Learning Zone
The value of fleet consulting
Optimising the Value of Fleet Management Software
It’s undeniable that fleet management software already adds significant value to the running of any fleet operation …but, can it be optimised further through fleet consulting?
Whether you’ve been formally trained in management practices or learned on the job after having come up through the ranks, one of the most critical skills you can possess as an effective fleet manager is the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in fleet programs and practices.
And advanced software solutions offer a complete range of fleet management tools for doing just that – they enable you to implement best practices in a wide variety of areas.
Maximising those capabilities, however, requires the ability to evaluate your business processes and fleet management practices, which is where software suppliers can bring beneficial analysis and consulting services to your operation.
By using the expertise and professional consulting services of fleet management system suppliers, you can build an even stronger road map for success.
Understanding Processes and Procedures
To effectively evaluate your fleet management needs, and before you can begin to devise and implement best practices, it helps to have an understanding of all the management processes and procedures that drive your fleet forwards.
So first of all, ask yourself whether you use your software for any – or all! – of the following:
- To record, assign and manage vehicles and equipment, including pool units and short- and long-term rentals
- For inspection, maintenance and repair operations
- For parts inventory management and ordering
- To manage shop and technician schedules and evaluate productivity
- For visibility into driver information
- To manage fuel purchasing and usage
- For accident and risk management and regulatory and legal compliance
- To integrate with billing and invoicing for internal charge-back systems
- For budgeting and forecasting and fleet management reporting
Maximise the Use of your Data
Capturing the right data is the next step in analysing fleet management practices. And it’s important is to ask the right questions…
The growing volume of data at your fingertips can be overwhelming but focusing on different data sets can provide the results you need. Included is core data based on standard vehicle classes, fleet maintenance programmes, repair times and reporting standards.
Transactional information is also important to track, including financial or maintenance-based data such as mileages and fuel transactions.
Linked to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) these quantitative and qualitative measures can demonstrate effectively how your management practices are achieving your desired results, and how you are reaching your goals compared to internal or industry benchmarks.
Beyond technical and management skills, fluency in strategically focused data can promote change that leads to progress and success.
Use Professional Fleet Consulting Services to Streamline the Process
Doing all of the above through different lenses, by taking different viewpoints, makes that exercise yield even more valuable results.
What fleet management experts can offer is the ability to fully analyse and evaluate your fleet’s performance in a more comprehensive and meaningful way. That includes taking an objective look at your management processes, not only within the scope of your fleet’s data, but also based on what you can learn from best practices from a range of different operations.
Here are some examples of the types of things that the real world and fleet industry experience that a software supplier can help you to address:
- Workflow processes that improve administrative time
- PM and inspection compliance that lowers costs for downtime
- Vendor reconciliation for fuel, parts and other services
- Technician labor and shop workload allocation
- Better use of telematics data for operations management
- More effective vehicle and equipment replacement planning
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Creating a Road Map for Success
By providing a solution that goes beyond software, fleet management system suppliers can help you develop strategies and solutions that drive efficiency throughout your organisation.
Their unique ability to evaluate your experience through a gap analysis process leads to an effective look at your strengths and weaknesses.
Any analytical, evidence-based, data-focused approach builds a solid foundation for making fact-based decisions. It also makes it possible to create and provide a consistent format for communicating progress and highlighting exceptions throughout your organisation. That includes delivering critical information to senior executives, managers at all levels in all disciplines, and many others in a wide range of positions so they are armed with facts and prepared to do a better job.
The professional consulting services of fleet software suppliers can lead directly to the effective identification of your needs, and to recommendations about your programs, and the data you’re collecting on the fleet to make those decisions.
Expert, value added fleet consulting and client services can provide exactly the edge you need to achieve your goals, and to turn your fleet management processes into a real competitive advantage.
Take Action!
You already have an industry leading enterprise level fleet management system at your fingertips …but you can optimise the results generated by that software by maximising the use of your data and more effectively evaluating your management processes and practices. This can be achieved by identifying both strengths and weaknesses within your operation and recommending best practices that will optimise your use of that software.
Partner with your software supplier and find a better way to improve your operations.