Fleetmatics Puts You In the Driver’s Seat of Your Vehicle Fleet

You don’t need a fleet of thousands of trucks or other vehicles to benefit from vehicle management software. A fleet of two or three vehicles for a small plumbing, pest control, HVAC or beverage distribution service can still see the difference.

Software can be used to optimize routes, minimize wear and tear and improve safety with driver behavior reports. And that’s just the beginning.

Fleetmatics Group PLC, says “mobile workforce solutions” can:

• Reduce idle vehicle time.
• Lower fuel costs.
• Limit overtime pay.
• Eliminate unauthorized vehicle usage.
• Benchmark against industry performance.
• Enhance customer service with on-the-fly scheduling and other technology-enhanced elements.
• Increase productivity by connecting field workers directly to back offices via Fleetmatics’ mobile apps.

Joseph Boyle, Vice President of Customer Experience at Fleetmatics explains:

“Prior to becoming customers, we’d hear many small businesses say ‘I’m not driving my business. My business is driving me.'”

Small Business Trends attended the unveiling of the next generation of Fleetmatics management software recently in New York City.

The software is divided into two types:

• WORK (to manage employees)
• REVEAL (to manage vehicles)

Though the typical fleet size of Fleetmatic’s customers is about 10 to 12 vehicles, the company insists starting small will help your business scale more easily.

Loaded on a handheld device, the WORK app ensures your workers have job details, get every step done, know the prices quoted on a job or delivery, get the proper authorization and electronic signatures from customers, and properly discuss any connected warranties.

Boyle explains:

“In today’s world, you don’t really know whether your employee has documented all those steps. Our automation solves the issue where a field technician hands in a bunch of crumpled papers at the end of the week, only for someone else to then enter the data into one or more disconnected systems for billing, or accounting or other needs.”

Fleetmatics’ REVEAL Timeline enables businesses to see what’s going on with their vehicles at a glance:

Details provided by the software include: A travel and stop timeline, mapping features showing vehicle location, idling and standing times, maximum speed and average distance traveled. Fleetmatics is Software as a Service and is sold by subscription for about $40 to $45 per month.

Each truck and worker would be a different subscription, either to the WORK or REVEAL version. So total cost would depend on the number of subscriptions your business needs.

Boyle adds:

“This new generation of Fleetmatics software will continually learn from users, which can translate into long-term incremental ROI. You’re able to use the information to move the bar and look for that next place to drive out incremental costs or find incremental revenue opportunities.”

Images: Fleetmatic

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