How To Use Software Helps Maintain Fleet Management

By Author: QuickShift
Total Articles: 85
Comment this article

Fleet management is a challenging process that can cause a lot of inconvenience to the business owners if not tackled efficiently. The trust and reliability of your customers on your brand depends significantly on the quality of your delivery services. Not only for the sake of your clients, but fleet management is a crucial element of any successful digital trade, to prevent any hassle or disorganization within your teamwork.

The term ‘fleet management’ refers to the coordination of your transportation facilities as well as monitoring them to scale down the possibility of accidents, delays in delivery, running low on fuel, etc.

There are many organizations that provide fleet management services to businesses on the verge of expansion to other cities or even planning for international trades. These service providers, called as Third-Party Logistics providers (3PL), along with fleet management, also assist you in order fulfillment procedures and warehousing solutions. By hiring them, you won’t have to worry about your vehicles or maintenance, since all of this will be taken care of by an FMS.

THE CONCEPT ...
... OF FMS
FMS stands for Fleet Management Software. Just like you integrate your data with that of the shippers’ through an Order Management System (OMS) for optimizing the order fulfillment process, you can introduce an FMS into your business to enhance the quality of the transit of your assets.

Often in scenarios like handling business from various places and carrying out innumerable shipments and even returns simultaneously, the data produced is in massive amounts which are impossible to process manually. This is where an FMS alleviated your burden.

By clubbing techniques like Big Data Analytics, GPS, etc., a Fleet Management System assists you in keeping track of your moving goods, the vehicles, and their scheduled maintenance, etc.

IN WHAT WAYS CAN YOU MAKE USE OF AN FMS?
Usually, FMS is used extensively by the 3pl fulfillment service providers and lesser by the business owners. The reason being that they manage every minute detail of transportation, and all you have to do is ask them for visibility of such data.

Yet, you must be aware of the working of a Fleet Management Software and how can you take its full advantage.

Given below are the ways you can use an FMS:

Monitoring Fuel Efficiency
Calculating fuel efficiency of your vehicles is daunting when there are hundreds of your trucks on the wheels. Checking the conditions of each vehicle, analysing their patterns, fuel stops, etc. is a work where any human cannot escape errors.

But by using FMS for the same, you can focus on more important activities rather than rummaging through your transportation lot. It combines all the factors that can affect the consumption of your fuel and suggests you the best solutions to better outcomes.

Tracking the Activities of Your Vehicles
By hiring a fleet management service provider, you can utilise an FMS for tracking the daily activities of your vehicles- the routes they take, number of stops they make, time taken by the drivers to complete the delivery, etc.

For this task, devices with in-built GPS are installed in the vehicles, whose data gets stored in your computers and is calculated for various purposes by an FMS.

Keeping a Log of the Maintenance of Your Vehicles
Another hurdle faced by fleet managers is making sure all the vehicles are in good condition to make inter-city transits with assets weighing a lot. Again, it is impossible to check each vehicle regularly and remember the specific parts which demand repairs.

Therefore, the 3PL fulfilment service providers make put FMS to work. It keeps a log of the maintenance history of all your vehicles, which makes it easier for you to look out for unexpected breakdowns or failures, preventing a delay in delivering your orders.

Moreover, in case of an emergency, it alerts the drivers and suggests them the best routes to reach mechanics as fast as possible.

Scheduling Your Deliveries
The number of orders you receive per day are countless and from varying locations. And mapping best routes for each one of them, whilst also integrating the time factor to it is a task beyond human capacity.

But with FMS, you can easily handle big data and even analyse it to produce the best solutions and even taking care of the worst possible scenarios. It tracks the number of idle vehicles, assigns them assets to deliver which have the shared route to follow, making sure the process is completed within the given period, etc.

CONCLUSION
Besides these, an FMS can also help you in making your transit compliant with the regulations of different states and governments. It aids you with vehicle acquisitions, insurance protection, improving the safety of your vehicles, and even coaching drivers!

Therefore, whenever you hire a third-party logistics provider, make sure they have such software integrated into their system, which you can make use of for a better fleet management system.