A new telematics platform shows you hundreds of numbers. In the first month, only a handful matter. Watch these five and you will know whether the system is paying for itself.
1. Idling hours per vehicle
Idling is the easiest money in fleet management. Pull the idling report weekly, share it with drivers, and watch it fall. Most fleets see meaningful reduction from visibility alone, before any policy changes.
2. After-hours vehicle use
Set a simple after-hours movement rule in week one. What you learn may be nothing, or it may pay for the whole system. Either way, you want to know.
3. Harsh events per 100 miles
Harsh braking, acceleration, and cornering, normalized by distance, is your cleanest driver-behavior trend line. Do not coach on individual events in month one. Watch the trend, then start conversations with the outliers.
4. Unassigned or missing trips
Data quality problems show up early: a device unplugged, a vehicle in the wrong group, a driver not matched. Fix these in the first weeks while the list is short, and every report after gets more trustworthy.
5. Fault codes on your oldest vehicles
Engine faults surface immediately in MyGeotab. On aging units, this is your early-warning system: catch the alternator or coolant issue in the yard instead of on the highway. The math is on your side: reactive repairs run 2-5x the cost of preventive maintenance (McKinsey), and the average roadside breakdown costs about $1,200 (NPTC).
The habit that makes it stick
Pick one 15-minute slot each week to review these five numbers, then set up Scheduled Reports so they arrive by email without anyone logging in. When leadership sees the same five numbers every Monday, the program runs itself.
Want help setting these up? It is part of every GPSFMS onboarding. Talk to your assigned team or start with a free demo.