It’s a tough time to operate a fleet of vehicles while trying to manage a budget. The cost of gas — recently spiking across the national average to about $2 more per gallon than a year ago — is a well-known culprit. However, it’s not the only fleet expenditure on the rise. According to a report by Automotive Fleet, costs will continue to escalate with lowered incentives on new vehicles, higher maintenance costs, and rising acquisition costs all contributing to the overall increase in spending.
Still, as many field service management companies using fleet vehicles to reach their customers have learned, the right solution can be a game-changer. In many cases, that solution is fleet management software. We’re here today to talk about how and why.
The most challenging aspect of leading a field service organization is that employees are often working with no oversight. While a lot of employees enjoy that kind of autonomy, it can put leadership in a bind. As there’s no way to really monitor habits and behaviors. Fleet management software acts as the eye in the sky, watching fleet vehicles in action from afar.
Specifically, GPS functionality provides leadership with real-time visibility into drivers’ actions. Details include current location, speed, distance traveled, acceleration, hard braking, and idling times. Those factors all contribute to operational costs, including fuel consumption. In addition, those insights can prove to be teachable safety moments for drivers, who may not have been aware of their dangerous habits. Plus, safer driving habits mean fewer accidents, which results in lowered insurance premiums across the board.
GPS for #fleet leadership = real-time visibility into driver actions (location, speed, distance, acceleration, hard braking, & idling times). Those factors contribute to operational costs + can be teachable safety moments for… Click To TweetIt goes without saying that the best way to keep your vehicle running in peak condition is to take care of it. But we must specify that taking care of a vehicle doesn’t just mean fixing something when it is wrong; taking proper care of a vehicle includes preventive maintenance. Fortunately for you, fleet management software makes the preventive maintenance process a breeze.
With these solutions, you’re able to pre-schedule routine maintenance tasks like oil changes, tire rotation and replacement, and even cleaning. By regularly handling these tasks, you’re much more likely to avoid a complex, expensive fix down the road. Safe functional vehicles help keep their operators safer as well, making preventive maintenance a win-win for any company.
As kids, we were taught that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. While that’s often (though not always!) true, what the idiom doesn’t account for is the weather, traffic, road hazards, and other drivetime variables that can cause interruptions and slowdowns. One of the most useful components of fleet management software is the solution’s ability to create optimized routes.
Field service software provides drivers with efficient turn-by-turn directions and those directions dynamically update based on road conditions. For example, suppose an accident has transformed the interstate into a parking lot. New directions provide an alternative route to avoid time- and fuel-consuming actions like idling and hard braking. Similar to some of the other benefits described above, this actually serves multiple purposes. Optimized routing assists with cost control, helps drivers reach appointments on time, and ultimately, helps keep customers happier.
EnSight+ is a comprehensive field management software solution that includes fleet management as its own distinct module. Our robust platform is capable of supplying companies just like yours with all of the benefits we talked about here. If you’re interested in learning more about what we can do for your fleet, book your demo today.
All monitored by you, in real time. Are you ready to take control?