Fleet management technology is more than a way to provide fleet managers the location data of vehicles and assets - it’s a family of software management platforms, in-cab devices, apps, and tablets that work together and can provide additional business value to help companies protect their bottom line.
GPS tracking is the core technology enabling fleet management software, providing the near real-time location of an asset or vehicle. This data becomes much more actionable and helpful to fleet managers when it is overlaid on maps of road and weather conditions in a software platform.
The technology tracks vehicle driving data, such as harsh braking, harsh acceleration, excessive idling, and excessive speeding, at an individual vehicle level. These features of fleet management technology can help businesses control risks and lower costs associated with vehicle repairs and accidents.
Here are three ways fleet management technology can help protect the bottom line:
1. Improving Efficiency
Boosting productivity while still maintaining a high quality of work and customer satisfaction is a common concern for fleet managers. Dispatching drivers is an intricate tower of overlapping schedules, real-time breakdowns, and limited availability, all under heavy time constraints.
Keeping your drivers on schedule and equipped with the right tools is priority number one for getting jobs completed on time and budget. Still, without proper insight into the schedules of your drivers day in and day out, you are putting yourself at an incredible disadvantage and risk.
To avoid confusion or crossing wires, owners and dispatchers can rely on GPS tracking instead of manual processes to improve business efficiency. Having the ability to track, monitor, and maintain your powered and non-powered assets is essential to keeping your business running smoothly, keeping customers satisfied, and improving your reputation.
2. Reducing Vehicle Maintenance
It’s hard to run a fleet without vehicles, so making sure that they are in working order is key to protecting the integrity of a business. However, vehicle maintenance can become a costly expenditure due simply to wear and tear.
With fleet management solutions, alerts can be set up with the data from a vehicle control module, which tracks mileage, oil level, temperature, and much more. Fleet managers can then schedule maintenance in advance that can help prevent unexpected breakdowns and extend the life of a vehicle.
Wear and tear can also be aggravated by harsh driving. Fleet management technology tracks driving behavior at an individual level. This feature allows managers to use empirical data to have tailored conversations and coaching sessions with specific drivers to make changes that can help protect vehicles and promote road safety.
3. Lowering Insurance Costs
Driver performance and vehicle usage reports are beneficial for operating a fleet, but they can also be shared with insurance companies to negotiate lower rates and discounts. The data can illustrate the impact of company-wide driving policies or even individual improvements in driving behavior.
Moreover, fleet management solutions used in combination with video dashcam technology can help protect a business against false claims in the event of an accident. In instances when a driver is falsely accused of being at fault after an accident, video can provide authorities with the evidence necessary to overturn incorrect reports that could have held a company liable and vulnerable to hefty legal and health insurance fees.
Overall, advanced fleet management technology provides fleet managers and businesses with the tools to help drive safety, efficiency, and productivity. As technology and vehicles continue to evolve, the technology will create new ways for business owners to utilize the data and future-proof business for tomorrow.
About the Author: Kevin Aries leads Global Product Success for Verizon Connect, helping build software solutions that optimize the way people, vehicles, and things move through the world. Working predominantly with field service businesses, Kevin spends his time understanding the problems and solutions of the service industry to improve customer experience. Outside of field service, Kevin's background has enabled him to help small businesses communicate, share digital information and increase productivity through various mobile technology platforms and solutions.
