The acquisition, maintenance, safety, budgeting and monitoring of a group of vehicles can be termed as fleet management. Each of these components is crucial, not only to the protection of its drivers and the fleet itself, but also impacts the company’s bottom line.
There are many moving parts involved when it comes to managing a fleet, bringing with them a multitude of challenges. Therefore, streamlining the process and maximizing efficiency is vital for any trucking business.
Undoubtedly, the fleet is often termed the most expensive asset of a transportation or logistics business. Every company engaged in the transport of goods needs an effective fleet management solution to carry out the tasks efficiently.
What is a Fleet Management System?
A fleet management system is a critical component of every efficient trucking and logistics operation. It is an all-in-one application that allows you to rely on comprehensive data analysis to manage, analyze, schedule, control, and optimize tasks for your business.
The most important aspect of any digital fleet management solution is that it enables workflow automation and optimization. A versatile fleet management system will assist you in tracking each vertical of your fleet, helping you to mitigate problems before they become exceptions and create a dent in your bottom line.
Interestingly, fleet management software can also be integrated with third-party tools such as ELDs, accounting software, maintenance providers, fuel cards, etc.
Key Benefits of Fleet Management Systems
Businesses can benefit in several different ways by putting a proper and efficient fleet management solution in place. Let us discuss the main benefits of fleet management systems and how fleet managers can take advantage of the fleet management software.
Real-time Visibility of Fleet
Fleet management software provides you with real-time end-to-end visibility of your fleet. Fleet managers can track each vehicle, monitor performance, and any potential maintenance problems.
When fleet managers are provided with this data, they can get clear insights into fleet operations and make changes as required.
Most fleet management software offer seamless integrations with ELDs and other telematics devices, allowing fleet managers to track the location of the vehicles, drivers, and loads anywhere and at any time from a single platform.
Regular Vehicle Maintenance
Fleet management solution helps fleet managers know the status of the vehicle’s health. They can stay on top of regular vehicle maintenance, which reduces the risks of accidents or breakdowns.
When fleet managers stay updated on the vehicle’s health status, they can provide preventative maintenance to the vehicles, preventing them from road accidents and drivers from injuries. As a result, regular vehicle maintenance provides safety to the vehicles and drivers and increases the life span of the vehicle as well.
Improved Driver Performance
It is a daunting task to monitor your driver’s performance when they are on the road. However, with the right technology, monitoring driver performance is not a big deal. Fleet management solutions can help fleet managers track driver performance, monitor driving patterns, spot unsafe driving habits, and gain information to train drivers and improve their performance.
GPS tracking lets fleet managers record speed and monitor driving practices such as harsh braking, idling, cornering, etc. It also helps them monitor the vehicle’s location and condition. With all this information at the fleet manager’s disposal, they can analyze and improve driver performance.
What’s more, using the same information, fleet managers can plan and implement the correct strategies to enforce safe driving behaviors and reduce the risks of accidents or breakdowns.
Increase Driver Safety
Another major challenge for fleet managers is ensuring their drivers remain safe when they are driving. It is important for fleet managers to ensure driver safety.
While ensuring driver safety can be slightly difficult, given managers are hundreds of miles away from the drivers, they can use helpful tools such as vehicle tracking systems or dash cams to get real-time visibility of the vehicles.
With the help of these tools, fleet managers can also get evidence or information to implement proper driver training programs.
Reduced Costs
Let’s not forget that fuel, vehicles, and drivers are expensive. They can tend to be more expensive if left unsupervised. The purpose of fleet management software is to streamline fleet operations, which helps businesses reduce costs and improve cost management.
Packed with incredible features such as email alerts and auto-reminders, an effective fleet management software helps fleet managers develop a smooth process for timely vehicle repairs, maintenance, company audits, and other important activities.
Implementing a fleet management solution in the business can also reduce work hour costs since employees can avoid spending too much of their time on manual tasks. One of the major benefits of fleet management systems is that it helps automates fleet operations, thus reducing manual work.
Increased Productivity
One of the other benefits of fleet management systems is that it increases your productivity. Several factors such as idling, delays, and downtime can negatively impact your driver’s productivity and increase operational costs.
With the right fleet management software at their disposal, fleet managers can monitor driver behavior and driving patterns and track idle time. Doing this can reduce unnecessary fuel consumption and save on fuel costs.
Higher Customer Satisfaction
Gone are the days when customers would have to wait all day to get updates about their loads from the shippers. When a company uses a fleet management solution, customers can expect an accurate estimated time of arrival (ETA) of all their shipments.
Through the use of the software, fleet managers and drivers can search for the shortest routes and avoid unnecessary delays. Customers can receive real-time location updates by using GPS technology.
When customers know about the driver’s exact location and the speed at which the vehicle is moving, they become more satisfied and relieved. Fleet management software enables them to track the status of their shipments without having to worry about them.
Manage Big Data Streams
Fleets generate a huge amount of information everyday. It’s very difficult to keep track of all data without a comprehensive dashboard, especially if you are using multiple solutions to deal with each of the issues. The fleet management system gathers all the data in one place, thereby adding more clarity and visibility to each of your operations and workflows.
Thanks to advanced technology, fleet management and transportation management software have made fleet managers’ jobs a lot easier. With all data flowing into one source, more informed, optimized and reasonable decisions can be made.
Trucking and fleet-operating companies can also use robust, state-of-the-art TMS to dispatch, track, and source their shipments, along with an effective fleet management solution.