5 Ways To Improve Your Fleet Management With Data Analytics

Fleet management presents a complex set of logistical challenges but increasing visibility will help your business overcome them. Generating greater insight into the use of every vehicle you manage, and the performance of every driver, is the key to streamlining operations and improve efficiency.

Adopting a data-driven approach to fleet management is the most effective way to get the visibility you need. Data highlights potential issues before they become a problem and will also help you identify new opportunities. Best of all, it's completely customisable so you can track and report on the metrics that matter most to your business.

Need some inspiration? Here are a few ways you could be using data analytics now to improve fleet management and find the answers you've been looking for.

Asset Utilisation

Analytics provides timely data to help you better understand asset utilisation. Now you can build an accurate picture instead of relying on paper trails and gut instinct. For example, data will show which individual vehicles or pieces of machinery are spending too much time lying idle, or which are in need of servicing after heavy use for a sustained period of time. By assessing how its fleet of vehicles and lighting towers were being used over a six-month period, a large mining company implemented changes which saved more than 780 labour hours. This greatly increased operational efficiency and meant some of its workforce could be allocated elsewhere.

Fuel Management

Fuel is an expensive part of running any vehicle fleet but it's traditionally been difficult to manage costs or forecast spending with any great degree of accuracy. Fleet management software and data analytics lets you track usage, measure economy and even prevent theft. If your drivers are filling up their private cars on the company dollar, analytics will give you the visibility you need to identify the problem and put a stop to it. With fleet management software, you can monitor personal use and compare it against company policy. This data builds a clear understanding of how fuel is being consumed across your business, which has enabled businesses to save substantial amounts. For example, a civil construction company reduced its fuel bill by 11 per cent. 

Lease Management

If you're not tracking leasing arrangements effectively, it's likely you're wasting a lot of money. Fleet management software and analytics makes it much easier because you have accurate, up to date and historical data on each vehicle's usage. This means you can predict how many kilometres a vehicle is going to travel during the remainder of its existing lease. If it's likely to exceed its distance allowance, you're in a position to renegotiate terms before incurring penalties. Alternatively, if a vehicle is only forecast to travel 60,000 kilometres when you've allowed for 90,000 you can increase its workload or use this information to renegotiate terms when the time comes. All of this information helps make sure you're getting maximum value for money from your investment.

Fringe Benefit Tax

Using fleet management and analytics is also a great way to eliminate the complicated process of collating data manually for FBT purposes. This makes it easy to collect and process the data you need to report back to the Australia Taxation Office, freeing up your time and resources. Access to data will reduce your FBT liability by accurately breaking down the private use of every vehicle in your fleet, helping you to create policies, set targets and negotiate employment contracts. Building an accurate report of operational costs instead of relying on statutory fraction has helped many businesses reduce FBT liability by more than 40 per cent. Learn about the FBT solution »

Container Tracking

Do you need visibility into where your containers are, how long each of them was sitting at the depot last month or which spent longer than expected at a customer site? Fleet management software and analytics enables you to track containers based on the metrics that matter to your business ? industry vertical, business objectives or specific pain points. No matter what container tracking challenges you're facing, analytics will provide a more in-depth understanding of costs and help you improve efficiency.

Data analytics can help streamline all areas of your fleet, providing you with an opportunity to improve productivity, reduce inefficiency, and maximise profits. Download our free e-book now to learn more about how analytics will improve your fleet management.