How Data From Fleet Management Software Affects Fleet Value

In the coming years, data is the new oil that can lift countries and businesses to the greatest heights. However, while adding value to the business, data strengthens other assets too.

Geospatial and OBD data play a paramount role in building an adequate fleet management system. When used correctly, it can also safeguard vehicle value. In this blog, let us learn how transparent real-time data improves vehicle value maintenance. 

“The ability to take data – to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it – is going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades”– Hal Varian (Chief Economist at Google)

What Does Vehicle Value Maintenance Mean? 

In simple words, vehicle value maintenance means maintaining your vehicles’ market value in the long run. In essence, making sure that the vehicle’s market value depreciation is as slow as possible. 

Vehicle depreciation rate greatly affects logistics budget. It indicates both the reducing price of company assets and the lowering efficiency of vehicles. 

Obviously, once the vehicle is on the road, it uses resources and parts that slowly wear down over time causing depreciation. However, when driven and maintained properly, you can maintain each vehicle’s value, eventually increasing your business’ profit baseline.

Why is Vehicle Value Maintenance Important for Fleet Management? 

Any vehicle you buy for your fleet-centric business is an investment worth preserving. You surely do not want your company assets to depreciate swiftly, right? Here are some more reasons why preserving vehicle value helps:

1. Better Vehicle Condition: Obviously, only well-maintained and well-performing vehicles will be better valued in the market. Isn’t this a win-win? Not only do your vehicles possess better reselling value but will also perform efficiently in your fleet. 
2. Emergency Fund: In case your company needs extra funds for higher investments, you can always sell your well-valued vehicles to expand.

How Do Vehicles Depreciate in Value? 

By now you know what vehicle value depreciation is and why you need to steer clear of it. However, before we start helping you solve the issue through data, let us get to the root of the problem and identify why vehicle value depreciates. 

Most vehicles depreciate due to four primary reasons:

• Distance traveled by the vehicle
• Age of the vehicle 
• Bad vehicle maintenance 
• Inadequate engine health

From the above-given factors, the only two manageable aspects are vehicle maintenance and engine health.

How Does Fleet Data Help In Maintaining Vehicles’ Value? 

You already know how we cannot control the majority of factors that depreciate a vehicle’s value. Therefore, we will focus on how the data you collect from fleet management software helps you preserve vehicles’ value. 

1. Regular Maintenance Schedules 

Maintenance is the only reason for one of two 5-year-old trucks with similar odometer readings to be priced higher than the other. However, it is easy to forget about the predetermined maintenance schedules fixed for each vehicle in your fleet. 

Good fleet management software is responsible for carrying all maintenance information against the vehicle. By activating alarms from the software, you will receive notifications when any vehicle’s maintenance is due. This input data is one of the best ways to keep your vehicles well maintained in the most effortless way possible. 

2. Emissions Monitoring 

Several sensors are responsible for letting you know if your vehicle produces too much emissions. Report automation will help you keep a close eye on the vehicles that constantly face this problem. 

More likely than not, higher emissions mean that the engine is not working adequately. A quick look into the engine’s working and some on-time fixes will help maintain your vehicle’s value for the long run. 

3. Driver Behavior Monitoring 

Sensors such as accelerometers constantly collect and upload data to your fleet management software. Through software, this data is neatly packed into reports that keep you informed about each driver’s performance. 

Good fleet management software such as TrackoBit will deliver alerts when a driver is constantly resorting to harsh acceleration and braking. Through this data, you can maintain your vehicle’s value by protecting it from depreciation due to bad and risky driving patterns. 

Keeping driver behavior in check also helps in obviating accidents that put your consignment, vehicle, and driver in a compromising position. 

4. Fuel Protection 

Fuel level sensors help fleet management software collect data pertaining to when and how much fuel your vehicle is consuming. Through this data package, you get a clear picture of how well your vehicle is performing in terms of fuel consumption. In case you see a sudden fall in the vehicle’s mileage, you can decipher that something is amiss in your vehicle’s performance. 

When you get such information on time through software, it is difficult to miss the red flags your vehicle might be hoisting. You can take timely actions to save not only your vehicle’s market value but also save a lot of money getting unnecessarily wasted on fuel. 

Are Your Vehicles Expenditure or Investment? 

As a fleet manager, you know that it is the vehicles that are bringing in all the profits into the company. Therefore, it only makes sense to treat them as assets and investments. Maintaining your company’s assets’ market value is the most obvious way to keep your investments profitable. 

With the help of a potent fleet management software such as TrackoBit, you get access to a host of data that will help you maintain each vehicles’ value!