Fleet Management: An Introduction

In this post, we explore a concept that is steadily trending in the business landscape and break down what it means, how you can deploy it, and what it could potentially mean for your growth.

What is fleet management?

In simple terms, your fleet is the total number of commercial vehicles you use to run your business. If you need a fleet, you need to oversee and manage its operations in order for your business to thrive.

Enter fleet management, a broad term referring to all the actions needed to run your fleet. This could consist of keeping on top of fuel costs, monitoring driver behaviour, acquiring vehicles, and maintaining fuel efficiency. Organisations of all sizes engage in fleet management, from small and medium enterprises to large corporations.

Why do it at all?

Ever since the beginning of commerce, transportation has been the backbone of the economy. In an era driven by e-commerce and changing consumer demands, the importance of seamless transport has only grown. It naturally follows that the way you manage the vehicles in your fleet has a direct and profound impact on your business’s productivity, savings, profits, and compliance.

The benefits of fleet management done right are tangible and far-reaching, affecting all lines of business:

Visibility, access and control, anytime, anywhere:

Managing a fleet day-to-day is a massive undertaking with many moving parts. The right fleet management services ensure that your vehicles and drivers are never out of sight or out of reach, no matter how far beyond your borders they’ve ventured.

Data-driven insights:

There’s no getting away from it: data runs the world. If you don’t use it to gain an edge on your daily fleet operations, you are missing valuable opportunities to identify and prevent vehicle wear and tear, discover how much fuel you’re using, how much your vehicles are costing you, and so much more. The numbers speak for themselves. Using your fleet data effectively could result in a plethora of gains for your business, from a 10-15% increase in productivity to an up to 25% reduction in fuel costs

Updates in real time:

It’s one thing to have the data, and it’s another to act upon it when the time is right. Don’t let important insight such as your fuel levels, vehicle wear and tear, and route information grow cold. Invest in fleet management services that offer real-time notifications, which allow you to respond to snags in a timely fashion and predictively act on stimuli without disrupting your drivers for updates.

Enhanced safety and compliance:

Monitoring your driver’s behaviour from wherever you are is a key component of fleet management. It keeps you up to date on their conduct on the road, ensuring that you always have enough time to correct their habits and prevent it from harming themselves and others on the road.

How is it done?

As you may have gathered, collecting and parsing all this data takes sophisticated machinery. That is why most businesses opt for a centralised fleet management system, where they can look into and manage many moving parts from one platform. It also allows business owners to implement a structured, methodical workflow for fleet management without needing specialised knowledge.

However, some businesses still opt for that personal touch. Enter fleet managers, whose expertise enables them to oversee your fleet management, control costs, and if required, offer customised solutions to your business needs.

Which is right for you? We’ll cover that in our next installment of our Fleet Management series. Look out for part 2.

How can we help?

If you’re a small business owner with 1-10 vehicles, becoming your own fleet manager is simple and seamless. Download Shell Fleet App from our app store or Google Play store and discover the difference it makes.