What exactly is "Fleet Management Software"?

The term Fleet Management is used to encompass the management of any and/or all aspects relating to a company's mobile workforce fleet, from the allocation of resources to management of fuel economies.

Fleet Management software typically consists of four main components: a vehicle tracking component, a vehicle maintenance component, a dispatch component, and a reporting component. Generally, the term is used loosely to describe software that contains any of the aforementioned modules.

Vehicle Tracking Software Component

With roots in the shipping industry, vehicle tracking software has helped corporations with large fleets determine where each vehicle is at any given time. Trucking companies no longer lose track of their hundreds of parked trailers; taxi companies have dramatically lowered their pickup times by always sending the closest taxi to the job; fleet operators have regained control over their fleet's habits; even stolen equipment can be recovered quickly with the aid of vehicle tracking software.

Traditionally, the vehicle tracking component was only feasible to large, bigger budget companies, but today, the luxury of knowing where each of your vehicles are can be afforded by companies with as few as one or two vehicles.

Vehicle Maintenance Software Component

The ability to track the location of each and every vehicle in a company's fleet has lead to a simple and affordable way of monitoring and scheduling vehicle maintenance routines. Having your vehicles' mileage monitored and stored automatically gives you the power to schedule when Car 101 is due for an oil change, or when Car 109 needs a break job. Automatic e-mail alerts will keep you up to date on your fleet's maintenance needs at all times, allowing you stay on top of your vehicle costs with minimal effort. Future Quest provides a Fleet.NET Vehicle Maintenance Package and a TranWare Enterprise Vehicle Maintenance Option.

Dispatch Software Component

The Data Dispatch Software Component is an application that resides on a computer system in your office. It keeps track of all your customers, takes care of entering work-orders, trips or pick-ups and deliveries. It also tracks completed orders, pays your driver commissions, sends invoices to your customers, reports on corporate efficiencies, etc.

There are typically two types of dispatch software applications: fully-automatic dispatch software, and computer-aided dispatch software. In an automatic dispatch application, which necessarily includes a wireless component, jobs are automatically sent to the closest available vehicle to the job. Once the job is dispatched, the driver may accept or reject it, at which point the system will either mark the driver as busy, or send the trip to the next closest vehicle.

Computer-aided dispatch systems, on the other hand, enable the dispatcher to visually assign the trip to the driver he/she chooses.

The addition of a wireless dispatch component to an existing work-force system often has an even greater impact on productivity and customer service than the initial software application itself. See the articles on Application Service Providers and Wireless Benefits for more in-depth information.

Fleet Reporting Software Component

The fleet reporting software component utilizes the data received from the vehicle tracking component to generate useful reports on the information gathered from one or more specific vehicles, or your entire fleet. Some examples of these reports are Stop Report, Overspeed Report, I/O Report, Detailed Route Report, Summary Report, State/Province Mileage Report, Boundary Report (geo-fencing), and Engine/Idle Report.

With the click or your mouse, you will know: where they are and where they were. You will know about every stop, driving speed, mileage by state, stop duration, start and finish time and unauthorized or after hours use. You can even get delay reports, showing the actual arrival time vs. planned arrival time per preset daily route. The fleet reporting component allows you to easily obtain accurate and detailed facts, all at your fingertips.

The ability to summarize your fleet's activity in a report boasts huge benefits to your company's efficiency. The addition of a fleet management system with fleet reporting can help you lower your costs literally over night.