What is fleet visibility? Fleet visibility allows managers to track and observe a fleet of vehicles while they're making deliveries or operating on a work site. Fleet managers can record drivers’ routes and locations and effectively schedule maintenance with real-time data and diagnostics. Additionally, with fleet insight, management can make data-driven decisions to improve fleet performance.
Delivery efficiency and effectiveness are prominent in fleet management, as they streamline the relationships between management, drivers, and customers. Discover the benefits of monitoring productivity and learn how to improve fleet visibility for your fleet management team.
Benefits of Fleet Visibility
What are the benefits of fleet visibility, and how does it affect operations? Fleet visibility allows managers to keep an eye on their assets, vehicles, and equipment at all times — giving them better insight into daily operations, driving behavior, and asset tracking. If fleet visibility did not exist in its current form, fleet management operations could not execute projects and deliveries on time.
Money and time are precious for all parties involved: fleet management, drivers, and customers. Fleet management has to pay for trucks, fuel, and employment. Drivers spend hours on the road and deal with unexpected delivery disturbances. Customers rely on their products to arrive in a timely and trustworthy fashion while receiving updated tracking information. Some benefits of fleet visibility include optimizing routes, reducing waste, improving customer service and experience, and forecasting issues.
Optimize Routes and Reduce Waste
Fleet management software and tracking allow distribution centers to see which routes drivers take. These systems provide a digital roadmap of every action and turn made upon delivery. Fleet management can use this information to optimize the drivers’ routes, which correlates to accountability and waste reduction.
If a route takes much longer than needed, fleet management can streamline the journey to make faster and more efficient deliveries. Efficient deliveries can save spending on gas, which can be rather expensive for fleet vehicles, and reduce the environmental expense of exhaust. Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) keep fleet drivers honest and accountable. This aspect of fleet visibility ensures drivers are paid correctly for their time and resolves any discrepancies in manual logging. If unnecessary or prohibited stops occur during the deliveries, fleet management will maintain clarity.
Improve Customer Experience
Optimized routes are beneficial for drivers and customers. With an increase in expedited and priority shipping, customers have an urgency for receiving their shipments. Most customer service portals have a package tracking system, which allows consumers to view their package's progress from the moment the parcel leaves the distribution center to its delivery. If customers see their package being transported from facility to facility without direction, they become impatient and skeptical. Efficient routes with consistent tracking constitute trust between the customer and fleet.
Providing these services and added visibility for customers can help with fleet efficiency. With order tracking and route management, consumers are aware of arrival times, enabling delivery preparation and reducing the number of redelivery attempts for signing off on packages. Customer service benefits of fleet visibility include developing efficient communication and time-effective relationships between the customer and distributor.
Forecast and Fix Issues
Fleet visibility allows operations to be proactive instead of reactive. Real-time data and tracking formulate efficient and effective fleet management systems for drivers. With route tracking and vehicle monitoring, fleet management can view disruptions in deliveries and remain on top of routine fleet maintenance. Operating on a schedule created by previous and current data saves time and money for those in charge of a fleet.
How to Improve Fleet Visibility
Now that you know the basics and benefits of this approach, how can you increase fleet visibility in your operation? Below are a few ways.
Use Expense Tracking
One of the simplest ways to improve fleet visibility is incorporating expense tracking into your fleet by using fleet management software like the Rand Platform. Expenses are some of the most important factors for fleet management. Vehicles will always need fuel and maintenance. Trucks spend long periods on the road, often taking days to make a single delivery, which requires multiple stops for fuel and routine maintenance to ensure the vehicle is running safely and efficiently.
Instead of keeping track of receipts as turned in by drivers, expense tracking tallies up the total fuel used per driver and delivery. Expense tracking tools track fuel expenses and calculate opportunities to save on spending regarding fuel economy and routing. You can also follow routine maintenance to prevent manual data entry.
Enforce Maintenance Management
Enforcing maintenance management is often overlooked in ways to increase fleet visibility. All trucks and equipment require yearly or even monthly inspections. Inspections ensure the vehicle or equipment is safe to operate and follows state guidelines. One of the best tips for increasing fleet visibility is to stay on top of these inspections. Monitor inspection deadlines and the expenses that come with these checks. With fleet management systems, drivers can report inspection results with the click of a button or the snap of a camera.
There are also circumstances where maintenance comes without warning. A truck can have a flat tire, which will put it out of service or delay it from making a delivery. Preventive maintenance, like ensuring all tires have the correct tire pressure and sensors, will decrease the number of emergency maintenance delays and expenses for fleets.
Set Up Real-Time Safety Alerts
Safety is a crucial tip for improving fleet visibility. Accidents happen, but preventing as many of them as possible will allow operations to run smoothly. As a part of preventive maintenance, sensors can discover malfunctions or under-performance from vehicles and help managers take safety precautions.
If a driver is driving recklessly or above the speed limit, management can track this behavior and report it. Deliveries will not happen efficiently or effectively if the driver is pulled over or gets in an accident. Safety alerts hold drivers accountable for treating fleet vehicles with care, as they are expensive operation assets.
Implement Mobile Work Orders
How your fleet handles work orders can answer how to increase fleet visibility. Going paperless is beneficial for the environment and for fleet transparency. Work orders can be lost, destroyed, or unorganized, leaving fleet management operations out of luck. By implementing a digital work order management system, you can scan and verify work orders with the click of a button.
The overall organization of work orders is important to fleet visibility since it keeps track of income and delivery. Digital processes are convenient organizational tools for fleets to use for enhanced operations.
Request a Demo Today
Rand McNally provides best-in-class truck navigation, tracking equipment, and fleet management software for diverse industries. Our business has been operating in the commercial trucking field for over 80 years. Our world-renowned products save decision-makers time and effort. We help your team complete jobs by the deadlines with user-friendly and affordable technology, along with our 24/7 service.
Want to learn more about our offerings? Browse our vehicle tracking equipment and fleet management system online or contact our sales team with questions by dialing (800) 789-6277. Complete our contact form for pricing information.
