6 mins to read
How to Reduce Your Expenses
As a fleet owner, your day-to-day costs can quickly add up. What you don’t know is there are further hidden, expensive...
Read moreWhat business isn’t interested in technology that can help increase efficiency and productivity, while simultaneously helping to improve the safety of their fleet vehicles and drivers? Well, fleet management systems are turning these dreams into a reality. They are beginning to revolutionise how businesses strategise and coordinate their workforce, thanks to Telematics.
Fleet management technology offers businesses of all shapes and sizes multiple benefits. For a start, it allows them to monitor operations efficiently, serving as a digital blueprint for promoting efficient and safe driving. This can help to decrease risk and drive down costs—a win-win. In many ways, it has become an essential tool for businesses.
Before we get stuck into the benefits of fleet management software, let’s take a quick look at what fleet management is all about.
What exactly is fleet management?
Essentially, fleet management involves managing commercial vehicles such as cars, vans and trucks to ensure they’re used efficiently and safely, and are well maintained. Depending on your industry, it can also include asset tracking and managing all kinds of equipment, from heavy cranes and bulldozers to trailers and generators.
The main goals of a fleet management system are to improve the efficiency and productivity of a fleet, as well as improving the safety conditions for its drivers. This is normally achieved using a combination of vehicle tracking, fuel consumption reporting, monitoring driver behaviour, and vehicle maintenance management.
That’s where fleet management solutions come in. Let’s dive into the details of the benefits it brings to business owners.
What are the benefits of fleet management software?
Fleet management technology can help businesses to enhance their operations in a number of key areas.
1. Improve driver safety
Driver safety must be of paramount importance to fleet managers. A recent study concluded that speed is “at the core of the road safety problem” and that “in around 30% of the fatal accidents speed is an essential contributory factor."1 Because of this, driver performance and behaviour is one of the key focuses of a fleet management system.
A major benefit of fleet management software is that it produces near real-time alerts and notifications about dangerous driving habits. For example, fleet tracking equipment such as dashboard video cameras allow fleet managers to monitor any incidences of speeding and hard braking or cornering by their drivers.
According to the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), “1187 people died on Australian roads last year”.(2)
The National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 sets out Australia’s road safety objectives over the next decade, and includes “key priorities for action and targets to reduce the annual number of fatalities by at least 50 per cent and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent by 2030”. (3)
This is where fleet management technology can help. By keeping track of their drivers, businesses can more easily monitor, deal with and ultimately help reduce the incidences of dangerous driving.
2. Lower fuel consumption
Ever-fluctuating fuel prices make tracking and budgeting for fuel costs a challenge. Fuel consumption is about more than just KM/L though, and easy access to fuel tracking data is another benefit of a fleet management system. Using this, fleet managers can easily identify saving potentials.
Take engine idling for instance. In-depth fuel tracking data reports will separate necessary idling from excessive idling, so that fleet managers can identify and resolve problems. After pinpointing the problem, you can coach drivers on more efficient driving. According to a recent study, “just a 10% reduction in fuel costs can result in a 31% increase in profit”3, which can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
3. Real-time updates and insights
GPS vehicle tracking software allows fleet managers to track their fleet in near real-time and redirect vehicles when necessary. Clear overviews of where vehicles are, their job completion status, estimated arrival and delivery times will give a deeper understanding of what’s going on out in the field. This will not only make dispatchers more efficient, but will also help improve customer service and save fleet managers valuable time calling. No more having to call drivers for updates.
4. Custom reporting helps increase efficiency and cuts costs
Increased efficiency is one of the biggest benefits of a fleet management system. The software provides detailed, custom reports for fleet managers to turn data into actionable information. It’s so much more than just knowing the location of vehicles. Share detailed reports to give team members the opportunity to understand where improvements can be made.
5. Improve vehicle maintenance
Fleet maintenance and vehicle lifecycles can often be areas that put a heavy strain on a business’s finances. Thankfully, fleet management systems provide everything needed to develop a preventative maintenance schedule that works for a fleet, helping you manage maintenance costs..
Kilometres travelled, engine hours, fuel usage—just a small selection of the data points that can be used to create a preventative maintenance schedule. Fleet management software also allows managers to track vehicle downtime caused by breakdowns, jumpstarts, tows, and emergency repairs. This can help to identify potential problem areas and repeating patterns that may need addressing or adjusting in the maintenance schedule.
Making an initial investment into fleet management software means businesses can put a preventative maintenance plan in place that has the potential to save them a significant amount of time and money in the future.
6. Improve customer satisfaction
Using fleet management software, fleet managers can simplify bookings and appointment reminders. Receive notifications if a technician is delayed on a job or hasn’t yet viewed a job assigned to them. Customers can benefit from improved ETA accuracy through GPS tracking data. Plus, receive confirmation of appointments and reminders shortly beforehand.
7. Improve route planning
Fleet tracking systems help businesses plan the days, routes and distribution of their fleet efficiently. Getting more out of the resources that they have available has the potential to save a great deal of money in the long run.
Helping the fleets of the future
With these key benefits and advantages in mind, it is clear that fleet management has the potential to positively impact all kinds of businesses. In an increasingly digitised economy, fleet management technology is emerging as a powerful tool to help companies compete more effectively.
Sources:
(1) SafetyNet, “Speeding”, 2009, https://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/sites/roadsafety/files/specialist/knowledge/pdf/speeding.pdf
(2) https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/road_deaths_australia_monthly_bulletins
(4) Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving,