Among the many skills that you are expected to develop as a fleet manager, the ability to guide your organization to continuous improvement may be the most important in this competitive age.
Historically, without data to guide you, finding the right things to focus on requires a certain level of guesswork. As they say: if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Telematics embedded into fleet-tracking software makes it easier for fleet and procurement managers to get the information that they need to make their fleets more cost efficient and productive. The software provides data on variables ranging from vehicle location and fuel use to driver performance and engine diagnostics.
With this data, fleet managers can make vital decisions on right-sizing their fleet and addressing other challenges. Here’s a rundown of the key metrics that telematics software provides.
Telematics software to monitor fuel usage
The most actionable piece of data from telematics software concerns what goes into the fuel tank. Fuel is one of the largest costs of operating a fleet efficiently.
Telematics software collects information on fuel consumption. With the right math to go with it, this data enables fleet managers to understand the efficiency performance of their vehicles and make adjustments. This metric is often expressed in terms of fuel consumption per mile or per vehicle.
For example, the software can also feed information to your management team about fuel levels, which helps create an effective plan for fuel stops. Any time the vehicle isn’t running is an expense that managers want to limit.
Similarly, the software can track idling time. Idling leads to fuel waste and adds to the pollution in the air. It can also suggest that it’s time to change the route that your drivers are following to one with fewer stoplights or traffic.
Maintaining the vehicle
One major tool provided by telematics software can save fleet managers a tremendous amount of time: odometer readings. From a single dashboard, managers can monitor the mileage totals of all their vehicles. If you have a small fleet, this might not seem like a big deal. But if your fleet has hundreds of vehicles, tracking mileage is incredibly helpful in terms of preventive maintenance and replacement schedules.
Telematics software also registers diagnostic trouble codes across the fleet, sending notifications and alerts when a particular vehicle needs attention and what the prescription needs to be. Managers can dig more deeply into vehicle performance by looking at engine data, such as fuel economy, RPM, and load. This data can help predict problems that have not quite manifested themselves so you can get ahead of any major breakdowns.
The software can help managers track preventive maintenance schedules. Staying on top of recommendations from manufacturers can help you head off more expensive repairs later in the car’s life cycle.
All this data together provide an effective and rolling calculation of overall maintenance costs. Watching for changes in the cost will enable you to know when you need to take action.
Real-time fleet tracking data
Your job as a fleet manager is challenging because you have to monitor vehicles individually and as part of the fleet. Issues might come up with individual vehicles, and you have to manage your fleet to plan for budgeting purposes. It's hard to do both without the right tools.
Telematics software simplifies the challenge by helping you better understand vehicle utilization rate, total cost of ownership, and other types of data. The software can also help you monitor individual driver behavior for the purpose of continuous improvements.
Telematics delivers information on safety, accident rates and severity, traffic violations, and training participation. This might seem easy to do with just a few drivers and cars to track, but multiply those variables to scale, and it becomes a logistical nightmare. Data software will turn a potentially overwhelming task into something much more manageable.
Benefits of cooperative contracts for telematics software
Telematics software is essential for helping move the challenge of fleet management into the future. Effective use can help make your fleet more cost effective and your entire team more productive. Leveraging the power of the digital age can change the trajectory of your fleet.
Sourcewell has extensive experience with contract purchasing solutions for vehicles and their accessories and applications, which will keep your fleet on the road longer. The solutions are competitively solicited nationally, and Sourcewell currently offers hundreds of awarded contracts. Your team will have plenty of potential options to review to find the best options for your needs.
Many of these contracts provide your fleet with connectivity through software to enable managers to make real-time decisions based on data, including right-sizing the fleet and other challenges.
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 is a government agency that has been empowering other government organizations since 1978. Check out our contracts here.
