The only thing more challenging than acquiring new fleet vehicles is performing fleet maintenance on existing cars and trucks. Roughly half of all government fleets have at least one maintenance facility, in-sourcing 44% of preventative maintenance tasks like tire rotations and oil changes.
But manual methods of fleet vehicle maintenance are slowly fading into obscurity. Tracking software can aid in vehicle maintenance in multiple ways, helping reduce repair costs and achieve sustainability goals from a simple, cost-effective dashboard.
This article explores everything that you need to know about tracking software and its effect on fleet maintenance, including what it does, how it benefits leaders, and where you can find a good fit for your city.
What is fleet maintenance tracking software?
Fleet maintenance tracking software is a telemetric tool that can manage the daily maintenance tasks of public fleet vehicles. Although every tool is different and comes with its own set of features, you can usually expect to see:
- A cloud-based platform
- Filterable dashboards
- Inventory or equipment databases
You can use fleet maintenance tracking software to stay up to date with acute and preventative services. However, simply acquiring fleet maintenance tracking software isn’t enough to ensure proper maintenance. You also need to know how to effectively use the platform to optimize and augment your existing workflow.
Here’s how you can leverage maintenance software to create a more optimized process for your fleet, starting with three ideas that you can implement immediately.
How fleet tracking software results in proper fleet maintenance
You have a few ways to maximize your fleet’s maintenance without creating more physical paperwork (depending on the maintenance software that you choose).
1. Schedule regular services to extend the life of your vehicles
Use your fleet maintenance software to make service requests on your behalf. For example, you can use integrations and automation tools to automatically request service once a vehicle reaches a certain milestone (e.g., 5,000 miles since the last maintenance request).
This strategy can benefit your organization in several ways. First, fleet managers don’t have to remember specific milestones or manually schedule maintenance services. This means you don’t need to worry about missing critical services or losing precious time to mundane tasks.
Second, regular upkeep increases the lifespan of your vehicles. Even simple maintenance can reduce fuel consumption by up to 50%—a boon for city leaders looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Predictive rather than just preventive maintenance
Preventative maintenance was once considered the gold standard of public fleet management. However, an increasing number of professionals are pivoting from preventative service to predictive service, and it all starts with fleet maintenance tools.
You can leverage specific tracking software to make predictions about vehicle damages even before they occur. For example, some tools leverage AI models to predict engine faults based on sound (with 88% accuracy). Others rely on in-vehicle sensors to determine the probability of failure for tires, brakes, or battery life.
Predictive maintenance could be far more cost effective than many fleet managers realize. Research shows that integrated efforts are 8% to 12% cheaper than preventive maintenance and cost up to 40% less than reactionary maintenance alone.
3. Keep an eye on vehicle lifetime costs
There comes a time when a fleet vehicle is worth more in the scrapyard than on the road. Fortunately, you can use fleet maintenance software to keep track of unplanned maintenance and determine which vehicles need a replacement (and when).
The best fleet maintenance software provides comprehensive dashboards listing a vehicle's mileage, status, and collective cost. You can use this information to find at-risk vehicles that require immediate replacement or build a long-term plan to replace multiple vehicles based on the provided data.
Today, the management of vehicle replacement cycles matters more than ever. Since 65% of fleet managers say that their replacement budgets have dropped or stayed the same, it’s critical to make wise decisions with the help of quality software.
Gaining an advantage with Sourcewell’s cooperative contracts
Cooperative contracts unlock hundreds of competitively solicited contracts from suppliers across North America. If you’re a school or government entity looking for fleet maintenance software, you can lean on the team at Sourcewell to find excellent options within your means.
Sourcewell’s competitively solicited cooperative contracts can help you make the most of your fleet maintenance software. For example, you can:
- Use economies of scale to unlock great software solutions at an affordable price.
- Speed up your time to acquisition without having to write an RFP yourself.
- Communicate with available suppliers to make informed decisions about products, solutions, and compliance.
Sourcewell has over forty years of experience helping city leaders find resources for all their fleet maintenance needs.
See how easy it is to optimize every aspect of your fleet—cut costs and improve safety using Sourcewell’s cooperative purchasing program. Streamline the public procurement process by choosing from hundreds of suppliers already on contract. Sourcewell’s procurement experts competitively solicit and award contracts on behalf of 50,000 participating agencies in North America. Sourcewell has been a government-empowering organization since 1978. Check out our contracts here.
