What Is Fleet Management?

As a business, running a fleet of vehicles is no cakewalk. You’ve got ever-rising gas costs to contend with, as well as the challenge of retaining quality drivers. And that’s before we’ve even mentioned the vehicles themselves, and how they seem to have a knack for breaking down – sometimes even getting themselves stolen.

Fortunately, effective fleet management can help you to minimize all of these problems (and plenty more besides), and run a fuel-efficient, cost-effective, and productive fleet.

How? Well, read on – in this article, we’ll explain what fleet management solutions are and how they work, and explore the many benefits they can bring to your business operations.

What is Fleet Vehicle Management?

Usually conducted by a fleet manager, fleet management encompasses all of the processes needed to successfully run a business fleet of vehicles. It calls for obtaining, maintaining, and – when their life cycles end – replacing vehicles, as well as managing drivers and overseeing the fleet’s day-to-day activity in between.

When done right, effective fleet management can boost productivity and efficiency, and cut fleet costs. So putting some form of fleet management in place is pretty crucial, whether your business runs a trio of trucks or a multitude of mopeds.

If fleet management sounds like challenging work, that’s because it can be. Fortunately though, there are software solutions out there that can streamline both the day-to-day organization and long-term strategizing of fleet management.

These solutions, called fleet management systems (or FMS), provide a central hub from which to take care of all things vehicular, while tracking a variety of useful vehicle data – from location mapping to driver behavior and engine condition – directly from your automobiles.

What are the Different Types of Fleet Management?

Fleet management systems come in all shapes and sizes; from simple, cheap systems that provide little more than the core tracking features (ideal for new businesses), to sophisticated, expensive solutions that report on breathtaking breadths of data (better for more established companies).

Beyond that, though, the biggest differentiator between fleet management styles is industry. A business that runs a fleet of cabs, for example, will have different priorities to a company that manages construction vehicles. Whatever fleet management system you plump for, you’ll need to make sure it can cater to the unique needs of your business sector.

So, below, we’ve listed some of the most common types of fleet management by industry, and made note of the fleet management responsibilities most important to each:

• Agricultural and construction fleet management. With so many moving parts across different sites, construction and agriculture businesses need fleet management that can help them keep tabs on the locations and statuses of all their expensive equipment, and ensure that they’re well-maintained and ready for action.

• Service fleet management. Whether running a fleet of cabs or couriers, transportation businesses should use fleet management to quickly dispatch the nearest available driver for each job, contact drivers directly to keep them in the loop, and plot the most efficient route for each journey – providing customers with quick and convenient trips.

• Delivery and haulage fleet management. Transparent customer service is key for haulage and last mile delivery businesses. Not only can fleet management help these businesses to plan fuel-efficient routes that cover all stops in as little time as possible, it can also empower them to provide clients with the tracking information and accurate ETAs that their online users have come to expect.

• Trucking fleet management. With such large vehicles on the road, trucking businesses need to ensure their fleet management takes vehicle height and weight into account, in order to plot routes that are safe and appropriate for each truck. Trucking fleets will also need to incorporate trailer tracking, and be able to provide ETAs to shippers and receivers.

How Does Fleet Management Work?

On the surface, fleet management systems appear complex – and they are. But when you break them down into their components – their hardware and software – and examine what each does separately, it becomes a lot easier to understand how they work. Below, we explore these separate elements to better explain the process of fleet management in digestible stages.

The Process of Fleet Management

In simple terms, the process of fleet management can be broken down into three steps:

1. Vehicle tracking hardware collects data from your vehicles

When you first set up and install a fleet management system, you’ll need to fit each of your vehicles with a vehicle tracking device. This may sound a little clandestine – but when it comes to fleets, tracking devices are about as important as a piece of equipment can be.

Essentially, these units use GPS technology to track the movement of your vehicles in close to real-time. With them installed, you’ll be able to check in on where each of your drivers are, and how far they are from their destinations.

But it’s not all location, location, location. Many vehicle tracking devices also contain on-board diagnostic sensors, which – when combined with GPS tracking – can capture a broad range of data, from vehicle speed to specific driving maneuvers, fuel usage, and even engine faults. This process of capturing data from remote sources – i.e., your vehicles out on the asphalt – is often referred to as telematics.

2. This data is transmitted to your fleet management software

Of course, there’s no point in capturing all of this data if you can’t examine it. This is where fleet management software comes in. The data your tracking devices collate is transmitted to your corresponding software, which organizes it into digestible reports for you to peruse

Depending on the fleet management system you choose, you may be able to view data such as:

• The live locations of all of your vehicles
• Your drivers’ behavior – for example, how often they speed, brake or accelerate harshly, or idle
• Your fleet’s fuel consumption across given time periods, and local fuel tax information
• Driving history for each vehicle, including starts and stops reports
• Incident data – for example, reporting on the events that led up to a crash
• Vehicle condition information – for example, odometer readings, battery levels, engine temperature, DTC fault codes, and MOT and oil change records/li>
• Paperless hours of service (HOS) logs (so long as you have ELDs fitted!) and DVIRs (driver vehicle inspection reports
• Cargo temperature
• Local traffic and weather data
• Live alerts that notify you when something significant happens – for example, geofence alerts that go off when a vehicle is taken beyond a boundary you’ve set

Some fleet management software enables you to customize these reports, so you only view the data that you feel is important, at a frequency that suits you. Plus, fleet management software is usually deployed through the cloud, meaning you can access it from any device, in any place with an internet connection.

3. You (or your appointed fleet manager) use the data and tools available to your advantage

Data is useless unless you use it. Arguably the most important step in the fleet management process, it’s down to you (or whoever your team has appointed to manage the fleet) to continuously make smart decisions using the data your system collects for you.

Is one of your drivers always speeding? Have a frank discussion with them, or send them on a speed awareness course. Does one of your vehicles have an engine fault? Book it in for a repair. Has a car gone beyond a geofence? Pinpoint its location on your live tracking map to see where it’s headed.

Importantly, as well as examining data, you can also use the software to perform crucial fleet management tasks. This includes:

• Planning optimized routes for your drivers
• Dispatching drivers onto jobs as they come in
• Sending messages directly to drivers
• Scheduling vehicle maintenance
• And more!

One very important note is that the process of fleet management is an ongoing one, in which fresh data is reported regularly (though just how regularly will depend on the system you choose), and the person responsible for fleet management will need to respond to that data in a timely fashion.

What are the Benefits of Fleet Management and Vehicle Tracking?

The benefits you can reap from a fleet management solution will depend on the system you choose, and the functionality and level of insight it offers. Of course, you’ll also get out what you put in – if you don’t use the system effectively, you won’t see as many rewards.

That said, there are so many potential benefits to be gained from using a fleet management system (besides the obvious convenience of managing the majority of your fleet-related work from one software program). Here, we explore eight of the most impactful…

1. Improved productivity and efficiency

Lots of fleet management systems come with route optimization functions, many of which can automatically sort a driver’s stops into the most efficient order. They can also take factors such as weather, terrain, and traffic into account to plot a route that’ll cover all stops in the shortest time possible.

Dispatching can be made more efficient, too. When a job comes in, you – or your business’ fleet manager or dispatcher – can use fleet management software’s live mapping and routing to dispatch the closest available driver to complete the job, saving time and unnecessary fuel.

2. Big savings on fuel costs

When you run a fleet of gas-guzzling trucks, cars, or even scooters, fuel costs are – without a doubt – among the most expensive outlays you face.

Fortunately, effective fleet management can help you trim your fuel costs in four key ways:

• By optimizing your drivers’ routes. Route optimization features can ensure your drivers get all of their jobs done as efficiently as possible, meaning they need less fuel to finish their journeys.
• By encouraging fuel-efficient driving. Driver behavior reporting can help you put a stop to fuel-wasting maneuvers, such as harsh braking, sudden acceleration, speeding, and excessive idling.
• By keeping your vehicles in peak condition. Vehicles that aren’t maintained properly are less fuel efficient than those that are. Visibility over your vehicles’ condition and maintenance can help you keep everything running smoothly.
• By reporting on your fleet’s fuel usage. Knowledge is power! If it looks as though a particular driver is using more fuel than everyone else, you can investigate and solve the problem.

Of course, if you’d like to go one step further and thoroughly track – and directly limit – your drivers’ fuel spend, we’d recommend getting your business onto a fuel card program.

Source: Samara ROI Calculator

3. Airtight security

Vehicle theft can cause significant headaches for you and your business. The fact that a fleet management system can track your vehicles’ locations means that, if one is spirited away, you’ll be able to pinpoint it and help police to catch up to it quickly – minimizing the risk of losing it for good. Just remember to install your trackers in discreet spots, so thieves can’t see and disable them!

Many fleet management systems also provide theft alerts, including geofence alerts, and alerts when a vehicle is moved outside of designated working hours. Meanwhile, a handful offer advanced theft prevention features, such as remote main power disconnect and starter disable functions.

4. Simpler legal compliance

Most fleet management systems incorporate features that aim to keep your fleet compliant with U.S. DOT regulations. Systems that include now-mandatory ELDs (electronic logging devices) can automatically log accurate HOS digitally. Many systems also enable drivers to complete paperless DVIRs via a corresponding app on their smartphones, using which they can also easily attach images of vehicle faults if needed.

5. Safer driving

Safe driving benefits everyone – it helps to prevent accidents that might injure drivers and damage vehicles, protect your business’s reputation from complaints of aggressive behavior, and keep your fleet insurance premiums down.

Using driver behavior monitoring empowers you to reward safe driving, and help repeat offenders to reform their ways. Some fleet management systems can play a big role in this, ranking each driver’s performance on a leaderboard to inspire some friendly competition.

6. Easier maintenance and life cycle management

On the list of a fleet manager’s worst enemies, vehicle downtime is pretty high. Fleet management systems can help you to prevent it by monitoring your vehicles’ conditions, thus affording visibility over when repairs or maintenance services are needed. This means most small issues will be caught before they turn into big, expensive problems.

Plus, there’s little need to keep paper records of servicings – many systems enable you to keep an electronic record of MOTs, maintenance appointments, and repairs.

7. Better service for customers and clients

When you can accurately track the locations of your vehicles, you can also provide real-time progress updates and ETAs to customers and clients. These days, customers expect transparency when it comes to last mile deliveries – and with a fleet management system in place, you’re in a much better place to provide it.

Source: Walker report, PwC study

Next Steps

We’ve talked about what fleet management is, how it works, and the myriad of benefits it can introduce to your business. Now, it’s time to find the right fleet management solution for you and your fleet of vehicles. Remember to take your business’ size, budget, and industry into account, and look out for the features and functionality that should have the biggest impact on your fleet’s efficiency, productivity, and fuel costs. Good luck!