might find one that seems to tick all the boxes and rush in, signing a 12-month contract. We advise against this. There really shouldn’t be a reason for a GPS tracking provider to tie you into a long-term contract.

What happens if you’re one month into the contract and you realise that the software simply hasn’t lived up to your expectations? What if the economy takes a downturn and your business becomes desperate to cut costs?

We believe that it’s in your best interest to find a software provider who offers monthly rolling contracts, allowing you to cancel your contract at any time, for any reason.

5. Can you get a free trial first?

Before purchasing GPS software, you should always try to get a free trial or demo. Most software providers offer a basic plan with limited features for free. Take advantage of this. Even if you think you’ve found the perfect software for your business, it’s always worth giving it a test drive first.

At Dropapin, we offer a free version of our GPS software called the Mini Plan. This plan allows you to track up to 2 devices indefinitely at zero cost! Click here to find out more.

6. Is the software scalable?

As your business grows, you need to be confident that the software will be able to grow with you. Will the GPS tracking software be able to handle additional vehicles in the future or will its performance start to wane? This is an important question you should ask software providers when conducting your research.

7. Is the software reliable?

Finally, you should question the reliability of the software. When shopping around, ask vendors how much downtime their system experienced in the previous year. The best software in the world is worth nothing if it is down 99.9% of the time. Obviously, you want the uptime of the system to be as close to 100% as possible. For reference, take a look at the table below to understand the difference between uptime percentages.

Source: Visualisation Review

As you can see, 1% of downtime equates to 7.3 hours of the system being inaccessible. Many customers don’t think to ask about the downtime of software, but we highly recommend doing so before purchasing your GPS software.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. We hope you now have a better understanding of the sort of questions you should be asking before purchasing GPS tracking software. If you would like advice on any of the topics discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to get in touch.