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 Information is archived. It has been viewed and now it’s time to demonstrate the full power of fleet management systems. Setting up maintenance schedules, sending service invoices and monitoring machine value is all in a day’s work for a fleet manager. Generally, fleet management systems will let you set predetermined maintenance alerts for when a machine reaches a certain odometer or work-hour threshold.
“By injecting actionable data from fleet management systems into the business cycle, leaders can proactively make decisions on fleet composition, replace vs. repair and fleet staging,” says Doug Mitchell, CEO and founder of RentalMetrics, a subscription-based consulting service operating online — allowing professionals to research available GPS solutions for their equipment, trucks and trailers and identify and calculate ROI for solution deployments across the enterprise. “Also, data can become very powerful when used across the enterprise to streamline transportation, dispatching a driver directly to a machine vs. somewhere on a jobsite or in field service, dispatching a technician to a machine with a proper inventory of parts based on a fault code received at the home office.”
Taking that idea even further, systems like BorgSolutions allow you to create work, quote request and purchase orders and send them off to the proper provider. For example, if you have a John Deere excavator that needs a hydraulic hose or other part, you simply choose the provider, plug in the part name or number, the quantity and cost and send it off. The system will automatically send off an e-mail, if you have entered it in the system, or you can always print the quote or purchase order request off and physically send it off — still saving time and money.
Aside from maintenance, keeping a strict hold on records is a crucial aspect of fleet management. Fuel economy, for instance, is one of the biggest expenses for any fleet. For on-highway fleets — including trucks that transport heavy loaders and excavators to the jobsite — companies have to submit monthly International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reports to their respective states. Tracking down gas station receipts and mile logs can be tedious, time-consuming work.
Certain systems, like BorgSolutions, can work in tandem with information from fuel management systems such as Gasboy, a manufacturer and marketer of commercial electronic and mechanical petroleum dispensing systems, as well as fleet management. DPL America, on the other hand, offers a report that automatically calculates the mileage per truck, state and month — in essence automating the IFTA data collection process. If you don’t have a fuel management system, you can enter the data into your fleet management program to create a virtual file system that won’t get lost or misplaced.
Organization is the key. You want to be able to assess your assets in a way that best suits your managing style. You’ll also want to be certain that if you invest in a fleet management system that you are prepared to utilize it to its fullest extent.
“Fleet management is only as important as an individual customer makes it,” says John Hinds, chief technology offer for Earthwave Technologies. “Some customers do not have the management or business processes in place to make use of fleet management and for them purchasing fleet management technology is a waste of money. Other companies have put a great deal of effort into optimizing their business and project management processes and for them fleet management technology is the tool they need to implement these processes. For the first customer, fleet management has little to no importance. For the second customer, it has enormous importance.”
Looking toward the sky, it’s hard to imagine a transparent transmission from the cosmos filling your screen with information. But another flashing alert pulls you out of your pondering — looks like the engine idle time on one of your excavators just passed 30 minutes. With a firm grip on the daily actions of your machines, you have the ability to delegate tasks and find the most efficient path for getting work done.
Jason Morgan is associate editor of Utility Contractor.
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