There are a lot of variables to consider when it comes to looking for ways to improve your motorpool management practices. With multiple drivers and vehicles constantly moving around and making trips to a large number of destinations, trying to manage the daily operations of a busy fleet business can sometimes feel too challenging.
However, with so many innovations now becoming a vital part of any productive motorpool fleet, the ability to harness these tasks into a more efficient and simple fleet management system, has never been more important.
To meet deadlines and make the most of the vehicles at your disposal, embracing new ideas and technologies is key. To help your company catch up with the latest changes to the industry, here are six tips for improving your motorpool management operations.
Tip #1: Making the Process Easier on Drivers
Take the guesswork out of the picture. Entrust your motorpool supervisor to designate clear vehicles for each driver. By providing some basic and informative instructions on the fleet vehicle each driver will be using throughout the week, you’ll be minimalizing any questions and concerns.
Consider the time a driver spends searching for their vehicle, the journey to the dispatch location, and the dropping off of keys. By the time this has been done and all vehicle safety checks have been completed, you’ve lost hours of the day to menial tasks.
Whether you’re a small-scale fleet company or a global motorpool business, these hours equal time spent and money wasted. So, search each and every task – find ways to improve the process and get drivers moving, to increase your efficiency.
Tip #2: Making the Most of Every Available Vehicle
By taking a closer look at those small-scale daily tasks and finding ways to improve them, you’re also able to find new ways to monetize your motorpool management operations. A more scheduled approach will show which vehicles aren’t being used to their fullest potential.
It can even shed some light on how many vehicles could be taken out of the business, while keeping you functioning at optimum speed. Removing unnecessary expenditures to your fleet management operations can save tens of thousands of dollars – while eliminating time wastage in the process.
Tip #3: Automate to Accelerate
The rise in automated technology over the course of the last few years has simplified and sped up everyday motorpool management operations. Through one true source of automated technology, your fleet operations can be optimized for greater efficiency, through automated fleet solutions.
Innovations like a fleet automation and mobility solution have turned cloud-based platforms into actionable workflow triggers. With cutting-edge tools like keyless technology, automation can save time and instantly locate and diagnose issues.
By creating one platform for each and every task, you help motorpool supervisors to focus on bigger picture tasks – and eliminate the human element of errors and oversights.
Tip #4: Using Innovation to Reassess the Basics
Disruptive technology that pushes the automotive industry forward is a good thing. It can expose areas of your business that need improvement – and help you to pinpoint the areas that are no longer needed to function smoothly in the modern age.
But, innovations like this should never come at the expense of sound business foundations: customer service, safety, and other fleet or motorpool management basics. Instead, the issues that innovative technology exposes should be reassessed and recalibrated to create the ultimate combination of tech, simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
This ability to evaluate standard procedures and practices alongside the latest cutting-edge industry tools is important. You may find it’s more cost-effective to embrace electric vehicles and decrease the reliance on the heavy gas use that comes with your current fleet – or discover how apps and keyless technology have reduced the manpower needed to run front desks and depots.
Tip #5: Setting Realistic and Measurable Goals
Any motorpool supervisor can say that they want their business to grow by X amount in X amount of years, but those long-term goals can sometimes feel impossible to reach.
Implementing smaller and measurable short-term goals alongside the bigger picture milestones can place your motorpool business on a path to easier and more achievable guideposts. These guideposts should be based on simple observations of your strengths, or even weaknesses.
In no time, you’ll discover that completing and exceeding your small-scale objectives will lead you to huge quarterly or annual successes. However, it’s important to remain flexible with these realistic goals and adapt to any sudden changes in the industry. Keep your long-term aims rigid and the small-scale ones more fluid to maintain a well-structured, but versatile game plan.
Tip #6: Encouraging Communication Companywide
All of the motorpool management software in the world will still require that human element to achieve absolute success with your management operations. This begins with how your fleet management company reacts to things like customer and employee feedback.
If you have the insights to welcome other points of view, you may uncover untapped sources of revenue, a commonly shared problem that has a simple solution – or even help to prevent an unforeseen accident, just waiting to happen.
This clear and concise method of communication should also be present in your procedures and processes. Whether it’s a safety guidelines document or a vehicle checklist before departure, being proactive with your communications is essential.
Improving Motorpool Management Operations
Freeing up your key staff members and applying automotive technologies to manual processes improves your motorpool management on several levels. Not only are you creating a faster and more effective response to security and safety issues, you’re also allowing your management teams to access real-time data, ensuring your business is at the forefront of industry advancements.
Several of the world’s biggest and most forward-thinking companies now use fleet automation solutions to upgrade their systems. Fleet businesses across the world are all experiencing a better process to propel themselves into an exciting new phase of the automotive business.
Learn how Ridecell has helped motorpool management become more efficient, putting automation at the forefront and increasing productivity without adding additional resources.
Author: Stacey Papp, Director, Content, Ridecell