Fleet Management Software: Top 4 Benefits for Your Sweeper Business

Managing your fleet of street sweepers can take many forms. While some people might swear by the traditional method of paper and pen when scheduling and tracking their vehicles, this process can easily gobble up valuable time that could be spent better on other goals like increasing business or reaching out to customers. Fleet management software is an option that is well worth the investment in its upfront costs and the learning curve that can sometimes accompany the implementation of new systems. From the comfort of your office computer or even your mobile device, you can instantly call up a great deal of informative data.

Benefits of Fleet Management Software
Fleet management software uses the technology behind GPS to provide you with a snapshot of the performance of each vehicle in your fleet. The best part about this information is that you can access it wherever you might be as long as you have a wi-fi connection. During a break at a meeting, for example, or while you are on vacation with the family, you can still keep tabs on how your fleet is being managed to ensure that your productivity goals are being met.

1. Increase productivity
Being able to increase the productivity of your sweeper trucks starts with gathering information about their use. Easily learn which trucks are the most fuel efficient and which ones perform better when engaged in cleaning a particular route. Cobble complementary routes together to maximize the run time of the trucks. Determining whether a particular driver takes a much longer time completing a route when compared to a different driver alerts you to the possibility of abuses of your company’s time. Gathering the data via a report provides evidence that is indisputable and can lead to better solutions so that goals of staffing and productivity are met.

2. Improve fuel efficiency
Next to your employees’ salaries, the expenses that you pay out for your trucks are likely to be the largest budget item for your business. One of the biggest recurring expenses is fuel. Anytime you can slash consumption is money that can be added to your profit margin. Plan fuel costs by keeping tabs on the amount of fuel that each truck uses and how often a driver fills up.
Some fleet management software companies provide access to fuel cards that enable you to limit charges to a specific dollar amount or to only those items that are authorized by you or someone else that you designate. Because you are able to determine which items where charged to the card by your driver, you can easily spot those that are unauthorized and take the appropriate action. In addition, there are options when the company is able to negoiate a lower cost-per-gallon for its customers that allows you to save even more.

3. Prioritize Fleet Maintenance
There’s no doubt about it — maintaining your fleet can put a serious damper on your productivity. In addition, staying current on the maintenance that each truck needs can involve shuffling paperwork to find the necessary information or have it duplicated in several spots that makes it difficult to find. Fleet management software provides a streamlined place to find and store all this important information. Once the data is inputted and the maintenance parameters are set, you can generate daily reports that highlight when each vehicle is due for a particular maintenance. This flexibility allows you to plan when to pull a particular truck out of the lineup and have that maintenance performed so that it impacts your productivity the least.

4. Secure Your Fleet More Easily
Being able to secure your fleet of sweeper trucks allows you to protect your investment — and the safety of the general public. Being able to track where a truck in your fleet is at any given moment can help you secure it on a more local level relevant to your company as well as a greater level should law enforcement become involved. A rogue employee who decides to use your truck to go somewhere that is unauthorized can be found out and reprimanded accordingly.
In a similar vein, if a truck is stolen, being able to provide law enforcement with its exact location can prevent loss of life as well as help apprehend the culprit. Some fleet management software companies provide the technology that allows you to essentially take over the controls of the truck from within the interface. This can be a boon and make the difference between capturing the criminal and incurring thousands of dollars worth of damage.
If you haven’t taken the plunge to make fleet management software a part of your system, the above benefits provide a solid case for doing so. Perhaps you implemented fleet management software some time ago and are wondering if you should update it. Modernizing your fleet management software to a version that takes advantage of the latest in technological advances can pay for itself in cost savings and increased productivity.

Story by Katherine Nolan