The Benefits Of Telematics To Your Non-For-Profit Fleet

When you serve the public, they should be your primary focus. Yet if you’re mired in managing vehicles, drivers and admin staff, it’s difficult to find enough time and resources to do it all. Delivering a quality service while not overworking your staff is a careful balancing act. If you’re non-profit, it also means any funds you sink into trying to identify and address operational issues may impact what you are able to do for the community.

The most glaring inefficiencies stem from reliance on highly manual, paper-based processes. Not only does filling in forms by hand take up time your staff could put to better use, it’s difficult to pull out insights to improve your services, increase productivity and efficiencies.

Here are some of the benefits that ditching paper for GPS tracking, and what it can offer your non-profit fleet.

Open communication

People living in rural or regional areas without local access depend on community services. For this, your drivers need to travel long distances and are often in areas where phone reception is limited. Sourcing the status and wellbeing of your drivers becomes next to impossible in a paper-based workflow. Waiting days for paperwork is not only time consuming, but doesn’t give you any insights into what happens on the road, right now. When a staff member is late to a job, you’re unable to address it until it’s too late. If your customer has a last-minute change and the drivers is already en-route, it’s a scramble to get a hold of them before they reach their destination.

Satellite two-way messaging nips this issue with a constant connection between the vehicle and back office. Key information, such as updated route details can be sent directly to the driver instantly. This runs both ways! The drive can also update you about any issues, so you don’t have to wait and wonder about their status.

Take it easy, tiger!

If a driver is on an urgent job or running late, they may breach the speed limit or drive erratically to make the deadline. Aside from the obvious dangers of bad driving behaviours, it puts stress on the vehicle and increases fuel use. With this exponential increase in wear-and-tear, the odds of a breakdown become more than just few and far in-between. This can leave drivers and passengers stranded or at risk of incident.

This is when GPS-enabled telematics kicks in. Vehicle tracking alerts drivers about their on-road behaviour, from speeding to harsh braking, giving them time to correct their habits before it becomes a bigger problem. This is then extended to the back-office, where you’ll be alerted in real-time and the data consolidated into reports. You can assess your drivers progress over time to improve efficient driving practices and use it as proof to clients that your organisation cares about safety.

Easier efficiency and navigation

Non-profits often work with lean budgets. It’s incredibly important to minimise spend while keeping your fleet moving. To do this, keeping track of a driver’s workflow becomes imperative yet paper work is hard to manage, which making budgeting time-consuming and lacking depth. Without a clear view across your organisation, you have no idea if you're spending too much on fuel, not scheduling enough preventative maintenance checks, if vehicles are being used privately or poorly driven.

How technology helps

GPS fleet management software and in-vehicle tools help manage all aspects of the fleet from a single platform, making the analysis of data simpler and more effective. Fuel usage can be tracked and behaviours such as extend periods of idling, harsh braking or excessive acceleration can be prevented through real-time alerts and back-office reports. Along with driver behaviour alerts, vehicle maintenance schedules can also notify you before a check-up is due so your star vehicle isn't out of commission during a crucial time. Your in-vehicle screen can generate routes for your staff so they don't need to rely on navigation from their smartphones that can lose connectivity in low-coverage areas, or oversized paper maps that may contain outdated information.

With electronic counterparts outfitted in your fleet you can put your focus back where it matters. With serving the people.