Are you the owner of a fleet business that involves shipments and long hours of traveling or a large fleet of vehicles? Do you use Fleet Management & Maintenance Software to manage your business?
If you don’t know about a Fleet Management System, here is a list of reasons to choose from that would help you increase your business efficiency, proficiency, and productivity, while at the same time decreasing your expenses.
“A fleet management system helps the users manage their vehicle or group of vehicles over a wide geographical area.” The features include keeping track of vehicle maintenance, financing, tracking, replacement, navigation, and routing.
Some of the benefits of a Fleet Management System include:
- The decrease in vehicle life-cycle costs
- Vehicle replacement planning and budgeting
- Fully integrated fuel and vehicle management system
- Ensuring regulatory compliance
- Supporting fleet workflows with the help of a customizable dashboard
How to determine if you need Fleet Management Software?
- Are you involved in a profession that requires the constant use of one or more vehicles?
- How do you go about managing it?
- How often do you get your vehicles serviced?
- How much fuel do you require on a regular basis?
- How do you track your vehicles when they have to travel for a long-distance?
- How do you estimate the amount of money you spend on your vehicles?
- How often do you end up paying for your vehicles’ maintenance more than you should?
- Do you want to document the speed, work breaks, idle time and driving routes of your vehicle?
If you want answers to most of these questions without much hassle, you can download a fleet management application that would help you with all these and much more.
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How you can find the best Fleet Management & Maintenance Solution for yourself.
Step 1- Understanding your requirements
How many vehicles do you own and how far do they travel, how often your vehicles travel?
Your decision should also be based on the size of the vehicle(s), how far is it traveling, no of users driving your vehicle, running cost of your vehicle, and so on.
Step 2- The key features involved
Fleet management systems help businesses in several ways. Some of the main features include tracking the vehicle, speed analysis of the vehicle, driver behavior, fuel data tracking, service and maintenance tracking, security, and safety, shipment management, vehicle idling, etc.
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Step 3- Understanding Telematics
Fleet Management is highly based on telematics solution which helps keep track of the vehicle’s routing, fleet management, security issues, vehicle maintenance, driver management, and shipment management.
Step 4-Ease of Use
It is important that the software has a simple interface so that it is easier and convenient for the users to handle the application. Also, the features of the application should be curated in such a way that it caters to the needs of every participating member of the hierarchy.
Step 5- How much are you willing to/ need to spend?
Different applications have different features available and depending on your requirement, you can choose an application. The pricing depends on the quality, level of complexity, and size of your fleet.
Step 6- Scalability
The Fleet software should be able to scale and adapt as the company grows and changes. It should be reliable and sturdy enough and should be available for trials and demos before you make a decision.
Step 7- What real-time information do you need?
The software should be able to provide you visibility into all aspects of your business, including the location, fuel costs, routing for the best route to avoid traffic and bad roads, the number of times the driver takes breaks during the whole journey and safety of the driver and vehicle.
Step 8- Customizability
The software you choose should be compatible with your business and you should have the freedom to customize the software based on your needs.
Step 9- Security
One should make sure that the system is reliable and secure enough so that your data remains private and the information cannot be hacked by any external sources. It should help with the responsibilities of the driver and also help establish a driver safety program. It is also important that the software includes User Management which gives the right information to the right level of the user, that is, the admin should be in control of the whole system and the drivers should have access to information related to their own vehicle and not about the other drivers.
Step 10- Quality analysis
Instead of trying to invest your time into the cheapest or free fleet tracking system, make sure you invest in a solution that offers quality services that would make your work more efficient and productive.
Step 11- Driver Satisfaction
A good fleet software management system would turn out to be beneficial for the company as well as the drivers. It helps the company track down the details related to the vehicle as well as driver, which in turn helps you provide safety to the driver as well as track the driver’s behavior related to fuel management, traffic rules, etc
Step 12-Return on investment
One of the most important to be considered is the Return on Investment of the system. You can ask your seller to explain the benefits and for proof of ROI through case studies.
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Conclusion
Fleet Management Software, when used appropriately, can help a great deal in increasing your business profits by helping you manage your fleet effectively.
By understanding your requirements, and choosing the features accordingly, you can choose the software of your choice that suits your budget.
The perfect fleet management software should not only fulfill your basic needs but also provide you with additional features like a better Return on Investment, proper security and customer support, scalability, user interface, better quality, and lower maintenance costs.
Once you have finalized a list of Fleet Management Software that fulfills all the above criteria, you can prioritize and select the software of your choice with appropriate ranking and reviews that provide the same amount of services at a reasonable price.
For more information related to the Fleet Management System, get in touch with our experts at Simply Fleet.