The innovation of fleet management technology has strengthened the capacity of the owners to manage a variety of fleet vehicles. Most fleet owners, these days, rely on different applications that help track the geo-positioning system of their cars, check fuel utilization and its efficient management, improve driver’s abilities and efficiency and analyze fleet reports, bills and other transactions.
In this world of changing mobility, it is critical for all vehicle agencies and transportation companies to invest in fleet management software solutions that help them in acquisition, operation, and maintenance of their vehicles.
The primary intention behind using fleet management software is to reduce associated risk, increase the productivity of the vehicles, improve their efficiency, and to ensure their compliance with the legislation.
This article focuses on the best fleet management software solutions available in the market, and the way businesses can utilize them efficiently for their growth and sustainability in the long run.
Fleet Management Technology
Whether you have 10 or 10,000 vehicles, you need some sort of assistance to track, analyze, and improve the fleet operations. Electronic programs supported by advanced fleet management applications take a complete record of your fleet assets and help you run them efficiently.
Fleet management software provides a link between real-time asset tracking, routing & scheduling intelligence and managing your fleet business accordingly. The software enables you to check your real-time delivery schedules, get alerts for any route deviation or any late running issue, identify recurring inefficiencies, and alert your customers about updated arrival time.
Fleet Management Software – An Integrated Solution
Fleet controlling system provides standard interfaces with ignition settings, and real-time tracking data linked to the software. It puts a check over fuel usage and reminds about the maintenance requirements for any part of the damaged vehicle. A fleet manager can quickly retrieve all the relevant information from the fleet management software as to how the fleet have been performing at a specific period. This sophisticated database covers numerous applications that help in recording and reporting vital key attributes that have a significant role in improving efficiencies and driving costs down.
Fleet management software programs can generally integrate with almost any third-party software application or data provider for streamlining several functions including, fleets order management, arranging the delivery of goods, and payments. Such integrations help remove the lengthy administration process and makes way for efficient operations with facilities like; virtual inspection, organized spreadsheets and customized reports. After all, an array of fleet technologies at your disposal will eliminate the need for pain-stacking data entry that mainly remains prone to error.
Above all, the advancement of mobile apps adds more convenience to mobility.
Key Challenges Faced by the Fleet Managers (without any fleet management software in place)
Similar to the responsibilities of an asset manager, there are five crucial areas for which a fleet manager is responsible, i.e.
- Fuel Management – It is the biggest cost-saving challenge for a fleet manager to maintain fuel consumption despite constant market fluctuations.
- Vehicle Acquisition – Select the right type of vehicles for your fleet according to the job order requirements.
- Vehicle Maintenance – A fleet manager is responsible for scheduling regular maintenance program for the vehicles within the fleet. It includes pre-purchase vehicle inspections, interaction with the driver regarding the performance of the vehicle, and rectification of reported defects.
- Health and Safety – Health and safety measurements of the vehicles should be done at regular intervals with proper reporting to the relevant authorities like medical and insurance agency etc.
- Meeting Compliance and Requirements – Compliance and risk management is an essential part of this role involving daily checks, defects reporting, inspection sheets, driver checks, insurance, and so on.
Standard Features of a Fleet Management Software
Fleet management software helps the fleet owners and managers to deal with the following tasks;
- Assets, vehicles, and different types of equipment.
- Maintenance and repair.
- Guiding drivers, if any instruction is required
- Fuel and emissions.
- Parts and inventory.
- Accident and risk management.
- Regulatory and legal compliance.
- Budget and forecasting.
- Workshops and scheduling – inspections, defect reporting, and audits.
Types of Fleet Management Software
Though, the fleet management platform has a variety of functionalities, they can be designed in-house or installed on-premise by your vendor. All of them come to meet the specific needs of the users. Here are different types of fleet management software solutions that are available in the market;
- Free
- Cloud-based
- Open Source
- Trial-based or Freemium
- Paid
Fleet Forecast for the Year 2019-20: Latest Trends to Watch
The trends and changes in the automotive industry significantly impact how fleets are shaping. The fleet managers and owners today can experience the significant changes brought by the ‘telematics technology’ and expecting them to speed up this year too. So, let us check what the fleet forecast is for the Year 2019-20 and what more is expected from this industry.
Managing Fleets using Automated Cars for Reducing Congestion
The National Science Foundation in the USA researched that AI-based advanced control systems and fleet management software programs installed in vehicles are capable of reducing congestion by influencing the traffic flow.
The Automated Driving (AD) with real-time speed & position tracking is the new-age fleet management practices. The number of road casualties is likely to reduce with the automation of the fleet system, as per International Transport Forum.
Advanced Fleet Management Software for ‘Connected Vehicles’ – A Telematics Scenario
According to automotive and fleet industry experts, telematics is rapidly becoming an integral part of all vehicle fleets. Most fleet businesses are realizing the benefits of telematics technology as it leads to resolve most of the vehicle issues automatically along with providing required reports.
The autonomous cars with advanced fleet management system installed can soon be seen automatically contacting the repair shops when the maintenance alert is triggered, or when a reminder on the fleet maintenance appointments flashes. Or else, they can automatically drive to the nearest fuel station within a certain radius that charges lowest fuel cost, when their fuel is running low.
Increased Usage of Smart Devices for Fleet Operations
Deeper integration of the smart devices into vehicles facilitates users with hands-free connection and interaction. It syncs the wireless connection of vehicle data with mobile devices. The vehicle data includes a vehicle’s health, performance, and mileage. Mobile devices have become imperative for fleet owners to know how drivers are handling their fleet tasks.
Now, check out the list of best free and open source fleet management software solutions that are ruling the fleet management market.
List of Top 7 Fleet Management Software Solutions
1. Odoo
2. Fleetco
3. FleetBip
4. KeepTruckin
5. FleetWise VB
6. GadiMalik
7. GoFleet
Fleet owners and controllers always look for some easy-to-go and quick-result oriented software systems with less complicated user integration and design. Let us compare these systems through a detailed comparison chart below that will help you to find the best suitable software for your fleet business.
Check out all of these software solutions in detail.
1. Odoo
Odoo is a suite of free and open source software applications, and fleet management software is one of the unique software programs among them. The company owns 3 million users who are growing their business with it. It is a fully integrated and customizable open source-software that also serves in the sectors like inventory management, accounting, CRM, and other business needs.
(Source: Odoo)
Highlights:
- Fuel Management and GPS tracking are primary features of the software.
- Calendar and Reminder system associated with the software provides prompt reminders of the issues.
- It facilitates mobile access, document storing facility, and segmentation.
- Marketing automation integration and social media integration of the software.
- The software supports email marketing, and internal chat integration to communicate with the users.
2. Fleetco
Fleetco is a free, web-based fleet management system licensed under GNU general public license. It is written in PHP with MySQL database. Version 1 and Version 1 of the software is available to download and Version 3 is ready to launch. It is easy and intuitive fleet management software that can be accessed from any computer without needing any installation and network configuration.
(Source: Fleetco)
Highlights:
- Fleetco provides multi-user and multi-language software.
- The bootstrap responsive theme is the latest feature included in the newest version of the software.
- High/view columns, customizable columns, and bug fixing are some other features supported by the software.
- Easy calculation of turnaround times, monitoring the deviation from routes and unauthorized stops.
- Easy monitoring of engine hours, overtime measurement, and report generation are some other features associated with the software.
3. FleetBip
FleetBip software is specifically designed and developed for fleet management and also to handle the asset management, inventory management, preventive maintenance and work order management responsibilities for a fleet business. FleetBip Company provides bug free native mobile apps to its 350+ satisfied customers and 1200+ installations. This cost-effective, reliable and scalable software is highly efficient and comes with proprietary license.
(Source: FleetBip)
Highlights:
- FleetBip software facilitates a cloud-hosted deployment and operates on Windows and web-based platforms.
- It facilitates entirely smartphone-based fleet inspections.
- Multiple users are allowed to view the data but the users having authenticated permissions can only make the required edits and that too in the billing and user management sections.
- Built-in telematics is an effective feature with the software associated with adding assets to your account and reducing cost of operations.
4. FleetWise VB
One of the industry-leading fleet management software solutions, FleetWise VB is used by the private, government and industrial participants quite frequently. It can handle an unlimited number of vehicles and equipment. The uniqueness of this software is the availability of different kinds of software for different types of requirements. For example, SafetyWise VB is for Safety System, and FleetWise Lite is to maintain a fleet management system for smaller fleets.
(Source: FleetWise VB)
Highlights:
- FleetWise VB includes preventive maintenance scheduling, inventory control, repair orders, fuel management, and comprehensive reporting.
- The software is available for all larger to smaller fleets.
- Though, the software itself is capable of managing various tasks; a standard toolbar is made available in the main menu throughout the system for performing more chores.
- The standard user interface of the software makes it extremely easy to use.
5. KeepTruckin
KeepTruckin is the leading fleet management platform for today’s vehicle industry. This platform is trusted by more than 40,000 fleet owners and managers for GPS tracking, fuel tax reporting, video monitoring, compliance, and so on. There are 1,000,000 registered drivers, 50,000 for-hire carriers and 250,000 trucks in the KeepTruckin network. Their Glassdoor rating is 4.8 stars, and it is among the fastest growing SaaS companies ever.
(Source: KeenTruckin)
Highlights:
- The software is ELD compliance and protects your fleet with an easy-to-use fully integrated video solution.
- You can perform vehicle utilization by tracking excessive idling and reducing fuel costs.
- The software eliminates the administrative burden of collection states miles with IFTA fuel tax reporting.
- Customizable vehicle inspections ensure vehicle safety across your fleet.
- Open API and App Marketplace offers integrations that help in improving efficiencies and driver experiences.
6. GadiMalik
One of the personalized fleet management portals, GadiMalik helps its clients with managing fleets, vending trucks, track services, company offers and all other daily transactions related to their fleets. With 2916 total vehicles and 122 happy clients, GadiMalik is constantly rising in popularity as an efficient, secure and trustworthy fleet management platform.
(Source: GadiMalik)
Highlights:
- Efficiently manages fleet documents with prior scheduled services and jobs.
- No installation cost and no additional hardware is required to use the software.
- Users are provided with a single interface to access their agents, vendors and other related resources.
- Automated reports are generated and distributed to the users with integrated data flow.
- Any GPS system can be integrated to get automated reading of ‘kilometres’ on all the transactions.
7. GoFleet
GoFoleet is a renowned provider of real time fleet management and GPS tracking system. From past 8 years, the company is constantly paving a road to success in the field of fleet management with delivering quality solutions and improved safety for its client vehicles. It provides the industry’s best and most powerful GPS vehicle tracking system and offers mobile apps as well for diverse tracking and analysis purposes.
(Source: GoFleet)
Highlights:
- The GoFleet software offers 15 seconds GPS tracking so that you can track your vehicle anywhere.
- It provides powerful fuel diagnostics to make the maintenance easier.
- Integrated solutions are provided to turn rich data into a wealth of opportunities.
- All the fleet management software proceedings are in compliance with the rules.
- Easy tracking with reduction in fuel usage by 18%.
We are discussing one more popular Fleet management software-Fleetio.
Fleetio
Fleetio is a popular fleet management software that keeps a complete record of your fleets. Fleet operations are difficult to manage, and sometimes they become chaotic. Fleetio is designed to bring order to the choatic fleet world. It automates all major fleet management tasks such as fuel transactions, maintenance, scheduling and many more. It gives the fleet owners complete idea of fuel costs, costs per meter, pending inspections, open issues, service costs etc.
Highlights:
- Fleetio keeps a complete record of the maintenance providers. It checks orders, maintenance approvals, billing reports etc.
- It provides complete service history of every vehicle in your fleet.
- The software is also an end to end issue management solution for fleet-based issues.
- It helps in planning and execution of detailed maintenance tasks.
- It schedules the fleet as required and also tracks them.
- Maintains a record for inspection and other regulations for 100% compliance
- It keeps a record of the purchased fleet parts and supplies orders.
- It assists in properly assigning tasks to your assets.
- Provides vehicle location history
- GPS tracker provides the current location of the vehicle.
- Captures fuel consumption trends of each vehicle and accordingly spots deficiencies.
- Can integrate with any fuel card provider.
In addition to the above, listed free and open source fleet management software solutions, you can also refer MyGeotab, GPS Insight, Fleet Genius, Silent Passenger, Fleet Cost & Care, Samsara, GreenRoad, and Fleetsoft.
If you are already using one from the software solutions listed above, you can freely share your reviews here.
Conclusion:
The year 2020 is going to be a pivotal time for the fleet industry. The involvement of technologies like big data, telematics and virtual assistance are helping fleet owners to manage their business operations, and data security. Efficiently analyzing data and utilizing it to take better decisions have become a necessity for the fleet operators. Fleet management companies are today ready to invest in advanced fleet management software solutions.
When asked about the state-of-the-art fleet technology, Dan Frank, CEO of a renowned Fleet management Company said in a statement, “I’m really excited about the future because I think it will open up a lot of possibilities for fleet management”.
Therefore, the fleet managers and owners can now positively look forward to the constantly growing fleet management technology and manage their fleet business using the advanced software solutions, effectively.
