Next Level Fleet Management
Save money and avoid downtime with an amplified fleet management system
What is proper fleet management?
It’s all about making the right decisions based on the most accurate data. Proper data-powered fleet management can save time, money, and effort thatcan directly affect your bottom line.
As a fleet manager, you’re tasked with endless responsibilities. Running a commercial Fleet management business entails organizing, coordinating, tracking, and maintaining your company’s vehicles while striving to:
reduce
operational costs
operational costs
increase productivity
sustain a culture of safety
>> Let’s break
those goals down
>> Reducing operational costs
While you shouldn’t cut any corners when it comes to your drivers’ continuous training and vehicle upkeep, you should pay attention to areas where you can actually save money. This means avoiding unnecessary costs in
- Fuel consumption
- Damage to assets (or even lost vehicles)
- Insurance premiums and lawsuits due to accidents
- The loss of reputation that can ultimately result in
the loss of profits
>> Increasing productivity
You’ll need to pay special attention to things that might affect both your drivers’ and your vehicles’ efficiency. As a consequence, these will also affect the efficiency of the entire business that should operate like a well-oiled machine. This includes staying on top of things like:
- The condition of your vehicles
- Route planning
- Monitoring the drivers’ hours of service (HOS)
- The drivers’ behavior on the road
Should you notice any problems in these areas, you can then dedicate resources to specific areas of improvement such as fixing mechanical issues, finding the best routes, and organizing employee training in line with your observations.
>> Sustaining a culture of safety
It’s a no brainer that no good comes out of having your vehicles involved in repeated accidents. It will result not only in increased insurance premiums or even lawsuits (not to mention potential injuries or loss of human life), but will also affect your company’s public image and productivity of the employee(s) directly involved in such situations.
Being a fleet manager means you want to create and sustain a culture of safety. This entails a collective and on-going commitment to making safety a team effort, enforcing accountability and sustaining the highest possible levels of safety (in terms of your vehicles and drivers, but also in terms of the wider public - other drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and inanimate objects). It requires:
- Staying on top of your vehicles’ condition
- Monitoring driver behavior and driving habits
- Taking preventative measures
- Enforcing accountability
Leveraging the power of data to achieve those goals
Any fleet manager can monitor and coordinate all of the above with the right solution. While most solutions out there offer telematics or video telematics alone, in our case that’s just one part of our amplified fleet management platform. Our unique combination includes radar-based collision prevention, ELD (Electronic Logging Device) and real-time dash camera, providing you with real-time visibility into your fleet’s operations, informing and alerting you about:
- Harsh braking and rapid acceleration
- Distracted driving
- GPS location and geofencing
- Fuel consumption
- Driver scoring (ECO)
- ELD compliance
- Potential road hazards and other items
- Collision events
>> Here’s what you need
to know about each:
Harsh braking and rapid acceleration
These aggressive driving habits increase the possibility of all kinds of damaging situations:
- Collisions
- Reputation damage
- Unnecessary fuel consumption
- Brake and tire wear
They can incur avoidable costs such as in legal/insurance rates, vehicle maintenance, decreased business opportunities, as well as reducing the overall vehicle lifespan.
According to a study on driver safety:
» 53%
of vehicle accident injuries cause
employees to miss work
The rising number of car crash-related injuries
growing 6.2% annually between 2013-2017 in the US
These aggressive driving habits increase the possibility
of all kinds of damaging situations:
In 2019, the US vehicle insurance rates were
23%
higher than in 2011
and they’ve increased consistently every year since 2013,
with an average annual premium of
$1,470
The vehicle crash costs to employers have seen a steady
growth as well, amounting to
$57.9B
in 2018 alone.
Collisions can not only result in injuries and loss of human life but also hefty lawsuit damages, as seen in 2019 when eight lawsuits were filed related to a deadly crash in Florida caused by a commercial truck driver in which seven people died. Each of the lawsuits demanded $50,000 in damages. In another instance, a father and son injured in an accident caused by a commercial truck driver won a $35M lawsuit against the driver’s employer, JHOC, Inc.
As you can see, there is no shortage of potentially troubling behaviors and scenarios. Gathering information about these issues allows fleet managers to identify which drivers need additional training to avoid said problems, thus helping cultivate a culture of safety and reducing related costs.
SDS allows you to keep an eye on aggressive driving habits
Distracted driving
Equally dangerous as aggressive driving is distracted driving, which is where our radar-based collision prevention unit and two-sided real-time dash camera come in handy. The radar unit sends alerts to both the driver and fleet manager of distracted driving habits like lane departure. The camera captures both your driver’s face and the road and streams the video onto a cloud platform available through a mobile app or desktop browser.
Our solution is the only one that allows you to access the data from the radar-based collision prevention system in retrospect so you can analyze the information in detail. Having access to information about distracted driving can help you see which drivers are most prone to such behavior so you can bring it to their attention and/or implement training.
The two-sided dash cam records and streams both your driver and the road ahead of them
GPS location and geofencing
Keeping an eye on vehicle location via GPS tracking allows fleet managers to ensure both vehicle and driver safety and assist drivers in choosing the best possible route to avoid delays due to traffic jams. This leads to increased efficiency and overall smoother operation. A good telematics platform can issue alerts if one of your vehicles has exited a dedicated geographical area (aka. geofence) so you can notify the authorities if you believe the vehicle has been stolen.
SDS allows you to keep an eye on aggressive driving habits
Fuel consumption
By monitoring fuel consumption, you can keep up with your fuel ordering needs to avoid any downtime, as well as identify discrepancies in consumption. Any discovered inconsistencies could indicate problems with vehicle functioning, fuel theft, or inefficient driving. Observing normal versus abnormal fuel use will help deal with these issues as soon as they arise and stay on top of your fuel consumption costs before they spiral out of control.
Driver scoring (ECO)
ECO score is the indicator of driver performance and efficiency during their trips. It is the result of collecting and analyzing various segments of data related to their behavior, including harsh braking, rapid accelerating, HOS, lane departure, tailgating, speed limit adherence, etc.
Our analysis shows driver scoring is directly related to lower fuel costs, easier vehicle maintenance management, fewer accidents, and can help identify which drivers need more training.
Easily access your drivers’ ECO score
ELD compliance
An ELD or electronic logging device is a very important element of fleet management as it helps enforce the regulation about the number of hours each driver is allowed to drive, required in most countries around the world. This device monitors a vehicle’s engine and automatically records individual driving time.
The purpose of ELD regulation is to reduce the risk of collisions due to driver fatigue, but having access to the information from a vehicle’s ELD can also help you identify potential wear and tear to the vehicle, prevent damage, and manage maintenance costs.
Monitor your drivers’ HOS and distance traveled to avoid fatigue
Potential road hazards and other items
Our five-component radar-based collision prevention hardware is a standalone unit placed inside the vehicle which provides real-time visual and audio feedback about various items on the road. These include other cars, pedestrians, cyclists, large animals, as well as lane markings, speed limit signs, and other traffic signs.
Being alert of their presence at all times helps the driver stay focused and prevent accidents from happening. Moreover, being able to revisit and analyze the data about these elements can help you see which roads are more suitable than others (e.g. in terms of traffic congestion or allowed speed limit) and better plan out your drivers’ routes, thus saving you time and money
Among many other alerts, your drivers can receive alerts about the presence of pedestrians on the road in adverse conditions like rain, snow, or fog at a range of up to 500 feet
Accident events
Unfortunately, sometimes accidents happen despite doing everything in your power to prevent them. In this case, you’ll want to have all the possible information post-event so you can advocate your case to your insurance company or court if necessary.
With next-level fleet management software and hardware, you’ll get a full report, detailing the severity of the collision, its duration, damage, and its location (both geographical and the vehicle location), vehicle model, and license plate number.
