What Are Fleet Management System Alerts And Where to Use Them?

Every business has aspirations to become successful and make a good name for itself. A fleet management system can aid this process to a great extent by automating a fleet’s operations. This is done through a series of alerts, letting managers know of any harmful practice ongoing under their supervision.

Let us look at the kinds of alerts that the system uses for optimisation. But before jumping into that it is important to have a complete understanding of alerts and their working.

What Are Alerts?

As the name suggests, fleet management software is used to automate the functioning of fleet businesses. This process is carried out by managers getting alerts about their driver’s activities in real-time. Then managers investigate the reasons behind such alerts and see how certain harmful activities of drivers might be affecting their productivity.

After getting the alerts, managers contact their drivers to understand the situation better. A warning is let out if a driver is at fault. But in case of inevitable circumstances affecting the vehicles, managers can look for solutions to these problems. Thus, restoring the productivity of their fleet.

Managers have the option to choose what alerts they want to receive and which ones to disable. This prevents their system from getting cluttered. Not all fleets function similarly, and thus, it is important to customise their alerts according to the business requirements. A failure in doing so can make the fleet operations confusing, ultimately depleting profitability.

What Solutions Does Fleet Management Software Offer?

Every solution offered by fleet management software is catered toward the automation of fleet operations. It becomes easy to see why the fleet industry is steadily shifting to technology when we compare this form of functioning to traditional management procedures. Before looking into the advantages of using the alert generation of this system, let us understand the functioning of each solution in detail:

Driver Behaviour Monitoring

When vehicles are travelling on roads, the people in total control of these vehicles are drivers. This is why it is very important for fleet managers to optimise their practices. Whenever a driver makes a reckless decision on the road, he endangers his, the vehicle and the consignments’ safety as well. In the long run, frequent accidents caused because of drivers' carelessness can lead to the fleet's profitability and productivity both being affected negatively.

The driver behaviour monitoring solution works as a way for managers to maintain surveillance over their drivers. It notifies managers whenever an event is triggered in the system. The events used for this solution are:

• Overspeeding

• Harsh cornering

• Abrupt braking

• Engine idling

• Unnecessary acceleration

Route Planning

Deciding the routes vehicles will follow in order to complete tasks is very chaotic for managers. It is hard to judge which route will be best suited for drivers keeping their task requirements in mind as well. This is why TrackoBit’s route planning solution allows managers to add halts and their sequences into the system. The system takes care of everything else, providing drivers with the best-suited route.

There is a chance that drivers might try to travel from unoptimised routes because of personal reasons. But this is wasteful for the fleet as it can disturb the trajectory set according to client priority. Taking longer routes is also a reason for high fuel consumption.

To resolve these issues, vehicle tracking software has route deviation alerts. Managers are notified of drivers who stray from their assigned path while completing tasks. After this, managers themselves can investigate the situation and determine if the driver's actions were justified or not.

Fuel Monitoring

As we mentioned earlier, fuel prices are one of the most concerning fields of operations for any fleet business. With the fuel monitoring solution, managers are allowed to track their vehicle's fuel levels in real-time. This can be used to understand the average of vehicles and further devise a way of improving it. 

Alerts play a huge role in controlling the overall fuel consumption of any fleet. The most significant function of this solution is the refill and drainage alerts. Whenever the fuel tank of a vehicle experiences a sudden surge in its fuel levels, managers are notified. This usually indicates that a driver has bought fuel.

Secondly, we have the drainage reports. Usually, the reason for this alert to go off is either a leakage in tanks or a case of pilferage. This can be the cause of major fuel wastage and requires immediate investigation.

Asset Tracking

Assets are the responsibility of fleet businesses during the transportation process. This is why ensuring successful and safe delivery is one task that managers entrust with their fleet management system. It tracks the live location of consignments to eliminate the risk of misplacement. 

The solution alerts managers with regular ETA by studying routes. This information can be further shared with clients. This ensures timely delivery of goods to their final destination. Also, the POD feature allows drivers to collect their tasks' competition evidence. It also means transportation work is not completed unless consignments have reached their destination. This allows managers to improve business-customer relations as well.

Video Telematics

The newest addition to the solution offered by vehicle tracking software, it allows managers to keep an eye on their drivers through in-cabin cameras as well as outward cameras. 

Whenever an event registered in the system is triggered, visual evidence is sent out to accompany textual information. This means managers have a real-time view of their driver's activities. Video telematics has two different features with varying alert systems. These are:

• Driver Monitoring System (DMS): This uses dashcams as a surveillance method for all the activities commencing inside a vehicle. The alerts generally associated with this solution are yawning, drowsy, smoking, distracted driving, camera blocking, and driver absence.

• Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS): This system uses cameras with an outward view of the vehicle to supervise activities around it. Its main function is to warn drivers and managers about any potential risks on the road. There are no fixed alerts used with this solution. Commonly integrated alerts include proximity detectors, lane shifts and traffic sign recognition. 

Benefits of Using Alerts From Fleet Management System

Using alerts for optimising fleets is a very good idea. Listed below are some of the benefits that fleet businesses witness with the use of a good fleet management system:

Easier Operations

Usually, with the use of traditional management methods, managers are burdened with tasks of maintaining supervision over their fleet at all times so that they do not miss any malpractice. This can be very time-consuming and physically exhausting as well. With the use of this software, managers can focus on other tasks. 

Trackobit will automatically send alerts to them to notify them of their fleet’s activities. Thus, it improves the overall productivity of fleets.

Enhanced Safety

With good vehicle tracking software, businesses improve their fleet’s safety as well. Using solutions like driver behaviour monitoring and video telematics, they can make sure their drivers follow road safety rules. This keeps vehicles, drivers and consignments safe from damage.

Thus, fleet health improves and therefore the rate at which businesses have to change their vehicles for new ones also reduces. This expense takes a lot out of fleet budgets and when it is reduced, companies are able to move towards becoming profitable. 

Better Profitability

When managers are able to optimise all aspects of their fleets at the same time as before, fleets undergo a holistic change in a positive direction. This means businesses can grow their clientele on the basis of their productive reputation. This can help businesses make more monetary profits.

But profits are not based on the earnings of businesses alone. Instead, they also have to decrease their outward flow of money. This can be achieved through alerts as well. When drivers’ activities are under supervision, they make better decisions on the road. Thus, vehicles incur less damage and save money previously wasted on repair and servicing.

Time Efficient

Managers, when tasked with surveillance of entire fleets, waste a lot of their working hours trying to ensure that their vehicles reach the location on time. This can be a very harmful practice since they are unable to complete other management duties during this time period

Drivers aware of the alert system will try to ensure that they complete assigned work as quickly as possible. This means less time will be spent on personal leisure. Managers also save a lot of time that was previously spent trying to ensure that their drivers travel only through assigned routes. 

Constantly keeping up with the GPS location of their vehicles is impossible. Thus, route deviation alerts can save them time by automatically updating them whenever a vehicle goes off course.

Conclusion

Finally, we have come to an understanding of how a good fleet management system is capable of completely changing the game for your business. But now you must be wondering, which software will provide me with all these solutions in a single place?

Look no further! TrackoBit is the answer to all your problems. It is one of the leading software in the fleet automation market. With its multi-dimensional solutions, TrackoBit can help your fleet soar. Request a demo and witness its effect in real-life!