6 Biggest Challenges in GPS Fleet Management (Treat Them For Better Margins)
Fleet managers face a wide range of difficulties, from knowing where their vehicles are at all times to keeping up with drivers’ performance. There goes a lot. Thankfully, it’s possible to reduce fleet issues using modern fleet management technologies. The GPS tracking systems can tell you where your fleet is and provide important context to increase productivity, lower accident rates, and safeguard your financial interests.
Whether your fleet transports goods, supports construction sites, or moves people and commodities, fleet management systems can simplify how you run your operations. You gain access to almost real-time data that will help fleet managers overcome various obstacles affecting profit, productivity, and safety.
Top Fleet Management Challenges - You Need to Definitely Address
Here are some concerning challenges that if overlooked can miserably impact your business bottom line.
1. Difficulty in Managing Heavy Operational Costs
The most significant obstacle in fleet management will always be cost control. How you manage costs will have a big impact on your capacity to compete in today's and tomorrow's marketplaces.
The operational procedures for some or all of your fleet may call for ongoing cost control. It's critical to conduct a complete analysis of your present operations and focus on areas that require improvement, such as how the fleet is driven, driver behaviour, fuel prices and potential theft, and CO2 emissions.
Solution
Fleet managers have a great responsibility to monitor and cut back on wasteful spending. While combating increased expenses could seem challenging, state-of-the-art technological solutions have made it feasible to operate more profitably and effectively than ever.
Deploying TrackoBit’s fleet management software can positively impact your current fleet operations. By identifying faulty areas of the operation and the vehicles can significantly reduce your overall operational costs, with up to a 20% decrease in fuel and maintenance expenses and up to a 10% decrease in insurance premiums.
2. Inefficient Management of Fuel Usage
Rising fuel costs are always a significant concern for logistics and transportation businesses, but this is especially true in the current market. Although you have no control over fluctuating fuel prices, several practical ways exist to reduce fuel usage and costs.
Further, to reduce fuel expenses, it will be necessary to identify fuel fraud and make greater efforts to eliminate fuel theft. The advantages of using an advanced solution will become apparent when you compare any manually processed fuel mitigation strategy to currently available technological solutions.
Solution
TrackoBit has dedicated fuel management software that closely monitors fuel consumption. You get detailed reports of each vehicle in the fleet’s starting and ending trip fuel usage data. In case of excessive fuel consumption, the system sends an instant alert and runs a quick scan to identify the reason behind it. It could be aggressive driving, idling, or malfunctioning in the vehicle.
Also, the platform alerts fleet managers whenever there is instant drainage or vehicle refueling to prevent fuel theft.
3. Improper Fleet Routing
Businesses must ensure that the trip is completed on time. This is not possible if the fleet constantly takes longer routes, reroutes, and random pit stops, which will most definitely lead to delivery delays.
Also, you cannot each time call your drivers to get acquainted with the route they are taking or they should. Such inefficient routing exceeds the driving time and adds to more operating costs in the form of fuel spending and drivers’ overtime wages.
Solution
TrackoBit’s route planning software comes to the rescue in such situations. It helps fleet managers plan and allocate efficient routes and complete trips in advance. They can set predetermined stops, geofence POIs, set timers for each halt, and track vehicles in real-time to detect and immediately stop haywire routing. The system even provides route deviation alerts, making it easy for managers to stay on top of locational visibility.
Additionally, frequent trips can be saved, which can be time-saving. The best part of using TrackoBit is that all the trip details are sent to the driver’s app, which mitigates the chances of confusion regarding the route.
Read More: How To Master Route Management In 2024
4. Health and Safety Issues
While many fleet companies are looking for measures to lower accident rates, they may be unsure of where to begin when it comes to enhancing fleet safety. Many firms may find it difficult to coach drivers and implement driving development programs.
Ignoring safety concerns before accidents usually has poor results. It is your duty to make sure that policies and processes are in place to minimise safety risks and ensure appropriate behaviour control on the part of drivers.
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Solution
Your fleet's productivity will depend on upholding safety standards and on safe driving conditions. Unexpected problems can result from risky driving behavior or a sudden weather change.
TrackoBit's Driver behavior solution can significantly improve your ability to manage your fleet's safety with in-cab notifications and video telematics capabilities. Driver behavior monitoring solutions quickly spot risky driving habits and send notifications to managers, allowing them to take timely actions. Also, it comes with a driver scorecard that reflects the number of risky driving events like harsh braking, abrupt acceleration, or sudden cornering that occurred throughout the trip.
TrackoBit’s can increase driver engagement and satisfaction by up to 50%. You get the packaged deal of features that lets you:
5. Failing to Meet Compliance Requirements
Road rules and regulations include drivers wearing seat belts, adhering to the speed limit, and not drinking or smoking while driving. If there is no visibility into fleet operations, managers may find it difficult to adhere to the rules and regulations made for safe driving. Poor oversight and lack of compliance can lead to more speeding tickets, accidents, and vehicle downtime.
Solution
TrackoBit comes with video telematics capabilities, which keeps the managers in sync with the in-cabin activities of the vehicles and drivers with visual proof. With the help of DMS (Driver monitoring system), they are notified whenever the drivers are indulging in non-compliant activities like:
With the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), fleet managers know whenever drivers frequently change lanes, jump red lights, are on the verge of colliding, and more such intricate events. All the visual footage is recorded and presented on the internal and external top AI-enabled dashcams.
Read More: 8 Tips On How To Ensure Fleet Safety
6. Maintenance Issues
Unexpected maintenance problems can seriously interfere with your fleet's normal operations and lead to unexpectedly high costs and vehicle downtime. Even a slight misalignment of the wheel can result in accidents and an increase in fuel consumption.
It can be extremely challenging for managers to keep track of each vehicle’s maintenance schedules and history, especially if they are doing it with whiteboards and sticky notes.
Many technological solutions offer reporting and in-depth vehicle performance analysis, alerting fleet managers to potential problems before they become severe and require expensive repairs.
Solution
Thanks to TrackoBit’s maintenance scheduling feature, you can receive alerts whenever a vehicle needs repair. This feature offers reporting and in-depth vehicle performance analysis, alerting fleet managers to potential problems before they become severe and require expensive repairs.
With the DVIR feature in TrackoBit’s driver app, drivers can fill out the reports to signal the need for repair or maintenance required by the trucks. Really helpful with preventive maintenance.
You can also cut costs by performing regular inspections and ensuring your maintenance policy complies with current government requirements.
Surpass Every Operational Challenge with TrackoBit
TrackoBit’s GPS-enabled fleet management systems are the only tool that fleet managers need to overcome long-standing fleet management challenges. By saying yes to this platform, you are saying yes to running a connected fleet driven by data-led insights and proactive visual surveillance.
Schedule a free demo today to experience easy and efficient fleet management.