The demands of managing an emergency fleet in 2021

Every fleet in every industry faces challenges. From controlling costs to keeping vehicles on the road, the demands of managing a fleet are high. But when it comes to emergency fleets, the stakes are even higher.

And with emergency services across the world stretched to breaking point in 2020, it became more obvious than ever just how important efficient fleet management is.

We’ve taken a look at the three biggest demands on an emergency fleet and how to effectively manage them.

1. Keeping vehicles on the road

In an industry where downtime can be costly and disastrous, having your vehicles and equipment ready to go at all times is essential.

Keeping your assets at full health can be a hard job – especially when specialist maintenance is required for different vehicles and equipment.

Using fleet management software for emergency services can help Fleet Managers to stay on top of maintenance tasks and reduce downtime. With automated reminders for service events and workshop management tools, you can avoid unnecessary breakdowns and unscheduled downtime, keeping your fleet driving forwards.

2. Route planning

When lives are on the line, the best route is always the fastest route. Avoiding traffic and other roadblocks can be hard when you’re on the move, but using data to efficiently plan your journey can help give a clear view of the road ahead.

Using telematics to capture data – like information on busy areas of traffic or the location of fuel stations – will help to ensure emergency vehicles keep moving. This data can be fed into your fleet management system to help with reporting and future route planning.

Telematics can also help to keep your fleet safe, with vehicle tracking that allows you to check driver behaviour, such as harsh braking and high speed, highlighting drivers that might need extra training, or vehicles that may have additional maintenance needs due to excessive wear and tear.

3. Keeping things running efficiently with data

When you use data to make informed decisions about your organisation, it can be easy to waste time searching through multiple systems for the information you need.

Having your fleet data stored in one central, secure location is vital for the efficient running of an emergency organisation and can help to save administration time and costs.

The data collated by your fleet management software will help you to monitor all your assets, ensuring they’re being utilised efficiently and are in good working order. You can even keep track of available vehicles and see which assets are allocated to which drivers, allowing your emergency workers to quickly know which vehicles are available to them.

Your data will also help you to maintain compliance within your fleet, giving a comprehensive, auditable trail to evidence that the correct vehicle checks are being carried out and the important compliance information is being stored.

Managing a fleet of emergency vehicles might be challenging, but there are ways to make things easier. Learn more about smarter fleet management software.