Telematics is just one technology that enables fleet managers to mine data about their fleet operations, whether that’s a single vehicle or the entire fleet.
In the UK, more or less 40 percent of businesses have at least one form of fleet telematics running – a system that can be steered in this way, should a company desire to invest in it. With a fleet telematics system in place, your vehicles are 100 per cent under your control, because you will know where your vehicle is, and what’s going on with your drivers at your job site – and much more. We will amplify this point later in the text further with specific ways to run your fleet vehicles in a way that helps you save money.
Using Fleet Telematics to Improve Vehicle Management
The real-time vehicle data you’re most likely to need as a fleet manager can be accessed through automotive fleet management software.
Specifically, you can use fleet telematics to:
Obtain Real-Time Vehicle Data
Getting fleet vehicle data is traditionally done through your drivers, which isn’t exactly instantaneous or even 100 percent accurate since paperwork is, at the end of the day, prone to human error. Luckily, effective fleet telematics can step in here. You will get all the critical data you need in real time, so you won’t need to do daily walkaround checks on vehicles or get defect reports from your drivers.
Telematics automates this communication for you, as well as much of the communication with your drivers and your team as well. Your drivers don’t have to constantly update you on these locations. Instead, through telematics, you have access to this information on-demand. The analysis of this information is then fed back to your fleet management system, allowing you to take critical decisions about the upkeep and running of your fleet.
Quickly Address Vehicle Problems
One of the hardest issues with vehicle fleet management is dealing with unexpected repair or maintenance. Dashboard warning lights often go reported to the fleet manager by a driver, and a smallish vehicle fault can suddenly grow to something bigger, and more expensive.
Fleet telematics from trusted companies such as Radius.com, can also give you an instant alert when a vehicle fault comes up. A telematic device can send information about battery condition, warning lights and fault codes. Your software will trigger an alert, notifying you instantaneously of the issue.
Deployed in this way, fleet telematics can give you rapid alerts across your entire vehicle fleet, helping to keep vehicles on the road and not out of action for longer hours or days than needed. When faults are discovered, depending on the severity, you can get them adjusted for maintenance when they will impact on operation least. Overall, helping reduce expensive vehicle downtime.
A good fleet management system will also tie vehicle fault data into repairs orders. Your maintenance team will see the entire problem ahead of time, letting you speed up the whole process.
Schedule Preventative Maintenance
Many preventative maintenance services are based on mileage: for example, checking and topping up fluid levels, inspecting belts and hoses, and running a full diagnostic check is usually done after the vehicle has completed a certain number of miles. You might be using odometer readings today to know when fleet maintenance is due, but tracking them manually is a labour-intensive process (and paper-based records are prone to human error).
Fleet telematics automatically uploads daily readings of odometers into your system so you can plan for fewer surprises at inspection time or when it’s time for routine maintenance. Using fleet telematics, technicians can be notified when it’s time to promptly book in the right vehicle for service, not the one you knew only yesterday was on the road.
Why the Benefits of Fleet Telematics Are Endless
You can identify any vehicle problem when it occurs, and schedule planned maintenance more effectively, and all will communicate more efficiently with your crew. And, in conjunction with a fleet management software package, it provides critical feedback about engine performance, vehicle health and total cost of ownership. Fleet management software will cost businesses money – but this initial cost can be recouped. For a start, you’ll be saving money on unexpected vehicle maintenance and repair. You’ll improve fuel efficiency, and thus save money, too. Plus, by reducing the number of road accidents your fleet has, you’ll also reduce vehicle downtime.
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