By
Jyoti Tejpal
Easy-to-use, Create Share Drive optimized routes, Perfect for Field service & sales, Field marketing & merchandising Territory management Last-mile optimization
Enables sales team manage territory, Combines: Google Maps CRM Data Schedule planning Route optimization & Lead generation on mobile device, Best mapping solution
Route optimization Converts Excel file into route plan Share via mobile/GPS Create routes with Max Duration, Max Stops Optimize shortest/fastest driving direction
Fleet management software is a software solution designed to assist fleet business owners/managers for tracking, maintaining, analyzing, and improving fleet operations. Fleet tracking software keeps on recording driver behaviour and staff information, eye over for monitoring fuel and tax expenses, assigning jobs to drivers, scheduling vehicle maintenance, supporting GPS fleet tracking and telematics, and more. The solution was initially used by truck operators, fleet owners, and logistic service providers. It is a diverse solution working across different industries with retail, food delivery, courier services, and e-commerce.
Tracking driver behaviour and fleet vehicle availability: Managers can easily and quickly check their fleet and driver availability from a centralized system with fleet management software. It offers the user or fleet manager with efficient scheduling the daily route assignments, tracking delivery status, monitoring driver safety, and comfortably accommodating any last-minute variations in staffing due to a driver’s unavailability or ad-hoc/sudden vehicle maintenance requirements.
Closely monitoring fuel consumption: User/fleet owners can carefully have an efficient tracking of fuel consumption for all the fleet vehicles. The relevant feature helps in tracking fuel usage per vehicle by identifying anomalies indicating whether immediate service and fleet maintenance are needed. Drivers can get along with the submission of fuel receipts along with mileage cross-checking for any false claims to the company.
Real-time tracking of insurance and warranty details: Keeping a manual record of fleet insurance and warranty information can be a very frustrating and daunting task. This task becomes more manageable with a fleet management system. It can be programmed for automatically notifying stakeholders when an insurance policy or the warranty for any part of a vehicle is about to expire and requiring immediate renewal to avoid penalties.
Dispatch management: Assigning delivery jobs to the drivers and tracking delivery status.
GPS tracking: Viewing location of job, team, equipment, and vehicles on a map.
Route optimization: Strategically selecting the delivery route for drivers after analyzing several factors with vehicle capacity, road traffic, drop points, and delivery windows.
Employee management: Tracking and managing schedules, availability, and driver performance.
VIN lookup: Searching by vehicle identification number (VIN) for easy identification of the year, make, and model of a vehicle.
Fleet tracking: Maintaining records of preventive maintenance, fuel usage, and fleet performance across user’s entire fleet.
Fleet telematics: Viewing the reports on average fuel cost, vehicle tracking via GPS tracking devices, driver behaviour, and road data for improved route optimization.
Most products available in the market are priced on a per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. A premium product is priced higher and has unique features like white labelling, map integrations, a traffic and weather display, and dedicated support.
Electronic Logging Device (ELD) compliance: As per law, drivers have to record hours spent on the road using an ELD tool. Therefore, ensuring you to comply with ELD mandate guidelines, the user of these software solutions get themselves protected from unnecessary inspections and legal penalties.
Try, test, and scale: It is a good idea, to begin with, a basic telematics solution that catches up to user’s immediate requirements and then scales up as the needs grow from small fleet operations to bigger ones. The seller that user selects must support the growth without costing much to upgrade. For buyers, scalability is essential as it allows the user to reap the advantages of the initial investment and training efforts.
Check integration capability: Identifying all the current business applications that the user would like to integrate with the upcoming fleet management software. Checking whether the software selected can coordinate and integrate driver’s records like driving hours, overtime, and damages caused, directly with user payroll application for accounting purposes. Integration with pre-existing applications asserts that user’s connected systems can seamlessly exchange data within themselves without erroneous double-entry efforts.
Vehicular Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the fleet industry: Fleets having IoT devices installed are capable of collecting and sending real-time data based on driver behaviour, vehicle performance, halt locations, fuel consumption, vehicle breakdowns, etc. This connected ecosystem will enable fleet management software for generating insights in terms of rash driving, hard braking, idle time, and more. Tracking vehicle performance give=s an edge over to the managers to proactively pursue maintenance activities before the fleet gets into significant repair issues. Above all, having data on drivers’ on-road behaviour with GPS tracking can assist businesses in avoiding fatal accidents that might occur due to rash driving or speeding.
Artificial intelligence (AI) to drive the transportation sector: Fleet management businesses are teaching the power of AI for optimizing fleet operations and making more informed decisions. Business organizations are utilizing AI-based recommendations formed from external and internal data and historical trends. These recommendations made by the software assist managers in optimizing fleet schedules, determining fuel-efficient routes, and using cargo space efficiently. It is expected that more and more sellers will start implementing AI into their solutions in the coming years.
