Finding the Treasures Buried in your Fleet Data

Finding the Treasures Buried in your Fleet Data

Take a look around your office. How many scraps of paper, receipts, and Post-It style notes are scattered around your desk, keyboard, and monitor? Now open your Documents folder. How many spreadsheets and documents are you using to track vital fleet information?

This is not a system. We’re sorry to be so frank but it really should be said. We’ve seen fleet managers who have papers stacked as high as books and folders so full of receipts and other documents that they stick out from the sides.

Again, this is not a system. Regardless of what you may think about it being some form of “organized chaos” or that it’s “ok, because I know where everything is,” there is no possible way to connect all of the dots necessary to make strategic decisions when it comes to managing your fleet operations.

Fleet management software is about more than just keeping all of your records in one place. Sure, it’s extremely helpful to have a single location that you can use to manage vehicle information and driver records. But, in today’s data-driven world, that’s only half the picture. Keeping the data is one thing, but a truly successful fleet manager will be able to analyze that data in order to create the framework for making decisions based on what that data is telling him or her.

By relying on these antiquated techniques you are missing a fundamental part of the job. You have enough information to compile your reports (although, doing that probably takes you hours as you sort through folder after folder and manually enter the required information) but you lack any sort of context for that information. Sure, you can tell your management team how much was spent on fuel or vehicle repairs for that quarter but can you tell them why? Can you predict future costs? Can you come up with strategies to increase fleet efficiency and propose ways to make the business better?

Key records like maintenance logs, fuel entries, and repair histories can all be used to make decisions about vehicles, drivers, and even about the routes involved in your day to day field operations.

The net impact of all of this is that you save time and money. You increase efficiency and your own personal effectiveness. Putting it another way - you significantly increase your value to your organization.

By integrating one piece of software into your environment you can effectively reset the bar for what a fleet manager in your organization is capable of accomplishing. Why wouldn’t you give it a try?