Collect data on your vehicles and drivers: 6 business boosting tips
When it comes to fleet management, the more data you have, the better. Once the size of your fleet hits a tipping point, things can become chaotic. Boxes that were once easy to check are now lost in a sea of processes, deliveries, and deadlines. Having accurate data is pivotal to the growth and success of your business. It will make your operations more efficient, productive, and profitable. Let’s take a look at a few tips about how you can boost your business by collecting data on your vehicles and drivers.
1. Optimize routes
GPS tracking systems might be one of the best things that a fleet can utilize. For product or service-related deliveries, efficiency and punctuality are vital to their operations. If you know where your vehicles are at all times, you know how to best utilize them – where to send them and when to send them.
Additionally, fleet management software can collect and use GPS data over a period of time to help make improvements in delivery routes. The data will show how long a specific delivery takes based on a certain route, and then recommend better routes that will reduce time and/or fuel consumption. This also increases customer satisfaction since they’ll get faster deliveries.
2. Improve fleet maintenance
Downtime is a serial killer for any business. The moment your vehicle is out of the game, your productivity takes a nosedive. These interruptions can be avoided if you implement solutions to monitor the status of your vehicles and get repairs done on them as and when necessary.
Collecting data such as engine runtime and mileage can help managers perform proactive maintenance on a vehicle. These alerts inform you of potential issues based on the vehicle’s current usage. This way, you can schedule technicians to inspect and repair the vehicle before it breaks down. These solutions can even determine whether repairs were successfully done and help identify trends based on the vehicle’s model.
3. Know your drivers
Knowing who’s driving your vehicle is just as important as knowing where your vehicle is. Sure, you have their information in your database when you hired them, but data collecting shouldn’t stop there. Designing profiles for drivers based on the data you collect helps create risk profiles and coaching opportunities for better driving.
Onboard telematics systems can gather data such as speeding, unusual swerving, and sharp braking. These patterns of behavior can be sent to fleet managers to address. Besides these kinds of systems, cabin cameras for fleet management also study and gather data on driver behavior. Some cameras can even detect when a driver is distracted and save evidence of this incident to a database.
4. Expense management
Every business will incur expenses throughout its lifetime. A manager’s goal is to execute core and supplementary business functions as cost-efficiently as possible; being able to identify superfluous expenses is key to doing that. Solutions such as automated odometer and fuel level readings can reduce labor costs as it replaces inspectors who manually record and store these readings.
Combining GPS data with gas prices on fleet routes can easily help a driver find the cheapest station to refill the vehicle. Being able to automate this process across a fleet of thousands will result in huge savings. Savings also come from proactive maintenance, accident avoidance, and eliminating late deliveries that result in having to pay drivers overtime.
5. Monitor fuel usage
If you’re managing a fleet, then you know that fuel is a recurring expense you have to deal with. We’ve talked about how expenses can be cut by combining GPS data with gas prices, but there’s more we can do. Using fuel management software, you can track data points such as mileage, distance traveled per day, and fuel consumption trends that can hint at other behaviors.
Some drivers may commit fraud by filling their personal vehicles. Employ tracking systems that will give the detail and limit fill-ups based on location and time of day.
6. Decrease improper use
Sometimes drivers will abuse the power they have. Collecting data about a vehicle’s location and the trips it takes can help easily spot wastage and unauthorized use. You’ll be able to see unauthorized stops for meals or detours that cripple your fleet’s productivity. Being able to keep an eye on your vehicle’s movements aids in monitoring and enforcing proper usage.
Just as a pup needs food to grow, so does a company need data. Collecting data on your drivers and vehicles empowers you with information that can boost your business and make it a successful one. Ranging from improved fleet management to reducing expenses, taking advantage of this data and the trends it unlocks will help your business grow and bloom.
