In our modern, connected world, customers expect to stay informed of their vehicle’s status at the click of a smartphone. At first glance, you might think of that as using GPS fleet tracking for a delivery company, or maybe a company that deals in the trades. And while Geotab is an amazing out-of-the-box tool for those types of companies, telematics has applications in a huge range of different industries, including those whose business is transporting customers — and keeping them happy en route.
In this post, we’ll focus on how a third-party company used the Geotab software development kit to customize a solution for a large, inter-city bus carrier that allowed them to provide updated information to their riders, greatly improving their customers’ experience.
Geotab SDK Integration Solutions – What Is It?
SDK stands for software development kit, and in simple terms, it allows expert companies to build custom solutions for Geotab that go well beyond the fleet tracking system’s already-impressive list of features and functionality. One of the leading companies in the world in that space is Fleet Hoster.
Fleet Hoster is a Geotab Authorized Technology Partner and an expert in business analysis. They specialize in customized integrated applications to bring enterprise data together with Geotab data to create innovative solutions that can help your business’s bottom line and operations in three major ways:
- Drive costs down;
- Generate higher fleet utilization rates;
- Keep owners, managers and team members more informed about fleet operations.
Custom Fleet Tracking Solutions As Unique As Your Business
As a Geotab Authorized Technology Partner and expert business analyst, Fleet Hoster is experienced in addressing your special business requirements to create custom integrated applications. Most of the time, if you can dream it, they can build it. Most applications are hosted on Fleet Hoster’s secure cloud servers, offering true flexibility. Here are a few examples of the types of functionality they’ve provided for clients:
- Custom mapping to bring your vehicles, customers, and work orders together on one map, built with layers.
- Automated route dispatching and route plan creations.
- Automated work force scheduling and assignments
- Custom reporting applications
- Customer facing web application to integrate with your GPS data.
For now, we’ll focus on that last point, to demonstrate the incredible possibilities that fleet tracking SDK integration for a company that’s in the business of customer service.
Case Study: A Leading Bus Transportation Company in the Midwestern United States
Here’s a great example of the power of Geotab to improve customer service through SDK integration.
The Need:
- The bus company came to Fleet Hoster asking to use their existing route stops, times and vehicle/driver assignments from their dispatch software to automatically create routes and route plans in Geotab.
- There was also the need to have the system be monitored for changes throughout the day.
- The bus company management requested an end user web application, “Where’s My Ride,” to show routes, schedules, and actual arrival and departure times to keep the customers informed.
- The company management also wanted to give the dispatch team the ability to view current route times and also a quick history of the completed routes to compare the plan vs actual route plans.
- Finally, management wanted real-time notifications when buses are not en route to their first stop by a specific time interval.
Building upon the data provided by the Geotab platform, Fleet Hoster was able to provide an amazing solution that met the needs of the bus company’s management, and helps keep their customers more informed – and therefore, happy.
The Solution:
- An external-hosted web application was built to integrate with the company’s dispatch system to gather routes and assignments.
- The application loads route plans into Geotab upon the start of the routes. Geotab web services are utilized to send the application entry and exit information for zones along the routes.
- A custom algorithm was designed to match the web service notifications with the routes to identify a known route execution and route changes.
- The customer-facing “Where’s My Ride” application was built to display route information to riders.
- Internal web pages were built to display all of the current routes and their status, and also to view or download route history.
- Custom web services were built to constantly update vehicle assignments and vehicle start times to notify management via text of the possible vehicle not in motion to their route.
Screenshots:
Here are a few examples of how the custom solution ended up looking — intuitive, visually pleasing, and incredibly useful for both company management and their customers.
Get a Fleet Tracking System for Your Business
This is part one of a series about the virtually limitless solutions that are possible with Geotab SDK integration. Ready to bring your business into the modern era, reduce costs, and provide a better experience for your customers? Get rolling with our $50 fleet tracking trial offer. We send you the plug-and-play devices for your vehicles. You install it – which takes under a minute.
Test out the Geotab devices and platform, and when you’re ready to purchase, we’ll credit the $50 back to your account. Best of all, there’s no contract, and you can cancel any time – the only risk is not taking advantage of the offer, and getting left behind by your competitors! Get rolling with Geotab from GPS to GO today, or get more information on GPS fleet tracking if you need it first.
Happy tracking,
Russ Salo, President
GPS to Go, now you know
