Businesses of all sizes are turning to fleet management software (aka fleet tracking systems) as an efficient way to manage and control commercial vehicles. If your business uses commercial vehicles to operate on a regular basis, choosing a good fleet management software provider is crucial to reducing expenses, get real-time insight about your vehicles, facilitate jobs for drivers, and maintain safety. If you don’t already use a fleet management software to run your business, it’s time to consider using one. Here we will discuss major challenges faced by fleet managers today as well as the top benefits of fleet management software.
Common Challenges for Fleet Managers
Fleet managers and business owners are busy professionals with tons of tasks to manage on an everyday basis. No matter whether you have a few vehicles or hundreds in your fleet, staying on top of what’s happening as drivers complete jobs isn’t easy. Here are some common challenges that fleet managers face:
- Minimizing expenses
- Staying on top of vehicle maintenance
- Reducing fuel usage
- Prevent idling and route complications
- Ensuring driver safety
- Adhering to compliance requirements
- Communicating easily with drivers and customers
- Relaying wait times to customers
Benefits of Fleet Management Software
Luckily, fleet management software presents a solution to the above challenges. Not to mention it’s a cost-efficient technology that most businesses can fit into their budgets. Although there are many more, take a look at the top 10 benefits to using fleet management software for your commercial vehicles:
1. Manage fleet remotely
Fleet managers are tasked with managing all the vehicles in their fleet on a daily basis. No matter whether your fleet has just a few vehicles vs. dozens, it can be difficult to stay on top of day-to-day operations for each vehicle and driver all at once.
With fleet management software, you can access one easy-to-use platform to manage your entire fleet from one place. Most fleet software has a live map where you can get immediate access to each vehicle’s location, receive updates from drivers, see location history, and more. You can also choose between different types of fleet management software, such as web-based or cloud-based. This way, you can either access the management system from your office or on-the-go.
2. Reduce overhead costs
It’s important to control costs when your business has a fleet traveling on a regular basis. If you do not make an effort to control costs, you can end up spending tons of money unnecessarily.
There are many ways in which fleet management software can help your business save money. Firstly, the software often has built-in tools for you to cut down on driving time and reduce fuel consumption. Custom reports can also tell you how much money you’re wasting on a per vehicle basis. Additionally, driver safety tools can help you reduce unnecessary costs on insurance and liability. These items may seem small, but they can help businesses save thousands of dollars a year.
3. Improve dispatching system
Fleet management software can help improve your dispatching system. By getting immediate access to where all vehicles are located at once, you can make better decisions on which vehicles to assign to which jobs and requests.
Oftentimes, this improved dispatching system helps companies take on more business, as they are dispatching quicker and more efficiently. This means nothing but profit for your business.
4. Optimize routes to save time
Most fleet management software has route optimization tools. Fleet managers can get immediate information on which routes are the most time-efficient and cost-efficient. Additionally, it can help delivery services complete deliveries within windows of time to keep customers satisfied.
Route optimization can help reduce fuel costs, maintenance costs, as well as wait times for customers. It can also lead to being able to complete more jobs and requests in a workday, which means higher productivity and profitability for your company.
5. Get real-time notifications
Fleet management software can be set-up to deliver real-time notifications of your choosing. Depending on your business needs and priorities, you can get alerts about fuel usage, mileage, number of jobs completed, time in which jobs are started and completed, idling, safety “red flags,” and more. This helps fleet managers avoid having to call drivers for information whenever they need it.
Additionally, the software should send you alerts when a vehicle needs to be serviced or maintenanced. This way, you never have to worry about missing maintenance due dates and keeping your vehicles running smoothly.
6. Maintain easy, instant communication
There is oftentime a built-in communication tool for fleet tracking software that allows businesses to communicate with drivers instantly. Plus, this communication tool is often safety-friendly, so you don’t have to worry about causing risk when contacting drivers as they are on the road.
This communication tool can be crucial for businesses that need to stay in contact with drivers throughout the day. Drivers can easily relay updates and pertinent information as they are on the job, to keep managers in-the-know at all times.
7. Expand vehicle lifespan
With a good fleet management software, you’ll be able to stay on top of the health of each of your commercial vehicles. You can simply access your software dashboard to get real time insight about vehicle mileage, service history, engine hours, oil changes and other preventative maintenance needs. As a result, you’ll increase the lifespan of your vehicles as well as prevent breakdowns and emergency repairs. This is a huge added benefit for construction companies who use fleet management software for construction equipment, and also want to expand the lifespan of various trucks, machinery and equipment.
8. Improve driver safety
The safety of your drivers is probably an important priority to your business. Of course you want to prevent accidents and vehicle damage, but you also want to prevent drivers putting their lives at risk while on the job.
With driver safety tools, such as video dashboard cameras, you can get real time alerts about dangerous driving habits and prevent them moving forward. For instance, you can get insight about hard breaks, abrupt accelerations, speeding, and more.
9. Boost customer satisfaction
If your drivers work with customers directly while on the job, you can take advantage of customer satisfaction tools within your software. For instance, you can communicate wait times to customers as well as send them real time updates about the status and location of their driver. Additionally, when using fleet tracking software, you will be able to reduce travel times and therefore prevent customers from waiting long periods of time for drivers to arrive. Some software also integrates with convenient tools such as point of sale systems, so drivers can create a better experience for their customers.
10. Pull custom reports
You likely want to access information about the performance of your fleet over time. With reporting and analytics, you can pull data that gives you a broader picture of your fleet operations over a week, month, quarter, or year. This can give you insight as to what patterns to look out for and how to improve as a fleet manager moving forward.
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Here at 360Connect, we help business leaders and fleet managers better manage their fleet. We provide you with up to 5 fleet management software options at no charge to you, so you can make the best decision for your business. We find you options that fit within your budget and save you up to 30% - it’s a win-win! Get started by visiting our GPS fleet management software form.
Additional Reading: 6 Reasons You Need Pest Control Fleet Management