How fleet management software helps companies with everyday fleet management
Fleet management software provides data, insights, and information to better manage fleets, from optimising routes and improving driver behaviour to tracking vehicle usage and maintenance requirements. In this article about fleet management tips, we will take a closer look at how the data from fleet telematics systems can help business owners to:
- Improve vehicle and driver performance
- Help to reduce costs via better vehicle efficiency
- Reduce the risk of accidents
- Cut down on paperwork and improve compliance
So, how does it work?
Fleet management systems work by tracking vehicles and drivers, then transmitting data to one system, which can be viewed via a dashboard.
But more than that it can combine what used to be fragmented data stored on different systems all on to one platform, to generate reports for fuel consumption, maintenance history and notifications, vehicle location, and driver behaviour.
AJT Installs’ skilled and experienced technicians have implemented our Tracker 365 fleet management software across a number of different transport sectors, from courier and logistics companies to waste management and the emergency services.
We have seen first hand the improvements business owners have been able to implement by using the data insights provided by fleet management software.
Contact our friendly team to book a demo, so we can show you how your business can benefit from installing Tracker 365 in your fleet.
Fleet Management Tips
Improve vehicle and driver performance
Every business owner knows that streamlining operations to the most efficient they can be means more profit and this includes fleet management.
The data relayed to the office from fleet management software highlights when fleet vehicles are burning more fuel.
These insights can be used to educate and train drivers in order to eliminate costly driving habits such as harsh braking, over revving, and unnecessary or aggressive acceleration.
All these bad habits cost more in fuel, so educating drivers about best practice will reduce fuel costs.
This has been backed up by a 2016 RAC report. Taking data from 1,000 UK companies where fleet management software had been installed, the report stated that 55% of the businesses surveyed claimed to have reduced fuel costs since the installation.
Vehicle efficiency
Another efficiency improvement provided by fleet management software data is by highlighting delays on the road, accident blackspots, or even congestion charges that could cost more fuel, money, and time.
For example, by mapping out the optimum route for each delivery, the cost per drop can be significantly reduced.
Fleet management systems offer businesses the opportunity to view real-time traffic information about delays, so they can advise drivers on the best way to avoid them.
If business owners invest capital into fleet vehicles, whether cars, vans or HGVs, they need to be able to get the maximum life from each asset.
We have already talked about educating drivers on best practice which, as well as bringing down fuel costs, will also reduce the general wear and tear on vehicles, bringing more benefits:
- More time on the road and less time in the garage
- Lower maintenance costs
- More efficient when running
- Longer life for fleet vehicles
- Higher return on initial investment
Reduce the risk of accidents
Earlier in the article about fleet management tips, we touched on the subject of driver training.
Of course, if drivers eliminate bad driving habits, it will help to reduce fuel costs, but more importantly, good drivers reduce the risk of collisions.
Accidents can be very costly for businesses:
- Vehicle repairs
- Time off the road for vehicle and driver can affect operations
- Possibility of legal action
- Higher insurance premiums
- Cost of administration and form filling!
According to statistics from the Department of Transport, the biggest cause of UK car accidents in 2022 was drivers failing to look properly (37.8% of accidents.)
You can see a table detailing the top ten causes of car accidents at NimbleFins.
Fleet management systems provide data on driver behaviour, especially when combined with on-board camera information.
This data is dual purpose, firstly it enables fleet managers to put together driver risk profiles, which can help to identify good drivers, thus bringing down insurance costs.
Secondly, the information can be used to produce targeted and effective driver training to help to combat any bad driving habits that put the driver, vehicle, other road users and the company’s reputation at risk.
Cut down on paperwork and improve compliance
Believe it or not, there are still some businesses out there who still use spreadsheets for fleet management!
The Tracker 365 client portal makes auditing simple and straight forward.
You can download the data to produce an accurate reports for every vehicle in the fleet without having to retrieve data from a prohibitively large spreadsheet.
In our fleet management tips we thought we would highlight some of the advantages of using fleet management software over spreadsheets:
- Historical documents vs live information
- Human error inputting vs 100% accuracy
- Resources required for inputting vs no resource requirement
- Technical issues and data storage vs cloud storage
- Clunky inputting and retrieval of data vs data retrieval at the touch of a button
- Fragmented data on different systems vs data all in one place
- Time, resource and storage for insurance claims vs accurate information on one platform
Business owners can save resources that were previously spent on administrative tasks such as route planning, checking logbooks and tachographs, maintenance scheduling, producing reports, and keeping driver information up to date.
Compliance
Compliance is the bane of every fleet manager’s existence, and penalties for non-compliance can have a serious impact on a company’s ability to carry on trading, and its reputation.
However, using fleet management software provides access to comprehensive and accurate data about drivers, vehicles, journeys, load information, maintenance schedules, insurance, MOT/vehicle tax, whenever it is required to comply with company policies or procedures and legal requirements.
In addition the data is useful when it comes to revising and improving safety procedures, risk assessments and management systems.
We hope that these fleet management tips have given you food for thought and if you would like a demo of the AJT Installs fleet management software, call our expert team and they will show you how Tracker 365 can help your business with fleet management. What’s more, you have the extra peace of mind that we a three year warranty on every product bought and installed by our technicians.