5 Ways Digitizing Your Fleet Can Improve Efficiency

February 17th, 2023 | by Stacey Papp, Director, Content | Posted in: Insight on Things

You’ve probably heard about some of the practical benefits of a fleet automation platform. From saving money on fuel to automatically scheduling vehicle service when a “check engine” light goes on, technology can help your fleet business in a myriad of ways.

But what are the positive impacts fleet automation solutions have on employees? Digitizing your fleet doesn’t just optimize your vehicles, it optimizes your staff so you can reallocate resources to more important tasks. Here are five big ways the right automation solution can help your staff every day.

1. Digital Keys Save Resources and Provide Peace of Mind

The first—and often easiest—starting point to digitize your fleet is moving from physical keys to digital keyless technology. From a security and resources standpoint, physical keys are a major risk, as they can be easily lost or stolen and are costly to replace. Not only that, any vehicle downtime caused by a missing key hurts productivity, and ultimately your bottom line.

Digitizing keys and creating workflows that automatically issue them to drivers takes the manual burden off your team. It also gives fleet managers greater oversight of their operations by making sure they assign the right driver, with the right key, to the right vehicle every single time.

2. Automation That Frees Up Staff Time

More data is great, but unless it’s accompanied by usable, easy-to-understand insights, staff might end up spending more time trying to parse through notifications and translate the numbers. The problem only gets worse if staff have to manually track down that data themselves.

A fleet automation platform automates that process, and your fleet insights are translated into actions to help resolve issues immediately and automatically. It also creates a “single source of truth” so your employees don’t have to waste time going through multiple systems that may not interact with each other.

3. Automating Workflows Makes Maintenance Management Easier

When you’re busy trying to keep customers happy and making sure deliveries arrive on time, nothing is more frustrating than a “check engine” light. It hurts productivity and impacts customer service when vehicles must be taken off the road. It also wastes time while technicians work to figure out what’s going on and solve the issue. And it often impacts revenue if the issue requires an expensive repair.

Digitizing your fleet and establishing automated workflows proactively checks your vehicle’s health before it hits the road. Automated workflows also ensure that critical maintenance items are caught, and that technicians are alerted, before they become larger issues that sideline vehicles. Drivers can also be automatically issued a digital key to a backup vehicle and quickly be on their way.

4. Streamlining Operations Improves Driver Safety and Security

Regardless of industry, driver safety is always a top priority. Streamlining maintenance management keeps your vehicles safe and roadworthy. In the event an issue does pop up, the fleet automation platform instantly alerts you, letting you take the vehicle off the road and assign the driver to a safe one with little to no downtime.

With keyless access deployed across your fleet, you can automatically detect if a vehicle is moving and whether an authorized driver is present—and prevent theft by digitally immobilizing that vehicle. Vehicle immobilization also allows you to remotely disable engine starts for stolen vehicles, delinquent accounts, or reckless drivers, which helps keep both your vehicles and employees safe and secure. And automating security lets you set customizable business rules, so you can quickly automate corrective actions to improve safety and security.

5. An Optimized Fleet Leads to Happier Customers

Streamlining and automating workflows reduces the administrative burden on staff. Since they don’t have to spend as much time on laborious manual processes, they can put a greater focus on customer satisfaction and retention. Integrating a fleet automation platform enables your team to focus what they’re best at—going above and beyond in customer service.

Optimization and the Human Element, Together

Implementing a fleet automation platform can certainly have a positive impact on your bottom line. But don’t discount the benefits it can have for your team as well. The right solution can make your business more efficient, and let staff focus on more important tasks.

Your fleet automation solution should:

  • Provide security and peace of mind
  • Free up staff time, reallocating resources to bigger projects
  • Streamline maintenance management
  • Improve driver safety
  • Lead to happier customers

Learn more about the Ridecell fleet automation and mobility platform and its positive impacts on fleets around the world.

Author:
Stacey Papp, Director, Content, Ridecell