Fleet Management Best Practices - Unlock The Roadmap To Revenue

Fleet managers have a finger in every pie. That isn’t a bad thing. It’s how they ensure business success. 

They are often responsible for empowering their fleet and figuring out how to implement the best practices for overall fleet efficiency.

From customer and client services to ensuring timeous fleet activity, cutting costs, and improving efficiency, to seeing that drivers and fleet vehicles are in tip-top shape.

Let’s unpack the key to fleet management best practices. 

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What is fleet management?

Fleet management is all about overseeing the operation of various types of vehicles e.g. buses, cars, trucks and even other assets used for business purposes. It's not just about keeping them fueled and maintained; it's about building a system that ensures efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

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What are the priorities of fleet management?

Fleet management priorities can vary depending on the specific industry, company size, and individual fleet goals. However, some key priorities are generally applicable across most contexts:

• Safety and compliance
• Efficiency and cost management
• Driver management and engagement
• Sustainability and environmental awareness
• Technology integration
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These are the general properties that fleet managers concern themselves with daily. By developing a comprehensive and effective fleet management strategy, fleet managers can improve vehicle and driver safety, maximise efficiency and increase cost savings.

Let’s take a look at the common fleet management practices involved in a fleet system.

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Common fleet management practices

1. Vehicle acquisition
   Vehicle acquisition is the crucial process of adding new vehicles to the fleet. It's more than just buying cars; it's about strategically selecting the right vehicles, at the right time, in a cost-effective way, that will reap the most rewards for your business.
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2. Vehicle tracking
   This is the backbone of modern fleet management, providing real-time information on the location, movement, and performance of company vehicles. It's like having a continuous digital eye on your entire fleet as you get data-driven insights.
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3. Route management and dispatch
   Fleet managers are responsible for the planning and coordination of their fleet, which involves assigning tasks, and planning the best routes for drivers based on real-time data, customer needs and driver availability.
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4. Fuel management
   Fuel management in fleet management is all about squeezing the most miles from every drop, optimising fuel consumption, and saving costs. It's not just about filling tanks; it's a strategic approach to monitoring, analysing, and controlling fuel use across the fleet.
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5. Monitoring driver behaviour and safety
   Keeping drivers safe and their behaviour responsible is paramount in fleet management. This involves actively monitoring and improving their actions on the road. Fleet managers prioritise driver safety to reduce accident rates and lower maintenance costs.
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6. Scheduling fleet maintenance
   Keeping your fleet in tip-top shape is crucial for reliable operations, driver safety, and cost control. Fleet managers work to schedule maintenance and will accurately and efficiently ensure vehicles are serviced at the right time, preventing breakdowns and maximising their lifespan.
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7. Vehicle rotation
   Rotating vehicles involves strategically swapping or reassigning vehicles within a fleet to optimise their use and lifespan. It's not just about switching keys; it's about maximising efficiency, minimising wear and tear, and ensuring the right vehicles are in the right hands.
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8. Fleet economics
   Fleet economics delves into the financial aspects of managing a fleet of vehicles. It's about understanding the costs involved, optimising resource allocation, and making informed decisions to maximise profitability and minimise expenses.
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9. Safety and compliance management
   Safety and compliance are pillars of successful fleet management. It's about more than just avoiding accidents and fines; it's about creating a safety culture and ensuring every element of operations adheres to regulations.
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The purpose of fleet management

Fleet management is the smartest way that businesses with moving assets can improve their operations, from productivity, security, compliance, safety and reduced costs. Strategic fleet management has plenty of benefits that guarantee a well-oiled fleet operation.

Here are the top benefits of fleet management:

• Improves driver and road safety
• Optimises fleet operations (on-time deliveries, optimal routes, fast dispatch, etc.)
• Helps reduce fleet costs while boosting profits
• Enhances overall visibility into fleet activities
• Generates important compliance data
• Increases vehicle longevity
• Improves fleet security by discouraging theft, fraud, and vandalism
• Helps lower fleet emissions and fuel consumption
• Enhances work experience for the fleet crew
• Ultimately improves customer satisfaction
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Guide: how to increase revenue with these five fleet management best practices

With fleet management, it’s not only about acquiring more vehicles or getting more drivers. Every link in the chain is supposed to result in increased revenue for the company. This can only be achieved by implementing best practices for fleet management.

These five best practices for fleet management can help you increase your revenue:

1. Use fleet data management software

Fleet data management refers to the processes of using the powers of GPS, AI and other tech, to gather, organise, consolidate, analyse and report on the fleet operations in a business.

This is a strategic way of creating a system for fleet diagnosis which helps businesses to identify areas for improvement, optimise performance, and prevent problems.

There are a few strategies businesses can use to ensure they are on the right track:

• Using data on vehicles to make better decisions
• Leveraging driver logs
• Upgrading your dispatching system
• Prioritising maintenance
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2. Use fuel management solutions

Introducing fuel monitoring strategies and fuel cost management solutions is one of the smartest decisions fleet managers can make. Businesses are challenged by the rising fuel costs, as well as other pain points like fuel theft and fuel waste caused by poor route planning.

These best practices for fuel management will help businesses increase their revenue:

• Monitoring fleet fuel trends
• Improving driver behaviour
• Stop fuel-card fraud and fuel theft using automated systems
• Detect the impact of fuel increases on fleet fuel management

 3. Improve driver administration

Driver administration in fleet management involves managing your workforce who drive your wheels. It's about ensuring your drivers are qualified, understand safe driving practices, can be productive and ultimately that they successfully drive your fleet.

These best practices for hiring and managing drivers will help businesses increase their revenue. Here are some best practices:

• Select qualified and licensed drivers
• Introduce training on safety and good driving practices
• Implement performance management
• Train drivers on fuel-saving driving practices
  

4. Develop a fleet maintenance strategy

‍The best way to stay on top of your fleet’s performance is to get ahead of your fleet maintenance strategy. Fleet managers can ensure their vehicle stays on the road longer and reduce the cost of upkeep, by using fleet maintenance. Whether the maintenance strategy is preventative or predictive, you get to decide the smartest strategy for your fleet

Here are the best approaches for fleet maintenance for businesses:

• Avoid reactive fleet maintenance.
• Opt for either a preventative maintenance strategy or a predictive maintenance plan
• Use digital systems to streamline your process and keep accurate records of vehicle health
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5. Become customer-centric

Client satisfaction is the number one priority for your business to ensure and improve the revenue of your business. Focusing on customers leads to increased sales, and higher customer loyalty and will help you gain new customers. By running efficient operations, fleet managers and business owners, gain in every way possible.

Here are some best practices to boost customer satisfaction:

• Route planning for deliveries to ensure that goods, equipment and services are timeously delivered to customers.
• Improve communication with customers, if there are delays or changes in delivery dates, it is better to communicate this with customers.
• Reduce the frequency of breakdowns, through maintenance plans and proper fuel management.
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Every business is unique and has its fleet challenges. A small business, for example, may have 5-10 vehicles, while a more established fleet company can have over 50, and even 100 fleet vehicles to manage. Businesses in different industries also have unique challenges, relating to their fleet operation.

Let’s have a look at this guide for different businesses.
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Guide:  how to build a fleet management plan to combat your business challenges

A fleet management plan is valuable for companies in different industries, including companies in construction, oil and gas, cold chain supply, engineering, logistics and even finance or security services. 

Here’s a quick guide on how to build a fleet management plan in three types of industries to combat various business challenges.

Construction

Construction businesses face unique challenges when it comes to managing their fleets. Beyond the usual concerns of cost, efficiency, and safety, specific factors in the construction environment add an extra layer of complexity. Here are some key challenges that a fleet management plan can help businesses in construction.

Common Fleet Challenges

• Heavy wear and tear on specialised equipment
• Project-based operations
• Locating construction equipment
• Driver management and safety
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Transportation

From trucking companies to ride-sharing platforms, all transportation businesses, face a unique set of challenges in managing their fleet. Challenges that are more prevalent in this industry. Here are some of the challenges that a fleet management plan can help a transportation business with.

Common Fleet Challenges

• Rising fuel and maintenance costs
• Minimising vehicle downtime
• Keeping up with new legislation
• Vehicle utilisation
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Food industry

Transporting temperature or time-sensitive goods is a challenging task for fleet management, but in the food industry, it’s not something that can be compromised. The biggest challenge for these businesses is that it is highly customer/business partner-centric, and share similar pain points.

Common Fleet Challenges

• Poor customer service
• Driver shortage
• Late/failed deliveries
• Reducing theft or product damage
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With each of these challenges affecting different industries, introducing a general fleet management plan will not automatically improve some business operations. Your fleet management plan should be strategic and incorporate best practices for efficiency and to ensure revenue.

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4 ways Cartrack paves the way to fleet management best practices

When you are ready to transform your fleet management practices, from common to best practices, then Cartrack’s advanced software offers the smartest solutions.  

Here are four ways Cartrack’s Fleet Management Software can help your business establish best practices for increased revenue.

 1. Data accuracy and reliability

As a fleet manager, you may often encounter challenges in maintaining accurate and up-to-date information about the location of fleet vehicles, assets, or cargo. 

With telematics installation in your fleet vehicles, trailers and assets,  fleet managers can ensure the reliability of the data and monitor their vehicle and equipment activities. Fleet managers gain a comprehensive view of their fleet performance and operation with Cartrack’s Fleet Pages. Fleet managers can optimise fleet routes, monitor their fleet vehicle usage, and access vehicle and driver reports.  With the addition of sensors, fleet managers can also ensure the safe transportation of their cargo. 

Our advanced Internet of Things (IoT) tech goes beyond vehicle tracking and provides accurate data about your fleet that can be used to improve the overall efficiency and performance of your business operations.

2. Fuel monitoring and management

Fuel is one of the largest expenses in a fleet business, and with fuel costs being so volatile, managers need to conserve and monitor every drop in their fleet. The lack of fuel efficiency can impact the productivity and profits of a business. 

With Cartrack’s fuel sensors, you can accurately measure the amount of fuel in your vehicle tank. These sensors are installed in a vehicle, such as a truck, bus or private car, as well as ships and also stationary equipment like generators. With these sensors, fleet managers can know about any increases or decreases in fuel levels, and accurately monitor any refills or fuel waste and loss events. With additional software integration like MiFleet, fleet managers can also have the system automatically review all their fuel transactions, match fuel receipts with vehicle telemetry data and receive alerts on any abnormal fuel costs. This helps them detect any fuel theft or fraud. Our fuel monitoring and management software is one of the most advanced ways to monitor your fleet's overall fuel consumption and compile reports on fuel expenditure, levies and taxes.

3. Fleet maintenance solutions

Often vehicle and equipment breakdowns directly affect business revenues. If your fleet is not operating or your equipment is non-operational, your business loses money on downtime. 

One of the most effective ways to avoid vehicle downtime is through fleet maintenance. Businesses can avoid reactive maintenance on their fleet by introducing a predictive or preventative fleet maintenance solution. This helps businesses stay ahead of any vehicle breakdown.

Cartrack’s fleet management system is a quick and accessible way to schedule maintenance for your fleet. On this all-in-one platform fleet managers can receive notifications about their vehicles' condition. For example, they can receive information about engine faults and various reminders about when to get an oil change or change tyres based on the vehicle mileage. This makes it easy for fleet managers to schedule vehicle maintenance and set up any other reminders/alerts for vehicle services and repairs.

4. Driver performance monitoring

Whether it’s recklessness, negligence or apathy, your drivers’ behaviour on the road could cost your business more than just a few speeding fines.

Cartrack’s driver safety and SmartCabin camera technology help managers monitor driver performance using various in-built software.  SmartCabin uses live streaming, AI cameras and real-time audible alerts to record and discourage dangerous activity while drivers are en route. These cameras can detect events such as distracted/fatigued driving and phone use while driving. It also gives front collision warnings to help drivers quickly change their actions and prevent accidents. 

By monitoring driver performance behind the wheel, fleet managers can cut inefficient practices that hurt your business's revenue. With Cartrack’s IoT, managers can also access driver reports to discourage bad driving habits. Installing telematics solutions and smart AI-powered cameras can help fleet managers identify poor driving practices, high-risk driving behaviour and various safety violations. Fleet managers can use this information to get proactive about driver, cargo and fleet safety, creating a safer driving culture.

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Unlock the roadmap to revenue today

Secure your business's bottom line, quarter after quarter by implementing these essential guides for fleet management best practices. 

With Cartrack’s fleet management solutions, you can turn this roadmap into a sure way to unlock sustained financial growth as a fleet manager. 

Contact us today and let us help you go from common practices to the best.