Fleet management is necessary for any company who owns a fleet of vehicles, whether large or small. A fleet of vehicles can include cars or trucks, vans, taxi cabs, ships, or airplanes. Company’s have the choice of hiring their own fleet manager or contracting with an individual or another company to do it for them. A fleet manager is charged with the job of not just keeping track of the number of vehicles a company has, but also managing the drivers, keeping track of routine maintenance and vehicle diagnostics, and tracking the fuel costs associated with each vehicle individually and the fleet as a whole. The fleet manager will also track a drivers safety record to ensure that the company has minimized the risks involved with having a number of vehicles on the road. Their main goal is to ensure that the company can maximize their productivity and efficiency and minimize their operating costs.

When managing a fleet of vehicles, one of the best ways to do it is with the use of vehicle trackers. A good fleet management system will rely on the use of good vehicle trackers. The type of tracker most commonly found in a fleet of vehicles is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Fleet managers like GPS devices because of their ability to gather data from a vehicles onboard computer – data like speed, fuel usage, mileage, and location. This data is then sent to the manager’s computer so that they can compile it and develop profiles for each driver and each vehicle. The taxi cab industry is an example of one type of business that can greatly benefit from this type of fleet management.

All GPS devices require some sort of analytical fleet management software if they wish to truly be effective in aiding a manager in controlling a fleet of vehicles. Each software system has the ability to be task specific, depending on the needs of a particular company or business. The software allows a company to profile its drivers and each of their trips, along with assist in dispatch operations and the evaluation of the efficiency of a vehicle’s operations. When necessary, some of the more advanced systems can perform the task of Geo-fencing and limit a vehicles travel area or disable the vehicle in an emergency.

The term fleet management usually brings to mind a fleet of cars or trucks. However, it can also apply to any system that manages any type of vehicle or vessel, including ships and planes. Maritime companies often use fleet management systems as a way of keeping track of their ships at sea. The size of these shipping companies, however, makes it difficult for this task to be done in-house, so many shipping companies choose to contract with a fleet management company. The fleet management company will handle the tedious tasks like crewing the ship, and watching over maintenance activities, freeing the ship’s owners up to do other tasks such as sales and cargo booking.

Fleet management is proven as being a very effective tool for any business with a fleet of vehicles. The savings, in terms of time and money, make it a necessity for any company that wishes to run more effectively. These high-tech tools become more cost effective every day and the lower the cost goes, the more value they have for fleet managers.

John Mahoney

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