By If you’re into fleet businesses, you have to take care of some critical assets of your fleet business. Undeniably, vehicles and drivers are the two important assets that can make or break your fleet business. Having said that, it is essential to be updated about their whereabouts.
Fleet owners invest vast amounts of money in their vehicles, and drivers are responsible for driving them and ensuring goods reach safely. If breakdowns or accidents occur, admins must ensure that there is no major harm to vehicles and drivers, fostering a culture of safety.
Additionally, it also ensures saving costs on repairs and insurance of vehicles. However, with the increasing driver shortage challenge, driver retention is important, too. Losing drivers in today’s cluttered business landscape can severely impact fleet operations and brand reputation.
But drivers’ responsibility is not just driving but also communicating trip details and history with fleet managers. Sharing trip details with fleet managers allows for effective operational coordination, and fleet managers can have an overview of scheduled trips, delivery timelines, and resource allocation. This enables them to plan and optimise routes, allocate vehicles and drivers efficiently, and ensure smooth operations. It also helps coordinate multiple trips and address potential conflicts or issues.
Trusting Drivers for Trip History
But if trip details are not shared properly, it can lead to inaccurate route planning and delivery schedules. Hence, fleet managers should exercise caution when trusting drivers for trip history. While many drivers are reliable and honest, some might unintentionally make errors or forget to record certain details, leading to incomplete or unreliable trip records.
Further, fleet managers are responsible for maintaining accurate records and ensuring compliance with regulations and reporting requirements. Depending solely on drivers for trip history may not provide the necessary documentation to demonstrate compliance or respond to audits.
Communicating with drivers over phone or in-person for trip history was traditionally used by fleet companies. Digital transformation and technological developments have led to fleet systems and software that can independently track and provide accurate trip records. Thanks to fleet tracking systems, recording trip history and planning trips have become much easier.
Fleet Tracking Systems for Trip History Management
Fleet tracking systems, also known as vehicle tracking systems or GPS trackers, use GPS (Global Positioning System) and other advanced technologies to monitor and track the location, movement, and other vital data of fleet vehicles in real-time. It involves the installation of a tracking device in each vehicle, which collects and transmits information to a central software or web-based platform.
Here’s how fleet businesses can improve trip history with fleet tracking systems
Real-time Location Tracking
One of the valuable benefits of fleet tracking systems for trip history is that it provides real-time location details of all vehicles. It helps accurately record the starting point, endpoints, and all the stops during a trip. The system regularly captures location data, providing a detailed trail of the vehicle’s movement.
It also helps precise route planning, promptly respond to emergencies or delays, and ensure schedule compliance.
Route Tracking and History
Vehicle tracking systems also help fleet managers with optimised routes mitigating traffic, roadblocks, and other factors to ensure the fastest way for delivery. Further, it tracks the route taken during the trip and ensures that drivers take the planned route, not any unauthorised route. On a monthly or quarterly basis, fleet admins can check route history, look for discrepancies, and question drivers by using location data, verifying the accuracy of the trip history.
Geofencing
Earlier, fleet admins would have to call drivers and ask them about their trip’s start time or day and manage their service hours. There can be incidents when drivers can manipulate such answers in order to earn more or for some illegitimate benefit. But the vehicle tracking system’s geofencing feature can solve this tricky problem.
Geofencing allows managers to set a digital boundary or fence around a location on a map. It records and notifies when a vehicle leaves and enters the geofenced area. With geofencing, they can have an extra layer of scrutiny on when they start and end the day and ensure precise recording. It can also monitor unauthorised vehicle use, track deliveries within specific areas, or enforce compliance with designated routes.
Mileage and Distance Tracking
Fleet tracking systems track the mileage or distance each vehicle covers during a trip. By measuring the distance travelled using the location tracking feature, the system can provide accurate information about the total distance covered, as well as the distance travelled between different locations. This data helps verify trip history’s accuracy and calculate fuel consumption.
Easy Storage and Access to Data
This vehicle tracking technology can record and store the trip history of each trip of every vehicle, thanks to the unlimited data storage capacity offered by cloud technology. Fleet managers can access data around any particular trip history and evaluate strategies. With easy access to historical data, they can ensure reliable trip records with fleet tracking technology.
Keep Everyone Informed
Sufficient trust among your drivers is necessary to drive a positive organisational work culture. However, having systems and tools to ensure accurate data is not harmful either. With vehicle tracking systems, fleet managers can balance multiple things and maintain reliable and detailed records of each vehicle’s trips, driving informed decision-making.
