5 Features Every Company Needs in Their Fleet Management Software

Running a fleet sometimes means using technological assistance to respond quickly to issues that come your way, whether from customers waiting or from deadlines looming.

With an advanced fleet management system, you can prevent breakdowns, optimise routes, and stay on top of your fleets’ every move in real time!

But wait, does your old system offer these features? 

Dive in to discover how upgrading to a modern FMS with smart features can do for your fleet operations.

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Why is fleet management software so popular?

Fleet management software (FMS) is seen as the right-hand man beside many businesses that run fleets. It provides managers with increased visibility to all their fleet activities, allows managers to easily manage their vehicles and drivers, and gathers all vehicle data for you to use however you see fit to improve your fleet. 

The gathered data is served to you on a silver platter through a fleet management platform— the ultimate fleet management tool that gives you instant access to all the vital information of your fleet. With a click of a button, you’ll feast your eyes on your fleet costs, how much fuel it uses, a full list of your vehicle inventory, vehicle usage ratings, the driving behaviour of your drivers, and more.

• Documentation on bought or leased vehicles
• Vehicle specs and their current conditions
• Maintenance schedules
• History of parts and services
• Insurance, licences, and tax documents
• Fuel transactions
• Vehicle and operation expenses

As amazing as this is, some fleet management systems can’t keep up with your business. Some Legacy fleet systems may not be able to collect such a large amount of data from your fleet or not be updated to run as fast or offer as many solutions as the modern FMS would.

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Legacy fleet systems basics

Legacy fleet systems are usually the classic or original fleet management systems that have been around since the early days of fleet management. These systems don't have the latest features or technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or telematics, but they still assist in managing fleets to some extent. 

While these systems have served their purpose, they come with limitations and challenges that can interfere with how the modern manager efficiently oversees their fleet.

• Limited scalability:
  
  Legacy fleet systems often struggle to keep up with growing businesses. They lack the flexibility to handle things that come with an upgraded larger fleet size like the amount of data and new features or applications you might want to integrate.
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• Lack of real-time data:
  
  Legacy fleet systems often can't analyse your data as fast as modern FMS, this means they may not be able to provide real-time data back to managers, making it a bit challenging to monitor and manage your fleet as you would have to wait to get updated on fleet operations or make decisions based on outdated information.
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• Security vulnerabilities:
  
  Most businesses want to keep their sensitive information as secure as possible. Legacy fleet systems are likely to pose security vulnerabilities. They don't protect against cyberattacks, hacks, or data breaches.
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• High maintenance costs:
  
  Because the hardware and systems are older than modern technologies, you might need to invest extra time into maintaining your legacy fleet system. Over time, it often needs hardware upgrades and software patches, leading to high costs.

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The five FMS features every business needs

If your goal is to run an effective, productive fleet that you can monitor and track easily, then using an FMS and its amazing features is exactly what your business needs. 

Fleet management software provides features that can provide valuable insights into a fleet. Five of them can change the way you manage your fleet.

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1. Vehicle tracking

With the help of GPS technology, cellular networks and tracking units, fleet management software can gather real-time vehicle location information along with the vehicle’s odometer reading and speeding, allowing managers to have increased visibility on the whereabouts and activity of their fleet and equipment.How does knowing the location of your vehicles help your business?

1. With advanced vehicle tracking, managers can plan their delivery routes more efficiently and use route optimisation practices to shorten travel time and save on fuel, resulting in cut costs for both fleet and fuel.
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2. Alerts and geofences can be created to further monitor your vehicle's routes. Geofences can be created around any area to either ensure your vehicles only operate around certain areas or to alert you whenever your vehicles enter danger zones. Whenever your vehicles enter a geofence area, you will be alerted of their location.
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3. Real-time vehicle tracking is a benefit on its own. With this, managers can see not only where their vehicles are but also how they are being driven. This is crucial for making informed decisions regarding driver behaviour, responding swiftly to situations like breakdowns and ensuring our vehicles are always on schedule.
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4. If you're in the delivery industry, always transporting goods, produce or gadgets, then you might know the power of an accurate ETA. Providing an ETA to your clients of where their shipped or ordered goods are is a surefire way to keep your customers satisfied. With vehicle tracking, you can provide this information and manage your client's expectations.
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5. Looking forward to growing your business? Cartrack vehicle tracking technology ensures smooth scaling by helping you keep up with the location of each new vehicle you add to your fleet. Our tracking unit also provides information to facilitate vehicle allocation and resource distribution.

2. Maintenance

Every smart fleet management software should be able to read your entire fleet, track usage and mileage, and inform you when your vehicles need a touch-up, either through regular maintenance checks or full vehicle servicing.

Fleet management software tracks maintenance schedules and notifies businesses when it's time for essential tasks like oil changes or inspections. This proactive approach prevents breakdowns and expensive repairs, ensuring reliable fleet operations.

Cartrack’s proactive maintenance feature can schedule fleet maintenance by generating reminders for essential services based on mileage or manufacturer recommendations. This ensures your vehicles stay in tip-top condition, reduces downtime and extends the vehicle's lifespan, all these support growth in a company.

3. Driver management

This FMS feature focuses on your drivers and ensures their safety, whether driving within a site or on the open road. It does this by observing driver behaviour and monitoring factors such as speeding, abrupt braking or turning, idle time, fuel usage, and wear and tear. 

Managers can then use this information to identify areas for improvement in driver training, encourage them to drive safer and implement driver safety protocols.

Cartrack can lend a helping hand here through its reports, alerts and driver scorecards. These risk reports and driver scorecards monitor driver behaviour and detect risky actions like speeding or harsh braking. These valuable insights into fleet performance and driver behaviour can enable informed decisions towards optimised operations as the company expands plus help you effectively train your drivers to promote safer driving habits and mitigate the chances of accidents, saving your business thousands in costs.

4. Fuel management

Fuel management is one of the biggest responsibilities for fleet managers (and one of the costliest). FMS provides fuel tracking and analysis tools to help businesses monitor fuel consumption, identify inefficiencies, and implement strategies to reduce fuel costs.

No matter the size of your fleet, Cartrack assists in tracking its fuel consumption through fuel level monitoring. This can detect fuel theft and also allow you to track fuel costs through MiFleet, our cost management system that provides a full list of all fleet transactions, including fuel. 

This doesn't just show you how much you spend on fuel but also helps validate transactions by showing where transactions occurred, the location of your vehicle when transactions occurred to correspond, the litres poured and the vehicle's tank capacity. For growing companies with ever-increasing fuel transaction receipts, a tool like this is extremely valuable.

5. Reporting and data analysis

Take ‘gut feelings’ out of the equation and trust in accurate fleet data and reports that show real-time information about your fleet. Through FMS’s telematics, data is automatically taken from your vehicles, encompassing fuel consumption, engine performance, and driver behaviour. 

For further comprehension, this data can be split into customisable reports for you to easily analyse and identify areas for enhancement and make smart informed decisions regarding your fleet operations. As your business grows it sometimes gets harder to follow and understand incoming data, Cartrack’s fleet platform has more than 40 reports that can compile all your information into easy-to-understand reports for your convenience.

After seeing what more smart FMS systems like Cartrack can do and how you can use these five amazing features to improve fleet operations, the question remains, ‘Do you want to stick beside your legacy fleet system or upgrade to a system with more muscle on its bones?

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Why businesses use fleet management software

Fleet management software is one of the most popular software in the fleet industry.

Many businesses gravitate towards modern fleet technology because of the efficiency it offers, the scale it can operate in (taking in information of whatever the size of the business), the ability to adapt and grow with your business and the ability to assist businesses in transitioning from manual fleet management to automated fleet management. 

From the small bakery down the road with 2 vehicles that transport their confectionaries to local supermarkets to the global vehicle tracking company that is Cartrack with its large fleet, fleet management systems are used across the board to track vehicles, monitor drivers, scale operations, improve safety measures and so on.

If all this doesn't convince you of the global use of FMS, I’ll leave it up to the numbers. 

The global fleet management market size has been reported to reach an estimated $34 billion by next year (2025) at a CAGR of about 11.3%.

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The benefits fleet management software can provide your business

If the compelling words of ‘fleet efficiency’ or ‘streamlined operation’ aren’t enough to sway you to upgrade your system from a legacy fleet system to an advanced fleet management software to experience the five essential FMS features, then maybe these benefits will push you to take the first step in investing in a smart fleet management system that can propel your business towards the future.

• Increased fleet visibility
  
  No more sitting and waiting for manual updates of where your vehicles are or how long deliveries will take. FMS provides an eagle-eye level of visibility over your fleet in real time. It doesn't stop at the current location, you can see the vehicle’s engine status, duration of trips, and vehicle usage. With full visibility comes the ability to improve dispatching and faster response time if issues occur.
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• Mitigate risks and enhance safety
  
  Safety comes first, especially with your drivers. FMS promotes safer driving practices with features like driver behaviour monitoring, alerts for risky driving habits and reports you can use to coach and improve driving habits and reduce fleet accidents.
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• Easy fleet data accessibility
  
  Say goodbye to mountains of paperwork or systems that delay updating your fleet information. With FMS, you use a centralised platform where you can access all your important information just like that. This level of ease simplifies data management and saves you a lot of time to focus on other aspects of your fleet.
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• Cut fuel and fleet costs
  
  Swiftly identify areas of financial improvement, monitor them, and find solutions to cut costs. If there’s excessive fuel consumption, for example, changing routes to shorter and more efficient ones, improving idle time, and stopping fuel leakage or theft can offer preferable results. These can contribute to the overall reduction of fleet management expenses.

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How can Cartrack future-proof your business?

Need a business that can help you track your fleet, manage your drivers and scale your operations with these five features and more? Look no further than Cartrack.

When one thinks about the future of their business, they often think bigger, better, and more efficient. Planning to scale your business and reach new heights requires years of dedication, a strong commitment to boosting your business operations and smart tools that can handle your growing business.

Cartracks fleet solutions are all built to handle your growing business, and even encourage it.

Let me explain, Cartrack provides industry-leading products that offer proven fleet solutions with flexible packages that fit any business and industry. Even if you're planning to grow your business over the years, Cartrack solutions can accommodate the positive change and grow with you.

To follow the changing times, Cartrack fleet software can be integrated with other systems, from dispatch management software to electric vehicle systems, if you run an EV fleet, opening a world of scalability.

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As seen in the video, Cartrack provides businesses with all they need to lead a thriving business in the 21st century and beyond. With new cutting-edge softwares being invented year by year, FMS have to be able to keep up, adapt and further provide value for businesses.

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Manage smarter with Cartrack’s fleet solutions

Ease your fleet management woes and lead your business forward with Cartrack as your fleet management partner of choice.

Contact us today to get a free quote.