Fleet management is one of those services that seems out of reach for many small and medium enterprises. Smaller operations often have questions about the costs and benefits, and that's understandable. With costs rising across the board, fleet management can seem like something you can put off for now. However, times have changed, and fleet management can help your company grow exponentially while giving you the data to confidently make large capital investments that make a meaningful impact. In this blog, we'll take a deep dive into fleet management services and how a small or medium business can benefit from investing in this service sooner rather than later.
What is fleet management?
First, we should outline what fleet management is and what it is not. Fleet management is not just about a GPS tracker for your company fleet; it is the process of managing all aspects of your company vehicles, including acquisition, registration, maintenance, and lifecycle management once you are looking to move out of a specific vehicle. This process isn't simple, and for many growing businesses, fleet management takes hours each month that you could put toward other aspects of your business. That is why, for some- and if we are being honest, most- investing in fleet management software can actually be one of the best ways to get maximum return on your investment and give you back precious time to do what you do best: grow your business.
What are the benefits of Fleet Management?
Fleet management software offers a tonne of benefits for any commercial operation running a fleet of trucks, cars, or vans. Below, we focus on the ones our clients have seen or have told us about here in Edmonton, Alberta.
Removes Administrative Burdens
Everyone in the world hates paperwork, well, unless you are a Chartered Professional Accountant; in that case, you may actually love it. But for the rest of us, paperwork and administration are a time vampire in an already busy day. This is where a fleet management solution can step in and handle much of your fleet's administration, such as sourcing new vehicles, registering them with the proper authorities, managing leases, insurance, and registration renewals, and even issuing fuel and maintenance cards to keep drivers on the road and your expenses predictable.
Real-Time Visibility into Your Fleet
For many of our clients, access to more data about their fleet and how their vehicles are performing on the road is a critical part of day-to-day operations. With fleet management software, you can see the current status of your vehicles on the road, including fuel consumption, vehicle performance, and details like which drivers are speeding or hard braking. This kind of data can help you better predict maintenance cycles and lifecycle purchases, and ensure your drivers aren't cutting into your profit margins through speeding or hard braking.
Optimized Routes
Another major benefit of fleet management software is seeing which routes are costing you money. Small decisions, like taking a toll road or a back-country road that will guzzle more fuel, can cut into your profitability month after month. With on-board fleet management software, drivers can follow suggested optimized routes, helping you deliver on time without costing you extra time or money.
Worry-free Maintenance
As anyone with a fleet of vehicles can tell you, maintenance is a major headache for fleet managers. However, fleet management services can make it a breeze with predictive maintenance that spots potential issues before they become problems. From an engine knock to a slowly draining battery, fleet software tracks each vehicle and flags issues for repair before they can knock a vehicle off the road for days, if not weeks.
Scaling Made Easy
For many commercial services, scaling is a problem. But for the fleet management side of your operations, scaling isn't an issue as your company grows. Our software solution supports scaling and can even work with multiple locations or yards separated by thousands of kilometres. Whether you are dealing with seasonal swings, such as companies running snow removal services, or looking to expand your fleet over the medium and long term, fleet management software will support these big moves, not limit them.
Many companies ignore fleet management or handle it on a whim. This can work when you are a smaller company running a couple of trucks, but as you expand, fleet management becomes essential to your operations. That is where a fleet management software solution comes in and allows you to offload the time-consuming tasks around your fleet, giving you more time to focus on your next move, whether it is an expansion, a new location, or even taking your brand national. If this sounds like something that might help your company, we are here to help make fleet management a breeze!
