Your main challenge as the fleet manager is not keeping a record of the vehicles and managing the drivers. It’s implementing the systems that help your business achieve its goal more efficiently.
As the fleet manager, it’s your role to ensure operations are at optimum and costs are at a minimum. It’s up to you to raise productivity and ensure compliance with safety regulations.
But what can help you achieve this goal?
There’s fleet management software and another innovative technology that, together with fleet management best practices, can help you significantly fulfill this role.
What Fleet Managers Really Do
On the surface, fleet managers look after commercial vehicles. But it’s skin deep! There’s more to just looking after the company’s fleet.
Other tasks include strategic planning and control of all the commercial vehicles. And often, they must ensure costs are kept down. It’s their role to ensure efficient fleet operations.
But what does that entail, you may ask?
In a nutshell, it’s about ensuring the drivers use the least amount of time on the job, the costs of operations are low, and everyone is following the rules. It’s also up to you to ensure that all drivers are safe.
Route Planning and Optimization
As a fleet manager, it’s your task to plan and optimize the routes your drivers use. It’s usually the first checklist item to reduce costs and ensure efficient operations.
Fortunately, technology can significantly contribute to efficient fleet management. If you can use technology to achieve better results in planning your fleet and getting the best from it, why not?
So, before technology, route planning relied mostly on manual calculations and guesswork, which meant fuel consumption and other costs were in the wind.
Things are different now with advanced route optimization software and GPS tracking technologies, which allow you to streamline operations and make data-driven decisions. Learn more
With route optimization apps, you can make decisions based on facts. These tools use sophisticated algorithms that consider various elements, such as road conditions and local traffic patterns, to determine the most effective route for drivers. No more guesswork.
These systems can calculate the best paths, considering various things like how much the vehicle can carry most efficiently, delivery time, and driver availability. You aim to ensure that every unit in your fleet is used most efficiently and that there is no unnecessary mileage.
Vehicle Maintenance and Diagnostics
If left unchecked, vehicle maintenance can take a toll on your company’s budget. That’s why vehicle maintenance and diagnostics are major checklist items for any fleet manager.
No manager wants to have breakdowns, exploding repair costs, and low vehicle lifespans on their hands because they’re the ingredients that negatively impact the company’s bottom line.
So, what’s the remedy?
Making sure that you’re on top of things prevents maintenance. This means using tools at your disposal, such as fleet management software, to set up automated reminders when vehicle servicing is due.
You can also determine the health and performance of individual vehicles in your fleet through various diagnostic tools. These allow monitoring of fuel consumption, engine performance, and the wear and tear of the various components. So, when issues arise, you get real-time alerts.
With preventive maintenance, you’re able to keep costly breakdowns at bay and extend the lifespan of your fleet vehicles. The result is a reduced maintenance budget and a better bottom line for the entire organization.
Another thing is that the technicians don’t require access to the physical vehicle to identify potential problems. Telematics systems allow remote access, which reduces the working time, downtime, and resources required to keep the fleet going.
Driver Monitoring and Safety
The safety of the drivers falls under the domain of fleet management. It, therefore, means that efficient fleet management practices must prioritize driver safety and behavior monitoring.
So, what are the best practices for ensuring driver safety?
One way is awareness. Do your drivers and managers know the best practices for fleet safety? To avoid issues down the road, set expectations.
Put in place various Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and periodically discuss deviations so that everyone is on the same page of what’s expected.
GPS tracking devices are good sources of valuable insights into driver behavior. These systems generate alerts and reports that highlight areas for improvement.
Use any data you acquire for insights into areas that require attention in your next training and coaching sessions. Ultimately, your main role is to promote safer driving practices, reduce the risk of accidents, and improve fuel efficiency.
Compliance and Regulatory Adherence
A company that’s constantly on the wrong side of the law spends more than they should trying to get out of trouble. Sometimes, they may realize that treating the problem is severalfold more expensive than preventing it in the first place.
Adherence to regulations is a vital preventive measure against issues that may prove too costly for the business, such as fines and penalties. Non-compliance can also negatively affect the brand. Nobody wants to be associated with a company that breaks the rules.
So, efficient fleet management must also consider compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards. Therefore, you, as the fleet manager, must establish a robust compliance system to keep risks to a minimum.
GPS tracking and electronic logging devices (ELDs) can make your work easier in ensuring compliance. On one hand, ELDs will automatically record driver hours of service without any need for manual record-keeping.
But even with the technology, have all the compliance documentation—both papers and electronic copies—ready. We’re talking insurance, registrations, certifications, and licenses, among others.
On the electronic side of things, GPS tracking devices will provide you with detailed records of vehicle movements. This means you can verify compliance with regulations related to routing, speed limits, and vehicle usage.
Set up automatic notifications and reminders for when compliance documentation is due for renewal.
In a nutshell, use technology to streamline your compliance processes, reduce administrative burdens, and ensure that operations are within all relevant regulations.
