Integration powers better business

It’s a fascinating time for fleet. In years gone by, we saw a business’s fleet being run on pieces of paper, handed across before and after a job. Then we progressed to hands-free communication built in to vehicles, allowing drivers to be in constant communication with the base. However, with software we now see the opportunity to do things differently — to integrate and progress.

Through my eight years in the industry, I’ve long seen the value of integrated systems that work across the business. Now the technology is here for this to be a reality — we’ve seen it ourselves at Forum Fleet with the TomTom Telematics systems we’re integrating for our business customers. We are truly at a transition stage where fleet systems need to evolve, and are evolving, to become a business process that adds value.

Fleet systems should no longer work in isolation, collecting information to be studied by the fleet manager at the end of the quarter. By behaving that way, the business is not allowing itself the chance to quickly identify and address inefficiencies based on the information received. There’s a wealth of data that comes through your fleet system that can streamline the workings for the business, including information on driver habits, safety procedures and journey patterns. The time is now for businesses to implement a system that allows fleet managers to react to information directly, by feeding it through in real time.

The much greater visibility over fleet movement in real time enables businesses to improve the customer experience. They can share more up-to-date information with customers, letting them know when a delivery will be made and addressing the frustration that comes from large and open-ended delivery windows.

But what is next? As fleet software continues to develop, there is a great deal of opportunity for fleet systems to add even more value for businesses.

The next stage of development in software for telematics, as I see it, is to create a software platform that slices and dices the data in a way that’s useful for multiple people in the business. Information on the behaviour of your fleet is useful for all parts of the business, not just the fleet manager. For example, the macro data on job numbers and efficiencies can provide helpful projections for the CFO and CEO, to help support their overall brand positioning and direction. Software that can analyse data and provide it in an accessible format can be valuable for many areas of the business.

Beyond this, the next major change we need to see is with hardware. Currently, many advanced fleet systems would have four or five SIM cards in one truck, all costing money to purchase and run. One may be a camera, another a tablet, another a mobile. Running all of these devices is not only expensive, it can be confusing to have information feeding in from so many different devices at different times. As a piece of hardware, the tablet is a device I can see progressing so that all of these things can be implemented with one device to save businesses money and provide one simple stream of information.

Software, and indeed hardware, has a really key role to play in the progression of fleet management. It’s an area that’s moving fast, and it’s important to utilise the systems available now and in the future to make the most of the wealth of data provided every day from your fleet. We’re now moving towards a system where all data is presented in an appropriate way, to the right person, at the right time, using one device. When this is available, then we’ll really see how a fully integrated fleet system can power better business decision-making