The benefits of fleet management far outweigh the cost and resources required to create and implement robust and effective fleet management processes.

In this article, we’re going to explore the benefits of fleet management, and how the right software will help you improve your fleet processes in more detail:

What Is Fleet Management?

Any company that uses commercial vehicles to carry out its operations and has more than one vehicle has a fleet.

With a fleet of vehicles comes a number of high-impact tasks that affect how efficiently a business operates. The better managed those tasks are, the better a fleet will perform.

That’s fleet management 101.

Fleet managers are tasked with overseeing fleet management. Some of their key responsibilities are; monitoring and reducing fuel consumption, keeping up to date with compliance, driver management, and vehicle maintenance to name just a few.

Using the right fleet management software incorporates every aspect of managing a fleet and streamlines the process end-to-end.

Benefits of Fleet Management

Here is a look at 7 of the key benefits of fleet management and how you can use fleet management software to optimise your performance:

Driver Management

Driver management covers a wide range of practical and corporate responsibilities. With our integrated Licence Checking solution, you can keep your driver details up to date and set flags or reminders when key information is needed.

You will also have a better view of collision, penalty, and incident management, can pull up a driver’s history, add notes about driver health and training, and much more.

You can also identify ‘high risk’ behaviours by setting thresholds that will identify certain driver behaviours through the use of Telematics. This can help save fuel, other maintenance costs, and more importantly, reduce the risk of accidents.

Cost Savings

One of the biggest challenges for fleet managers is keeping costs down. This becomes more difficult the larger a fleet, and without property fleet management you will never know how effective your cost-saving efforts are.

Using fleet management software is the most effective way you can reduce costs, and measure the impact of changes you implement.

Two of the main cost-saving areas are fuel and vehicle maintenance. Fuel makes up the bulk of operational costs for most fleets. FleetCheck enables you to monitor exactly how much fuel your drivers are using, and how efficiently they’re driving.

The same applies to vehicle maintenance costs. Drivers can use the FleetCheck Driver app to perform maintenance checks and alert you of maintenance issues early on, and you’ll get a reminder when maintenance is due.

Improved Compliance

Fleet compliance is an essential and continuous process that is always changing as new regulatory requirements come in.

Without a robust system in place, a diminishing culture of compliance can start to take effect, and this can be disastrous to a fleet and an organisation.

It’s imperative that fleet managers are aware of changes to legislation, and communications are rolled out fleet-wide when necessary.

Automate Vehicle Maintenance

Vehicle maintenance accounts for a large portion of a fleet’s costs. One of the main benefits of fleet management is being able to get a better handle on maintenance and reduce long-term spend.

We’ve developed a walkaround checking app that enables drivers to perform their daily vehicle checks and communicate their findings remotely.

This means fleet managers are alerted in real-time of any upcoming or urgent maintenance issues they need to be aware of. This paperless form of driver checks saves money, time, and improves driver safety.

Health and Safety

HSE.gov estimates that around a third of all road traffic accidents involve someone who is working at the time.

Unfortunately, having a driver involved in an accident is an occupational hazard of managing a fleet of vehicles. However, there is a lot you can do to reduce the risk of accidents and improve your drivers’ health and safety through effective fleet management.

You can keep your driver’s records up to date, be made aware of any health issues, monitor their driving hours and behaviours, identify ‘high-risk’ drivers and training needs, and more.

Analytics and Reporting

Having access to detailed analytics and reporting helps fleet managers see exactly how their fleet is performing against KPIs at a glance and enables them to make data-driven decisions.

Using FleetCheck, you can set KPIs around any metrics that are important to you and measure the impact of any changes you make. You’ll also have complete visibility into every aspect of your operations.

Eliminate Spreadsheets

It’s surprising how many large fleets still manage their fleets using spreadsheets. We know, however, that no matter how many vehicles you’re managing, the benefits of fleet management software outweigh the use of spreadsheets.

This isn’t just because spreadsheets are limited in functionality. They’re also less secure, there is an increased risk of human error, and they’re more time-consuming.

As we’ve covered above, the cost savings through using fleet management software are reason enough to implement the software.

Combined with the added benefits of tighter compliance, increased driver safety, and the other points we’ve covered, it’s an easy decision for fleet managers once they’ve seen a demo of what FleetCheck can do for their business.

If you’re looking for a spreadsheet template for your fleet, you can download our free Excel fleet management template here.