In Fleet Management the fleet size is not just calculating the number of vehicles needed for your business or task, or the number required at a time and at a location, but a strategy to get the right quality vehicles over a plan and period to optimize your operations and costs. The plan is drawn over the number of kilometres run or hours of operation per day/month/year.
A number of factors impact this number or count of the fleet as some need to calculate the hours run instead of distance done. In another scenario for the company that operates seasonally it calculates the utilization threshold annually.
Find Utilisation Threshold of Fleet
By determining what vehicles are being used for what task and how often, the company can analyse and categorise each vehicle into segments. This helps determine the ROI and profitability and whether the vehicles are being used fully. The utilisation reports generated by a Fleet Management Software will help here to analyse. The customizable reports will hold all the information required to determine the threshold of utilisation.
Find out the number of vehicles underutilised
This factor is determined by comparing the vehicles utilization against the set threshold, to find out underutilization or overutilization. Consider whether the vehicle serves multiple locations to determine a pattern of utilization. This will also help to share a vehicle between drivers on different shifts. This will help you set the goals for vehicles and drivers.
Re-evaluate to come to the right conclusion
Re-evaluation can be done by answering some questions like, what is the assignment of each vehicle, to determine whether a smaller sized or more fuel-efficient vehicle can be used. Find out the Cost-of-Ownership of the vehicle and how many vehicles suffer downtime for maintenance. All these aspects can be determined from the data and insights got from the fleet management system.
Implement the decided changes
All this information and evaluation will help you rightsize your fleet and also determine what type of vehicles are needed in your fleet, considering overutilization and underutilization of each vehicle. By implementing your decision, you will set right the discrepancies in location and utilisation, and whether drivers can be shared for a vehicle. Onboard the drivers too to help implement the changes effectively.
Future Ready Approach
Consider the future when you are increasing or decreasing your fleet size by looking into trends, demands and up-to-date information collected. The FMS solution should be scalable to support your growth and plans in future, like what Trinetra Wireless provides you via their FMS software. For whatever mix of assets and drivers, the application would optimise your operations.
The FMS software has the ability to identify operational inefficiencies, compliance irregularities and other discrepancies, to assist managers and fleet owners address or rectify them. With the advent of connected cars, vehicles, EV fleets, IoT and automation, the FMS software will empower your strategic decision-making for higher levels of operational efficiency.
To Conclude
Therefore, FMS software applications in future are going to be intelligent fleet management solutions with telematics technology, mobile app integration and data analytics incorporated seamlessly. We must prepare for the digital age as businesses and organisations are going to be highly inter-connected and data-driven in future
For all interested persons/managers a ‘Demo’ can be arranged for better appraisal of our FMS software solution. Kindly contact our team who will respond to you as soon as possible.
