Show me

Good data the key to fleet efficiency

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." - Peter Drucker

American management consultant Peter Drucker wrote 39 books over a long life and is widely regarded as one of the greatest management thinkers of all time. So, when he talks about the importance of measurement you’d better sit up and take notice.

Measurement in business is never more important than when it comes to the performance of your vehicle fleet. For many businesses running their fleet is one of their biggest costs they’re going to incur, so measuring your fleet’s performance by collecting the necessary data is vital. But without the right technology, collecting all that data into a usable form is easier said than done - a lot easier said than done!

Complexity

Consider the complexity of the task. It really breaks down into three components: The cost of running each vehicle, your organisation and the details of each vehicle in your fleet. And from there it really gets complicated.

The cost of running each vehicle consists of fuel, maintenance, registration, insurance and depreciation. The data you need on your organisation relates to its cost centres, your drivers, the regions in which you operate, the anticipated usage of your fleet vehicles, their concurrent usage and the number of vehicles in the fleet. As for those vehicles themselves, well you’ll need to collect data on their VIN, location, usage, GPS data and their fit outs.

Now that’s a lot of data to collect and the bigger, the fleet the bigger the problem. Using that data to make true optimisation decisions can be a daunting task and whichever way you look at it, it’s just too complex for the human mind, even with a computer and an Excel spreadsheet. So, what do you do? Throw your hands in the air and decide that it’s just too hard?

Get techy

Well no, because technology in the form of telematics to collect all that data and advanced algorithms to analyse it all is here to come to your rescue.  Put those two in harness and they’ll produce the best possible solution for optimising your fleet from all that data and all those possible solutions. Phew! That’s a relief, eh!

Telematics gives you access to all the data you need to optimise your fleet use, capturing it all in real time, day-in day-out. It’s the perfect solution to fleet management which is why businesses world-wide are increasingly turning to it.

Outsource and profit

And when it comes to telematics and fleet management it’s worth taking note of one of Peter Drucker’s other key ideas: "Do what you do best and outsource the rest." Drucker believed that businesses should concentrate on their “front room activities” – the things that support their core business. All the other “back room activities” which support that core business should be handed over to other businesses who have those activities as their “front room activities” to look after.

So, in other words, if fleet management isn’t your core business it makes sense to hand the business of optimising your fleet usage over to an independent fleet management specialist like Fleetcare who have been looking after businesses’ fleet needs for 30 years.

When you need to know more about how Fleetcare’s telematics and fleet management can help your business call us today on 134 333.

Written by
Mark Schneider

Mark is a successful copywriter with over 20 years of professional writing experience.

We welcome him as a guest blogger to Fleettorque.

Related articles

Looking for a Fleet Management solution for your business?