Fleet management software (FMS) has many benefits, but the overall value comes down to maximizing efficiency by providing complete visibility into your operations. Using FMS, managers can monitor operations in real time and collaborate with their team to resolve issues quickly, keeping the fleet and associated workforce productive and informed to better serve the community.
Maximum efficiency with FMS
Uptime is critical for waste collection fleets. FMS keeps your fleet efficient by enabling communication, eliminating time-consuming data entry and automating workflows. In addition, FMS with an open Application Programming Interface (API) and integration features allows you to connect the fleet to other parts of the organization to streamline – and in some cases automate – scheduling, billing, calendar synchronization, and more.
As a central hub for collaboration, FMS enables fleet managers to bridge the gap between field and office to stay on top of issues and manage maintenance tasks efficiently. Your team can comment on inspections, work orders, vehicles and more via a mobile app to keep stakeholders informed. Plus, inspections are customizable and you can create as many as needed for the different truck types in your fleet – good news for those moving to electric.
Drivers can perform thorough inspections on a mobile app and upload results instantly to a centralized database. When an inspection item fails, you’ll be notified in real-time and can schedule service and create a work order with all the necessary information, including parts, parts cost, labor, labor, and more. Once a work order is with the technicians, they can clock in and out for detailed labor hours and accurate “time to complete” data for specific tasks.
If you already use telematics or fuel cards to track fleet data, you can integrate these tools with FMS to get a complete picture of your fleet health and performance in real time. All information is automatically imported into your FMS so you can use this data throughout your fleet management process, from maintenance reports to cost analysis. And, as mentioned, you can connect other business software to your FMS for greater transparency and efficiency across the organization.
Benefit from improved visibility of fleet data
With your waste collection fleet constantly on the move, you need a way to view assets in real time. This can be nearly impossible without technology. A major benefit that FMS offers fleets is a comprehensive view of asset health and costs on a single platform. By monitoring the performance of your fleet in real time, you can make informed management decisions to ensure the success of your fleet. FMS automatically collects your maintenance, usage and expense data from which you can create and share configurable reports on virtually any fleet metric to monitor success. For government fleets, these reports are especially useful when lobbying for new fleet assets.
Many fleet managers struggle with maintaining an accurate view of costs to control their bottom line. FMS provides a complete overview of operating costs. By tracking expenses in real time, fleet managers can easily track budgets and get an accurate calculation of their total cost of ownership (TCO). Analyzing expense reports for areas such as fuel and maintenance can help identify overspending. With comprehensive cost visibility, you can better allocate money to manage your fleet’s profits.
With actionable data, fleet managers can make decisions that maximize efficiency and profitability. Tracking asset usage and performance is the best way to measure the efficiency of your waste collection fleet. By leveraging data such as cost per mile and maintenance costs, you can monitor how your assets are performing and whether their operating costs are negatively impacting your bottom line. In addition, you can estimate the optimal vehicle replacement windows based on usage, depreciation and operating costs and use these reports to support your argument for any additional fleet equipment needed.
While maximizing efficiency and providing complete visibility into your fleet operations can sum up the overall value of FMS, the benefits to waste management fleets – from regulatory compliance, increased uptime, reduced maintenance, repair costs to longer asset life and improved safety – far from reaching.
Rachael Plant is a content marketing specialist for Fleetio, a fleet management software that helps organizations track, analyze and improve their fleet operations.