What Is Fleet Optimization?
At its essence, fleet management is all about fleet optimization. When you seek to optimize, you have to look at all aspects of your fleet, including:
- Productivity
- Safety
- Dispatch
- Maintenance
- Staff contentment
- Vehicle utilization
Proper optimization of your fleet takes all of these factors into account and devises ways to balance them across the board, to make your fleet operations as effective as possible. Most often, this is accomplished with the help of data and reports from a fleet tracking system.
How Can Fleet Optimization Benefit Your Fleet?
When you take the time to really optimize your fleet, you’ll see benefits across the board. In each area mentioned above, optimization means better performance and a smoother-running operation. Here are a few examples of ways optimization can make your fleet run like a well-oiled machine, rather than just a bunch of vehicles, each doing their own thing.
Productivity
How can your fleet be more productive? There are plenty of ways to optimize productivity, and there is almost always room for improvement. You could improve communication between dispatch and your drivers. Get your drivers to their destinations faster with real-time route optimization. Streamline compliance with automation and keep your vehicles running at their peak with better maintenance scheduling. (More on that later.)
Safety
Safety should be a top priority for every fleet. To ensure your drivers are safe on the road, you’ll want to track dangerous behaviors as they occur and take steps to correct them. Telematics technology can help you track behaviors like speeding, hard braking, and cornering too fast. You can then customize training programs to ensure each driver gets the reminders they need to make them safer on the road.
Dispatch
Fleet tracking has completely changed the way most fleets dispatch. A good fleet management software should help you steer drivers around traffic, road construction, and other hazards while allowing you to change routes on the fly as jobs are added or canceled. Dispatchers should always have access to data about drivers with specific experience, certifications, tools, and equipment to ensure that the right person is sent for each job throughout the day.
Maintenance
If you’re still managing your fleet maintenance program with manually-scheduled calendar reminders, you’re missing out on the benefits of fleet maintenance optimization. Instead, look for a software solution that will alert you to standard maintenance needs based on engine hours, miles traveled, or other pertinent data. With improved fleet maintenance scheduling, you’ll be able to ensure your fleet vehicles are always running at their best.
Staff contentment
No fleet can be at its best if the people at the heart of the operation aren’t happy. When you work to optimize your fleet, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking care of your staff and keeping their needs in mind. Anytime you add software to your fleet that tracks your drivers or their behaviors, it’s easy for it to feel like “big brother” is watching. Instead, make sure you have buy-in from drivers and other staff members by explaining the benefits that will apply to their jobs.
Vehicle utilization
Finally, fleet optimization is impossible without considering the way their vehicles and other large equipment are used. Look for ways to track how often each large asset is in use and how much time it spends sitting in the garage, yard, or warehouse. You can then sell off extraneous items or purchase additional equipment as needed.
How Can Azuga Help With Fleet Optimization?
GPS-based fleet tracking and fleet telematics are the basis for nearly all of the optimizations listed above. Azuga Fleet is a fully-featured fleet management program that will give you exactly the data you want and need in customized reports that offer actionable insights. We can also help with fuel savings, gamify your fleet safety program, and even offer AI-powered dual-facing dashcams.
Contact our team today to learn more about how we can help optimize your fleet.
