If you are in charge of a fleet of trucks or vans or are going to be, then this is the article for you. Fleet management is not an easy job, that much we can assure you. However, with the help of technology [and this article], you will be able to master it. Technology is one of the most fundamental and important parts of fleet management in the 21st-century – previously a person would have to manage a fleet by telephone, which was a headache, to say the least.
In this article, we are going to tell you how you can use technology to improve your fleet’s efficiency. Fleet efficiency should be at the forefront of your mind. If your fleet can run more efficiently, your business will operate more efficiently, and you will begin taking in more profits – do not overlook the importance of fleet management.
Fleet management: here is how to make use of technology to improve efficiency.
Tracking
Tracking is, without a doubt, one of the best ways that technology has improved the efficiency of fleets, trucking companies, and van companies. There are many ways that asset tracking revolutionized fleet management, with one of them obviously being that you can now track individual members of your fleet all the way along their journey, from the start until the end. Why is this beneficial, you might ask? Trucks and vans carrying goods are always at risk of being damaged, stolen, or becoming the victims of fraud – it is the very nature of the business – sophisticated fraud gangs exist solely to steal goods and things from trucking companies.
Tracking allows you to monitor your truck the entire way along its journey. This means, should anything irregular happen, that you are watching and monitoring and can notify the police or authorities, or at the very least, get into contact with the driver and find out what is going on. It will also allow you to pinpoint areas where crimes may have occurred, such as if a theft occurred while your driver was asleep.
Communication
Communication was, in the past, a problem for fleets and their control centers. In the days before technology, drivers would have to park up and use call boxes to contact their control center – or if they were lucky enough, they may have had a phone built into their compartment. Even with mobile phones in their early years, there would have still been headaches when it came to communication with members of your trucking fleet. However, now you are able to get in contact much easier, whether through video call or voice messaging, without having to make phone calls.
Many trucks have in-built consoles that allow their control centers to get in direct contact with the driver of the truck. This is fantastic and it allows you to communicate much easier with your team, all courtesy of technology. Communication is very important when you are managing a remote fleet. If you do not have a line of communication with your drivers, there is always the potential that something could go wrong, or that they could make a mistake. By tracking them and communicating with them, you are able to stay on top of any errors or mistakes that may happen!
Coordinates
With technology, your drivers are able to navigate to their assigned destinations far easier than they might have been in the past. Navigating may have been, years ago, a big problem and a source of great trouble for truck drivers. Now, however, they can simply look at their navigation application and find their way directly to their destination. This is another great benefit afforded to truckers and control rooms by technology. Navigating around in foreign countries and unfamiliar settings was a complete nightmare in the past, but now, it is easier than it has ever been and can be done by anyone.
Job Assignment
When you have access to remote fleet tracking technology, you can assign jobs to your drivers far easier. Job assignment is, without a doubt, a great benefit of this technology, and allows you to delegate and assign jobs without having to even speak to your staff, saving your time and theirs. You can simply type in the jobs that they need to do, they can do them, and everything is sorted. Job assignment is very handy and can mean that you can do everything remotely, removing the need for any verbal communication (which can be very time-consuming).
In this article, we hope to have explained a few of the benefits technology can have for fleet management personnel. Thank you for reading and we do hope you will take this into consideration when investing in your fleet management equipment.
