Not all fleet managers are aware of geographic information system (GIS) software—but they should be. This software can be used as a powerful tool to help optimize your fleet. Many fleets across the United States are taking advantage of GIS software to decrease costs and improve efficiencies.
If you are a fleet manager looking to use geographic information system software to optimize your fleet, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will provide an in-depth geographic information system definition.
In addition, we will outline how to optimize your fleet using geographic information system technology. We provide tips on how GIS can provide your fleet managers and dispatchers with better information, improve your fleet’s route planning, and be paired with a GPS device to decrease fleet costs dramatically.
What is a Geographic Information System (GIS)?
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computerized system that stores, checks, displays, and captures data related to positions on the globe. To do this, the system must process spatial and temporal information on Earth.
It is convention to use GIS on maps to show the position of objects. This illustrates the relative locations of objects over a period of time. GIS can help fleet managers improve their understanding of spatial patterns and relationships.
Geographic information systems can make use of any information that includes location data. The location data can be conveyed in many different ways, for instance, address, ZIP code, or even latitude and longitude.
GIS software solutions are designed to record, analyze, manipulate, and interpret all sorts of different kinds of geographic or spatial data. The data generated by GIS software can be used alongside telematics solutions in order to provide additional insight into your fleet.
The Open Geospatial Consortium developed the standards for processing datasets in GIS. Besides public domain GIS solutions, there are several companies that provide GIS software to businesses as well.
How to Optimize Fleets with Geographic Information System Technology
Fleets across the United States use GIS technology to improve the management of operations. If they can optimize vehicle management and regional coordination, they can make meaningful changes in the overall business performance. It is therefore an integral tool for improving logistics and optimizing business functions.
GIS can be used to get the most of your fleet’s resources. It can ensure that your drivers are moving efficiently through the community. Geographic information system technology can help fleets manage payroll, fuel, and vehicle maintenance costs efficiently. It can also help fleets minimize carbon emissions and increase customer satisfaction.
Get Better Information
GIS technology helps fleet managers gain better insight into their operations. Having better information allows managers to optimize their fleets more effectively.
Sal Aguliar, Jr., an Environmental Engineer who works with fleets for the city of Los Angeles, said that “GIS allows us to see things that are not obvious with tabular data and reports. We can display information spatially to see relationships and quickly make improvements. It also supports a systematic approach to assigning work so that we can optimize our routes and meet increasing demand with existing staff.”
GIS systems can tap into existing data sets to provide more insight and information into your fleet. Fleet managers who utilize GIS have access to better information.
More Efficient Routing
Fleets face complex routing challenges. It is the role of drivers to modify their schedules at the last minute, effectively manage fuel consumption and labor hours, and do all of this in a timely manner. GIS provides logistics solutions fleet’s need to improve their efficiency, productivity, cost savings, and even customer service.
Geographic information system technology can be used to generate optimal routes for drivers and also improve drive times. It can also be utilized to solve scheduling problems. You can include your own street data and import work orders into GIS.
No matter what size or structure your fleet has, GIS solutions let you optimize routes for your fleet. This increases productivity and minimizes vehicle use. Geographic information systems help fleets to improve delivery outcomes, like making more stops or doing so in a shorter time. You can even reduce employee overtime with GIS.
When fleets track their vehicles through GPS technology and plot the information on a GIS that merges pickup and delivery locations, managers are able to optimize route design on the fly. GIS technology can help fleets to improve their route design. Efficient route design lowers costs related to fuel and maintenance and is a great way for fleet managers to optimize their fleets.
Pair GIS with GPS to Decrease Costs
Using geographic information systems and global positioning system (GPS) technologies together can substantially—and economically—improve the efficiency of your fleet management. Integrated GIS/GPS systems can be utilized to track multiple moving vehicles from a command center.
These systems can show the location, direction of travel, and speed of each vehicle on a tracking display. They can provide a dispatcher with a view of a map of the entire fleet to help them perform real-time tracking, better assign work orders and deliveries, and provide accurate status updates through a web interface.
GIS/GPS systems are not just incredibly useful, they also decrease your fleet’s costs. They can lower the cost of fleet management by 10 to 15 percent.
Geographic information system (GIS) software is an incredibly powerful tool that fleet managers can utilize to optimize their fleets. Learn more about fleet management and optimization with the help of Azuga Fleet™. The team at Azuga can help your fleet improve safety, boost productivity, and save money.