Fleet Management Software

In the last few decades, management, planning, and monitoring have been playing a significant role in etching the organization’s success story.  It ensures that the organization is performing business activities within scope, on time, and within budget. This trend is also observed in fleet management.  The business owners that invest heavily to keep their business running, do not want to risk it due to poor fleet movement. 

The unmanaged fleet can easily bring huge financial loss to the organization due to driver’s unaccountability, fluctuating fuel prices, and continuous fleet maintenance costs. Besides that, without proper Fleet Management, the company can deviate from its commitment to fulfill customer expectations and taint the organization's reputation. It is a painstaking task for managers or business owners to keep track of their fleet management activities without sophisticated fleet management software.

This buyer guide discusses the fleet management software in length to help big and small businesses to resolve their fleet management issues. The guide further gives a complete insight into fleet management software, which is essential for those who are interested in investing in fleet management software.

Fleet management is the management of a group of commercial vehicles used by organizations. It enables the organization to coordinate and organize work vehicles in such a way that it optimizes the organization’s productivity and reduces operational costs.  Fleet management allows companies to eliminate or minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improve efficiency, and reduce overall transportation costs while adhering to government compliances.

Examples of sectors that deal with fleet management include; couriers, sales, repair and service industries, utilities, public transport, oil and gas delivery, and emergency services.

• Route planning
• Fuel management
• Setting schedules
• Vehicle licensing and insurance
• Cost control
• Driver safety
• Vehicle acquisition
• Driver retention

Strategic Challenges:

• Monitoring driver’s behavior
• Poor routing and scheduling
• Managing compliance 

Tactical Challenges:

• An inadequate drivers training program
• Optimizing daily route plan
• Maximize vehicle utilization
• Centralizing control
• Data security

Operational Challenges:

• Drivers shortages
• Fluctuating fuel cost
• Managing a geographically-dispersed team
• Finding specific fleet information quickly
• Controlling unauthorized use of company assets
• Avoiding information overload

Fleet management can be productive when done properly; however, few activities make manual fleet management a time-consuming process.

1)  Administrative work:  Collection, recording, and validation of paperwork take substantial time and resources, especially when it is not centrally managed. 

2)  Converting information into valuable data:  Some businesses need to collect information from various departments and based on that information, they schedule and move their fleet.  However, manually collecting this information and churning out valuable data could be time-consuming.

3)  Untimely maintenance: A miscalculation in a schedule of the maintenance work, can lead to an unexpected vehicle breakdown. The untimely breakdown and maintenance work can slow down the fleet movement and adversely affects the business.

4) Miscommunication: During fleet management, miscommunication with drivers can be catastrophic. Whether intentional or unintentional, any miscommunication with the fleet drivers can lead to unnecessary costs and delay in delivering the product.

5)  Fuel tax calculations: In some countries, the government has implemented special fuel tax norms. As per the norms, the organization has to keep a record of the fuel consumed for the business every year, and based on the usage; the government deducts the tax amount. It is a challenging and time-consuming task for an organization to manually keep a record of the fuel consumption and calculate the tax amount.

The limitations of manual fleet management have forced managers to evaluate their strategy for its optimum use.  In this age of technology and information, it has become easier to implement new methods and derive better results. A fleet management app is highly regarded as the best solution to address all fleet management-related issues.

Fleet Management Software is a set of tools that allows fleet managers to manage and optimize commercial vehicle usage in the best of the business interest.   It acts as a central hub for recording and reporting the key attributes of fleet movement so that the overall cost of transportation can be brought down, and the business service can be improved.

The fleet management software enables users to manage the fleet’s daily activity, interpret a wealth of telematics data, and analyze results to make informed business decisions. 

The fleet management tools can extract information that was not possible earlier. It also enables fleet operators to remotely track vehicles using realistic maps and views populated by GPS (Global Positioning System).

Since its introduction, fleet management software has grown and adapted to the needs of fleet managers.  Reports indicate that the global smart fleet management market size is likely to touch USD 565.1 billion by 2025, with a growth rate of 7.6%.

Fleet Management involves many activities like vehicle tracking, fuel management, vehicle maintenance, monitoring driver’s behavior, etc.  The fleet management software takes care of all these activities with the latest technology.

1)  Fleet telematics system:  The telematics refers to the systems and sensors on a vehicle. These sensors merge data from vehicles to a fleet management system for better fleet operations. Vehicle tracking systems port the telematics data with the GPS tracking data, which becomes available to fleet managers online. The g-force sensor linked with the vehicle can tap on the acceleration as well as abrupt movements, including over-steering, over speeding, harsh braking, idling time, and current speed. All these metrics help to enhance the driver’s safety and reduce idle time.

2)  Plan appropriate routing:  The onboard diagnostic gives detailed information about the fuel usage and performance of the connected vehicles.  This information could be crucial for fleet managers to decide whether the route is appropriate for the delivery or taking longer than the expected time period. The fleet manager can find out whether the route is congested during a specific time of the day, or it is due to poor roads. Based on these data, the manager can change the route for the driver or change the delivery timing for that specific area. The manager can also find out the vehicle’s exact whereabouts, so if the driver is taking an unnecessary stoppage between the delivery, he can immediately send a text message to the driver.

3) Vehicle maintenance:  The fleet maintenance program can be broken down into three primary categories; Preventive Maintenance (PM), Routine Maintenance, and Emergency Maintenance.  The maintenance activities involved in these phases may include oil changes, cleaning, lubrication, overall inspections, parts replacement, and maintaining historical data.  A good maintenance software allows users to create maintenance schedules, work orders, generate reports, access checklists, etc.

4)  Insurance:  More the number of vehicles, the more it becomes difficult for an organization to manage the insurance. Fleet insurance software helps organizations to protect all of their assets in a single place. It is critical to keep track of all drivers on the policy and notify the insurance company of any new hires or staff changes.  It notifies the fleet manager about the insurance that needs to be renewed annually, quarterly, or monthly.  

5) Electronic Compliance: Electronic compliance eliminates tedious paperwork out of the equation. Fleet managers can reliably meet compliance requirements, driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIR), and fuel tax requirements all in one portal.

The fleet management software systems are available in various forms, and it gives flexibility to users for selecting the fleet management system as per their budget.

Different types of Fleet Management System available are;

• Paid
• Trial based or Freemium
• Open Source
• Free
• Free and Open Source
• Cloud-based

• Improves good dispatching: The fleet management software facilitates the activities like automatic job scheduling, intelligent routing, and monitoring fuel usage, which eventually helps fleet managers to reduce the goods delivery time and improves the organization’s reputation.
• Control excess fuel consumption: The fleet management app sends alerts and updates when a particular vehicle exceeds the daily mileage limit. It may be due to bad route planning, dangerous driving, or some changes in customer orders processing. By having a clear picture of the cause of excess fuel consumption, managers can take appropriate steps to prevent it. In many ways, fleet management software can put brakes on activities leading to excess costs to the company. It can cut costs significantly by simply notifying the drivers to stop the engine while idle for dispatch or loading.
• Centralized system: With a centralized system, it is easy to communicate with the drivers.  For example, the drivers can receive the job schedule on the mobile app or inform drivers about the last moment changes.  The centralized system also allows users to tap on information like fleet expenses, fleet operation reports, driver’s contact management, fleet vehicle management, etc. It also allows users to view orders and analytics from a single dashboard.
• Automated reports and insights: The ability of the fleet management system to automate fleet-related activities and collect those insights for better fleet movement makes the tool very useful.  It can automate tasks like checking engine status, odometer, battery status, etc.  
• Real-time fleet data: The fleet managers can track their fleet in real-time with the fleet monitoring system. It gives complete details about the driver’s location, delivery status, monitors the driver’s route, delivery estimate time, drivers exchanging shifts, etc
• Real-time insurance tracking: Managing a manual record of insurance is a tedious task; with fleet management software, the users can automatically receive alerts whenever the policy is likely to expire.
• Drivers and vehicle safety:  The fleet tracking software can record the driver’s unsafe driving incidents like harsh braking, speeding, cornering, and stop sign violations. By identifying reckless drivers, the fleet managers can put them for a training session that improves their driving skills and reduces the risk of accidents.
• Fleet fraud prevention: The fleet management software helps automate the reporting and analysis of fuel purchasing, at the same time identifying the discrepancies associated with it.

• Asset Profiles & VIN Lookup
• Track driver hours and licensing details
• Support mobile device
• Essential maintenance management
• Inspections & issues
• Fuel management
• Driver & vendor management
• Dashboards & real-time reporting
• Fleet vehicle lifecycle management
• Tracking fleet expenses
• Fleet operation reports
• Issue management
• GPS integration
• Secure data transfer protocol
• Parts and inventory management
• Telematics integration
• Contact management
• Integration with a third-party maintenance provider
• Warranty tracking
• Maintenance monitoring
• Manage vehicle insurance
• Meet compliance regulations
• Geofencing
• Alerts and notifications
• Tracking assets
• Operate in an online and offline mode

• Ease of use: The fleet management system should have an easy-to-use interface. 
• Compatibility: It should support the existing organizational software and hardware setup to avail of the new software.
• Integration: Fleet systems should easily integrate with third-party software.
• Flexibility:  The fleet tracking software should be flexible enough to configure the system features according to management operations.
• Scalable: Small businesses may even use a fleet management system to transport goods; some software can scale up as operation expands, while few are designed only for small businesses. So it is advisable to check the software's scalability before buying it.
• Value for money:  Check the price and see whether it falls into the budget. Before boarding the software, go through the case studies that resemble your business and see how the software has helped them.
• High data processing speed: The fleet management system should be able to process data rapidly and sync across many devices. 
• Security and privacy:  Check the level of security and privacy for the fleet software solution before finalizing it.

• Mobility-as-a-service:  Mobility as-a-service can change the traditional approach to commercial transportation.  The fleet owners and managers may use the company’s vehicle to rent or share with other organizations. It can help to reduce carbon footprint and unburden financial budgets.
• Autonomous Vehicle: Automobile engineers and data scientists are optimists about replacing manual driving with autonomous vehicles. However, complete automation may take some more years to make real.  If autonomous vehicles hit the mainstream, they may help fleet management overcome issues like driver shortages, drivers’ working hour limitations, and shift management
• Voice assistant:  Fleet management software is all set to integrate mainstream with voice assistants, and include more robust data analytics.  It is also predicted that in the future, the voice assistant with powerful sensors will be used to control fuel usage. The sensor linked with the voice assistant will get activated whenever there is a sudden change in the vehicle’s fuel consumption rate and sends voice command alerts to the driver and manager. 
• Predictive Maintenance System through IoT:  IoT is a disruptive technology that will see its presence in almost all sectors.  Its ability to pick critical data on any level makes IoT a powerful technology.  In fleet maintenance, IoT data allows users to build the best possible predictive algorithm that is faster to detect equipment issues.

The average cost of fleet management software could fall anywhere around $25- $35/ month per vehicle. The cost of these software varies depending on the features, software licensing fees, additional hardware devices, fleet size, etc. The software, like fleetio charges as low as $5/month/vehicle, whereas KeepTruckin, with a medium price range of $20/month/vehicle, is a popular tool among fleet managers.  The business with a large fleet size and admires features like heatmap of the routes and in-depth vehicle diagnostics can choose Samsara, with a price range of $45/month/vehicle. The Fleetio and Samsara software provide a free trial, while KeepTruckin offers a free version.

The fleet management software is continuously improving its efficiency with the latest technology like GPS tracking, telematics, and artificial intelligence. It has become the subject of curiosity for some business owners, and therefore, they prefer scanning the free and open-source fleet management software.

Goodfirms is a top review and rating site for software products. The platform accumulates a large pool of software providers ensuring that customers have more options to match and select the tools that fit their business. 

Goodfirms list of best fleet management software encloses tools that eliminate the bottlenecks of fleet operations and can fuel the business growth.