Construction business owners who own a fleet of vehicles need to understand the importance of the different fleet management and monitoring technologies to help improve transport operations.
In order to ensure that your fleet works according to your budget, while performing effectively, business owners need to utilise wireless fleet management systems to collect performance, location and activity data. These systems go beyond safety monitoring as they help managers to track the performance of each vehicle to ensure that there are no operation issues that may affect productivity.
Here are a few tips that businesses can use to optimise fleets:
” Monitoring vehicle use
Fleet management technologies help business owners to monitor the vehicle’s location and engine status, providing a detailed report on each vehicle’s usage. This information can contain anything from engine hours to travelling distances, trip amounts and more. Once you’ve generated a report on the above, you will be able to optimise your operations accordingly to benefit your customers and your business.
” Examine your fleet and your route
In the beginning, you will need to test all your fleet vehicles to see which ones work best for what jobs. For example, you might want to use second-hand vehicles with high mileage to transport heavier loads, at further distances. The only way you will be able to see what works best for you is to gather reports from each trip, which can also be used to plan routine and maintenance schedules. Business owners can utilise this GPS tracking technology for various reasons, such as monitoring the trips, engine performance and fuel consumption to see which vehicles are best suited for specific tasks. These GPS tracking devices will really assist your employees with the ideal route to avoid delays and traffic accidents.
” Educate drivers about their driving habits
Once your vehicle operators become familiar with the vehicles they drive, they will be able to adjust their habits for better optimisation. Each driver should be taught how to drive in an ecological way, constantly looking for ways to lessen unnecessary consumption. They should be able to monitor the vehicle and let management know in advance if there is something wrong, in terms of maintenance, and if the amount of fuel used is over the limit for a specific route. It’s these small behavioural changes that can influence your fleet management and planning schedule. Other behaviours focus on the wear and tear caused by the driving behaviours, which add to the early maintenance of the vehicle. If drivers became more aware of their actions and driving habits, they would be more cautious on the roads.
” Identify maintenance opportunities in advance
To boost business productivity, business owners need to learn how to change up their vehicles to increase efficiency. These machines need to be versatile to meet all construction requirements quickly, in the event that another vehicle is out of order. If you take advantage of tracking devices, you will be able to foresee an issue in advance so that your vehicles don’t sit under maintenance for longer than anticipated. For example, if there are any small issues, business owners can resolve them in advance before having to face major expenses that either put operations on halt or cost companies more than budgeted for.
These types of precautions would also help employees to avoid accidents while driving to and from a job site. To avoid situations like these, your business needs to have a proper maintenance schedule for the safety of your drivers and the benefit of your business’ bottom line.
” Reduce the loss of equipment due to theft
Construction fleets cost hundreds and thousands of Rands which can easily be vandalised if you do not take the correct precaution. It’s vital that business owners ensure their vehicles are safe and protected at all times. By making use of tracking technologies to ensure safety, you can instal GPS tracking in vehicles to deter thieves. When trespassers are aware of these tracking technologies, they tend to refrain from taking the risk because they know they will get caught. It also makes it easier for business owners to track and recover vehicles faster, if something were to happen to a fleet vehicle.
” Enhance employee safety
Once the vehicle leaves the job, business owners can track their vehicles to make sure that they are safe, as well as their employees. These innovative technologies will make such a difference in automating operations and making sure that everything is running smoothly and according to plan.
Final words
While there is no guarantee that fleet optimisation will keep your vehicles safe and up-to-standard, making use of wireless devices will certainly assist in project management planning. Initially, these costs might be overbearing for companies which haven’t budgeted for such innovations, but it’s important for business owners to weigh up their options on the importance of these assets. If you haven’t got the money upfront, there are always construction financing companies which can help you access short-term liquid capital, allowing you to focus on other security systems that are within your reach.
