The Advantages of Having a Cartrack Fleet Management Solution

Trying to manually manage a fleet of any size can be challenging. Fleet managers have so many factors to consider to ensure that a fleet operates at its best productive level while at its lowest fleet cost.

‍
In today’s world, any business that depends on fleet vehicles to deliver its products or services relies on fleet management solutions to successfully operate efficiently, manage costs, and meet customer expectations. 

Fleet management plays a major role in the success of a fleet and in making the life of fleet managers a whole lot easier, and you’re about to find out why.

So, what is fleet management?

‍

Fleet management refers to all actions (task and team management, administration, cost management, and fleet compliance) involved in keeping your fleet operation running efficiently, on time, at the lowest costs, and highest profits.

Any company that is dependent on vehicles to provide a product or service, relies on fleet management to ensure the success of its operation. This includes companies functioning in the following industries:

• Construction
• Taxi
• Rental and leasing
• Transportation and logistics
• Cold chain logistics

For these industries, a fleet management system ensures that fleet tasks and operations are efficiently monitored, decisions regarding the fleet are strategic, the fleet performance level is high, fleet assets are maximised, dispatching and routing are productively planned, and customer expectations are met.

Fleet managers are the heroes behind successful fleet management, from efficiently monitoring fleet operations to meeting customer expectations. Some of the responsibilities of fleet managers vary depending on the industry and fleet size, but generally, fleet managers are responsible for:

• Directing and supervising drivers, vehicles, and cargo
• Conducting administrative tasks such as compiling fleet reports
• Managing fleet expenses and profits
• Task and team management
• Developing methods to increase productivity and decrease fleet costs
• Ensuring fleet compliance

With all these responsibilities on their shoulders, being a fleet manager without the help of fleet management solutions is challenging.

‍

Five challenges faced by fleet managers

‍

The role of fleet managers is evolving along with the rise of fleet management technology or software. Before there was fleet management software, fleet managers had to manually conduct fleet tasks.

Here are five challenges fleet managers are forced to face if they don’t use fleet management solutions:

1. Fleet safety: Fleet managers are responsible for developing and implementing health and safety policies for the fleet, and ensuring these policies are adhered to. Sadly, accidents happen, and if they do, it is the fleet's responsibility to take the appropriate actions to accurately report the accident, provide the necessary defences, and hold drivers accountable. Without fleet management solutions, fleet managers have no way of knowing how safe their drivers are on the road, how accidents occurred, and how to prevent them.
   
   
2. Fuel management: This is one of the biggest expenses for a fleet business and the biggest challenge faced by fleet managers. From the constant fluctuations in fuel costs and possible fuel theft, due to driver behaviours that affect fuel consumption (such as excessive idling). Without fleet management solutions, fleet managers have no way to accurately measure and manage fuel costs, and find solutions to reduce fuel consumption. This is because there is no system in place to help indicate areas of fuel wastage in the fleet. 
   
   
3. Vehicle maintenance: How challenging is it for you to keep up with your vehicle maintenance plan? Now imagine having to do that for an entire fleet. Without fleet management solutions you will be unable to set preventative maintenance schedules, ensuring that all fleet vehicles are properly maintained on time to avoid breakdowns and unexpected downtime, which can be a recurring headache for fleet managers.
    
4. Fleet compliance: Fleet compliance is one of the biggest stresses that every fleet manager must face, without it, there is consequently no fleet business. No fleet management solution makes it almost impossible to ensure the compliance of the fleet operation, from safety checks to maintenance records, and all other information needed for audits. Fleet managers cannot be everywhere at once to ensure the compliance of the fleet, but with fleet management solutions they can.
   
   
5. Controlling costs: Cost management is a challenge faced by every business, whether fleet dependent or not. Fleet managers need to analyse all fleet expenses, and identify cost drainages and ways to improve cost usage. However, without fleet management solutions that help fleet managers gain insight into these challenges, fleet managers can go around in circles trying to find solutions without knowing the real issue.

For these reasons, fleet managers need fleet management solutions to help them take proper control of their fleet. 

‍

Industry-leading fleet management software to the rescue

‍

To make fleet management easier and more manageable, businesses use fleet management solutions, such as Cartrack, to streamline and increase fleet efficiency in their entire fleet operation, all from one platform.

So what exactly is this fleet management solution we’ve been blabbering on about?

Fleet management solutions (also fleet management software) refer to the technological measures put in place to manage fleet assets and the information needed for an up-to-date overview of the entire fleet operation. These solutions empower fleet managers to remain informed with all the information they need to ensure high fleet performance, profits, and productivity. Fleet managers use fleet management software to:

• Reduce fleet costs: Fleet managers can become serious cost savers for a business. Fleet management software helps them identify and eliminate unnecessary fleet expenses and make their fleet more cost-efficient. They can accurately collect financial data and provide meaningful information, like the business cost per job, which helps them to identify where costs are being wasted and make accurate strategic decisions. In addition, telematics can help you plan more efficient routes for your drivers so that they use less fuel and save money.
  
  
• Track fleet vehicles: It can be challenging for fleet managers to stay in the know of the exact location of where fleet vehicles are at any given moment. Fleet management software allows for GPS tracking solutions and telematics that keep fleet managers in the know of the accurate location of all fleet vehicles at any given time, whether they are managing a fleet of one or one hundred.
• Ensure fleet safety: Ensuring the safety of drivers, cargo and vehicles is in the hands of fleet managers. It is challenging and almost impossible to ensure safe driving while fleet managers are kilometres away from the drivers. However, it is possible to use fleet management solutions such as AI-powered cameras and GPS tracking systems to gain full visibility of driver behaviour or driver behaviour reports that rate each driver's driving by monitoring high-risk behaviour such as speeding, harsh acceleration, cornering, or braking.
• Ensure fleet compliance: Fleet businesses need to comply with the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate that requires commercial vehicle operators to record Hours of Service (HOS) electronically. Fleet managers use fleet management solutions for electronic logging and keep track of instances of dangerous driving caused by fatigued drivers, in order to give drivers more rest and/or driver training.
• Maintain fleet vehicles: Fleet management solutions empower fleet managers to develop maintenance strategies that ensure the vehicles in their fleet are in good working condition so the fleet can run productively, without unexpected breakdowns and downtime. 

‍

And why is fleet management software so crucial? 

For businesses to remain competitive in their competitive fields, they need to make use of the latest technology. 

Fleet management software gives fleet managers minute-by-minute details that help them keep operations running smoothly and profitably.

The business advantages of Cartrack’s fleet management solutions 

‍

Gain full visibility of your vehicles, drivers, and cargo with our fully integrated system for fleets of every size. Now you can increase profits, decrease costs, eliminate cargo loss, boost driver safety, elevate productivity, and reduce unnecessary downtime, all with our fleet management  technology:  

• Increased profits and decreased fleet costs: MiFleet is an easy-to-use administrative and vehicle cost accounting software. It uses a telematics solution that is linked to your fuel transaction data designed to help you spot fuel theft or cost inconsistencies and alert you of any potential fuel card fraud.
  
  
• No more missing cargo: Cartrack’s AI-powered and live-streaming technology gives you eyes on your cargo area at all times. It sends you real-time alerts when cargo doors are tampered with, so you can instantly contact drivers before it’s too late, helping you decrease cargo theft, increase cargo safety and improve driver accountability. 
  
  
• Increased driver safety: Our driver scorecards help you rate each driver on how safely they drive by monitoring high-risk behaviour such as speeding, harsh accelerating, cornering, or braking, so you can train and educate drivers on driver safety and establish a safety-first culture.
  
  
• Quick turnaround times: Use our route optimisation feature to determine the quickest and safest routes for drivers. You can view driver statuses to easily assign tasks to your nearest available driver, and receive real-time alerts of route deviations or delays, helping you ensure faster delivery turnaround times and boost customer service.
  
  
• Cut unexpected breakdowns and downtime: Our platform automates your maintenance schedules for your fleet by monitoring the utilisation hours and last-service times of each vehicle. A seamless maintenance plan that schedules maintenance and warns drivers via the Cartrack app, helps ensure your fleet remains in good working order so you can avoid breakdowns and unexpected downtime.
  
  

Our fleet management solutions will give your business the competitive edge it needs

Whether you have a fleet of one or hundreds, we have the perfect fleet management solution for you. Click here for a demo of how Cartrack can be an advantage to your business.