The ultimate purpose of fleet management is to improve efficiency and productivity of a business’s vehicles, whilst increasing driver safety and keeping costs low.
Managing a fleet of vehicles can be extremely challenging – this is why fleet management software and vehicle telematics are often used to support the everyday operations of a business’s vehicles.
Here at Trakm8, we have developed a guide which explains everything you need to know about fleet management and the benefits that it can bring to your business.
What is fleet management?
Fleet management is the organisation of a business’s fleet, utilising effective fleet management software for real time visibility, driver safety and monitoring and reporting analytics.
In order to maintain an effective and safe business fleet, overall fleet operations and fleet management is required.
To keep a business running smoothly, particularly if they rely heavily on the operations of their fleet for revenue, effective management is needed – this can easily be supplemented through fleet management software and telematics from Trakm8.
In short, fleet management controls the entire life cycle of a vehicle. At Trakm8, this includes monitoring:
- Vehicle health
- Maintenance and repair of vehicles
- Fuel use and emissions
- Driver behaviour
- Accident and risk management
What is the purpose of fleet management?
The main purpose of fleet management is for a business to oversee their entire fleet, it’s operations, performance and maintenance. This helps the business run more efficiently, particularly when a company’s fleet is integral to their daily operations.
Whether a business has a dedicated fleet manager or relies on company owners and directors to oversee the fleet, their management capabilities will be significantly heightened through the aid of comprehensive fleet management software and vehicle telematics.
Why is fleet management important?
Fleet management covers a range of business functions and is an important strategy to pay attention to within a business. It covers many areas of a business’s day to day operations, including:
- Finances: Vehicle acquisition, leasing and financing.
- Maintenance: Breakdown cover, upgrades and accident management.
- Compliance: Dealing with licensing, regulations and driver rules.
- Telematics: Data, tracking and diagnostics.
Effective fleet management minimises risks associated with vehicle maintenance and investment, promoting productivity and compliance where necessary and allowing a business to operate smoothly. Productive fleet management is integral to any business that relies on their fleet daily.
What are fleet managers responsible for?
A company that has a dedicated fleet manager typically has a large fleet. They will manage all aspects of fleet activity for the company to ensure optimum performance and driver satisfaction.
They will be in charge of:
Record Keeping:
They will track relevant data to comply with driver safety regulations, make accurate comparisons to past data and predict future data and keep on top of vehicle health and mileage.
Fleet Tracking:
Each vehicle in use from the fleet will be tracked real-time with GPS technology and quality cameras. Vehicles will be tracked by the fleet manager, ensuring that drivers are on the correct route and on time.
Driver Retention and Safety:
Ensuring drivers are happy with their vehicles, that safe driving is promoted and monitored and vehicle issues are tracked and rectified quickly.
Driver Compliance:
Using accurate software to track accidents, damages and overall driver performance to ensure both driver and vehicle safety and full compliance.
Future Planning and Purchase Strategy:
Utilising vehicles effectively is integral to a fleet manager’s role. Understanding what vehicles perform well and which need updating helps a business save money and time when considering vehicle acquisition.
What are the benefits of fleet management?
There are many benefits to fleet management, but mainly that it helps in four key areas: Efficiency, Safety, Security and Compliance.
With fleet management, a business will be able to benefit from:
Improved efficiency:
A business will be able to have a well functioning, highly organised fleet that helps keep revenue streams steady. Location tracking and route optimisation allows a fleet manager to create effective routes that save both time and money.
Tracking driver behaviours can highlight fuel-wasting actions and idle times, allowing specific optimisations to be made to create the most effective fleet service possible. Easy job and route scheduling also helps to keep drivers on track and on time.
Better customer service:
If your fleet activities are customer-focused, then fleet management is crucial. By improving efficiency throughout your fleet, you can improve delivery times and reduce wait times for your customers.
Improved ETAs through GPS tracking will keep customers informed and allow clear communication between customers and the company regarding deliveries, appointment changes and potential delays, for example.
Vehicle health and driver safety:
With effective fleet management, a business will be able to keep on top of vehicle maintenance and put plans in place for future works, upgrades and additions to the fleet. Engine health, miles, fuel consumption and breakdowns will all be tracked and a thorough plan can be formed to monitor this data.
Not only will the vehicle be monitored, but drivers will be too. Keeping track of dangerous behaviours, such as speeding and harsh braking, will help a fleet manager to improve driver safety. Driver alerts will also help to promote safer driving habits.
Data for reporting and analysing:
Fleet management includes the close monitoring of lots of varying data, ranging from vehicle checks to route optimisation, to driver habits and improvements. Plenty of useful information can be deduced from correct fleet management and used to benefit a business and its driving practices hugely.
Fleet Management software
Fleet management can be easily supplemented by the use of comprehensive telematics software. Fleet management software will make managing a fleet, no matter the size, far easier, simpler and produce more quality details that would otherwise be overlooked.
If you’re looking to optimise your fleet and get visible, tangible results, take a look at our Fleet Management Packages. Our software acts as a huge helping hand to fleet managers who want more from their current fleet performance.
We’re more than happy to discuss your software options with you and provide you with a free demonstration of how it’d work with your fleet. Get in touch today to learn more.
