A fleet refers to a large collection (group) of vehicles owned or used by a company. Fleet management details the methods employed by transport organizations in monitoring or tracking the performances of their vehicles in order to boost productivity and safety. In the transport industry, companies often hire fleet managers to oversee the day-to-day operations of their commercial vehicles.
Fleet planning is an important part of fleet management. Applying your fleet management and fleet planning skills together will result in lower fleet insurance costs. The concept of fleet management is very broad. In fact, it’s a complex area that is witnessing the wider application of modern technologies in the form of software. But how much do you know about fleet management? Here are all the necessary facts giving you everything you need to know.
What are the Duties of Fleet Managers?
Fleet managers are equipped with vehicle trafficking tools and tasked with running the operations of an organization’s fleet. The duties of managers may include the following:
Ensuring the Safety of Drivers
One main duty of managers is seeing that drivers are in good health to be on the road. But how does a manager sit in an office and ensure that drivers are driving safely when they are several miles away? This is where IT tools, such as dash cams, come into play to give managers real-time monitoring of the safety of their drivers.
Tracking of Fleet
At any given time, managers are supposed to know the various locations of their vehicles in service. Tracking thousands of operational vehicles can be a challenging task. But thanks to GPS technology, managers can tell exactly where a vehicle is at any moment. Contact Eyeride website for automatic passenger counting tools.
Electronic Logging Device (ELD)
In compliance with congressional mandates, managers are expected to implement ELD systems in order to accurately record the hours of service (drive time) of vehicles. This electronic system is meant to eliminate paper logging and fatigue-related dangerous driving.
Fuel management
It’s the duty of managers to ensure that vehicles run on high-quality fuel. They may also plan routes and assist drivers to economize on their fuel consumption.
Vehicle maintenance
Fleet managers are responsible for assessing the road worthiness of a fleet. Periodic maintenance of in-service and repair of broken-down vehicles are key duties of fleet managers.
Acquisition of New Vehicles
Managers may also liaise with vehicle manufacturers when an organizational need arises for new vehicles. The durability, safety, fuel consumption rates and costs of insurance must all be considered when acquiring new vehicles.
Fleet Management Software
Looking at the demanding nature of a modern fleet management job, it’s virtually impossible for managers to do their work well without relying on software. Fleet management software assists managers to track and optimize the operations of a company’s vehicles. Examples of these software solutions include Samsara, Omnitracs, and AUTOsist.
These cloud-based tools allow managers to have 360° field of view of their vehicles’ operations, boosting efficiency and ensuring the safety of both drivers and vehicles.
Conclusion
Fleet management is a great job in the transport industry. But without the advent of advanced modern technology such as GPS tracking, fleet managers would have been facing tougher challenges. Hopefully, as our civilization marches forward to the pinnacle of our achievements, fleet management would also get much better and easier.
