Outdated fleet management systems can hinder fleet efficiency, meaning extra costs and less productivity. However, monitoring and improving your fleet efficiency can lead to cost savings and a happy workforce. Not to mention the ability to track a variety of information from driver behaviour to vehicle maintenance, building team collaboration to form an overall better fleet.
If your fleet still relies on spreadsheets, paper documents and manual processes, then it may be time to review your fleet efficiency and see how it can be improved.
Ways to improve your fleet efficiency
Keep up to date with technology
There are numerous types of fleet technology available that can improve your efficiency, from GPS navigation, telematics and vehicle health tracking technology. Each of these technologies helps to monitor your vehicles and driver behaviour to give you insight into what is happening within your fleet and the information you need to create better processes.
Telematics
Telematics is one of the most useful technology tools to manage; they use GPS tracking and provide more insight into the location of your vehicles whilst also being able to track driver behaviour and vehicle performance.
Telematics provides you with information so you can identify bad driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking or accelerating or vehicle idling. Keeping track of consistent poor driving behaviour can indicate who out of your drivers need a driver training refresh course, but also who should be rewarded for driving safely and efficiently. Because of its safety benefits, using telematics can also bring your fleet insurance premiums down.
Using GPS technology also can calculate the best route for your drivers and notify them of any road or traffic conditions and re-route them if needed. This helps to improve driver safety and cut costs on fuel. Additionally, getting the best fuel card for small businesses is going to be a great addition to your tracking tool.
Mobile apps
There are even apps made specifically to improve fleet efficiency. These apps are available to help keep you connected with your drivers and help to keep the team in sync with news and updates.
Mobile apps allow team members to complete vehicle inspections, update vehicle status and report any issues. All of the information recorded on these apps can be accessed anywhere via phone or tablet and ensures drivers are prepared for road checks and audits.
Go paperless with automated data entry
If you don’t have an automated data entry process and you rely on spreadsheets that require manually inputted data then you may want to consider updating this to become more efficient.
Having automated data entry with fleet management software eliminates hours of data entry. If you have technology that enables you to receive real-time updates from their team, an automated data entry system can pull in information on GPS and telematics or fuel cards and spend.
Not only do automated processes increase productivity, but it also helps with reporting as you have easy access to the data and allow you to closely monitor your fleet operations.
Technology integrations
You can seamlessly integrate your other systems to help monitor your fleet in one place. Integrating your technology fleet management software enables you to monitor your GPS and telematics data and fuel card usage in one tool. This gives you a comprehensive view of all of your data, keeping you better informed and allowing you to analyse your key metrics.
Having all this information to hand not only saves time but will also help indicate what other changes you need to make to ensure your fleet is running efficiently.
Digital vehicle inspections
With the innovation of fleet technology, you can now use mobile apps to not only communicate with your team but also conduct digital vehicle inspections.
Digital vehicle inspections mean there will no longer be paper forms to fill out that are standard and don’t always allow you to fill out issues in detail. Digital vehicle inspections allow you to take pictures or video to clarify any issues. All results can instantly be uploaded to your fleet management software with any uncovered issues being sent straight to your inbox.
Having this in place can reduce time spent clarifying issues and you can immediately schedule any maintenance repairs.
Preventative maintenance
Keeping your vehicles well maintained will help to reduce vehicle downtime and keep your vehicles on the road. Schedule routine maintenance helps to address any minor issues that can turn into bigger problems further down the line.
Your routine checks should include the following:
- Oil changes
- Fluid refills
- Tyre checks including pressure and tread
- Brake checks
Track service history
If you have scheduled any services for your vehicles, you will need to ensure this is logged on your fleet management software. Having a detailed history of all previous vehicle services enables you to know if there are any consistent errors and look at developing your maintenance plan.
Keeping a track of the service history will help to improve your fleet efficiency by knowing exactly what condition your fleet is in and whether it’s time to consider new vehicles and to help make overall better decisions on your fleet vehicles.
Analyse data
The most important thing is to keep track and record as much data as possible. Keeping well informed on the condition and running’s of your fleet will help you to make better decisions and evaluate the systems you have in place to see what needs to be improved or what is working well.
Going forward
Although running a fleet can be difficult, having these systems in place can help you improve your fleet efficiency by improving productivity and overall reducing fleet costs too.