What if we told you that you could, on occasion, have your cake and eat it too?
In today's article, we discuss vehicle data collection, the critical role it plays in your fleet's efficiency, and how to get it done automatically and without paying recurrent, per-vehicle fees.
Topics: maintenance management, fleet maintenance, vehicle data, preventative maintenance, fleet management, vehicle tracking, automated fleet data
One of the most significant benefits of being in the business of helping people manage their fleets is learning where the challenges are and focusing energy on finding solutions for them. Data plays a crucial role in effective fleet management. Not just having it but being able to quickly and accurately collect it and then easily use it for the company's benefit. Through 30 years of successfully consulting for mobile-reliant industries, adapting modules to service-specific industries, and growing services to fit the evolving needs of fleet managers the world over, we’ve hopefully learned a few things on how to be helpful to them: It’s all about the data at your fingertips in your Fleet Management Software.
Topics: maintenance management, maintenance software optimization, fleet maintenance, vehicle data, preventative maintenance, fleet management, driver behaviour, real-time data, trucking, preventive maintenance, safety
According to some recent fleet maintenance statistics on AutomotiveFleet.com, the repair cost (labor and parts) of running your ageing fleet increases annually by 5% to 7%, but when you look closer at the segment breakdowns, the numbers are much more dramatic. Looking at “Repair Spend by Odometer”, we see the cost rise almost 10 times once the vehicle hits over 90,000 km and “Repair Spend by Months in Service” shows a jump of nearly 8 times once we get past the 37-month mark. Furthermore, these statistics exclude regular tire and oil changes, rental of replacement equipment and emergency overtime costs, or accident expenses. If these jumps seem extreme to you, it’s because they are, but they are a manageable part of the cost of maintaining a fleet. Keeping your fleet assets (vehicles and other mobile-fueled equipment) and drivers safe, productive, and mobile is pivotal to reaching your organization’s sales and service goals. A great Fleet Management software will help you keep an educated eye on your maintenance costs, indicate when they begin to rise, and how to plan for the optimization of the fleet. So, what can you do to keep your fleet in optimal shape?
Topics: fleet fuel management, maintenance management, fleet maintenance, preventative maintenance, fleet management
Are you still using manual entry and relying on paper agendas to remind you of important fleet management details, like Preventive Maintenance check-ups? Or are you having to look for information in so many different places you aren’t sure how they connect? Have you lost a few along the way? In today’s business settings, everyone has many more tasks to attend to, and some things will slip through the cracks when we don’t use some simple tools to help us along. For instance, advanced fleet maintenance software (e.g. SM2- Maintain) and GPS tracking data have replaced the manual and time-consuming processes traditionally associated with managing your fleet maintenance. Since most of the other areas of fleet management are automated under your Fleet Management System software (FMS), automation should also be part of your maintenance management program.
Topics: maintenance management, preventative maintenance, AVL, vehicle tracking
Across industries and markets, we hear the call to real-time data collection and its importance to profitable big data analytics. Companies with fleets to manage have known this for a long time and continue to partner with fleet management system (FMS) suppliers to improve business practices and outcomes.
Topics: fleet fuel management, maintenance management, maintenance software optimization, vehicle data, fleet management, AVL, real-time data
When discussing the high costs of fleet management, our customers often tell us fuel consumption is on par with expenses related to labor. In fact, they tend to complement each other in transparent and trackable ways. The most obvious is when your fleet increases in size, so do labor and fuel expenses. However, the relational increase isn’t always a one-to-one ratio. The question is why it sometimes seems to increase exponentially.
Topics: fuel management, maintenance management, fleet management, AVL, driver behaviour, vehicle tracking
Many fleets spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars implementing a vehicle maintenance management system. They pay recurring license fees to use that software to handle crucial maintenance-related areas such as parts, maintenance plans, vehicle recalls, and work orders. However, many of those companies then turn around and act as though all the time and money they spent putting those maintenance systems in place was burning a hole through their pockets!
Topics: maintenance management, maintenance software optimization, fleet maintenance, vehicle data, preventative maintenance