If you’re still using manual methods for fleet management, this ultimate guide can help you boost efficiency.
Using manual processes can be a huge disadvantage when it comes to fleet management.
Why?
Because it leaves any field service businesses open to a lack of visibility of the entire operation. And continued use of legacy systems and paper-based records, has led to a largely reactive approach when it comes to fleet management, health and safety, and business efficiency.
Ultimately, this all eats into profit margins.
For example: Fixing damage to vehicles or doing emergency maintenance in a reactive fashion. It can cost up to five times more to fix something reactively than it does to carry out proactive maintenance regularly.
Plus, using outdated methods of fleet management also compromises the safety of your field-based workers as their journeys and risk assessments go unmonitored, meaning that issues could arise when they’re on the road.
Ready for the good news? Fortunately, there’s tech that can help with all this. Using field service management technology, businesses can improve vehicle safety and reduce costly downtime for your business. And, it makes things much quicker to manage.
🔍In fact, companies that use field service management software enjoy a 90% time saving on average.
However, there is still significant room for modernisation in this industry, and many businesses still rely on guesswork or inefficient processes to get the job done.
If you’re still using manual methods for fleet management, this ultimate guide can help you see exactly how you can boost efficiency 🚀
6 WAYS TO IMPROVE FLEET MANAGEMENT WITH FIELD MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Let’s jump straight into the top ways fleet management boost efficiencies with tech 👇
#1: MANAGE VEHICLE MAINTENANCE EFFECTIVELY
🔍Businesses that take a preventative approach to vehicle maintenance save 12-18% on the costs, compared to firms that only fix something when absolutely necessary.
And this is where field management software can help.
Daily maintenance checks. To help you take preventative measures when examining your fleet, features such as DVSA-compliant walkaround checks allow your drivers to do a daily walk around the vehicle and log any defects through a mobile app. The driver or technician can then check the functionality of the vehicle and record any areas of concern. And they can add their notes to the log for that specific vehicle every day.
Detailed reports. Over time, the system builds a detailed report from the daily checks so that there is always something to refer to if you need to identify the root cause of a vehicle issue. Plus, daily monitoring will allow you to note any changes that could become issues later down the line and pay a lower price to have a vehicle repaired beforehand.
Automated alerts. What’s more, you’ll be able to create Event Alerts for each vehicle. Each ‘event’ is stored on each vehicle’s record so that your back-office staff are notified when your Road Tax is expiring or when the vehicle service or MOT is due to be booked. These notifications help your business stay compliant and avoid unintentional breaches of vehicle laws.
#2: MONITOR MILEAGE WITH GPS VEHICLE TRACKING SYSTEM
Many field service management softwares have a GPS tracking system in place for all the vehicles in their fleet because it easily allows them to track how far vehicles are travelling before they need routine maintenance.
Vehicle tracking. With some tech solutions, job tracking is integrated into the software so that your back-office team can monitor any vehicle when necessary.
The software records the mileage completed by each vehicle for years, so you can always refer back to previous journeys without having to search through mountains of paperwork or receipts.
Better fuel consumption management. You can also link transactions to the actual mileage completed by each vehicle. By lining fuel card transactions to the mileage data, you’ll be able to calculate highly accurate miles to the gallon figures, as well as identify any discrepancies in your costs.
Overall, these features will help you save money and deploy more efficient decisions when managing your fleet of vehicles.
#3: STORING DOCUMENTS SECURELY
🔍In 2020, around half (48%) of field service businesses were still using manual administration processes, paper-based and legacy systems to manage their fleet.
So, now is a great time to upgrade your systems and stand out from the competition.
And, of course, fleet management is made much easier with field service management tech.
Safely store documents in one place. The cloud-based software will store the documents safely so that your back-office staff can access them easily. You will be able to access any document at any time for any vehicle: MOT certificates, insurance details, leases, invoices for maintenance costs — or even drivers licences for your employees, all at the touch of a button.
Save time. As a result, time-wasting tasks such as looking through digital folders or sifting through paper records are eliminated.
Adhere to compliance. Your customers and staff will also be able to rest assured that their personal information or important documents are safe. Unlike spreadsheets and legacy systems, which are notoriously challenging to manage compliantly, CRM systems such as the one that is integrated into some tech, allows you to carry out GDPR-compliant management of individuals’ details.
#4: KEEPING ON TOP OF VEHICLE SAFETY
If you’re the Head of Operations at your company, it’s unlikely you’ll know everything about every vehicle in your fleet. At most organisations, the state of a field service technician’s vehicle is logged in a book or spreadsheet somewhere only accessible to the back-office staff.
And this is where tech can help.
Fleet profiles. With some field management software, having mobile-device accessibility and GPS vehicle tracking systems means you’ll have access to your entire fleet of vehicle’s history and real-time location at the tap of your finger.
Safe driving. Not only does the software give you a comprehensive overview of each vehicle, its age, mileage, and condition, everyone who needs to will be able to access every DVSA-compliant walkaround to ensure your vehicles are safe for driving.
So, aside from reducing administrative headaches, you and your technicians can rest assured that every vehicle is roadworthy and safe to drive.
Fuel efficiency. Using the GPS vehicle tracking system, with some tech, you can generate an analysis for each technician that includes their idling, speeding, cornering, braking, and harsh accelerations. Then, to give managers an at-a-glance view of each field service technician’s driving behaviour, the platform assigns a driving score for each driver.
Driver management. Combine this driver behaviour analysis with our advanced time-stamping records for each driver, and you’ll be able to understand how your field technicians are driving… And more importantly, if they’re taking the necessary breaks to ensure they’ll be alert on the road.
Let’s delve into efficiency a little more…
#5: OPTIMISING ROUTES
Time is money. But, unfortunately, with petrol prices escalating to an eight-year high in the UK, many field service businesses are losing large sums of money by not optimising their technicians’ routes between jobs.
If you’re relying on spreadsheets or outdated in-house systems to manage everyone’s routes, how can you guarantee that you’re optimising them and able to account for the unpredictable nature of traffic on the roads?
Surprise! That’s where workforce tracking software comes in.
Some tools can give you complete visibility over your technicians’ whereabouts so you can allocate nearby jobs to them. A feature like this intelligent scheduling assistant uses several factors to identify which technicians are the most suitable to travel to a job to allocate jobs efficiently.
So you’ll be able to look at:
- Real-time resource location
- Live-traffic information
- Job constraints (such as skills or qualifications)
- Type of vehicle
- Inventory of parts required
- Customer history and requirements
Respond to jobs faster. Combining the above information means you can make informed decisions about which technician to allocate to a job — even if they are not geographically closest to it.
Greater efficiency. As a result, your schedule will be optimised, with as little wasted time as possible, which means not only will your technicians be able to attend more appointments per day, but you’ll also save money per journey, which all contributes to boosting your profits.
Improved safety. Your technicians’ journeys will also be shorter and managed more efficiently, which puts them at less risk of any road accidents.
#6: TRACKING TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
But your fleet of vehicles isn’t all you can optimise. It also includes your equipment, tools, parts, and other assets like trailers or machinery.
🔍Did you know, a staggering 43% of small businesses fail to track their assets and inventory effectively?
Because so many field service organisations still rely on old-fashioned, manual tracking methods, and some have no official processes in place, they’re vulnerable to a range of potentially costly issues.
But not with tech.
Real-time data. With state-of-the-art asset management software in place, unreliable data becomes a problem of the past. Modern systems record data in real-time, allowing you to make more informed business decisions based on fact rather than needing to count on potentially incorrect paper records.
Reduce human error. It makes logical sense to use manual check-out and check-in sheets to keep track of your equipment. However, traditional paper asset management methods don’t always work in practice and are inherently error-prone.
In fact, human error is the leading problem for 46% of businesses when it comes to accurately reporting on assets.
Whether your technicians forget to sign the sheets, inadvertently take too many items, store spares in their van for another project, or their writing is simply illegible, you’ll come to realise that the numbers aren’t adding up.
But whilst those errors may have gone unnoticed, they could have been costing the business a fortune. For example, if your equipment was to go missing, then there’s no exact way of tracking what happened to it. Not only will lost equipment likely stall other projects, but replacements can be expensive.
Digital register for stock & equipment. Instead, you can create a detailed register of equipment and other vital assets when you digitise your asset management methods. On BigChange, you’ll be able to maintain a record of fitted parts, tools or other specialist equipment, and you can track each item’s movements through serial numbers, barcodes or QR codes on the stock.
Plus, your technicians can then check inventory in and out directly from their mobile devices, and you will have better visibility over your valuable assets.
Digitising your inventory management process will not only save you money replacing expensive equipment but will bring up your first-time fix rates as technicians will have access to the assets they need to complete the job on their first visit.
IMPROVING YOUR ENTIRE OPERATION WITH FLEET MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY
However you are currently managing your fleet — whether it be a spreadsheet, paper records, or a system that has been used for a long time — it’s no match to the efficiency of the latest technological advances in the field service industry.
Thanks to field management software you can transform fleet management operations to boost efficiency. The investment in the tech literally pays for itself in the savings and added profit you’d make.
Not only will your bottom-line benefit from adopting a field service management system, but as we’ve seen:
- drivers’ safety will always be a priority
- essential documentation will be secure and accessible
- back-office staff will save time on mundane admin and be able to return to tasks that can grow the business
And, ultimately, your fleet will be in better condition because of the preventive approach you’ll be using to maintain your vehicles.
MANAGING YOUR FLEET EFFORTLESSLY WITH BIGCHANGE
Manage your entire operation on a single platform.
BigChange gives you complete control of your admin, from quotes to invoicing and beyond. Also, with our mobile app (available on iOS and Android), you can seamlessly connect your office, field technicians and customers and boost productivity as a result. Want to find out more? Discover how BigChange can make your business grow stronger, arrange a freedemo today.
