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Increasing productivity, staying on schedule, adhering to budget and ensuring safety are the key focus areas and also the biggest challenges of fleets across industries.  Read on for a simple 4-step productivity strategy checklist. 

Large enterprise companies that own thousands of vehicles and manage multiple drivers face unique challenges related to fleet management:

• Managing a large team of drivers
• Utilising assets to the optimal extent
• Finding specific information quickly
• Preventing unauthorised use of assets
• Reducing fuel cost

Fleet managers need to not only overcome operational challenges but also have to deal with environmental policies, cybersecurity mandates, productivity challenges and vehicle utilisation, all of which impacts business success.

The telematics way to business success

Telematics, as a key management tool for fleet managers, offers smart solutions that equip fleet managers and owners to streamline operations and safety while optimising business success.

Vehicles with GPS fleet tracking or telematics technology provide efficient solutions to ongoing pain points of fleet managers by offering real-time insights into comprehensive data. From controlling costs, minimising time wastage, increasing efficiency to meeting safety standards, telematics address complex challenges that can hamper business success.

Safety tracking:

Driver safety being of paramount concern, fleet managers need to get the digital blueprint of all aspects of the vehicle operation. ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ offers second by second 24/7 recording of vehicle data through its entire journey. With real-time data and alerts, the telematics help fleet managers understand how to implement accident prevention measures to enhance driver safety standards.

Customer service:

Management of a fleet requires day and night attention. Customers or employees can seek information at any time. With telematics, you can quickly access the required information from any device and any location, helping you optimise customer service.

Cost efficiency:

A safe fleet is also a cost-efficient one. Telematics help in getting accurate insights into vehicle damage or wear and tear, speeding fines, excess fuel use and driver behaviour. With smart metrics such as harsh braking, speed and acceleration, fleet managers can set up alerts to warn drivers upon breaching speed limits and save on speeding fines. In a survey of fleet managers, 46% said telematics reduced their fuel expenses.

Streamline all business areas:

A survey of fleet operators in New Zealand shows that 79% of them plan to or currently implement telematics to efficiently manage their vehicles, staff and assets. ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ helps businesses reduce errors associated with manual timesheet reporting and paperwork, automate routine tasks, manage time more efficiently to optimise productivity, and, in turn, profitability.

Telematics is a coming together of two sciences: ‘tele’ or remote communications (tele is Greek for ‘at a distance’) and ‘informatics’, the practice of information processing. It is one of the key innovations to transform commercial fleet management, as we know it.

In fact, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that telematics systems have become a part and parcel of the fleet management and safety apparatus of businesses with mobile assets. The hardware component of a telematics system gathers data, including vehicle location and activity, driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics, while the software platform provides a visualisation of this data for actionable insights.

How fleet managers are using telematics

Telematics is enabling fleet managers to improve the efficiency and safety of their mobile workforce. Here are some benefits that make telematics a vital investment for effective fleet management.

Reducing fleet operating costs

Prices at the petrol pump are increasing. The right fleet management decisions can optimise fuel costs. There are other sources of cost savings and efficient expense management: calculating hours in wages is no longer a headache, while better driving behaviours such as idling, speeding and harsh braking keep costs down and potential fines away.

Maximise vehicle productivity

The ability to locate your vehicles and book your next job without the necessity for vehicles to return to base boosts vehicle productivity. Features such as live tracking, alerts and heat maps allow for teams to see where time is being spent and adjust accordingly, and keep time more efficiently and effectively plan their daily job schedule.

Encourage staff accountability

Other than views into asset location, advanced GPS technology can show how vehicles are being driven and by who, record idle time and unsafe behaviours like speeding, and provide a host of other performance-related data that motivates drivers to be accountable.

Provide accurate billing of staff time

Assistance with timesheets and billing ensures that staff and customers alike are billed accurately This has the effect of ensuring queries are kept to a minimum or if one should occur, it can be quickly and accurately validated.

Resolve customer and operational queries accurately and promptly

Are you able to give clients an estimate of when your vehicles will arrive? With a window into asset location at any time during the journey, you can keep clients updated about the whereabouts of vehicles as well as arrival times. That’s not all. From user-friendly maps to accurate and timely decision-making from the collected vehicle data, telematics can dramatically increase operational efficiencies, and contribute to higher customer satisfaction.

Ensure the safety and compliance of vehicles and employees

Besides a view into vehicle name, group and type, and their exact position by street view or satellite, and knowledge of what exactly a vehicle was doing at any point in time, to monitoring out of hours driver activity and drivers’ safety alarms, telematics provides a wealth of compliance and safety related data. Imagine a situation where you can see that a technician has been in the same spot for a suspiciously long time, and investigate the issue in a timely manner. If the technician has passed out or suffered a seizure, this insight can potentially save his life.

Job cost analysis

By tracing specific costs to each individual vehicle or job, you can perform accurate cost and performance analysis, as well as predict resource costs to a large extent.

Telematics empowers drivers to work smartly by giving them more control over their daily routines and collaborate effectively with dispatchers to meet deadlines in an organised manner. Access to information and easy collaboration via smartphones and tablets remove frustrations and enhance job satisfaction.

When researching telemetry, before you even start talking price or features, ensure the provider has the groundwork right:

• RCM approved hardware - to avoid hefty fines (see footnote) 
• End to end data encryption -  to protect your vehicle data 
• Complete vehicle history (TruePath Tracking™)

It is difficult to envision making good decisions in the absence of data. Every aspect of running a profitable business, including fleet safety and efficiencies, is dictated by facts about the performance of your fleet operations.

Monitoring and collecting vehicle data has become the norm, but some companies are doing a better job than others. ArmadaGPS is able to gain accurate vehicle data into ground realities for driver behaviour that help inform overall fleet management and contribute to strategies better aligned to business objectives.

Is a GPS tracker enough?

You may already be using a GPS tracker for improved driver safety and fleet management. But are you equipped with the accurate vehicle data to fully understand the risks as well as efficiencies your fleet could be making? Or know what happened in the event of a speeding ticket or worst case scenario - a car crash? The TruePath Tracking™ feature of ArmadaGPS enables the full data to continuously flow through all reports, alerts and playbacks to ensure the customer is getting the big picture on it’s fleets’ movements.

TruePath Tracking™, our proprietary technology, brings driving behaviours to light with a second-to-second visibility of peak speeds changes along a route. Unlike other GPS tracking products, which collect individual points of data at predetermined times, TruePath Tracking™ constantly monitors and collects important vehicle data. The continuous flow allows for no data gaps to occur so the full picture is available not intermittent speed recordings that make up an incomplete picture. This is crucial to maximising efficiencies in your business. A complete picture of driving behaviour and trends like average and top driving speed is necessary for accurate conclusions on how vehicles are being driven every day and of course, ‘what went wrong’ so the best course-for corrective action is taken to minimise the risk of future events.

Speed is one of the major contributors of fatal crashes, (source: Ministry of Transport) with high-risk drivers making up 34% of all at-fault drivers in fatal crashes. Driver speed is a key risk that must be addressed by fleet managers and drivers.

When the driver of your vehicle had no part to play in the crash, the data is useful in helping you limit liability and develop appropriate responses for future incidents.

Accurate data on driver’s speeding and speeds is not the only reason why TruePath Tracking™ is worth investing in. If your GPS tracker only polls data every 200 to 500 metres, you may well be being seeing gaps in your data, and miss out on behavioural trends that need addressal. Daily and monthly reports that gather ALL the critical data can help fleet managers make better, more informed decisions about the safety and operational efficiencies of their fleet. Live vehicle tracking, reports and alerts with TruePath can plug gaps and offer relevant, business-specific insights.

You can also easily gauge if expected behaviours are being followed. If you suspect a link between behavioural trends and days of the week or peak seasons, data can validate or refute it. Data from TruePath Tracking™ can point you to opportunities that bring about greater process efficiency or alert you to an overlooked aspect of fleet management. Actionable vehicle data also offers a means to understand if your actions and strategies are actually being supported by the ground reality. You don’t have to wait for financial data and performance scores to start addressing inefficiencies and problematic behaviours proactively.

THE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE MARK (RCM) 

The RCM tick indicates that our TRACKbox products are compliant with the Australia and New Zealand radio-communications and Electro Magnetic Compatibility (ENC) standards. As of 1 March 2013, any device needs RCM approval Regulatory Compliance Mark to show the device has been checked to determine Telco approval, electrical safety compliance, and EMF radioactivity testing. This applies to all devices being retailed.