4 Must-Have Tools For Fleet Managers
Posts by StephenMarch 12, 2024
Running a fleet business, be it a logistic service provider for e-commerce stores, food delivery companies, delivering groceries for Walmart, or shipping services isn’t an easy job.
This is because there’s a lot on your hands as the fleet manager, from monitoring different fleets, ensuring proper utilization of company vehicles, and staying in constant communication with the drivers.
However, this shouldn’t be that much of a challenge when the company is still in its early years, as you’ll only be monitoring a few vehicles.
However, things take a drastic shift once your company starts to expand. As a result, managing the fleet becomes overwhelming and time-consuming.
Fortunately, there’s a way you can stay on top of everything, and this is with the help of fleet management tools.
Find the must-have tools for fleet managers in this list.
Fleet Tracking Tools
As a fleet manager, you want to have real-time information about the location of your drivers. This is what the fleet tracking and GPS tool allow you to accomplish.
Using the information provided by this app, you can easily ensure that the drivers are sticking to their jobs and making deliveries on time.
In addition to boosting the driver’s productivity, fleet tracking tools help improve accountability.
This is done by identifying specific details such as fuel purchases, vehicle location, scheduled maintenance, driving habits, and fuel economy.
The use of fleet tracking tools also helps in route optimization, and it does these using algorithms, models, and machine learning.
This data is derived from satellite information, traffic data, historical trips, to name a few.
Thanks to route optimization, you know which is the most efficient from one point to another. It also goes a long way to help in improving fuel efficiency.
Communication Tools
You need to maintain constant communication with your drivers to ensure that everything on the ground is running smoothly.
It is necessary because fleet drivers might experience issues when delivering goods/products that may hinder them from reaching your client on time.
And in business, you never want to make your clients unhappy as they might switch to your competitors.
Using communication tools helps you avoid such issues by ensuring a quick relay of information between you and the fleet drivers.
Therefore, you can quickly attend to whatever problem that may arise to ensure that deliveries are made on time.
Today, there are several ways to communicate like emails, text messages, and phone calls. But due to these many options, it’s easier to lose crucial messages in the shuffle.
For example, you can send a fleet driver an email only to realize that he rarely checks his email.
This is why there’s a need to streamline communication with your fleet drivers by using an all-in-one app to avoid such problems.
Doing this ensures that drivers and other persons with the company see whatever information you’re passing across.
Telematics
The use of telematics tools conveys crucial data, including engine status, speed, braking, among other necessary information.
Telematics data helps you better understand anything between the vehicle and the driver.
For instance, a telematics tool allows you to assess a fleet driver’s productivity rate. This can either be poor driving behavior, idling, or driving mainly in the city.
With such telematics data, you’ll be able to decide whether a specific driver needs some coaching to rectify their behavior.
This is especially handy when dealing with a diver with poor work habits.
Using telematics data such as hard braking, sudden acceleration, and speeding helps you ensure that fleet drivers observe safe driving habits.
If they exceed the set limits, you’ll get notified and consequently contact them to check their speed, thereby safeguarding their well-being.
Organized Record-Keeping Tools
You’ll have a lot of data each day to go through as a fleet manager, including maintenance records, financial statements, and vehicle inventory information.
Handling all this information can be overwhelming and can cause you unnecessary stress.
After all, you’re expected to ensure that your physical documents or computer system are organized to provide easy access to all critical information.
Using a digital data management system helps you achieve this goal and ensure all your paperwork is organized.
Therefore, you can trace any document seamlessly, which increases work efficiency and business profitability.
Takeaway
You’re tasked with endless responsibilities as a fleet manager, and each of your decisions should help your business grow.
With such high-stakes in your hands, it’s best to have some help. This is why having fleet management tools come in handy.
To keep you from getting stressed, this guide has detailed the must-have tools you might consider getting.
This way, you’ll be able to run your fleet management business efficiently.