What Is Fleet Route Management?
Route management refers to the various practices that fleet managers use to improve the speed and efficiency of fleet operations.
Route optimization is a large factor, but other elements of good route management include GPS tracking for each vehicle, a live map to monitor the vehicles in real time, alerts to notify managers of safety issues or accidents, and a messaging system so that drivers and managers can communicate at any time.
How Does Route Optimization Work?
Route optimization is about finding the best possible route for each vehicle in a fleet. The best route isn’t necessarily the fastest or shortest one, it’s usually the most cost-effective one.
We’ll cover the factors that go into route planning and optimization below, but the key point here is that modern route optimization refers to software. Whether sold as part of a stripped-down routing and dispatch service or within a full fleet management system (FMS), route optimization software can crunch all the data needed to ensure fleets save as much as possible.
Why Is Route Planning Important?
Route planning is needed to process the vast number of factors that influence a route’s cost-effectiveness.
How tough is it to process all of these details? To give you a sense of what’s going on under the route planning hood, here’s a quick look at the main factors:
- Number of stops per route
- Location of stops
- Best or nearest driver for each route
- Number of turns/intersections
- Traffic conditions (both predicted and real-time)
- Best road to approach a stop from
On top of all that, many fleets face unique challenges. Such as a consumer demand that changes with the seasons and affects delivery needs. Some fleets might want to avoid left-hand turns when they can, as these turns cross the line of traffic.
And remember, all this data needs to be processed in seconds in order to deliver the right route at the right time every day. Only with a great route optimization software can all these details be factored in without hours of work and a lot of those pesky math equations.
How Does Route Planning Software Work?
The software itself comes in a few different elements. Here are a few software terms to know.
- Algorithm — This refers to the calculations that process the factors we’ve already listed. With it, the software turns input about stops and drivers into the best suggested route.
- Planning — Depending on the fleet’s needs, managers can set routes days ahead of time to keep resources in use and give drivers a heads up.
- Apps — Most FMS solutions include a downloadable mobile app for each driver, letting managers more easily communicate about last-minute route changes.
- Live Tracking — With a GPS device in each vehicle and a live map of every truck’s location, managers can update their initial routes with up-to-the-minutes information about weather or traffic updates.
- Analytics & Reporting — Finally, the data about each route’s overall effectiveness can be collected and automatically turned into a weekly, quarterly, or annual report. Over time, these reports can reveal trends that could inform even better routing in the future.
Depending on the service used, a fleet manager might be able to gain additional benefits and software features beyond just route optimization. A full FMS includes features for fuel management, ELD compliance, and maintenance management, among others.
Best Fleet Route Management Companies
Which fleet management systems is the right fit for your fleet’s route management needs? As always, it comes down to factors like the number of vehicles, and the industry you work in. Here are our top picks for small, medium and large fleets.
Small Business (1 – 4 vehicles)
Even the smallest fleet benefits from route management. Still, if your fleet is just one to four vehicles, you may want a stripped-down service, as a feature-rich service will cost more but might not deliver enough of a benefit to justify the price.
Quartix is a great starter service for fleets with a tight budget: The service is rented, so there is no huge upfront cost, and even the monthly bill won’t be much, starting at less than $15 per vehicle. With it, fleets will be able to track their vehicles in real time, and can generate reports including a vehicle utilization analysis report and a monthly mileage report.
Maven Fleet, a service available from Maven Machines, also includes route management abilities alongside core FMS features and strong support.
Medium Fleets (5 – 25 vehicles)
Teletrac Navman includes a route optimization algorithm along with other core features that dovetail well with it, such as two-way messaging, ELD compliance, driver safety alerts, vehicle diagnostics, fuel management, and a customizable dashboard. It’s a good option for mid-size fleets with between five and 25 vehicles.
Samsara is worth considering, too, with its great customer service team and broad feature range.
Large Fleets (26 + vehicles)
When it comes to fleets with 26 or more vehicles, the biggest FMSs offer the most features and the strongest customizability. By focusing on those traits, big fleets can see the most benefit from their economy of size.
Verizon is the biggest FMS provider, with Verizon Connect Reveal. Its deep range of features help make its hefty price tag a little easier to swallow. It’s also an attractive option for fleets operating within unique industries, as it offers plenty of add-on services to address specific concerns.
Top 6 Benefits Of Fleet Route Management
- Maximized ROI — The most cost-effective route will give your fleet the best ROI overall, giving your fleet the
- Fuel saved — Fuel is one of the most costs of running a fleet, and an FMS that includes route management alongside fuel-saving safety alerts can save the average Class 8 truck upwards of $8,000 a year.
- Better vehicle lifecycles — Using vehicles effectively is key to a good vehicle lifecycle.
- Better asset lifecycles — Keeping your assets in use as often as possible by rapidly transporting them to the next job site will get the most benefit from them.
- Higher customer satisfaction — Needless to say, customers will be happier when drivers can navigate their routes effectively.
- Less overtime — The right route optimization can make sure drivers complete their work hours without running into costly overtime.
Overall, operational costs will be down across the board when drivers can be easily assigned the most cost-effective path to their stops. The benefits of route management are clear. After all, what’s the point of having a fleet if they aren’t operating at peak efficiency?
Route Management Case Studies by Industry
Construction
Residential home construction company Whitton Companies offers plumbing, concrete, and framing services from its base in Phoenix, AZ. But it only had manual tools to manage its drivers’ routes.
Managers looked up each new job site on Google Maps, printed the route, and physically handed the paper to the scheduled driver. Worse, field supervisors had no way to confirm they had reached the job site, while employee timecards couldn’t be verified.
After an upgrade to GPS Insight, these three core business needs could be handled automatically and from a central location, saving Whitton’s fleet of 60 vehicles time and resources while making them more efficient. One additional unexpected benefit was the money saved from correcting timecard discrepancies: More than $100,000 annually.
Whitton Companies CIO Matt Nielson “I would say that GPS Insight is well worth the investment and to just do it. We have saved thousands and thousands of dollars using GPS Insight. You will receive your investment back in a short period of time.”
Utilities
Telecommunications firm Madison Telecom operates 94 vehicles across the southeastern US, sometimes travelling three states away from their Georgia home base. Outfitting their vehicles with Quartix tracking devices and their accompanying mobile app has helped them streamline their fleet routes in a few different ways.
Driving style reports are one useful feature, offering managers data on drivers’ speed, braking and accelerating patterns to better identify the safest drivers. These lowered risks come with another benefit, reduced fleet insurance premiums.
Gary Adams, Madison Telecom Fleet Manager “95% of our vehicles are 2017 or newer... In case of theft, having them tracked increases our chances of recovery, something the insurance company liked.”
Manufacturing
North Carolina’s Pepsi Hickory facility processes 3 million cases annually for Pepsi Bottling Co. But their routes faced a challenge that other manufacturers might empathize with: Thanks to seasonal fluctuations in food and beverage demand, the best routes would change daily, and it was impossible to manually optimize for the best route.
The facility’s needs included some fixed factors (delivery days, time windows, and preferred customer-driver combinations) but also needed flexible factors (varied job assignments, with the fewest routes possible). Verizon Connect’s dynamic routing feature was the solution.
With it, Pepsi saw 720 fewer routes per year, per location, and was able to cut back active vehicles by 25% during the busy season. This saved them on fuel consumption and vehicle wear while balancing drivers’ workloads evenly across the fleet.
Distribution
The Texas-based Tejas Distributors services amusement vending machines across five states. Drivers leave on Mondays with a full trailer and don’t return until Friday. Tejas needed a route management system that gives them visibility and allows them to communicate with their drivers at all times during the week. The company upgraded to the Spireon system in 2008. The biggest impact? Better response times when combating emergencies, from blizzards to tropical storms.
Byron VanZandt “One time, we had a driver in an ice storm flip the van and trailer, and roll into a ditch in an area with very limited cell phone coverage... Spireon helped us get a tow truck to the exact spot of the accident. The driver was shook up, but OK.”
Transport
The 60 semi-trucks in Fames Transport’s fleet were getting by with handwritten time cards and an older GPS tracking system before they updated to the Samsara FMS. Now, it’s up-to-the-second fleet tracking is noticeably more accurate.
With better visibility, operator Fernando Escolero was able to immediately pinpoint one driver with a particularly low safety score due to two hours of speeding paired with 40 harsh braking incidents. Plus, by tracking drivers routes more closely, the business was able to easily identify drivers who overstated how many hours they had worked that day.
The FMS’s benefits are clear: Not only was Fames Transport able to boost that particular driver’s safety score up from 79 to 97 in just two weeks, but better payroll efficiency saved as much as $4,000 per day.
Fleet Management Route Planning and Optimization
To sum up: Optimizing your fleet’s daily routes saves your fleet money across the board, from fuel to drivers’ pay to vehicle usage. And a software solution is the only way to create a dynamic route that can change with every update.
Route management is best understood within the context of a full fleet management software. A route management app allows drivers to communicate with managers for the latest updates on their route. But in addition, it also allows them to log their hours of service and their ELD compliance, as well as manually enter the price of fuel.
In other words, pairing a route optimization software with a good fleet management system is the most efficient way to get all the features that could save your fleet money.
How to Choose The Right Route Planning Solution for You
Not all route optimization softwares are created equal, as features, prices, and support can all vary. In general, smaller fleets should opt for fewer features and a lower price, while larger fleets should pay a premium for access to more features that will lead to a greater savings when applied across an entire fleet.
In addition, fleets in specific industries might have different needs for route optimization, and will need to pick an FMS that offers the right abilities. In the end, only you can know which solution is right for your fleet’s needs.
