How to stay on track during the summer holidays

August is traditionally a popular time for those of us in the UK to head for the coast, the continent or a little further afield. For fleet-reliant businesses, this often means having to uphold the same service levels with fewer drivers on the road, dispatchers in the office or technicians in the field.

Of course, any staff member worth their salt will undoubtedly be missed while they are topping up their tan. But the good news is you can take plenty of steps to limit the impact of any absence on your business and its customers.

A GPS fleet tracking solution can help you make better plans and faster, smarter decisions when your workforce is stretched. Here’s how.

Be proactive
One of the best ways to keep your fleet on the move is to take proactive steps to mitigate any delays. This could mean being mindful of weather and traffic conditions to reroute and replan as necessary or staying on top of regular service and maintenance to reduce the risk of breakdown.

With automatic maintenance and part replacement reminders plus a live map showing the whereabouts of your vehicles and the latest traffic information, a comprehensive GPS tracking solution can help you do both.

Schedule smarter
Unnecessary mileage can take its toll on productivity at the best of times. When you’re operating with a skeleton staff, it can be disastrous.

With the latest fleet management technology, you can efficiently plan your routes automatically. A GPS solution can analyse factors such as vehicle and load type, customer requirements, road conditions and more to plot each day’s stops with less effort.

Just drag and drop schedules to assign drivers and send updated routing information directly to their mobile devices.

Respond faster
New jobs, customer complaints, missed stops – there are plenty of reasons why you might need to adapt your plans throughout the working day. These delays can prove costly when your fleet is fully staffed, but with fewer resources at your disposal, they can bring service to a temporary standstill.

With live location and status information at your fingertips, you can quickly find and reroute the nearest driver to any new request. This information can also be used to respond faster and more accurately to customer questions about arrival times and expected ETAs.

Communicate, communicate, communicate
When deadlines and margins are tight, great communication is more important than ever. With GPS fleet management technology connecting your people, vehicles and work, information is proactively shared with everyone who needs it.

That means no more phone tennis or guessing games. Just location, route, progress, status and plenty more data at your disposal in near real-time, whether you’re in the office or on the move.

Why choose Verizon Connect

Verizon Connect’s fleet management technology can help you monitor and manage your mobile operations, potentially helping to improve productivity and service levels while reducing your costs.

Once implemented across your fleet, our solutions can allow you to:

• Increase visibility: Get a 360-view of your daily operations at a glance in near real-time.
• Do more with fewer resources: Identify how your assets are being used, uncover hidden costs and spot opportunities for improvement.
• Analyse performance over time: View trends by team, department or across your entire fleet to review your progress towards budgets and objectives.

Want to know more? Visit our solutions page or arrange a free demo to see our technology in action.