The transport monitoring system is a useful product. But it is beneficial if you know what to do with the system data. New fleet management services help you avoid getting confused in indicators and figures and use them wisely.
They do not replace the monitoring system but complement it and simplify the user’s work. The fleet management system has many advantages. In this article, we will consider the four most important ones.
What Is a Fleet Management: A Clear Picture of It
A fleet management system is a solution used to monitor and protect vehicles, drivers, and transported goods. It is a tool that supports fleet management and optimization of its use and control of transport processes carried out in the enterprise, so it works successfully in many transport companies.
The proposed system creates the following opportunities:
- An improvement of work organization;
- Careful control over transport;
- Driver time control;
- Control of fuel consumption.
The application of this solution allows for achieving significant savings. Due to this, it can be recommended to all transport and forwarding companies or other companies that own their automotive technology.
Data regarding the current position and speed of the vehicle, as well as other types of additional data such as fuel level in the tank, the temperature in the refrigerator, door opening or closing, etc., are recorded in the internal memory of the GPS vehicle controller. Then, using GPRS technology (which could be powered by hosted Prometheus), the information is sent to the monitoring center, where it is subjected to detailed analysis. With the car’s GPS device, you can download data directly from the tachograph (which is available at its output), such as speed, kilometers traveled, and engine speed. The data is stored in the controller’s memory.
Car GPS devices installed on vehicles can interact with various devices or controls additionally installed in the vehicle through interfaces. The most commonly used are bus interfaces, intelligent fuel probes, analog fuel level sensor interfaces, and transponder fuel caps.
Several additional devices can be installed on the vehicle device, for example, an alarm button, a reader and a driver identification chip, a trailer identification chip, and others.
At the same time, thanks to the development of a special sensor installed on the tanks (having the necessary explosion-proof approvals), the system is successfully used to monitor and control the presence and consumption of fuel.
The implementation of the GPS monitoring system by the fleet provides
- Effective transport management, forwarding by optimizing traffic routes, the number of stops, and empty flights;
- Improvement of transport control;
- Speed control – the possibility of introducing a motivation system for economical and environmentally friendly driving;
- Checking fixed points (base, clients, boundaries, etc.);
- Control of the area of residence of the vehicle (border, province, city);
- Control of the correct operation of the car (battery condition, temperature, engine speed);
- Control of the working hours of drivers, the number of actually performed flights and, therefore, it is possible to check the correctness of the road maps filled in by drivers by comparing them with the “Road Report,” which is a collective analysis of the data recorded by the system;
- Temperature control of refrigerating chambers, gas tanks, and semi-trailers;
- Protection of the car from theft or unauthorized use.
Why Do You Need Fleet Management: Key Advantages
Let’s look at the most important pros you’ll enjoy if you use a fleet management system the right way.
- A Possibility to Control All Indicators and Costs in One Program
It is inconvenient when waybills are issued in one place, transport and spare parts are accounted for in another place, and routes and fuel are controlled in a third one. All this takes a lot of time and requires concentration to take into account each indicator.
Fleet management makes life a lot easier. Everything you need is in one place. Fleet data is collected from different sources (1C, monitoring systems, etc.) into one program. In it, you get the general dynamics of the fleet and can evaluate the costs, terms, volumes, and efficiency. After that, you can start working on weak points, optimize processes and allocate the budget more accurately.
- An Opportunity to Become More Competitive
A carrier with a monitoring system is more likely to be contacted than a carrier who doesn’t use it. The customer wants to be sure that the transportation will be not only fast but also safe. It is important for clients that the carrier complies with the schedule and conditions of carriage.
The use of fleet monitoring and management systems is a great advantage for the carrier and any other company, too. Modern technologies work great for the status and competitiveness of a business.
- An Optimization of Routes and Logistics
Agree that simply controlling the location of the car is no longer interesting. Today, monitoring systems are not just a point on the map and control of routes. These systems help to change the driver’s track in real-time and purposefully send the driver on a more successful and thoughtful route.
With the development of telematics, it has become easier for the user to take into account a variety of factors: the discipline of the driver behind the wheel, road signs, weather conditions, and so on. The driver will no longer drive at random but will comply with the task of the dispatcher or management.
- An Opportunity to Say “No” to Expensive Equipment
Almost every company has machines that spend more time in service than at work. If the fleet is small, then such equipment is immediately in sight. But companies with a large fleet may not suspect that some cars eat up a significant part of the budget. Each machine must make money for the company. That’s why it’s an important metric to monitor.
Thanks to fleet management, you can analyze the load of machines and the amount of work they have done. Also, the functionality will help track each machine’s costs at any time. It’ll help you understand which equipment is easier to sell than to keep in your fleet further. Top-quality software solutions provided by experts at euristiq.com will help you optimize your work and increase your business competitiveness.