The demand for transporting goods and passengers increases every day.

From domestic suppliers to cross-border transportation services, businesses of all sizes rely on commercial vehicles to move products and people – known as fleets. To organize and coordinate vehicles efficiently, comply with the law, and reduce costs in the era where technology is applied in every field, businesses have no choice but to look to fleet management solutions. This article introduces all you need to know about fleet management, including concept, method of operation, benefits, and future development, as well as the essentials for good fleet management software.

What is fleet management?

Fleet management is a term that refers to the actions and processes that must take place, in sequence and logic, in order to operate its employees and vehicles at all times, follow all the rules your business needs to adhere to, and make sure they work within budget and with maximum efficiency. Not an easy job!

For each individual vehicle, its owner must always take care of issues including storage, insurance, gas prices, registration, ownership, and maintenance. A fleet of 5 or more vehicles needs similar procedures, not to mention a flexible and consistent schedule and paid staff. These operations are necessary but cannot be managed by manual tools. Meanwhile, a decentralized software-based management system allows businesses to do just that, but in a much simpler way.

So, who utilizes Fleet Management? The answer is almost all companies and organizations that provide or implement vehicle-related services. We could easily file a long list of industries that need to use this solution, including:

• Public transportations
• In-land logistics
• Utility companies
• Construction and landscaping companies
• Food delivery services
• Couriers and packages delivery services
• Emergency services

What does a fleet manager do?

Fleet management roles can be internal, business operators, or outsourced services. Large enterprises like UPS or Coca-Cola arrange in-house positions to take responsibility, while most small business owners use fleet management systems themselves, leaving the rest of the businesses to delegate this task to outsourcing companies that specialize in providing this service.

What are the benefits?

Fleet Management is used all over the world, as this system provides consumers with many of the following benefits:

• Information is constantly updated in real time. This is due to the high-tech GPS tracking function of the object through the active sensors of the Internet of Things that are installed on the object, the modern architecture of the program code through microservices, as well as the use of cloud technologies. The combination of these innovative technical and scientific tools gives a complete advanced system report on a special panel for the user to read the information.
• The possibility of constant checks and technical condition and maintenance of the vehicle. The system registers the average energy consumption, the distance traveled during transportation, and the amount of time spent on the road and fixes every breakdown, malfunction, or malfunction of the sensors. Information boards or other details. Special software, based on such data for each vehicle in the fleet, makes schedules for recommended maintenance, and can also predict breakdowns or other problems based on negative experiences with similar vehicles in the same company.
• Ensuring the safety of drivers. This is achieved by registering all cases of non-standard behavior of employees in the cab of the car, drinking alcohol or smoking while driving, as well as violations of traffic rules while driving. The system collects this data into a single database, after which the enterprise management receives information in a sorted form, with reference to different vehicles in the company. This allows employees to be rewarded or punished, reprimanded, or given the necessary training to avoid negative consequences in advance and ensure the safety of drivers.
• Fuel efficiency. It is known that with a different driving style, the car consumes different amounts of fuel. With a constant set of speeds, sharp acceleration, and then braking, at peak moments, fuel consumption goes off-scale. Sensitive sensors monitor such moments and help to make a recommendation program for the driver’s optimal speed on the route to save. Also, IoT assets allow you to map the best traffic on a flight, avoid large traffic jams, cross busy city streets, and fully optimize the route, which will contribute to significant fuel savings, reduce the cost of logistics and follow company rules.
• Improving the quality of service for customers. When contacting the company, customers are registered in a special convenient application of the Internet of Things, which allows them to track the movement of their goods in real time. The system automatically optimizes routes, reduces downtime, and the client always receives dry cargo before the appointed time, and this has a positive effect on both the credibility and profit of the enterprise, as a satisfied customer attracts more partners to cooperate with the fleet.

This list of Fleet Management benefits is far from complete, and the client must independently see all the options of the innovative system in order to understand how useful and effective it is for his business. Euristiq staff provide an extended presentation, coaching, and training to ensure that the customer understands every nuance of the Fleet Management application.

Future of Fleet Management

Undoubtedly, active competition between transport companies, an increase in the volume of logistics, as well as online trade, will lead to the need to install a Fleet management vehicle tracking system with active GPS sensors of the Internet of Things in each company. The future of this technology speaks of its sustainable development, which will give many competitive advantages to every company that invests in the system in a timely manner.

As a result, each transport company will have mobile applications for tracking goods from the seller to the buyer, all parcels will be delivered on time, with a reduction in transit time. There will be fewer accidents on the road, drivers will become more disciplined, and fleet profits will skyrocket due to stable fuel economy. This will reduce prices for a particular client and gain new benefits in this business area.

Thus, the management of Euristiq is confident that Fleet management is the future of modern logistics, and the technology itself will also be constantly developed and improved to always keep up with the times.