With the rapid advancement and accessibility of technology, automation is becoming ever more important to streamlining operations across all industries. If your fleet management strategy doesn’t already incorporate automation, then you’re seriously missing out on a valuable resource that can optimize your workflow and reduce the cost of your fleet operations. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits that automation can deliver to your fleet management workload!
Quick Links:
- What Is Automation?
- Challenges for Manually Managing Your Fleet
- Top 7 Benefits of Automation for Your Fleet
What Is Automation?
Automation describes a wide array of technologies or technological applications in which human intervention is minimized yet a task or action is accomplished anyway. Of course, in order for automation to be effective and work as desired, something must be programmed or established as an action for automation to take. When a task is automated, it means that some kind of criteria and the related process is determined and then set to complete within an established time frame.
This helps significantly reduce the amount of time and effort that is required to manually complete repetitive, tedious tasks. For example, automation can be used to send a follow-up or reminder email to clients about a project if they haven’t responded within a set time period. Overall, automation manages important yet monotonous tasks so that you and your team can focus on more strategic matters for your fleet.
Challenges for Manually Managing Your Fleet
Part of being an awesome fleet manager means that you need to track specific and essential metrics regarding your fleet’s operations and performance; along the way of accomplishing that mission, however, some challenges are bound to arise, including:
Being Overwhelmed by the Sheer Amount of Data
Tracking multiple points of information will quickly become overwhelming even if you’re only managing a handful of vehicles. As spreadsheets expand in size and complexity, it’s easy for key points of data to slip between the cracks because there is simply so much to organize. Manually managing your fleet with handwritten notes and massive spreadsheets also makes putting reports together nearly impossible—imagine how much more you could do with the help of automation and fleet tracking solutions!
Collecting Data Can Be Impossible with Manual Methods
Unless you’re somehow able to teleport and sit in on each one of your driver’s routes while taking precise notes about their driving performance, it’s impossible to track important data like harsh braking or sharp acceleration. These metrics help illustrate how well your driver is following traffic laws and being a courteous driver on the road, which can accelerate maintenance schedules or impact your reputation.
Plus, if you’re relying on the memory of your driver to report on where they went during their day or simply give their word that they obeyed traffic rules, then there could be a lot of information left on the table. Manually managing your fleet’s performance metrics simply doesn’t account for detailed, accurate, and reliable reporting.
Top 7 Benefits of Automation for Your Fleet
There are numerous benefits of automation for your fleet management strategy that can immediately provide a more accurate report of how your fleet is performing and reveal key points of improvement; some of these benefits include:
Easy Reporting with Organized Information
When all of your data is compiled neatly into easy-to-use dashboards, generating reports is a breeze! Instead of hunting through dozens or hundreds of spreadsheet columns to find the exact metric you’re looking for, you can create customized reports that amalgamate whatever information you need to look into.
Gain Insight, Reduce Oversight
While you can’t physically sit in on every driver’s route, you can still ensure that your fleet drivers are safe and courteous via automated fleet tracking technology. With an integrated telematics system, you can gain insight into dozens of facets of your fleet’s performance, including driver behaviors, speeding, fast cornering, and more! That way, nothing slips through the cracks when evaluating your overall performance or individual operations.
Route Consistency
With the power of geofencing, you can ensure your fleet vehicles or other assets don’t deviate from an established route or corridor—automatically. Again, with the power of GPS tracking and automated software, you can guarantee that your property is always where it should be; if there is any deviation, you’ll be instantly notified and can check in with the driver to see what’s going on.
Automation Leads to Better Customer Service
Another perk of geofencing and automation is that you can track shipments for your customers, which leads to a higher level of customer service and satisfaction! You’ll have peace of mind knowing that a shipment was delivered on time or you’ll be notified that there’s a delay. This can lead to a proactive conversation with your customer regarding their shipment!
Boost Your Overall Fleet Efficiency
Part of your job is likely to find a way to maximize your fleet’s productivity without maxing out your fleet’s budget. When you’re stretching your resources, fleet automation solutions are the best bang for your buck and greatly improve your fleet’s overall efficiency! Asset and fleet tracking systems automate a variety of repetitive tasks, keep track of your fleet’s whereabouts, and reduce the amount of time spent chasing after drivers.
Optimize Your Fleet Management Strategy
Automation and the power of fleet tracking solutions mean that you can be more effective as a fleet manager. Since GPS tracking provides an unbiased, accurate record of your fleet’s activities and locations, you can keep better track of your drivers and stay accountable for all your assets’ locations. This means you can help save on the costs of unsafe driving behavior and have peace of mind knowing that your assets are constantly being tracked.
Stay on Top of Fleet Maintenance Schedules
A huge benefit of automation for your fleet is the ability to automate your maintenance schedules. Forget trying to write down the mileage, track the service dates, or ask your driver if everything is running properly—with automation, you’ll get notified of upcoming service schedules and can accurately track the history of your fleet’s maintenance. This keeps you and your fleet running smoothly for as long as possible!
Automate Your Fleet with Rastrac
Ready to experience the benefits of automation for your fleet? Contract the Rastrac team today to see how we can help you optimize your operations and serve your customers better!
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to our blog.
Get our latest posts straight to your inbox.
Subscribe to Our Blog
