GPS Trackers In Your Landscaping Business

What's the best way to use GPS GPS Trackers in your Landscaping Business? We take a deep dive matching tracking equipment to your mowers, vehicles and trailers to give you a solution that gives you tools to help manage your landscaping business - including ideas like proof of work, driver behavior and maintenance management. We also factor in theft recovery into this strategy. We all know that downtime from theft and loss is expensive and quick recovery is important. A good tracking strategy looks at all of these details and this document is focused on that: the hardware to use and the reporting frequencies we recommend.

GPS Trackers for Mowers

Focus on: Proof of Work • Off-hours use •Theft Detection

Customers ask us, if we're tracking the trailers do we need to track the mowers as well. We say, yes, put the trackers on the mowers. It's another layer of security and it gives you insight into where the mowers were working. The data collected into the system is invaluable. It makes it easy to show your customers when you did their jobs, this alone, easily pays for itself. Need more insight, increase the reporting frequency.

For tracking mowers, we usually suggest the GV75 Weatherproof GPS Tracker for the mower itself. This tracker is great for mowers because its relatively small (1.8in × .8in × 4.0in), has a built in 1100 mAh backup battery and is IP67 Compliant weatherproof. An easy three wire (ground, power and ignition) installation means you can get it into a lawnmower without too much challenge.

GV75W vehicle and asset gps tracker

We recommend the 5 minute or 15 minute data plans. That means, when the tracker is being used, you'll get reports that often and hourly when the ignition is off. Additionally, the tracking device come with tow guard reports enabled - which means the device will send reports when it detects movement without ignition. Turn on tow guard alerts and the system will send you emails when the event is detected.

We do have customers that have 30 second reporting on their lawn mowers so they can do more detailed analysis of the mowers path and which customer it was cutting and when.

GPS Trackers for Trailers

Focus on: Off Hour Use • Theft Detection

Monitoring the trailer is also an important theft recovery strategy. This gives you coverage if the trailer is removed from your yard or from a job site. Depending on whether the trailer has power or not drives the tracking device decision.

The GV628W Weatherproof Tracker

This tracker is a great tracker for trailers with power. This GPS Tracker needs about 4 hours to reach a full charge and then it can report up to a month depending on reporting interval. As an example, if a trailer tracker goes into the weekend with a decent charge, it can post reports hourly for the weekend.

Pay close attention to your trailer wiring to determine if the tracker can get enough power over time to charge, as some trailers don't have constant power.

GPS Tracker on the Trucks

Focus on: Driver Behavior • Unauthorized Use • Speeding & Idling

Monitor your trucks so you know if they're speeding, idling excessively or if they're being used for off hour jobs, or if they leave the site or your yard.

Any of our car/truck tracking devices are great for this use. We've got both plug and play trackers that plug into your vehicle and installed trackers to add some covert operation. In the landscaping business, the installed trackers make a little more sense than the plug and plays as the trackers are more hidden and you're not swapping trackers among trucks. If you think you'll need to swap the device and trucks, certainly consider the OBD-II Plug-In units.

Reporting frequency options include the whole spectrum from 30 seconds on up. We usually recommend 2 minutes reporting, which includes turn by turn reporting and if there are no turns, it reports every 2 minutes. With ignition on, this reporting rate gives you a steady stream of location details which gives you a nice trail on the map. When the ignition is off, you get hourly reports, plus special events.

Need Help Choosing GPS Trackers For Your Landscaping Business

This article covers a lot of ground. And while we lay out different equipment for mowers, trailers and trucks. Our fleet management system integrates all the devices and makes it easy to see your whole fleet.

If you have questions, or need help, give us a call at 877-872-2521 and we'll walk through your requirements and questions and help match the tracking equipment to your needs. We'll be glad to give you an online demo to walk you through our fleet management system.