Get the Best Insights on Business GPS Tracking Use Cases
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Whether you’re in agriculture, e-hailing, mining, or tourism, GPS tracking devices are a must-have for your business. This technology will bring numerous positive changes to your business that’ll improve your bottom line. In today’s world, GPS tracking technology isn't optional; it's essential.
According to The Africa Vehicle Tracking Market System, the vehicle GPS tracking market in Africa is growing rapidly. It’s expected to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 14.9% from 2020 to 2027. The research also lists Cartrack as one of the major companies in the African vehicle tracking system market. As one of the leading companies in the industry, we’re here today to give you the key use cases of our GPS technology.
Key Takeaways:
GPS tracking helps businesses protect vehicles, assets, and staff from theft and loss
It improves customer service by giving accurate delivery times and proof of service
Managers can plan better routes, cut fuel costs, and boost efficiency
GPS data supports safety, compliance, and smarter workforce management
Why should businesses turn to GPS tracking?
Businesses should invest in GPS tracking technology to gain better control of all activities involving their fleet of vehicles. It’s also no secret that vehicle theft is a great concern in South Africa, making it one of the top reasons to get GPS trackers.
Beyond vehicle theft recovery, GPS tracking technology ensures that you always know the exact locations of your vehicles. It makes it easier to see when drivers aren’t being productive, have been in one place for too long, or when they’re in places they shouldn’t be. GPS tracking technology, therefore, encourages workforce accountability across your entire fleet, and boosts productions (and profits)!
What are the top GPS tracking use cases for businesses?
The top uses for GPS tracking are fleet management, asset tracking, workforce management, safety and compliance. Businesses today are always looking for ways to work smarter & faster while saving money. GPS tracking technology does exactly that and brings in added advantages.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the GPS use cases for most businesses:
Fleet management
Real-time vehicle tracking: As mentioned, GPS tracking devices help you see exactly where vehicles are at any given time. This makes your vehicles easier to manage, especially when running a large fleet. It also helps you ensure that drivers are on schedule. If a vehicle breaks down or gets delayed, you’ll be able to quickly respond and send help to the right location.
Route optimisation and reduced fuel spend: You can use GPS tracking technology to plan better routes. This is what we call route optimisation software. By using this software, you can plan the fastest and most efficient routes for your drivers. This reduces driver deviations, saves fuel, and minimises costs. It also helps your drivers avoid delays caused by traffic or road closures.
Enhancing customer experience with accurate ETAs: When your customers know exactly when their delivery will arrive, they enjoy a more satisfying experience. GPS tracking helps you provide customers with accurate estimated arrival times (ETAs). Through this, you ensure that your business meets client expectations.
Proof of delivery and accountability: GPS tracking helps your business prove that deliveries have been completed on time. It also keeps drivers accountable for the deliveries they make, reducing mistakes and complaints.
Asset tracking
Securing high-value equipment or cargo: It’s not just about the vehicles but also about what they carry. Businesses often need to protect expensive tools, machinery, or other types of cargo. GPS tracking helps keep tabs on your high-value assets so nothing goes missing.
Monitoring vehicle utilisation: GPS tracking technology works with sensors to show you how often your equipment is used. Through this, you can ensure that your tools aren’t overworked or sitting idle for too long. This helps you save money and improves efficiency.
Workforce management
Better scheduling and dispatching: GPS data helps you assign jobs to the right employees and plan schedules efficiently. This reduces downtime and ensures the right person is at the right place at the right time.
Improved accountability (clock-in/out verification): GPS tracking systems have timestamps. This means better record-keeping of when employees arrive and leave work sites. It improves accountability and prevents false reporting. For example, if your driver claims they did overtime, GPS records will be able to prove that.
Safety and compliance
Monitoring driver behaviour (speed, harsh braking, idling): How your drivers treat vehicles can greatly impact the number of accidents that occur. It also affects fuel and maintenance costs. GPS tracking technology works with telematics to provide you with insight on unsafe driving habits. You’ll get instant alerts or detailed reports so you can train drivers on on safer driving habits to improve fleet safety and reduce costs.
Meeting legal and industry requirements: Some industries have strict rules for hours, safety, or cargo handling. GPS tracking will help your business stay compliant and avoid heavy fines.
Industry-specific use cases for GPS tracking
GPS tracking solutions play an important role in various industries such as cold chain logistics, agriculture, mining, construction, e-commerce, and service trades like plumbing. If you’re running a fleet in any of these sectors without GPS technology, you risk falling behind.
Here’s a table that briefly outlines how GPS tracking technology is used in different industries to make operations more efficient:
Industry
GPS Tracking Use Cases
Purpose/Benefits
Cold Chain & Specialised Transport
Monitor temperatures, prevent delays and spoilage, and ensure compliance.
Protects refrigerated goods, saves costs, and maintains standards.
Field Services
Track technicians, assign jobs efficiently, and provide proof of service.
Improves productivity, saves time/fuel, and ensures accountability.
Agriculture
Locate farm equipment across fields, prevent theft, monitor productivity, and monitor working hours.
Efficient equipment use, security, maintenance planning, and worker compliance.
Construction
Monitor cranes, bulldozers, and other machinery. Prevent theft, track fuel/machine hours, and coordinate teams.
Reduces costs and safety hazards, improves planning, and ensures equipment security.
Mining
Track vehicles and heavy machinery, and monitor driver safety, predictive maintenance, and compliance.
Smooth operations, accident prevention, reduced downtime, and regulatory compliance.
Delivery & E-commerce
Track vehicles/packages, optimise routes, provide ETAs, proof of delivery, and manage high-volume orders.
Improves efficiency, saves fuel/time, enhances customer satisfaction, and ensures accountability.
Cartrack case studies: How different companies use our GPS tracking solutions
Cartrack GPS tracking solutions are there to serve businesses across multiple industries. We’ve dedicated our time to understanding our customers across different industries. We keep close contact with our clients to learn how our solutions perform. From this, we’ve developed case studies that demonstrate the difference a GPS tracking system can make.
Here are some case studies displaying how our technology works in the construction and e-commerce sectors. We also give you a short story of one of our many successful recoveries.
Concord Cranes: A construction company
Concord Cranes is a company that specialises in crane hire solutions. They provide mobile cranes for hire, professional rigging, transport, and specialised lifting projects across their 15 branches.
Main challenge:
Concord Cranes found it difficult to accurately record the hours each crane worked, making it challenging to maintain and deliver them to their clients on time.
How we helped them:
Cartrack's IoT device and specialised power take-off sensors help Concord Cranes see their cranes’ working hours, mileage, and what equipment each crane uses. This makes it easier to check the condition of every crane and plan maintenance before problems occur.
With Cartrack’s system, Concord saves money by avoiding costly repairs and reducing downtime. These insights allow them to fix small issues early on, instead of waiting until they become big, expensive problems.
Concord also uses Catrack’s system to build trust with its customers. The cranes are always safe, reliable, and ready to work. Clear maintenance schedules mean fewer surprise breakdowns and better planning for crane deliveries.
“Using Cartrack’s advanced fleet management, we have been able to increase our operational efficiency to deliver a better service to our customers, as well as effortlessly establish a maintenance cycle that reduces our costs and increases our fleet longevity.” - Gareth Langley, Concord Cranes operations manager.
The Courier Guy: A last-mile delivery service
The Courier Guy is South Africa’s leading courier service provider. It started with one motorbike in the early 2000s. Today, the large fleet they have makes it vital for the company to maintain control of its vehicles. They also need to keep up with the ever-growing consumer demands to deliver goods faster and safer.
With a growing number of drivers, customers, and vehicles to manage, GPS telematics is even more crucial for The Courier Guy. The company needed a system in place that gave fleet managers full visibility of the entire fleet operation. One that can simplify business operations and task management, while increasing customer satisfaction.
How we helped them:
The Cartrack system provides them with driver management solutions that eliminate time-wasting and unreliable manual tracking. It also gives them accurate, real-time monitoring of drivers’ locations. This ensures that packages always arrive timely, safely and correctly.
Cartrack's fleet management software automatically populates the customer details of recurring orders. This has helped eliminate incorrect submissions, reducing paperwork. Through this, they improve manager and driver communication, resulting in faster delivery turnaround times.
Thanks to Cartrack’s Delivery software, The Courier Guy can keep customers updated during every step of the delivery. Automated emails and SMSes are sent so customers always know where their packages are. Fleet managers can also see the live location of vehicles and ask drivers to upload a photo or get an e-signature as proof of delivery. This improves driver accountability and gives customers better service.
The Courier Guy has improved the safety and security within their fleet thanks to Cartrack’s AI-powered camera live-streaming technology. The cameras monitor driver behaviour and give instant alerts when risky driving habits are detected. They ensure that drivers can correct themselves right away. Cartrack’s AI-cameras have led to fewer damaged goods, fewer speeding fines, and a stronger, more trusted brand image.
“Cartrack’s technology allows us to focus on our drivers, customers, cargo, and fleet all from one platform. It puts us in control from dispatch to delivery.” — Jeffrey Wheeler, Assistant Fleet Manager, Courier Guy, South Africa.
Vehicle retrieval: A successful truck and cargo recovery
In May 2025, Cartrack’s Recovery Team was dispatched for a FAW truck after receiving signal-jamming alerts. The team tracked the vehicle and spotted it leaving a recycling centre. The suspect attempted to flee but was swiftly apprehended, and the vehicle was safely recovered along with its cargo, which had been offloaded on the premises.
The suspect was handed over to the SAPS Flying Squad. The vehicle was booked in at the Lenasia Vehicle Identification Services, and the goods were returned to the client.
Other unusual and innovative uses for GPS tracking
GPS tracking applications have evolved over the years, and nowadays, this technology is used for things that most people wouldn't have imagined. For example, some companies use GPS tracking technology for marketing and town planning. These are two very smart ways of monitoring crowd flow.
Here’s how they work:
Marketing and customer engagement: Some businesses use geofencing technology to target the cellphones of customers nearby. This is called geofence marketing. Through this technique, customers receive targeted adverts or push notifications. Marketing companies can send special offers, discounts, or promotions based on a person’s location. GPS tracking software also helps these companies understand where customers go so they can plan better marketing campaigns and improve services around those locations.
Urban planning insights: Cities and businesses can use GPS data from delivery or service fleets to understand traffic patterns and busy areas. This helps them plan roads, optimise routes, and reduce congestion. Businesses can also use it to find faster delivery routes, saving time and fuel.
Explore tailored GPS tracking solutions for your business
Whether it’s vehicles, machinery, or other assets, with us, you’ll always have full visibility. You’ll get live tracking features with smart map and satellite views. This ensures that your assets are safe and never out of sight. We always strive to give you the next-level technology, so you’re always steps ahead of the competition.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of our GPS tracking features:
Geofence: Our geofencing feature can be seen as an extra precautionary measure. With this, you can create virtual fences around areas of your choice and get alerts whenever vehicles or assets go in or out of those locations.
AI dashcams: Our AI Dual Vision dashcam solution comes with GPS tracking capabilities. This means with these cameras you not only get to see what drivers are up to, but also get alerts and reports on driving habits such as speeding. These cameras also monitor distracted driving habits and send alerts to ensure that drivers focus on the road ahead.
Stolen Vehicle Recovery: Our track record speaks for itself. In the past decade, we’ve retrieved more than 100 000 stolen vehicles. This makes us one of South Africa’s leading companies in stolen vehicle recovery. We have a nationwide team of experts who are always ready to give back what rightfully belongs to you.
Driver Identification tags: With the Cartrack Driver Identification (DID) tags, you not only know where vehicles are, but also instantly know who’s driving. Each driver will have their own tag, which ensures that they only use vehicles they’re assigned to. DID tags also help you differentiate between personal and business trips, making it easier to track fuel expenses.
We specialise in GPS tracking solutions that are useful in many industries. By partnering with us, you choose industry experts who’ve been around for decades. Contact us today to boost your business operations with our smart GPS tracking tools.
Frequently Asked Questions about GPS tracking
How reliable is GPS tracking?
GPS tracking is very reliable most of the time. It uses satellites to find locations anywhere on the globe. However, tall buildings, tunnels, or heavy trees can sometimes block signals and make it less accurate. Overall, it gives you and your business a good idea of where vehicles, devices, or people are.
How do you ensure GPS information is used ethically?
To ensure the ethical use of the information gathered from your GPS tracking devices, you must ensure that there’s transparency between you and your drivers. You must explain to drivers how the data helps with safety and productivity. Furthermore, you must also introduce strict policies that limit data collection and its use to only what’s necessary.
Various industries beyond transport & logistics are adopting GPS tracking technology. Find out how it applies to different sectors and why it’s essential.
