By Rachael Plant
Integrated fleet technologies like fleet management software (FMS) can help businesses with large fleets better manage daily operations.
Managing a large fleet comes with a unique set of challenges that—when gone unaddressed—can negatively affect productivity and profitability. With assets scattered across a wide area, keeping track of maintenance, utilization and fuel consumption can quickly become overwhelming. With the right strategies and tools in place, however, businesses can streamline operations, improve efficiency and reduce the burden of managing a large fleet.
1. Establishing a Proactive Maintenance Program
Effective fleet management starts with a strong maintenance program. For large fleets, a proactive approach to maintenance is key. Instead of waiting for assets to break down, establish a preventive maintenance (PM) program based on manufacturer-recommended service schedules, historical service records and regular vehicle inspections. Sticking to a proactive maintenance schedule—especially based on historical vehicle data—helps fleet managers minimize unexpected breakdowns, extend the lifespan of assets and reduce overall maintenance costs, which improves assets’ return on investment (ROI) as well as productivity.
2. Automating Maintenance Reminders and Work Orders
Even if you have the best maintenance program in the world, it won’t do you any good if it’s not adhered to, but keeping track of maintenance schedules and generating work orders manually can be time-consuming and prone to human error. FMS and other fleet technologies automate maintenance reminders and work order generation. Such software can send automated alerts to fleet managers, technicians and drivers, ensuring transparent communication around what service tasks are needed or scheduled. Automation streamlines the service workflow, including updating in-house inventories when parts are added to work orders, as well as enhances communication and helps managers maintain a well-organized maintenance process for large fleets.
3. Tracking Fuel Consumption and Monitoring Driver Behavior
Fuel is one of the most significant expenses for large fleets. Effectively managing fuel consumption can lead to substantial cost savings. Fleet solutions like FMS integrate with fuel tracking systems, such as telematics and fuel cards, to monitor fuel consumption in real-time and shed light on per-mile operating cost of any fleet asset.
Using fuel reporting in FMS, you can pull reports to better analyze fuel spend as it relates to daily operations, fuel spend by operator (to determine asset or fuel card misuse) and fuel spend by asset (to determine potential mechanical issues and replacement cycles). This data allows managers to identify fuel inefficiencies, pinpoint potential fuel theft, surface high-consumption vehicles and track driver behavior. Implementing driver training programs based on data insights can further enhance fuel efficiency and reduce operational costs.
4. Embracing Telematics as a Source of Information
Telematics has revolutionized fleet management for large fleets. With assets spread over a wide area, it's crucial to know the exact location and status of each vehicle. Telematics systems allow fleet managers to access real-time location data, vehicle faults and driver performance metrics remotely, empowering them to make data-driven decisions, optimize routes, monitor vehicle health and ensure driver safety.
5. Utilizing Data Analytics and Reporting
Data analytics and reporting play a vital role in optimizing large fleet management. FMS equipped with robust data analytics capabilities can provide valuable insights into asset utilization rates, performance and overall health. FMS can integrate with numerous other fleet and business solutions to further improve operational insights into productivity, cost and profitability.
Data Consolidation is Key
Integrated FMS allows businesses to collect, consolidate and aggregate data automatically. Easy-to-read reports with custom parameters helps simplify data analysis so managers can quickly source the cause of issues—including downtime and increased fuel consumption—and address those issues in a timely manner. FMS provides data visualizations on a customizable dashboard so you can quickly get the metrics you need without getting bogged down in big data.
Typically, the larger the fleet, the more numerous the stakeholders, and fleet data should be transparent and readily available to those stakeholders. FMS provides custom permissions so fleets can add specific stakeholders as users, allowing them to quickly get the metrics they need for decision-making. Managers can also select specific reports to be automatically emailed at custom intervals to specific stakeholders to ensure everyone has the data they need, when they need it.
Using FMS and other fleet solutions—and establishing and adhering to a proactive maintenance program and utilizing data analytics—fleet managers can easily analyze data trends to identify underutilized assets, detect potential issues early and make informed decisions to optimize fleet operations and resource allocation, leading to improved operational efficiency, cost savings and increased productivity for the entire fleet.
Rachael Plant is a content marketing specialist for Fleetio, a fleet management software company that helps organizations track, analyze and improve their fleet operations. For more info, visit fleetio.com.