Many industries and businesses rely on commercial vehicles to transport products and people every day, from cross-country delivery services to oil and gas suppliers. These commercial fleets can be a business’ most expensive asset and one of its most critical ones. That’s why many entities use a professional fleet management solution to protect their investment.
Fleet management solutions typically include processes, systems, and tools that work together to control the lifecycle of business vehicles. Additionally, they may consist of security features and ways to cut unnecessary costs. It’s an incredibly competitive market, leading to the continual technical evolution of fleet management software and solutions.
In this article, we’ll be looking at:
- What fleet management software is.
- The benefits of fleet management solutions.
- How the technology is evolving.
What Is Fleet Management Software?
In short, it’s a central database that’s essential to help fleet managers organize, control and coordinate vehicles and how they are used. Typically, it can be integrated with third-party tools such as accounting, maintenance providers, and petrol cards to provide further insights and cost control.
The software can keep track of information related to driver behaviour, vehicle diagnostics, maintenance needs and fuel spent. This is all achieved with the help of GPS and telematic devices.
Some solutions also include video monitoring, which can help prevent criminal activity and acts of negligence. It can also protect you, your business, and your drivers from legal action and liability.
What Can Fleet Management Software Do?
The full capabilities and features available depend on the solution you choose. However, most of the best fleet management platforms include at least the following systems:
- Accounting: Can monitor and verify expenses to Identify and eliminate fraud and manage budgets.
- Fuel Spend: Vehicle sensors can detect if a vehicle is Idling to reduce the cost of fuel spend.
- Maintenance: Keep track of maintenance history and send reminders for service.
- Real-Time Alerts: The drivers and fleet manager can be notified of unsafe driving behaviours through in-cab alerts.
- Hours Tracking: Drivers can stay compliant with hours of service with built-in electronic logging devices or ELDs for short.
- Security: Managers can detect and identify where vehicles are and if someone drove them outside or after hours.
In short, it gives fleet managers deep insights into the behaviour of the fleet while giving them the tools to control and protect one of your company’s most vital assets.
The Benefits of Fleet Management
Having a proper fleet management process in place that consists of a competent manager and working monitoring software will have many benefits when it comes to managing your fleet. We’ve listed the top benefits below.
Clear Operational Visibility
With the help of fleet management software, your fleet manager will have real-time information at their disposal to give them a clear insight into operations and make updates as necessary.
Essentially, should a driver use a company vehicle outside working hours for private purposes, the GPS sensors notify and relay all that information back to your fleet management software. Similarly, it’s possible to track if vehicles leave approved travel routes, indicating suspicious activity.
Safer, More Reliable Vehicles
Not only does fleet management software help businesses stay on top of regular maintenance, but it also helps reduce the risk of accidents and breakdowns. The system can be programmed to provide alerts when it’s time to take a vehicle for maintenance or if it detects any possible problems. This way, preventative maintenance can be done to prevent more expensive costs.
Improved Driver Safety
Driver’s are more prone to drive safely and obey traffic laws when they know they’re being monitored. Fleet managers can take advantage of vehicle trackers and engine diagnostics to check if drivers are speeding, braking, or turning corners aggressively. It’s worth mentioning that businesses that incorporated telematics into their fleet management process experienced a significant reduction in speeding instances.
Higher Driver Satisfaction
Having a structured fleet management process in place can improve your drivers’ day-to-day experiences. For example, fleet management automates many manual labour tasks such as logging hours. It aids your drivers and alleviates some of the risks and menial tasks from their day.
Optimized Productivity
Nothing impacts driver productivity and operational costs more negatively than delays, idling, and downtime. Having a proactive fleet manager in the office will help track idle time, driver behaviour, and driving patterns. Not to mention that it’ll help reduce vehicle emissions and save on fuel costs which, on average, account for about 60% of a company’s total fleet operating budget.
Better Cost Management
Any company that uses a fleet will tell you that drivers, vehicles, and fuel are expensive. To make things worse, it can be even more expensive when it’s not monitored and reported on like other business finances. The main goal and purpose of fleet management is to help streamline fleet operations, which ultimately helps businesses improve their cost management.
How Fleet Management is Evolving
With the help of the internet, fleet management has become more effective. It has created more connected, safer vehicles by using engine sensors, automation, and new tools designed to streamline operations.
With the help of new technology, fleets can access several additional benefits, such as cost savings, improved safety, and better compliance. With that being said, as fleets bring on more vehicles and regulations continue to change, the abundance of data becomes greater and requires more administrative attention from fleet managers.
When it comes to analyzing data and identifying opportunities for better efficiency, it requires specific skills that can be hard to demand from someone who wears several hats.
Conclusion
It comes as no surprise that having a fleet management solution in place holds massive benefits for your business. Having the proper fleet management software can protect your drivers, vehicles, and goods while reducing fuel and insurance costs. That being said, it’s essential to find a solution that offers all the services you need, along with support, recovery services, and innovative technology that works with your business.
The question is: Are you tracking your vehicles? If not, it’s time to consider implementing a system to protect you and your business.
