How Fleet Managers can Implement Effective Task and Team Management Tools to Boost Profits

Every fleet business needs task management in place, to make sure on-the-ground operations and tasks are up to speed. 

But often, fleet managers don’t know where to start.

Systems and processes make work easier, and with a fleet management platform, it's even simpler - you have everything you need to manage tasks all in one place, and you can do it from anywhere. 

Imagine that. 

If you are looking for ways to manage tasks in your team or personal workload with one simple fleet solution, then you’re in the right place. 

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‍What is task management and why is it important?

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Task management involves monitoring all stages of a project and making continuous decisions until each stage is finished. 

Tasks will go through a life cycle of planning, testing, tracking, and reporting until completion. 

Effective task management is used by individuals, teams, organisations, and project managers who prefer to have a system in place to manage projects. It is a useful tool to ensure you meet deadlines, improve the quality of work, manage workloads, drive collaboration, and increase production.

The type of task management tools you choose will serve as a visual representation for the entire team and set the standard for organising tasks well. 

It will help you answer questions such as what tasks are being worked on? How many tasks have been completed? Are you on schedule with tasks or do you need some backup? And  when exactly you can close a project and start a new one with your team. 

Fleet software platforms offer task management features that can help you answer these questions, and manage tasks better in your fleet. 

What is an example of task management and where is it used?

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The fleet management industry is an example of where task management tools and processes are needed, to run a fleet successfully. 

Often, managers have multiple drivers on the road at once performing various tasks like making deliveries. In this case, managers will need to make sure their drivers make deliveries on time, and keep customers updated throughout the process. They also need to meet deadlines for daily tasks and offer adequate reporting on each delivery task, its progress and achievements. 

Instead of manually calling drivers, sending messages, and monitoring deliveries using a spreadsheet, they can streamline their workflow and plan tasks on a platform like the Cartrack Delivery app. 

They can manage and assign jobs, plan routes for the day, track progress throughout deliveries, and drivers can also send updates on their progress, and accept or decline jobs. 

They can keep a record to indicate if they are reaching certain goals in their fleet, through daily customised reports. Perhaps, their goal is to do a certain amount of trips in a day to meet delivery targets and increase customer satisfaction, then they can access vehicle trip history reports.

On the fleet software platform, you can cut your admin in half because all the information about your fleet tasks is in one place, so for instance, you don’t need numerous spreadsheets relating to vehicle trip history for the month. 

Below are more insights about a fleet platform and some tips on task management that will help you move those tasks onto the done list.

5 ways to boost your business with task management, team management and work optimisation features 

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1. Track tasks more accurately‍
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   Use data to know if you are on track with your task goals and to make business decisions. A platform will give you all kinds of data reports you need. For example, perhaps one of your goals is to save on fuel, and you need to get your team together to solve this problem. You can pull up fuel reports and assess the data to see if fuel is dropping. You can use this tool to put a plan of action together to help save on fuel and find ways to cut costs.

2. Manage your fleet remotely ‍
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   The more flexibility you have, the more tasks you can get done because you can monitor tasks no matter where you are. And with a cloud platform, you can access some sections of the platform from your phone and receive alerts for various triggers you've set up, to manage your fleet. For example, you can receive an alert to inform you when your vehicles are due for service.  

3. Communication with your drivers‍
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   Assign drivers, vehicles, and jobs to complete and share relevant information or let them chat with you directly in real time, using the communication features on the fleet management app. This will help you optimise your operations, as you won't have to try get hold of your drivers telephonically to assign jobs or communicate with them. For instance, a business selling fresh produce will get the orders in from customers, then can open the app, and calculate the best routes for drivers to take, and assign deliveries to the drivers strategically, ensuring on-time deliveries. Drivers can update their managers on where they are with orders from the app. Managers can then assign new tasks to available drivers and keep their customers updated.  

4. Automated reports ‍
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   To make your fleet tasks increasingly efficient, a fleet platform can help you eliminate the amount of time you spend on admin. Cartrack’s fleet platform ensures your admin, operations, and finance teams have everything they need when they need it. There are various types of reports and insights a manager can download, automatically receive or have sent straight to his team to help make admin and communication easier. For example, if the finance team needs to calculate the fuel expenditure for the month, managers  can retrieve a fuel report on their fleet’s monthly fuel consumption levels and share these insights with the finance team.  

5. Optimise your workforce ‍
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   Streamline processes in all areas of your fleet business, and remove unnecessary parts which will help improve your existing staff’s productivity and finetune certain fleet tasks. For example, with a fleet platform, you could make improvements to your maintenance procedures. You can retrieve timely maintenance reports and alerts to help you manage your maintenance schedules and keep your vehicles well-maintained. As a result, your staff won’t need to take the vehicles to the mechanics to be manually checked, and you will only need to service them when you get alerts from the platform, and with the knowledge from the maintenance reports - making this part of your business more optimised. 

What is the best way to manage tasks? 

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Together with a fleet software platform, here are some other helpful tips a fleet manager can use to manage tasks even more effectively.  

1. Focus on one task at a time ‍
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   Prioritising tasks is important to ensure the team isn’t doing more than they can handle, which could result in errors on projects. Bookmark important tasks for yourself so you know your priorities, and break big tasks into smaller subtasks, so the tasks can  get completed one at a time, and you can feel like progress is being made. This will also allow you to know who to follow up with, and you can tag individuals on tasks so they remain informed on updates as they happen. 

2. Collaborate frequently ‍
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   Working in a team means more work will get done, but at the same time, everyone needs to be on the same page and in sync. You need to continuously communicate with your team about project successes and failures, and get feedback from them. You should create an open space for them to discuss their thoughts. Communication tools such as virtual workspaces or video conferencing programmes will assist with this so there is a constant flow of communication. 

3. Realistic time frames ‍
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   Each task should have a realistic timeframe, and deadlines according to the relevant importance of the associated task or activity. Every timeframe you set should be achievable to help avoid unnecessary stress within your team. Keep your task list organised and ensure that your team is given enough time to complete tasks. 

4. Define roles and allocate resources‍
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   Assign the appropriate people with the right amount of experience and resources to get the job done. Every one of your team members should know exactly what they are supposed to do, this will also help build accountability within your team and keep everyone focused on the task at hand, which will improve productivity levels. 

5. Goal tracking ‍
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   Defining milestones helps motivate teams to execute tasks successfully. You can keep track of tasks using a reporting tool. Modern-day reporting tools come with features like project reports, resource reports, and time reports. This will give you a clear idea of everyone’s efforts, how things are moving forward, and how team members are utilising their time. 

Let’s unpack why task management software platforms are so important for you and your business. 

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Five key benefits of using task management software 

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1. All tasks are in one place ‍
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   If you find yourself scrambling to find tasks and you have multiple spreadsheets, a software platform will help you organise and keep all your tasks in one place. For example, a fleet software platform has a customisable dashboard with multiple tabs which ensures that all your fleet information and task progress is in one place. This helps you save time from having to search for information and keeps your team on schedule because you can quickly delegate and track tasks, from anywhere. 

2. More control for managers ‍
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   An organised platform eliminates some stress and pressure for fleet managers, project managers, and business owners because they have an overview of all tasks and can attend to other tasks - essentially multitasking. This is particularly useful when they have meetings, report backs, and are solving daily problems, they won’t need to worry about finding the data they need or waste time on unnecessary admin. 
   
   For example, say there is fuel syphoning happening in real-time, and fuel consumption levels are abnormally high, a manager can immediately intervene. They will be able to see from the fleet platform, which vehicles are consuming more fuel than others, flag areas of concern and investigate these.  

3. Room for business growth‍
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   A fleet platform can help you make the customer interaction with your business more seamless and efficient, as you are able to communicate with your customers about their deliveries. The efficiency factor also allows you more time for your customers, this could include answering queries more, regular check-ins, email updates, and going the extra mile for them.   
   
   You can also focus more on sales and marketing opportunities to grow the company or offer lower prices, more products and services because efficiency opens up more cash flow.

4. Important for remote work trends ‍
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   Businesses that fail to keep up with technologies and software systems, can fall behind their competitors, and disconnect from their customers.
   
   An example of this innovation is an increase in remote work globally. Companies are needing to adjust accordingly with better communication systems or run the risk of poor work ethics which can lead to frustrated employees and customers.
   
   A remote work statistic of 2022 is that 56% of companies around the world offer remote work opportunities. However, 88% of remote workers face inconsistent leadership and miscommunications with other team members, says Saaslist. Task management software can help bridge this gap. 

5. Increased team productivity ‍
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   According to Saaslist, project management and online task management software saves the average employee 498 hours per year. There is more streamlined communication to prevent less back and forth between managers and staff. Companies could also save on business costs, as they might need fewer employees, as a result of an improved and streamlined workflow.

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7 additional task management tips every manager can use

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If we look at managing tasks holistically across the board, the principles of organising are the same. 

Here are some methods you can look into to help you make your fleet successful. 

• Do the challenging tasks first‍
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  This involves starting with the harder tasks at the start of the day when you are more energised, before moving to the easier tasks. This will give you more time to make changes, research, and ask questions for challenging tasks, and you’ll feel more relaxed for other tasks.

• Task boards‍
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  Create your board or use a task management software platform to organise project management tasks into three categories: to-do, doing, and done. You can then sort your tasks into their respective categories so you can track your progress. After you finish a task, you can move it over to the "done" column to identify the tasks you've accomplished. When you see tasks completed successfully, it will motivate you to complete more. You can further categorise and organise tasks by using colour coding.

• Simple lists ‍
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  This is a more straightforward way of organising tasks, by simply writing tasks on a list, putting their due dates next to them, and then ticking them off the list once you complete the task. Just make sure you write your list on something that won’t easily be misplaced or thrown away. 

• Rows and columns ‍
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  Organise projects using a spreadsheet and place specific projects in their respective columns, then list the action items required to complete each task. This helps you better visualise how much work and time you need to put into finishing certain projects. Listing the individual tasks underneath each project can also make it feel more doable and approachable.

• Task timer‍
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  To assess if you are spending the right amount of time on tasks, you can split your tasks into sections of around 25 minutes of uninterrupted time. Stop once the timer alerts you, take a break, and then return to the next task. Some tasks might take up the full allocated time or less, and you can adjust accordingly. This technique allows you to do many tasks and keep productive while giving your brain a chance to relax. It will also allow you to assess what tasks take longer than others, so when you are planning tasks, you can create an appropriate working schedule for ultimate productivity. 

• Be open to feedback‍
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  This is one of the most important project management tools and strategies as there is always room for improvement. You need to keep informed about what’s working and what isn’t. Feedback is a two-way street. As a manager, you need to give feedback but also get it back. This will ensure project objectives are met timeously. It will also create a space for a good flow of communication, giving team members clarity on what needs to be done at all times.

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Manage your tasks easily and efficiently with one platform 

Overwhelmed with tasks, deadlines, workflows, admin, paperwork, and have a team to manage? Whether your business is big or small, our system will help make your daily operations a whole lot easier.

Easily manage tasks, track progress, collaborate seamlessly, and have everything you need to successfully manage your fleet, all from the Cartrack platform.