By Joseph Lalla, Account Executive
Georgetown Insurance Service, Inc.
Silver Spring, MD
Your fleet of vehicles is a critical component of your business. And for some companies, their fleet is the heart of their business. Fleet management systems can help you keep track of and manage commercial vehicles such as cars, trucks, vans, heavy machinery and other vehicles used for work purposes. Using these systems can help mitigate risks associated with vehicle investment and allow decision makers to gain real-time visibility into their fleet.
Benefits of a Fleet Management System
Fleet management systems can allow businesses to run more efficiently in order to maintain and increase productivity and profitability. For businesses that involve fleets and heavy coordination of those vehicles, systems like these can be crucial to maintaining order, success and safety. This is particularly true of companies that specialize in freight or transportation and utilize multiple vehicles at the same time.
Besides improved efficiency and productivity, a tailored fleet management system can:
- Allow for more jobs because the locations of the fleet vehicles are always known, making dispatching easier. This can improve profit margins because managing vehicles and their drivers is much more efficient and seamless.
- Automation of fleet reports. Fleet management systems can offer tailored, automatic reports on a weekly/monthly/daily basis. By using these metrics to understand and follow the habits of your fleet and your drivers, decision makers can easily make adjustments to increase productivity and minimize risk.
- Improve safety standards. Fleet management systems can allow for the monitoring of all vehicle activity. These systems can analyze movement, idle times and some can even track fuel receipts further helping managers to assess the most cost-effective ways to manage their fleets. Using cameras or GPS monitoring with these cameras can give managers even more control over their drivers and their activity. Plus, with certain software, managers can analyze driving patterns and are able to bring potentially dangerous driving habits to drivers’ attention. A fleet director can be monitoring a company’s trucks and see the driver’s habits. By using this you can better control drivers and even avoid accidents. It’s important to remember that this is not in violation of any privacy rights as a fleet vehicle is not a private vehicle. It’s a vehicle owned by a company being used solely for business purposes. Some systems can also provide speed control devices which force drivers to rely on good driving habits.
- More cost-savings. Safer drivers mean fewer accidents and less insurance claims. It’s simple – the fewer claims you have, the lower your insurance rates will be over time. In addition to saving money on insurance, companies can also see cost-savings by gaining control over fuel costs, reducing out-of-route miles and unauthorized trips, and cutting down on vehicle idle time.
- Enhanced customer service. Fleet management systems can reduce customer wait times and even improve fleet delivery times. More effective services to your clients means the higher likelihood of repeat business and brand loyalty. And the faster you can provide service to one client, the faster you can move onto the next.
The Bottom Line
If your business relies on fleet vehicles, investing in a fleet management system can increase productivity, efficiency and even increase profit margins. They can also maintain the safety of your drivers, decrease your insurance costs and allow your company to run more smoothly overall.
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