Negosentro| What is Fleet Management and How it Can Benefit your Company |We are living in a time when great products, a reliable business model, and good marketing are no longer guaranty of success. These days, if you want to keep your business afloat, you need to outpace the harsh competition in virtually all areas. And yes, that means being more nimble, covering more ground, and being able to get from point A to point B faster than anyone else in the industry. But, how can one fleet achieve that level of agility and efficiency?
Like always, the answer lies in proper management. So, let’s see what is fleet management and how can you utilize it to the benefit of your organization?
Defining fleet management
If we were to define fleet management in the simplest of terms, we would say that this activity includes the optimization of commercial vehicle fleet operations. This is usually performed with the help of software that utilizes GPS tracking. This way, companies manage to streamline the routes, optimize vehicle maintenance, improve driver behavior and safety, enable compliance with national regulations, etc.
Vehicle maintenance consists of five major areas we will discuss in greater detail further down below.
Operational cost-effectiveness
This area covers the two biggest losses produced by business fleets – fuel spend and theft and loss. Although the latter mention sounds far more sever (going up to $25,000 loss in profit), cumulative expenses of careless driving, and taking longer routes. Here lies one of the greatest benefits of fleet management. With the help of GPS tracking and AI-powered vehicle analytics, managers can suggest faster routes, help drivers avoid heavy traffic, offer suggestions about economical driving, and locate the misplaced vehicle.
Vehicle maintenance
This is yet another area where automation and activities brought to the table by fleet management can save companies thousands of dollars of loss. Namely, the fleet managers can set up their platforms to send out custom maintenance alerts for the checkup of fluids, engine, breaks, and other vital systems. This way, all malfunctions are discovered promptly, and management staff has an opportunity to replace worn-out elements with quality car parts and further improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicles.
Workforce management
By now, we have talked primarily about the efficiency of the vehicles. But, a vehicle is only as efficient as its driver. Therefore, the task of efficient fleet management is to observe driver behavior, analyze how much time the vehicles spend idling, etc. These issues may seem insignificant but, the recent research says that idling in the U.S. uses more than 6 billion gallons of fuel ($20 billion) on an annual basis. Working to improve drivers’ behavior based on real-life data can drastically cut these devastating numbers.
Vehicle safety and compliance
This area is something most of us take for granted. Even so, an average injury claim may cost a company over $21,000 per car accident, which is a sum not to be neglected. Therefore, one of the main tasks of fleet management to make sure that all vehicles in the fleet are safe and compliant to national road safety legislation. This area mostly consists of service logging, driver behavior reporting, and vehicle maintenance.
Operational efficiency
Finally, we have to circle back to the topic we have mentioned in the introduction – operational efficiency. Businesses need to be able to deliver their products to customers in the most optimal time frame possible, even at the cost of fuel efficiency, optimal routes, and other parameters we have covered above. The task of an experienced fleet manager is to weigh between these two requirements and find the most beneficial solution for the company.
We hope these few considerations gave you some general idea about fleet management and how this department can benefit your growing business. We are living in a world where competition needs to be fought on all available levels. Making your business nimbler and more efficient seems like a good place to start.
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