As the need for real-time collaboration has grown across industries, more organizations are seeing the benefits of fleet management software. Leveraging a mobile solution to track vehicle maintenance and expenses is the best way to increase fleet efficiency.
What are the Benefits of Fleet Management Software?
While there are many benefits of fleet management software, the overall value boils down to maximizing efficiency by having complete visibility into your operations. Leveraging fleet management software enables managers to track operations in real time and collaborate with their team to quickly resolve issues.
As technology continues to advance, our ability to stay connected with others and manage data efficiently keeps improving. Though many fleet managers still rely on outdated processes, like spreadsheets and whiteboards to manage fleet operations, these solutions lack visibility and efficiency.
Leveraging a modern solution is the best way to stay productive, informed and competitive. With all of the benefits of fleet management software affords, managers can track every aspect of their fleet and make informed decisions based on real-time data.
While some may be intimidated by software, the best fleet management software is intuitive with configurable dashboards and a mobile app that uses simple clicks and swipes. Getting started with fleet management software is as easy as bulk importing VIN numbers and scheduling your first oil change.
One of the greatest benefits of fleet management software is the ability to track fleet data in real time and see how you’re measuring up. Having a complete view of your fleet’s data allows you to measure efficiency and make adjustments that will guarantee success.
How Does Fleet Management Software Maximize Efficiency?
As a fleet manager, you understand the importance of time management. Your fleet’s success hinges on asset uptime. Fleet management software keeps your fleet efficient by enabling communication, eliminating time-consuming data entry and automating workflows.
Encouraging Collaboration
Communicating with your team in the field can be challenging and result in inaccuracies that can halt productivity.
Instead of playing phone tag with your team or sending them off with paper to-do lists, fleet management software is a central hub for collaboration. Fleet managers can bridge the gap between field and office to stay informed of issues and efficiently manage maintenance tasks.
Your team can comment on inspections, work orders, vehicles and more to keep stakeholders informed. Eliminating communication gaps with the help of software allows fleet managers to connect with their team to efficiently resolve issues.
Streamlining Maintenance Workflows
One of the benefits of fleet management software is the ability to improve your maintenance process. By tracking fleet maintenance electronically, you can track technician productivity, asset health and repair expenses in a single system.
To avoid downtime and maintain efficiency, fleet managers can set service reminders for preventive maintenance tasks, ensuring assets are routinely serviced to ensure good operating condition.
Fleet managers can also save valuable time with mobile work orders. When issues are identified, managers can create and assign work orders to begin the repair process. Mobile work orders keep your team in sync and help avoid miscommunications that can set back repairs and increase downtime.
Conducting Electronic Inspections
Paper vehicle inspections have long been the norm for fleets to identify issues and maintain compliance. Unfortunately, paper inspection forms are often damaged, misplaced or not delivered for weeks at a time. This can slow down your maintenance process, as well as result in downtime.
Electronic vehicle inspections are a key benefit of fleet management software. Drivers can conduct thorough inspections on a mobile app and upload results instantly into a centralized database.
When an inspection item fails, fleet managers are instantly alerted to begin troubleshooting. Staying informed of issues allows you to proactively manage maintenance and increase fleet efficiency.
How Does Fleet Management Software Enhance Visibility?
With your fleet constantly on the move, you must have a way to view assets in real time. This can be nearly impossible without technology.
A major benefit of fleet management software is the comprehensive view of asset health and expenses on a single platform. Monitoring fleet performance in real time allows you to make informed management decisions to ensure your fleet’s success.
Analyzing Fleet Metrics
Surfacing and analyzing data can be challenging with outdated systems. Sifting through spreadsheets and crunching numbers on a calculator is mentally taxing and often doesn’t produce valuable results.
Instead of spending hours on manual data entry with no payoff, fleet management software automatically aggregates your maintenance, utilization and expense data in real time. Fleet managers can create and share configurable reports on virtually any fleet metric to monitor success.
Integrating With Other Business Systems
You may already be leveraging another resource, like telematics or fuel cards, to track fleet data. These solutions can provide excellent insight, but connecting that data with other areas of your fleet can be challenging.
Integrating other tools with fleet management software provides a complete view of fleet health and performance in real time. All information is automatically imported into your fleet management software, allowing you to leverage this data throughout your fleet management process, from maintenance reports to cost analysis.
Controlling Expenses
Many fleet managers struggle with maintaining an accurate view of expenses to control their bottom line. Tracking real time fleet costs is nearly impossible if you’re manually entering data from receipts and invoices into a spreadsheet.
Fleet management software eliminates manual data entry and provides a complete view of operating costs. By tracking expenses in real time, fleet managers can easily track budgets and get an accurate calculation of their total cost of ownership (TCO).
Analyzing expense reports for areas like fuel and maintenance can help identify overspending. With comprehensive expense insight, you can better allocate funds to control your fleet’s bottom line.
Making Data-Driven Utilization Decisions
We’ve talked a lot about how fleet management software provides complete visibility into your operations. Having actionable data enables fleet managers to make decisions that maximize efficiency and profitability.
Tracking asset utilization and performance is the best way to gauge the efficiency of your vehicles and equipment. Leveraging data like cost-per-mile and maintenance expenses can help you monitor how your assets perform and whether their operating costs are negatively impacting your bottom line.
With Fleetio’s Optimal Replacement Analysis tool, you can estimate optimal vehicle replacement windows based on utilization, depreciation and operating costs. Instead of waiting for breakdowns or spending excessive money on repairs, you can forecast replacement and maximize your return on investment.
See the benefits of fleet management software for yourself. Start your free trial of Fleetio or request a demo today!
