Ramon Ray, Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com and Infusionsoft
Technology is involved in just about every aspect of business. You use it in your marketing, financial management, employee management and so many other areas. But that begs the question: Are you properly leveraging technology in your company vehicles? Whether you have 79 vehicles or just five, implementing a system to manage your fleet of vehicles will save you time, money and make you more productive overall.
Large companies boast of legendary productivity gains through maximizing analytics resulting from fleet intelligence, engine monitoring and the use of other technology in their vehicles. As a result, these companies have been able to create more efficient driving routes, proactively manage the repairs on vehicles, promote responsible driving and more – all to the benefit of their customers and safety of their drivers.
For small companies, fleet management technology can help you achieve these same benefits, as well. Here are just four ways it can power your small business’ fleet to run like an enterprise.
Remove the guesswork
Why force your drivers to guess which routes are most efficient or have your dispatcher assign vehicles for deliveries with a manual system? Implementing fleet management technology means that you can assign the right vehicle, with the right driver, at the right time, to the right location (or customer). Your vehicle system is able to compute faster than you can and allow for more informed decision making each time.
Gain insight into driving behavior
For now, at least, drivers are only human and are prone to errors and misjudgment. A fleet management system will let you know which drivers speeding, idling, accelerating harshly and putting more wear and tear on a vehicle. This kind of information enables you to educate the drivers who need instruction on safe driving practices and reward those who are upholding company safety standards.
Be proactive about vehicle management
You know how it is to manage just your family’s car – the wear and tear and the (seemingly endless) trips to the repair shop. Your company’s vehicle probably gets much more wear and tear and if you have several vehicles in your fleet, it’s much more challenging to maintain them. A fleet management system helps you monitor and proactively maintain your vehicles. For example, you can see that one vehicle has been driven harshly and it’s likely that it will need maintenance if that driving pattern continues. Instead of letting that happen, you can anticipate that need and schedule the vehicle for a routine trip to the local repair shop instead of taking them there in a panic or, even worse, to the junk yard. Even better, you can set-up vehicle maintenance alerts so you’re automatically notified when a vehicle is due for servicing.
Serve customers better
Installing a fleet management system, such as Fleetmatics, is a simple way to ensure that each customer is served to the highest standard. By having a better handle on the key performance metrics of your vehicles and their drivers, you might be able to offer new services to customers. Imagine being able to give some customers a faster response time or a more accurate service window.
