Fleet Management Mobile Tech: How It Optimizes Processes and Cuts Costs
It takes more than vehicles to keep fleet operations running. Mobile technology like laptops, tablets, and vehicle-mounted devices plays a vital role in fleet management and efficient operations. These solutions can streamline your team’s work, enhance safety, and create significant cost savings — all at the same time.
As mobile technologies advance and improve through capabilities like analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), they enable mission-critical functions like better communication, real-time tracking, and timely maintenance. This gives enterprise fleet managers more effective and simplified ways to manage assets, oversee their on-the-go workforce, and make data-driven decisions to improve fleet performance.
Here are some examples of how mobile technology and solutions can help enterprise fleet management teams optimize their processes and reduce costs.
Fleet Management Requires a Constant Connection Between the Field and the Office
With workers always on the go, maintaining office-field communication is vital to enhancing fleet performance and safety, improving customer satisfaction, and reducing costs associated with miscommunication and delays.
Mobile tech empowers field workers to passively and actively gather data wherever they are and make it available to the office for analysis. For example:
- When a driver performs a vehicle inspection, they can note performance issues or maintenance needs and share this inspection information with the office team to take action and schedule repairs.
- As workers complete work orders, service requests, or deliveries, they can document their progress so activity can be tracked back at the office. Based on how their day is shaping up, the fleet management team may be able to add or remove tasks from the employee’s schedule to keep everything running smoothly.
- When a driver encounters an unexpected road closure, they can share information about their location, destination, and traffic conditions with the office so the fleet management team can suggest an alternative route and update the schedule accordingly.
These vital mobile devices also give drivers the tools they need to ask questions, call for backup, report on progress, and view and manage office information in real time.
For example, perhaps a driver arrives at their destination, but no one seems to be onsite. They can quickly confirm the address and contact information and ask the office to reach out if necessary. Alternatively, maybe there’s an extra pallet on their truck that doesn’t have any delivery information associated with it. If that’s the case, they can use their device to check records and confirm where the packages must go (or if it was loaded by mistake). If they can’t find the answer on their own, then they can reach out for help as needed.
Mobile technology also supports communication in the other direction. In addition to ensuring drivers and technicians can connect with the office, it also enables enterprise fleet management leaders to send valuable data and other communications to workers in the field whenever they need it.
For instance, fleet leaders can send updates and instructions to drivers about route changes or a shift in priorities for the day. They can monitor speed, fuel efficiency, and fleet performance in real time to see where problems may be occurring or when safety might be a concern. They can also reallocate resources on the fly based on which workers are behind or ahead of schedule to ensure timely delivery and operational efficiency.
Maximize Your Fleet Performance
TOUGHBOOK devices help address these labor shortages by enabling existing teams to maximize efficiency. With features like real-time data access, rugged durability, and automation capabilities, TOUGHBOOK allows teams to complete tasks faster, even in challenging environments. Mobile fleet optimization technology further boosts productivity by ensuring workers always have access to critical data, such as job assignments, work orders, and maintenance schedules, without unnecessary delays. By streamlining operations, TOUGHBOOK enables teams to focus on essential work and maintain operational momentum.
Mobile fleet optimization technology helps existing workers improve productivity and communication by making sure they have access to the data they need to do their jobs efficiently without having to wait for someone to fill in the missing pieces of information. This includes data about:
- Job assignments and work orders
- Safety protocols
- Routes and travel times
- Traffic updates
- Customers
- Delivery and pickup instructions
- Inventory and load details
- Upcoming maintenance requirements
- Weather conditions and alerts
- Schedules and timesheets
To further accelerate productivity among workers, fleet managers can monitor crew activity and location, traffic patterns, and road conditions to identify and convey optimal routes based on what’s happening in real time. This results in faster service and improves fuel efficiency, which reduces fleet costs. It also allows for better planning and distribution of resources across your fleet. Finally, it improves safety; fleet managers always know where drivers are and can reach them when and if needed.
While labor is a valuable resource, of course, it isn’t the only resource that enterprise fleet management teams need to govern. From a resource-utilization perspective, they also need to manage and oversee the vehicles themselves. With mobile technology, for example, leaders can “right size” their vehicle counts to match the size and composition of their fleet with changing operational needs. They can also better understand where and how vehicles should be used and discover where lack of access to a vehicle might be creating bottlenecks that slow down fieldwork.
Track and Address Fleet Management Issues that Require Immediate Attention
According to a 2024 report, fleet breakdowns and downtime can cost between $448 and $760 per day per vehicle. How can these unexpected scenarios be reduced? Through preventive maintenance.
This proactive approach to inspections, servicing, and repair can help fleet management leaders avoid downtime and maintain operations by ensuring that vehicles are in optimal condition to reduce the likelihood of unexpected problems.
TOUGHBOOK rugged laptops and tablets enhance this proactive approach by providing real-time visibility into fleet metrics, including diagnostic codes, battery health, and engine performance. By streamlining maintenance operations, fleet managers can mitigate risks, prevent breakdowns, and reduce costly downtime. This proactive approach mitigates risks, prevents breakdowns, and reduces unexpected downtime and the need to pull trucks out of the field — all of which reduce operating costs and improve customer satisfaction.
Gain a Big-Picture View of Fleet Performance
When mobile technology is integrated with enterprise fleet management, leaders can collect aggregate fleet data that offers a bigger-picture view. This allows them to track information about fleet utilization, cost management, safety, maintenance schedules, and driver performance at a high level so they can answer critical questions like:
- Which vehicles are overworked, and which sit in the parking lot for days without moving? Can we more evenly distribute the load across vehicles to extend their lifespan and reduce maintenance costs?
- Where are our biggest cost centers in fleet operations — such as fuel consumption, maintenance and repair, and insurance — and where can reductions be made?
- How many accidents or near-misses has our team had in the past year? Are there any commonalities among the events (time of day, specific routes, vehicle condition, driver fatigue, etc.)?
- How often are vehicles taken out of commission for service or maintenance? How can we lower this frequency?
- How much does fuel consumption vary based on vehicles and routes? Where can improvements be made?
- How does fleet performance change based on the season?
- Do our customer satisfaction scores increase or decrease in correlation with fleet performance?
Ensure that Safety Mandates Are Upheld
To maintain compliance with safety regulations and best practices, fleet management teams must be able to track service and maintenance data for every vehicle they own or operate.
Mobile technology plays a vital role in this process by enabling field workers and technicians to maintain accurate and up-to-date vehicle inspection and service records. Workers can document maintenance activities and inspection results in the field and send reports to managers in the office for review, analysis, and approval.
In addition to keeping up with regulations and mitigating risk, the use of mobile technology also protects workers by ensuring they aren’t being overworked or compromising safety to get more done: hours of service can be properly monitored and enforced. Based on the information being reported, schedule adjustments can be made to ensure that drivers remain alert and take necessary breaks.
Report on Sustainability Progress
Transportation affects the environment, and companies are being encouraged to reduce their impact and combat climate change. Holistically tracking your organization’s sustainability performance requires an understanding of your fleet operations.
Mobile technology can help fleet managers evaluate important environmentally related KPIs like fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and miles driven, which all impact a company’s sustainability efforts. When fleet management understands these metrics, leaders can take steps to reduce costs and improve sustainability efforts by:
- Improving fuel efficiency.
- Conducting regular maintenance to ensure optimal fleet performance.
- Reducing idle time.
- Optimizing routes and schedules to reduce mileage.
Learn More About Tech for Fleet Management
Combining mobile technology and solutions with fleet management puts data at the fingertips of workers in the field and the office so important decisions can be made to optimize processes and reduce risk.
As you incorporate mobile technology like rugged laptops into your fleet management, look for solutions that are:
- Simple to use, carry, and maintain.
- Reliable enough to work in the environments your field workers face.
- Durable and effective.
- Easy to use and navigate, even in harsh conditions.
Learn more about Panasonic Connect’s fleet and diagnostic solutions.
