How fleet tech helps with staff shortages

As the summer draws to a close, you’ve likely been stretching to plug the gaps left by employees jetting off for a week or two in the sun. Depending on the nature of your business, you may even be contending with staff shortages during the busiest period of your year. 

Next time the holiday season strikes, it doesn’t have to leave you high and dry. Fleet management technology is packed with features designed to help you do more with the resources at your disposal. 

From smarter dispatch to automated alerts, here’s how we can help keep your fleet moving when staffing is short.

At-a-glance visibility

The Live Map feature allows you to view the location and status of every vehicle and piece of equipment in your fleet in a single dashboard. With this information at your fingertips, you can quickly find and relocate the nearest driver to a new call out, reducing unnecessary mileage and speeding up service to your customers. 

This increased fleet visibility also helps you to identify what you have available and how it’s being used. So, if you do have any spare capacity, it is easy to find it and reutilise it elsewhere, potentially increasing profitability.

Automated communication

Protracted back and forth between the office and the road is a time drain at the best of times, impeding service levels and potentially posing a safety risk. With automated communication between dispatchers and drivers, you can save time while keeping your drivers safe. 

Everything from route updates to job completion information can be automatically sent to the mobile device of any relevant parties. So, everyone stays in the know without the need for time-wasting phone tennis.

Smarter dispatch

The costliest mile is always the one you didn’t need to take. But when resources are stretched, any detours can have an even more significant impact on productivity and profitability. 

The best route to take depends on many factors, such as where your customers are located, when they want you there and which driver or vehicle is needed to do the job.

Intelligent fleet tracking technology takes these factors into account to produce the best routes for your business. So you can have confidence that mileage is kept to a minimum without spending time manually tweaking your routes.

Deterring downtime

Unexpected downtime is the ultimate bottom line killer. With a vehicle off the road, you’re often faced with either letting your customers down, or paying for a last-minute vehicle hire to fill the gap. 

While downtime can never be avoided entirely, there are steps you can take to keep it to a minimum. A modern fleet management solution can trigger alerts based on engine hours, mileage, or time to help make sure you never miss routine repairs or servicing. The better condition your vehicles, the less likely they are to experience an unexpected breakdown.

Safer drivers

Breakdown and repairs are not the only unexpected event that can keep your vehicles off the road. Accidents can play havoc with resourcing too. Fleet management solutions monitor a range of key events, from speeding to harsh driving, so you can take steps to promote safer driving styles. 

This information can be used to score and rank drivers, creating friendly competition between staff and allowing you to coach improved performance in context with real driving events. Safer drivers mean fewer accidents and more time on the road serving your customers.

Digital efficiency

Admin is likely the last thing on your mind when resources are limited. But, for the most part, there’s no avoiding it. There is, however, plenty you can do to make sure it doesn’t take up your valuable time unnecessarily. 

With data collected on everything from start/finish time to time spent on site, modern fleet tracking solutions automate a range of key processes. Timesheets, billing, payroll and much more can all be taken care of digitally, free from time-consuming manual tasks and human error.

Remote management

Every busy manager wishes they could be in multiple places at once – particularly when it’s all hands to the pump. But barring science fiction level advancements in cloning technology, it’s just not possible. 

However, with your fleet management platform accessible online and via mobile app in the office, at home and on the go, you can stay in control from anywhere. 

With vital fleet information in the palm of your hand, you can make informed decisions, assign tasks and keep tabs on your mobile operation wherever your work takes you.

Create better days every day

Whether you’re stretched to the limit or looking to put your vehicles and equipment to better use, fleet management technology can help you increase the productivity, efficiency and safety of your operation. 

Read our ‘day in the life’ eBook to see how we can help improve every driver’s day – every day.