Fleets around the world keep the wheel of economy turning by depending on transportation to fulfil business requirements. With more than 8 million fleet vehicles navigating the American roads in 2020, it is only evident that there is a huge amount of money being spent on their care, monitoring and improvement.
While fleet management allows companies to minimize operational risks, improve efficiency and productivity, reducing overall transportation and staff costs is an area that is yet to be impacted for the industry’s progress as a whole. Real-time connected vehicle data, along with meaningful insights, promises fleet managers and service providers to save fleet expenses in the long run by predicting, optimizing and managing costs.
Here are the top cost challenges faced by fleet managers, and how fleet service providers can help tackle them by utilizing the power of telematics data from IoT enabled vehicles, for their advantage.
Managing Fuel Costs
Probably the biggest cost challenge faced by the fleet industry is fuel costs, which makes up for almost 60% of the total fleet costs. This makes fuel a sizable expense for fleet managers, even when prices are low, and calls for effective ways to reduce fuel consumption in fleet vehicles.
Connected vehicle data identifies real-time consumption trends by consistently tracking fuel consumption, instances of overuse, high consumption routes, driver behavior and more to reduce fuel usage in fleets. Fleet service providers can then leverage data to support managers in:
- Creating shortest fleet routes
- Minimizing vehicle idle time
- Finding continuous move opportunities
- Avoiding high traffic areas and obstructed routes
- Optimizing driver behavior in terms of excess speeding, idling or harsh braking
- Driving fleets sustainably ensuring lower fuel consumption, that leads to reduced emissions and greener prospects
Vehicle Maintenance Costs
Periodic maintenance of fleet vehicles is critical to running the business productively. Unattended maintenance requests can lead to unexpected and expensive breakdowns, or incur excess wear and tear, leading to even costlier repairs and spare parts. Add to that the downtime caused by delays and loss of productivity, and vehicle maintenance can very easily become one of the biggest challenges faced by fleet managers.
Fleet telematics service providers utilize AI-driven smart data in real-time which lets managers plan ahead to spot trends, and prepare for potential challenges in advance, which cuts costs significantly. Telematics data helps:
- Track maintenance schedule of the entire fleet (based on date, mileage & hours of use)
- Automate service reminders
- Monitor vehicle status and vitals
- Tend to malfunctions before they turn into costly breakdowns
Optimizing Running Up Costs
Telematics information an AI-driven smart data also helps curb unnecessary costs incurred during fleet operation. Fleet service providers use connected fleet data to help fleet managers:
- Detect circumstances where alternatives other than toll roads are available.
- Monitor driver behavior to avoid risk of getting a ticket by result of impulsive driving, excess speeding or flouting of traffic rules.
- Record both historical and real-time data metrics, such as location, speed, vehicle status, etc., for insurance and investigatory purposes.
- Ensure utmost driver safety and prevent accidents during commute, taking all necessary measures to make sure they do not persist/repeat.
- Implement driving time limits as imposed by the legislation, to prevent over-stressing of drivers and vehicles.
Unlock Valuable Fleet Data with CerebrumX
At CerebrumX, we are committed to assist you in developing future-ready sustainable solutions by decoding raw connected vehicle data. The Augmented Deep Learning Platform (ADLP) presents service providers and telematics platforms with real-time data as well as predictive insights, that support cost-friendly functions, saving time, efforts and money, while ensuring optimum productivity is achieved.
We adhere to global privacy regulations to maintain driver confidentiality and offer an effortless consent management platform, CerebrumX Secure Consent, that can be easily integrated within your brand’s existing web/app architecture.
For more information regarding connected vehicle data and the evolving ecosystem around it, Contact us or reach out to our experts.