The right telematics solution can help fleets of all sizes, but small fleets in particular can see the benefits of telematics magnified – if done right. This post will provide tips for small fleets to help them maximize the benefits they can experience with the Geotab telematics solution GPS to Go proudly offers to our clients.
So when is a fleet considered small? While there is no formal size threshold for what determines when a fleet is considered small, medium or large, for the purpose of this post a small fleet will refer to fleets with 25 vehicles or less. So why can fleets of this size have the benefits of using a telematics solution magnified?
While companies with larger fleets often have designated fleet managers whose sole job it is to manage and optimize fleet operations, companies with smaller fleets often delegate this task to a member of their team whose primary job is in a related department such as accounting or operations but often is not solely focused on fleet management and optimization. So what does this mean?
This means that companies with smaller fleets without a designated fleet manager are likely losing out on many opportunities to find efficiencies and areas for cost savings. A robust telematics solution, like the Geotab devices and platform GPS to Go offers and stands behind, can take care of much of the guesswork that goes along with fleet management to allow these multi-tasking employees to run an efficient fleet, cut down on costs, and still have time for their other responsibilities.
Now, let’s get to the tips to get you saving money in no time!
Tip #1 – Customizing the Platform Dashboard
The dashboard of your telematics platform should be a highlight reel of the most important metrics and reports to your fleet. Much like the front page of a newspaper, your dashboard should be customized with the biggest, most important information for at-a-glance access. Dashboard customization helps reduce visual clutter and lets you focus on the things that matter most to your fleet – a must for part-time fleet managers.
Tip #2 – Simplify Fuel Tracking with Emailed Reports
Being one of the largest expenses for any sized fleet, fuel usage and fuel waste are two major areas all fleets want to monitor as closely and accurately as possible to keep business costs down and prevent fraudulent use of fuel cards. Geotab makes it easy to track and compare fuel consumption across vehicles, allowing fleet managers to find and investigate outliers, and track down and correct any inefficiency. Fuel-related inefficiencies might include maintenance issues, excessive idling and/or bad driving habits. Having important reports emailed, rather than waiting for fleet managers to seek out the information, keeps fuel trend reports and fill-up reports at top of mind and allows greater opportunity for fleet managers to better monitor monthly usage rates and prevent against fraud.
Tip #3 – Optimizing Your Routes
Efficiency is the art of getting the most from the least, and this is the ultimate goal of fleets of all sizes. Thanks to Geotab’s fleet management software, fleet managers can track missed and completed stops, idling time, stop duration, and planned arrival time vs. actual arrival time. This means fleet managers have the information needed to compare routes and test changes to help drivers find the most efficient ways to carry out their duties.
Tip #4 – Catch Risky Behaviour before It Costs You
One of the downsides of having a small fleet is that losing even a single vehicle can result in a big hit to overall company productivity. By using telematics, fleet managers in charge of smaller fleets can monitor risky behaviour, such as speeding, harsh braking, harsh cornering and coach drivers in an effort to prevent collisions or damage to fleet vehicles which would take them out of daily operations while being repaired or replaced – both being very costly scenarios.
While GPS to Go is happy to help fleets of all sizes with their telematics needs, if you find yourself with a small fleet and part-time fleet manager or have added fleet management duties to an employee in a separate department’s existing workload, we’d love to speak with you about incorporating Geotab’s telematics solution into your business to find the efficiencies and cost saving opportunities which may be being missed. Contact us today to get started!
