The evolving role of fleet managers

For companies that employ mobile workforces and fleets of vehicles, fleet management has a significant impact on the bottom line. The robust technology tools available to fleets allow organizations to streamline many manual, time-consuming tasks. 

This is especially true for small to mid-sized businesses, where the business owner or general manager often makes the fleet management decisions. Fleet managers play a vital role in conjunction with these web-based software and telematics solutions.

What is fleet management and what do fleet managers do?

Fleet managers exist in nearly every industry, and though the details of their roles may vary by organization, their impact consistently extends beyond their own department—from customer satisfaction to total operational productivity.

Fleet management is the practice of managing commercial motor vehicles such as cars, vans and trucks to improve utilization, fuel consumption and maintenance. Fleet managers may also play a role in helping to coach drivers to prioritize fleet safety and compliance and help manage liability. In some industries, such as construction and building contracting, fleet management can also include asset tracking and the management of equipment, from heavy cranes and bulldozers to trailers, generators or specialty tools.

Technology is an important tool that simplifies the job of fleet managers, since fleet management is a largely data-driven process. Great fleet managers can confidently make strategic business decisions based on solid data from fleet management software. For instance, fleet managers are now able to use fleet visibility data to gain critical insights to cutting costs and increasing efficiency. With the help of telematics products, fleets can also become more eco-friendly and managers can focus on driver safety.

Learn more about the day-to-day role of a fleet manager in this eBook. 

The future of fleet managers

The role of fleet manager has evolved dramatically over time. Though it used to be a job focused solely on managing a fleet’s schedule, today’s effective fleet professionals can lead and coach not only the fleet team, but also advise and collaborate with vehicle drivers at multiple management levels. 

A successful fleet manager establishes a cooperative, working relationship with all internal functions within the corporation that are associated with fleet operations:

• Drivers and technicians: They help to coach drivers on safe driving behaviors and confirm they know how to handle a DOT safety inspection.
• Dispatchers and back office: They check that all vehicles are at dispatchers’ disposal for the day’s work and improve routing and deployment of vehicles.
• Business owners and leaders: They address compliance and insurance claims issues, suggest ideas for improving business performance and work on improving profitability by lowering expenses.
• Service managers and mechanics: They anticipate vehicle downtime and track vehicle acquisition and maintenance.

With a growing emphasis on management and administration, many fleet managers see a clear path up the corporate ladder within the company. Fleet management allows an individual to learn all aspects of the business even as they become familiar with the drivers and develop relationships with other members of the management team. They are a great resource for identifying cost cutting options since they can use reports, like those listed on online dashboards, to make educated decisions on how to make efficient business decisions.

Fleet management software

The impact of advanced technology and data analysis is already being seen across the fleet landscape. And while technology is meant to simplify, it can also make things overwhelming. Getting up to speed with new innovations, analysis, data, near real-time updates and more can be daunting, but once a fleet manager understands how to use these advances, it will make their job exponentially easier in the long run.

Fleet management technology can help managers:

• Monitor fuel cost and spend with fuel management: Typically, fuel accounts for 1/3 of operating costs, so this is not an area to be trifled with. Excessive spending by even a small amount on a daily expense can add up quickly, stealing from the bottom line. Poor management of fuel expenses can mean unauthorized spending could go unchecked as well.
• Report on driver safety behaviors with driver management: Fleet tracking systems can help monitor speeding, harsh braking and rapid acceleration, and even idling, all which can cause wear and tear on a vehicle and cost money in the long run.
• Get alerts for vehicle maintenance: It goes without saying that staying on top of vehicles and caring for them on a regular basis will make them perform better and longer. Using technology to track preventive maintenance like routine oil changes or tire rotations makes life easier, as managers will be alerted when a vehicle inspection is due.
• Track driver and vehicle locations and routes: The advances in telematics and software as well as GPS mapping and route planning software can not only simplify the fleet manager’s tasks, it can also save extra costs that happen when drivers get lost, wasting fuel and losing precious delivery time.

Will technology eliminate fleet managers?

Essentially, no, technology would not eliminate the need for fleet managers. Fleet management software has the capacity to improve how fleet managers perform their essential job, not to eliminate them. It helps fleet managers to automate tedious tasks that can be performed faster and be less prone to errors. This allows fleet managers to focus on value-adding fleet management functions, such as decision-making, strategic planning and influencing relationships- which fleet management technology can not perform by itself.

Download our free eBook to see how adopting technology like AI dashcams can improve driving behavior, create safe driving habits, and bolster leadership within fleet managers.