A fleet management system generally comprises a digital platform that is used for monitoring and managing all those vehicles and personnel associated with your company’s cars or trucks, and sometimes even vans. It operates much like a centralized dashboard that company managers can use to make important business decisions, gain insights and analytics in real-time, and monitor important performance metrics.
A good fleet management system will allow you to see where all your drivers and vehicles are on the road at any given point in time. It can help determine whether or not the drivers are being efficient in their transport efforts. Or whether they’re wasting time and company money.
You’ll also have tons of information available to you about delivery updates, weather alerts, any beneficial route changes. Plus, all the road-time hours accumulated by your driving personnel.
Trying to manage a fleet of vehicles can be a very difficult task. That’s why having a fleet management system in place can make that significantly easier. It can also save your company a ton of money because it will allow you to be more efficient and save on fuel costs, as well as eliminate bad driver habits.
Nowadays, it has become a requirement for any company which operates a fleet of vehicles to use a good fleet management system to keep track.
System Software
The software involved is one pretty big component of a really good fleet management system. Many of these systems feature software that is administered via the cloud, which means it can be accessed from anywhere. Your platform should be able to produce and share critical reports, effectively communicate with drivers wherever they are, and produce useful shipping schedules.
Your fleet management system should also be able to develop a solid maintenance schedule for all the vehicles. This can be critical because otherwise that maintenance might be overlooked, and problems could develop with the fleet. You can’t ignore maintenance notices when they are produced automatically.
Telematics System
All fleet management systems make use of telematics. This is a process that combines GPS navigation with diagnostic sensors that are on board for all fleet vehicles. When using telematics, it becomes possible to identify exactly where vehicles are, how fast they are traveling, and where they are stopping.
This information can deliver extremely useful information regarding rapid starts and rapid braking. It can help with other driver habits which might be counter-productive or costly.
Then this information can be shared with drivers for the purpose of modifying driver habits and improving their performance on the road. This is necessary not only from the standpoint of developing safer drivers but also for extending the life of all vehicles in your fleet.
Parts Management
It can be a very tedious process to keep track of all replacement parts and warranties associated with the vehicles in your fleet. However, doing so is a task that is absolutely necessary for your business.
This is especially true if your fleet of vehicles is a large one. You can use your management system to track your parts inventory and the warranties on all your vehicles.
This will provide you with a streamlined and far less tedious approach to parts management and warranty tracking. That in turn will be very helpful when it comes time for any maintenance or repairs. Because it gives visibility to your inventory, you’ll always know exactly what you have and where might be needed.
Maintenance Planning
All vehicles must have regular maintenance in order to keep them performing at their best. If you don’t have a planning system, it will be very easy to overlook that maintenance and have road-time failures.
Due to sheer negligence or postponements, it can be dangerous to ignore maintenance for both your vehicles and your drivers. This is because of the possibility of road-time breakdowns.
Your fleet management system can do a terrific job of scheduling maintenance automatically, alerting technicians, drivers, and managers whenever a vehicle is due for regular maintenance. This will provide peace of mind to everyone involved with the fleet. They’ll know that there’s regular maintenance and there’s a better chance that the fleet will stay in good shape.
Another benefit of having regularly planned maintenance is that you can schedule your deliveries and shipments far in advance. You won’t have to worry about whether or not vehicles will be available at those times.
Security Systems
Another aspect that a good fleet management system excels at is providing security for your fleet and your drivers. You can install security systems on board to protect your vehicles against theft or abuse. Thus saving your company tons of money because of lost vehicles.
They will seize control of a stolen vehicle, and force a reduction in speed so that authorities will be able to catch up with the vehicle and apprehend the thief. It will be easy to work with policemen to coordinate an intercept approach.
GPS coordinates provided by the system will make it very easy for law enforcement personnel to track the vehicle and plan for apprehending the perpetrator.
Once it becomes known that you have this kind of security system installed in your fleet vehicles, it becomes far less likely that anyone will attempt to hijack your vehicles for personal use. Not only does this provide savings on lost vehicles, but it will also give major peace of mind to the owner of a vehicle fleet because the possibility of theft has been drastically reduced.
