Modulair fleet management grows with your business

WHY FLEET MANAGEMENT?

The need for a fleet management system is growing. Margins are under pressure and customer demands are increasing. Add rising fuel prices, increasing environmental pressures, staff shortages and an ever-increasing administrative burden to name a few challenges for entrepreneurs. Deploying a fleet management system helps you manage these challenges. For example, by carefully monitoring your vehicles and other assets, you are able to schedule them more effectively. This saves kilometres, and therefore fuel and time. Streamlining communication with drivers simplifies work, increases safety and also makes it easier to comply with applicable laws and regulations. And that's just the beginning.

Automating business processes creates opportunities to combine available data into useful management information. This allows the process to be optimised, which frees up time and money to be used for the further development of the organisation. In practice, we see that the use of big data combined with the proper use of company resources ensures that an organisation comes out ahead of the competition. Customers are better served, more favourable conditions can be offered and staff are under less pressure. In short, you get a better handle on the various variables.

MANAGING YOUR FLEET IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERY COMPANY

Getting a better grip on your (large) fleet can be done in many different ways, so there are various solutions with a multitude of functionalities. Determining which solution is best for your business is no easy task. For example, a functionality that works for one company may be totally unnecessary for another, and vice versa. For each industry, there are challenges that are similar but also different from each other. A start-up, small business has different needs than a large business. One company has already automated many more processes, than another. The fact is that you can work more efficiently through automation, thereby increasing your competitive advantage.

So it's important to choose a solution that currently fits the business process, fleet size, legislation and has a healthy return on investment – but is also scalable toward the future. Investments in time and money can be hefty if, over time, it becomes apparent that expansion or change is necessary. 

FROM BASIC TO COMPREHENSIVE

A basic need for many businesses is often having insight into the location of vehicles. By placing trackers in the vehicles, it is possible to see where your vehicles are via the web application. Do you also need temperature information or to know when doors are opened? Or do you need to read the information from the digital tachograph remotely? Then sensors or the tachograph can easily be linked to show that data as well. If you're collecting all kinds of data, it's a small step to use GPS-

Buddy's planning module to run trips through the most optimal route. Combine the collected data with route information to effortlessly and proactively inform your customer of expected arrival time, temperature of delivered goods and reports. Before you know it, you will have built a complete fleet management system at your pace, adapted to your company structure and components.

Hardware – firmware – software

To accomplish this, you need hardware in the form of trackers and sensors. Information from those trackers and sensors is collected, transmitted and then processed in various software solutions. GPS-Buddy not only develops the hardware and firmware in-house. We also write the software applications needed to respond to the various vehicle-related issues. The big advantage of this is that the various components of the fleet management system are seamlessly coordinated and fit together like Lego blocks.

MONITORING

A complete fleet management system allows you to monitor vehicles and other equipment in many ways. GPS-Buddy offers the following functionalities for this:

• Track & Trace
  • Vehicles
  • Trailers
  • Mileage & trip registration (Trip Registration Quality Mark certified) Mileage monitoring
  • Geofencing
• Digital tachograph download
  • Driver letters
  • Rest and driving time analysis
  • Archiving
• Sensors
  • Temperature
  • Core temperature
  • Door / anti-theft
• Assets
  • Vehicles, trailers, construction containers and other equipment
  • Measuring running hours
  • Calculating CO2 emissions
• CANbus
  • 100% pure mileage registration (mileage monitoring)
  • Registration of fuel consumption, speed, rpm, brake information, FMS data
  • Saving on fuel and maintenance
  • Actively managing performance (safer and more economical)
• Timesheet
  • Dynamic question path

PLANNING

With all the data collected and combined, vehicles, time, staff, material and maintenance can be easily planned within our scheduling software. This increases the deployability of people, resources and vehicles. The following functionalities are easily integrated into this:

• Tasks
  • Tasks received
  • Delivery note
  • Closing with signature
• Photo
  • Receiving and sending
• Packaging
  • Error-free registration of quantity and type by driver

COMMUNICATION

Monitoring and planning is one part of the solution. Direct and easy communication between personnel on the road and office is the indispensable other part. Apps optimise communication between drivers and planners. This enables direct communication with the customer during transport, but extensive reports, such as on transport conditions, can also be exchanged automatically. By managing expectations correctly, you increase customer satisfaction. The following functionalities are available:

• Planner app
  • Location and overview of vehicles and equipment
  • Reports routes driven, performance (at customer on time / late)
• Driver app:
  • Communication with office
  • Current cargo space temperature
• Messages
  • Receiving and sending
• Timesheet
  • Question path and registration
• Reporting
  • Standard reports
  • Custom reports

MODULAR STRUCTURE SAVES COSTS

Within the central platform of GPS-Buddy, all data is linked together, which also makes it possible to easily create links with existing TMS, ERP or other systems. The modular structure allows you to enjoy the benefits of a full-fledged fleet management & asset tracking system, but only choose the functionalities that are needed within your company. That way, you don't pay for things you don't use anyway. As your business grows, you can easily expand the system without having to make large replacement investments.

Purchasing a modular solution is an initial merit, but the ROI is largely in day-to-day use. For example, comprehensive reports provide you with insight into a vehicle's fuel consumption and a driver's driving behaviour. In addition, solutions such as route optimisation and scheduling ensure that assignments are planned as efficiently as possible, avoiding unnecessary driving back and forth. Because all information relating to vehicles, equipment and employees is available in real time, you reduce administrative overheads to the absolute minimum and get a handle on reducing unnecessary costs.

In short, GPS-Buddy's fleet management solutions help you gain real-time visibility into your fleet and optimise your business processes, thus becoming a demonstrably cost-saving management tool.