Fleet Tracking
Additional Add-on Services
Jul 15, 2021
If your business operates using a fleet of vehicles, you may be contemplating recruiting a fleet administrator. However, before coming to a decision, here are some factors you should consider.
A fleet administrator is responsible for assisting with the monitoring and organisation of the fleet. Duties involve ensuring all vehicle records are accurate and up-to-date, ensuring all operations comply with government rules and regulations and that all paperwork is appropriately completed. In addition, they are usually in charge of scheduling repairs and maintenance checks for the vehicles; this may also include arranging services and MOTs for the vehicles.
As aforementioned, there are many responsibilities for managing a fleet, and even managing the smallest of fleets can be challenging, especially as the rules and regulations that affect fleet management can be rather strict and subject to constant change. Therefore, your business needs someone who is not only very familiar with the existing laws and procedures but someone who can stay up to date with these changes.
When challenges arise, strategic and timely planning is crucial to eliminate any negative impacts to the flow, keeping your operation running smoothly and maintaining healthy relationships with your clients.
Although it will take time and money to advertise the position, conduct interviews with potential candidates and eventually hire someone. We believe this process will be well worth it in the future due to how a fleet administrator can reduce costly mistakes. In addition, better organisation and ensuring the company's adherence to government rules and regulations could avoid severe fines (and even jail time in some scenarios) if breached.
Before recruiting a full-time fleet administrator, you should first make sure your fleet is well prepared and already doing everything it can to optimise the management of your fleet. If you haven’t already set up fleet tracking within your business, now is the time to do so. Tracking your fleet vehicles allows your fleet administrator to monitor all company vehicles —helping them identify issues/opportunities quickly, allowing them to spend more time on planning routes and other cost-saving tactics.
Ensuring vehicles are well maintained can reduce the risk of breakdowns which lead to unscheduled repairs and downtime. Your fleet administrator should be in charge of scheduling preventative maintenance checks that include tasks such as oil changes, tyre inspections and cabin air filter replacements.
Vehicle checks must be carried out regularly — having an administrator to schedule these whilst ensuring there are always enough vehicles on the road can be crucial to keeping your fleet running effectively.
Ensuring the operations comply with all the government rules and regulations is a large responsibility of a fleet administrator. Many of these rules are included as part of the company policy, so communicating these rules thoroughly and clearly to staff can help you to stay compliant.
It also helps drivers and other employees understand what to do in the event of an accident or when a vehicle needs repairs, making the administrator's job much simpler and helping staff to stay safe at work.
Unfortunately, however, not all training and regulations can prepare drivers for what may happen whilst on the job. Luckily, Fleetsmart’s vehicle tracking allows you to see where your drivers are at all times, offering what may be the only source of information if all other means of communication are lost.
In addition, vehicle tracking often acts as a deterrent to drivers who may be inclined to speed and therefore reduces the risk of accidents by making drivers more responsible. Journey Replay may be used to identify when drivers aren't driving safely — leading the required disciplinary measures or training to reduce the risk of accidents, helping the administrator to do their job more effectively.
Over time, vehicles become less efficient and more prone to breakdowns. Therefore, your fleet administrator should regularly review vehicle costs to assess whether it is time for a replacement. For this, they will need to understand the manufacturer’s warranty and how it impacts the total cost of ownership and the vehicle’s residual value in the used vehicle market — leading to when the optimal time to sell occurs.
Using Fleetsmart’s accurate and easy-to-navigate results, your fleet administrator can track your vehicles to maximise utilisation and productivity as well as maintaining a healthy relationship with clients. The vehicle reports show a complete picture of your fleet’s activities which can be viewed per day, per month or per year to simplify the process of evaluation.
Using features such as Journey Replay and Geo-Fence Alerts, your fleet administrator has access to specific information regarding driver behaviour including unscheduled stops, speeding, going off route and out-of-hour movements which they can then handle from there.
Using the results from vehicle tracking, your fleet administrator should keep track of the fuel consumption required to facilitate the necessary routes and make sure you’re only paying for what you need. This can significantly cut down any extra costs that may come from drivers taking advantage of the company fuel budget for personal journeys or filling up non-company vehicles.
Having fleet tracking can also reduce insurance and maintenance costs. Many insurance companies will offer a discount or insurance premiums to companies that use fleet management systems. In addition, the reduction of accidents and increase of safer driving helps reduce claims, which keeps the cost of insurance and maintenance down.
Implementing these five practices with the help of Fleetsmart, your fleet administrator can make your fleet management much more effective and cost reductive. Leading to better connections with your employees and customers whilst ensuring you’re running a safe operation that is sustainable for the environment.