How to manage your fleet with confidence & control

Managing a fleet is no easy business – regardless of whether you have 5 vehicles or 500. With a task list as long as your arm and much of the fleet’s success based on the efficiency of the drivers, stress and uncertainty is likely commonplace. In fact, only 6% of fleet managers we surveyed last year said that there were no tasks they wish they could spend more of their time doing, which shows that the vast majority recognised there was room for improvement in their current processes.

To help bring back control of your fleet operations, we’ve compiled a handful of useful and practical tips to help you manage your fleet with confidence whilst ensuring safety and security are always front of mind. Here’s how:

Keep tabs on your vehicles whereabouts

Having visibility of all your vehicles and knowing where they are and where they are going can be a powerful ally to your business. For starters, you can keep tabs on your mobile workforce and equipment enabling you to provide accurate ETAs to your customers. But, did you also know that with this added visibility you could achieve a reduction in fuel consumption and more easily monitor any required maintenance needs?

What makes all of this even easier is that you don’t need to be in the office to keep an eye on your fleet, most reputable fleet management solutions such as Verizon Connect Reveal also offer a mobile app to help you monitor your vehicles and workforce anytime,  virtually anywhere.

Encourage gamification

While the benefits of safer driving are likely to catch your attention (such as reduced fuel consumption and lower insurance premiums) the prospect of slower speeds, smoother acceleration and optimal fuel economy is less likely to get your drivers’ pulses racing. However, the importance of staying safe on the road cannot be understated by anyone. Of the 400 fleet managers we surveyed in 2020, 17% said that inappropriate driver behaviour was the most common cause of accidents involving their fleet. This isn’t a statistic to be taken lightly.

This is where gamification can help to change mindsets and get your drivers excited about hitting safer driving targets. By collecting data on driver behaviour, such as instances of speeding, harsh cornering and late braking, it is possible to assign each of your mobile workforce a score based on their driving style. These scores can then be used to rank every driver in your fleet. The safer drivers at the top and the less safe near the bottom. The ‘game’ is simple – improve their score through safer driving. The safer they drive, the higher they rank and potentially, the more rewards they earn through a company-sponsored voucher scheme, should you choose to implement one.

Build relationships based on trust not micromanagement 

When implementing a fleet management solution, it’s critical that you get your drivers’ buy-in from day one, however this must not be mistaken as ‘micromanagement’. Yet, whilst it’s encouraged  to give your workforce a sense of freedom and autonomy over their decisions, it’s arguably as important to have a centralised level of control over their safety and daily schedule, so that they can focus on getting the job done efficiently and you gain greater peace of mind.

Afterall, 19% of fleet managers we surveyed cited allocating drivers and vehicles to jobs as one of the tasks they spend most of their time on – with better collaboration between drivers and managers, this time could be vastly reduced.

Therefore, investing in a solution that achieves both outcomes – driver autonomy and centralised control, is the obvious path to take. No matter if you’re in the field or at the office, coordinating your workforce with fleet management and technician scheduling software could help bring confidence to your drivers, giving them the tools they need to proactively complete the jobs required of them, all whilst improving communication, transparency and ultimately, trust in you. The added bonus? Your customers receive a better service too!  

Keep your systems up to date

Can you say with certainty that you’ve invested in the right software to keep moving your business forward? Did you know that some systems offer seamless integration with your daily operations, so that you’re not scrambling around trying to find logins or jumping between multiple applications to try and service your customers all whilst managing your mobile (and moving) workforce? If you answered no, now might be the time for change.

Having better awareness of your fleet and its whereabouts can help you in so many ways, which is where we come in. John Jones, Senior Sales Partner here at Verizon Connect believes our products “can help increase a company’s efficiency, visibility and productivity”. And, our customers recognise this too. Wales-based courier Delsol save £125 per day through efficiency gains with our Reveal fleet management solution. They also feel our system has made a lot of people’s jobs easier.

So, what’s next?

If you’ve read this and you have all these issues covered, then that’s great! However, if you think there could be room for improvement, and you’d like to review your current fleet management processes then we might just be the people to talk to. Let’s arrange a free, no-stress product demonstration when you’re ready and we can show you how our suite of solutions could bring you the confidence and control you need to better manage your business.