5 Fleet Management Challenges: How to Overcome Them and Save Money

Think we can all agree that money makes the world go round. Much is the same for the business world — except here, it’s profits that keep it going round, especially in the fleet industry.

Boosting profits often means overcoming challenges to run your business operations more smoothly, identifying and minimising any areas of profit drainage.

Fleet management is no different.

Are you experiencing fleet management-related challenges that you’d like to overcome and boost profits in the process? We’ve mapped out the perfect solutions for the most pressing problems right here for you.

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In this article, you will:

• Learn more about fleet managers’ responsibilities

• Identify five crucial fleet management challenges

• Find innovative solutions for these challenges

• Understand how to save money on fleet-related challenges

• Discover how you can conquer these challenges with Cartrack Zimbabwe

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Fleet managers wear many hats: Here’s what they do

Many hats mean many responsibilities, and a fleet manager oversees everything involving the business’s commercial vehicle fleet. Adding to that, each hat is linked to a range of management skills and abilities. These are some of the tasks fleet managers tackle daily:

• The vehicle management hat:

  Managing a fleet of vehicles, no matter how big or small, requires a dynamic and strategic approach. Keeping track of and managing fleet vehicles includes:

  - Maintenance
  - Handling compliance
  - Recording fuel usage and mileage
  - Vehicle tracking, and more
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• The driver management hat:

  Driver management incorporates but is not limited to managing and supervising a fleet of drivers to ensure they execute their tasks safely and successfully. This includes:

  - Monitoring operations
  - Checking regulatory compliance
  - Conducting performance assessments
  - Providing general assistance
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• The admin management hat:

  The admin management hat is a tough one for fleet managers as these tasks can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Admin management duties include:

  - Preparing and maintaining vehicle records
  - Regulatory reporting and filing
  - Keeping records of insurance claims, and
  - Preparing fleet-related reports
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• The operations management hat:

  While tasks like vehicle and driver management naturally fall under operations management, it’s worth singling out this multifaceted hat and looking at it in more detail. Fleet managers’ operational duties include but are not limited to:

  - Planning
  - Managing
  - Coordinating
  - Directing
  - Supervising programs for vehicle assignment
  - Maintenance
  - Utilisation
  - Repair
  - Disposal

Tough job? You bet. Manageable? Yes — If you have the best solutions.
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Five key fleet management challenges with five innovative solutions

With fleet management being quite a hefty task involving many subtasks and responsibilities, there will always be challenges on the road to success. The key to advancing your fleet-based business is to identify the most pressing challenges and pinpoint solutions that work for your business.

So, how do you overcome fleet management challenges? While fleet-related challenges can range from a variety of tasks, one of the most important uniting factors is costs. We’ve got some of the most common and important issues lined up, as well as some inventive ways to transform these issues into money-saving success stories.

1. Vehicle acquisition and management

   Ensuring your fleet stays in tip-top shape while expanding with suitable vehicle additions is essential for avoiding unnecessary downtime and optimising production, but it can pose significant challenges.

   Some complication-causing factors are too many insurance claims, vehicle cost inflation, and vehicle maintenance efficiency and costs. For example, with the new vehicle markets slowing down significantly and second-hand inflation even more due to interest rate hikes, finding ways to prolong current fleet vehicle health and usability has become a rising concern.

   How to make vehicle acquisition and management a cost-saving breezeThe best way to make informed choices for future vehicle acquisition is by having all the information available about the state of your current fleet vehicles, including maintenance reports, diagnostics tools, driver behaviour reports, and a proactive maintenance schedule to minimise downtime and increase fleet longevity.

   The ultimate solution is a fleet-oriented telematics system that allows you to monitor and automate as many of these processes as possible while receiving smart updates and reminders that support proactive fleet management. These tools are invaluable for putting a stop to profit drainage and managing how you spend money on your fleet.
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2. Driver safety and productivity

   In a fleet environment, driver safety is an integral part of workplace safety, and a safe environment also lays the foundation for happy and productive employees. However, ensuring driver safety comes with some hurdles, like ensuring drivers are adequately trained, monitoring risky driving behaviour, optimising driver schedules, and providing your fleet with the quickest and most effective routes.

   Doing all this while wearing different hats can be very challenging. Luckily, there are ways to optimise, update, and speed up processes.

   Conquer safety and productivity challenges like this to start saving

   With advanced AI technology and live streaming now a reality, one of the most valuable tools for monitoring driver behaviour lies in camera-based tools you can use in your fleet vehicles. Knowing which behaviours you need to address helps drivers stay safe and on the road and keeps training materials updated and relevant.

   Additionally, a SaaS fleet management system that offers detailed trip reports can pinpoint other unwanted behaviours like harsh braking, accelerating, and other actions cameras cannot capture. Using the latest tech to ensure your drivers stick to economic driving best practices allows you to see significant fuel and maintenance savings.
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3. Admin management

   While admin is essential to productive fleet management, most fleet managers and business owners do not see it as a core business activity. Yes, ensuring your fleet-related admin is in order can be a mountainous task, but if not tended to regularly, can snowball and become a costly inconvenience.

   Critical elements include:

   - Preparation and maintenance of accurate vehicle records
   - Insurance and regulatory reporting and filing
   - Prepping and filing trip reports
   - Coordination of vehicle maintenance and repairs
   - Data sorting and analysis

   How to make your admin and budget work harder for you

   A range of SaaS-based tools are available to help you automate some of the most tedious admin processes and ensure you’re keeping everything that requires filing, sorting, and updating as organised and current as possible.

   By specifically looking for and adding a fleet management cost-accounting system to your set of tools, you can simplify processes like prepping and maintaining accurate vehicle records and make your fleet admin work for you.

   As a result, you’ll have more time available to attend to crucial tasks without having to hire dedicated admin staff, allowing you to put that money to better use.
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4. Regulatory compliance

   Supply chains and other fleet-based businesses have to adhere to vehicle-specific and other compliance requirements essential for running a successful and productive company. These regulatory and compliance requirements can range from vehicle inspections, license and registration renewals, and fines.

   The challenge lies in making sure all of these requirements are met when they’re due to avoid penalties and other issues linked to non-compliance. The due dates for these different requirements are usually scattered across a fleet manager’s calendar of things to do, which can cause unnecessary stress and complications.

   Staying effortlessly compliant while saving is easier than you thinkThere’s undoubtedly a wide range of smart fleet management software available. Looking specifically for one that offers timely reminders for critical compliance-related tasks like license and registration renewals and routine vehicle inspections will help solve any issues you may have with costly late renewals and registrations the uncomplicated way.
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5. Driver retention and shortages

   Once a driver is employed and fully trained, they become potential investments for your business as they learn the ropes and gain experience. According to the IRU’s 2022 Driver Shortage Global Report, driver shortages have become a serious global issue, while driver retention is also a widespread problem in the fleet industry.

   When it comes to fleet drivers, shortages and poor retention are due to a low pay range, the demanding nature of the job, and a lack of training and communication. Not to worry, though, there are ways to improve the job experience and retain more drivers for a strong, well-trained, and experienced fleet that remains loyal.

   Here’s how to keep your drivers happy while saving money

   Being a fleet driver is undoubtedly challenging; however, there are viable, cost-reducing solutions. Drivers who know they're appreciated tend to stay and grow with companies instead of looking for greener pastures. Using technology like real-time analytics, audible alerts, and driver scorecards to communicate, improve, and recognise productive behaviour are invaluable retention tools.

   By simplifying your drivers' everyday tasks with solutions like route optimisation and accurate shift tracking times, you ensure fair and reasonable shift times, resulting in happy drivers, and a lower staff turnover.

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Turn your fleet management challenges into profit with Cartrack’s solutions

Fleet-related challenges usually have financial implications which is why businesses prioritise saving money wherever they can. Using technology to your advantage is a smart way to take control of fleet management challenges, boost management KPIs, and convert them into money-making opportunities.

Here’s how Cartrack can help you wear all the fleet management hats with ease and have the money to maintain or buy new ones:

1. Make every cent and second count with MiFleet. It’s a fully customisable cost management system that analyses and adapts trip-related data like cost per km, maintenance costs, and more, giving you intelligent automated reporting and actionable insights to proactively make cost-saving decisions.
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2. Gain complete control and visibility with industry-leading fleet management telematics technology. Our live GPS tracking, detailed trip reports that indicate harsh braking and excessive idling, and route optimisation software for enhanced productivity help you keep your drivers safe, fleet efficient, and trips optimised.
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3. Reduce fuel costs and gain critical insights with advanced LiveVision streaming technology. Our in-cabin system lets you monitor and communicate with drivers in real time so you can identify inefficiencies like unproductive on-and-offloading or bad driving behaviour, helping increase task efficiency and vehicle longevity.
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4. Stay compliant with our smart temperature monitoring system. Specialised sensors let you know in real time the moment your cargo’s temperature changes, helping you to inform drivers and reduce the loss of perishable goods. With us, you’ll deliver fresh every time, saving you money and maintaining crucial customer satisfaction.

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Get the fleet management solutions you need at Cartrack

Contact Cartrack Zimbabwe today to kickstart significant savings by conquering your fleet-based challenges the smart way.