5 Benefits of Using Modern Fleet Management Systems

Fleet Management

Over the past decade, the demand for delivery and transportation services has increased exponentially. More and more consumers are making purchases online, using delivery apps and having items delivered straight to their door. This has been, especially, true since the pandemic started in early 2020. Leading to much greater competition as companies compete for a substantial share of this growing market.

Growing demand for delivery services – and continued growth in the number of vehicles on the road – means that it is more important than ever to manage your fleet more effectively. Modern fleet management systems help managers and drivers make their business operations more productive and face the challenges that come with competing in the fast-growing delivery market.

Common challenges facing fleet managers and delivery drivers

Fleet managers and delivery drivers face a variety of uncontrollable variables in their daily operations. Offering delivery services means managing a large vehicle fleet and that comes with its challenges, such as traffic jams, rising petrol prices, mechanical issues, and other road incidents.

Unfortunately, many of these fleet companies continue to rely on traditional management systems. These systems are inefficient and slow, requiring manual data entries and tedious paperwork. Organising physical documents and getting the right information to the right people can end up wasting valuable staff time, creating delivery bottlenecks, and causing mistakes in those deliveries.

On the road, your drivers will encounter unexpected detours, re-routing and slowdowns as a result of road incidents, such as traffic jams, accidents, roadblocks and vehicles issues. Having delayed or missed deliveries will cause your customers to look for a more reliable and trustworthy delivery service. Not to mention, maintaining an optimised and steady stream of delivery vehicles can be challenging in itself.

How to manage deliveries more effectively

For years, many businesses have made use of GPS-based and vehicle telematics to some extent. However, modern fleet management solutions have evolved far beyond vehicle tracking and route optimisation tools. These solutions include a variety of IoT, communication, video and tracking tools that make today’s fleets more efficient than ever.

Fleet management systems use a wide variety of vehicle telematics to monitor fleets and collect data; storing it in a central, accessible and easy-to-use online hub. These systems provide a complete and comprehensive overview of your fleet’s performance. By integrating fleet management solutions into your business operations, fleet managers are able to access real-time data that provides actionable insights and improves decision-making.

Delivery service providers are primed to benefit from modern fleet management solutions and grow their business during this market surge. Here are 5 benefits of using fleet management systems:

  1. Make sure deliveries arrive on time, every time
    Fleet management systems offer real-time vehicle tracking, fleet monitoring, driver communication and schedule optimisation. These tools help managers streamline their workflow and ensure that delivery vehicles arrive on time, every time. This is especially critical when it comes to delivering perishable goods, such as groceries and takeaways, which must arrive on time and fresh.

    A pattern of lost, incorrect, missing, or spoiled items will result in losing customers to more reliable competitors and ruining your business reputation in your community. Real-time, comprehensive, and actionable data is collected to help manage delivery schedules and vehicles more carefully. Ensure that your deliveries arrive on time, every time, by predicting challenges on the road and helping make the necessary adjustments to fix them.

  1. Increase driver productivity and road safety
    By integrating a fleet management solution into your business operations, you can offer your drivers the support and communication they deserve. Delivery companies can monitor driver behaviour, vehicle performance, delivery routes and traffic data to increase driver productivity and road safety. Having all of this data secured in a central (online) hub, allows managers and drivers to easily access the information they need to perform their jobs more effectively and safely.
  1. Optimise delivery routes
    The latest in GPS technology and vehicle telematics help fleet companies optimise their delivery routes more easily than ever before. Smart, GPS-based telematics tools perform real-time vehicle tracking and live traffic monitoring to identify optimal routes and share that data with drivers and managers. Drivers are able to keep up with their schedules from any mobile device and make each delivery route more profitable.
  1. Avoid expensive maintenance and breakdowns
    Unplanned maintenance and unexpected breakdowns can throw an entire fleet’s delivery schedule out the window. Ensuring all of your delivery vehicles receive proper, timely maintenance and servicing will help reduce breakdowns on the road and vehicle issues for your drivers. Digital fleet management offers a variety of solutions that help create digital maintenance checklists to prevent these problems from occurring. This will help improve the overall safety and efficiency of your fleet, while staying on schedule.
  1. Become more fuel efficient and cut costs
    Having well-maintained vehicles, optimised delivery routes and better driver behaviour on the road will all help save on fuel costs. Fuel management systems can be integrated into your larger fleet management solutions and help your vehicle fleet become more cost-effectively. Each trip may only provide a small saving, but with growing delivery numbers and growing fleets, your company can make huge savings over time.

    Detecting uneconomical or dangerous driving habits across your entire fleet will give managers the opportunity to improve their driver training, behaviour and monitoring. There will be no more harsh braking, speeding, reckless driving or unplanned detours. Delivery service providers will notice fleet-wide improvements, almost, instantly as each vehicle makes multiple deliveries in a day.

Before you go

Modern fleet management systems have so many benefits for delivery companies. Whether you need to optimise delivery routes, improve driver communication, manage fuel costs, train new staff or take care of your fleet’s vehicles, fleet management solutions have evolved to meet and overcome those business challenges.

If your company is looking for the latest in fleet management solutions or wanting to integrate smart and affordable vehicle telematics into your larger fleet operations, speak to one of our expert consultants at Landmark Tracking.