What is Fleet Management Software? – Everything You Need to Know

Fleet Management is one of the most task-oriented industries that require micromanagement to the T. Fleet Management software has simplified the job to a significant extent so that Fleet managers can invest their time in cerebral tasks.

Logistics and the supply chain sector is one of the early sectors to have included GPS tracking solutions in its management and that led to the invention of Fleet Management Software for tracking Commercial vehicles. Industries like construction, agriculture, rentals, etc. discovered the potential in the technology and joined the league later. 

What is Fleet Management Software? 

A fleet management software system is a technological tool that provides real-time visibility into vehicle movement, performance, and activities. It spots anomalies in the process of fleet management and helps improve trip planning. 

A fleet management software for commercial vehicles comes with a mix of solutions that simplifies vehicle tracking of trucks, cars, and all types of vehicles. As fleet management involves much more than just tracking the vehicles on road. It involves managing drivers, managing vehicle details, managing transporters on board, looking into the maintenance of vehicles, and much more.

💡Do you Know? Over the next year, fleet operators’ primary objectives include cost reduction, enhanced operational efficiency, and improved driver productivity.

What Does Fleet Management Software Offer

The Fleet Management system software for commercial vehicles has a lot to offer. When you are doing your research and browsing the best available fleet management software for trucks, look for an all-in-one solution that caters to all your needs in one. What are the solutions you’ll find in a good Fleet management solution?

Fuel Monitoring System

Fuel is one of the most valuable commodities in the fleet business. It defines the major share of the fleet expenses. With the rising fuel prices, fuel pilferage is also rising. A lot of fuel theft activities go unnoticed because commercial vehicles consume fuel in large quantities. 

Here the role of fuel monitoring solutions comes into play. No wonder the demand for fleet management software that offers fuel monitoring software solutions has risen exponentially in the last couple of years. 

The fuel management system offers real-time monitoring of fuel. It sends alerts every time the driver refills the fuel or the software notices a sudden drop in fuel levels. It generates a detailed report of these events for future reference. 

Route Planning Software

Route planning solutions also known as Tour management solutions in the industry, are popular in the logistics, FMCG, mining, and public transport sectors. As the name suggests, route planning aids in automating tour creation and trip management. 

You can create the shortest and the most cost-effective route for the trip including all the stops along the way. You can decide the sequence of the stops as per your preference and set a halt limit for each stop. Software-aided route planning helps in curbing frequent route deviations. It also sends automatic alerts in case a driver spends more time than the set limit or is delaying the deliveries. 

The features such as elastic ETAs and four different types of PODs make this solution a fool-proof solution to manage daily deliveries. 

Driver Behaviour Monitoring

One of the factors that play a crucial role in defining the efficiency of the fleet is the driver’s performance. If a vehicle is not giving a good fuel average that is expected out of it that simply means either the vehicle is asking for servicing or the driver is not driving well. 

The software generates alerts every time the driver applies harsh brakes, accelerates abruptly or does harsh cornering. It also generates reports for all these events and more such as excessive idling and overspeeding. 

You may or may not opt for the driver rating feature. The top fleet management software systems offer a driver rating feature in which the driver’s performance is rated according to his driving and dedication to work. 

Sensor Integration Solutions

The best fleet management solutions come with impeccable compatibility with sensors and devices of all protocols. TrackoBit, the leading vehicle tracking software for truck and commercial vehicle tracking has integrated more than 500 hardware devices of various protocols. 

Popular sensors such as fuel, load and tire sensors are quite common in the business. Monitoring devices such as door sensors, temperature sensors, and angle sensors are industry-specific sensors that are in high demand in specific industries only. 

Leading fleet monitoring software provides real-time updates from these sensors and also produces custom reports as you ask for. 

Driver Management 

The bigger the fleet, the bigger the mob of drivers you’ll have. It’s equally important to manage drivers, as it is to monitor the fleet of vehicles. TrackoBit is a one-stop solution to manage every aspect of the fleet in one app. 

You can feed the personal details of the drivers, and store their licenses and other essential documents on one platform. Assign trips and vehicles to drivers from the platform and analyse their performance on one platform.  

DMS & ADAS

The driver monitoring system is part of video telematics that monitors the performance of drivers through video. The dashcam facing the driver keeps an eye on the driver’s actions whereas ADAS e.i. Advanced Driver Assistance System faces the road monitoring the activities on roads. 

It’s an advanced level of driver behaviour monitoring that involves video tracking. You get alerts with an image of drivers caught in activities such as smoking, yawning, sleeping, distracted etc. While ADAS generates alerts with images showing collisions with another vehicle, accident proofs, lane switching, etc. 

DMS and ADAS prove helpful in insurance claims and answering client queries. Complete driver behaviour tracking provides thorough analytics on driver performance.

Sim-based Tracking Solutions

While sim-based tracking solutions are not a part of GPS Tracking software, they are end-to-end fleet management software for commercial trucks. Sim-based tracking doesn’t require an internet connection and proves successful in remote areas. 

It is quite in demand amongst fleet owners and transporters. One of the most prominent use cases of the solution is the tracking of rental vehicles. When you rent a vehicle for the delivery of a consignment and there is no device installed in the vehicle, you take the driver’s phone number and track his phone instead. 

 Sim-based tracking doesn’t take more than half an hour to get started. It can be set up in less than 3 steps.

i ) Feed drivers number in the software

ii) Driver will revert and provide consent on the message received from the network operator.

iii) Start tracking on the web/app.

Benefits of Fleet Management Software

Ever since tech has taken over manual labour, efficiency has skyrocketed across industries. Fleet management software did the same to many industries. With the help of telematics and geospatial data, it has transformed the way logistics, supply chains and many more. Let’s discover the benefits of a fleet monitoring software system.  

    1. Automated Operations

Bid adieu to manual tasks! Automate end-to-end operations from trip planning to proof of delivery with vehicle tracking software. Real-time visibility into fleet movement ensures better decision-making.  

    2. Improved Customer Satisfaction

When the manager and the owner are well aware of their fleet’s whereabouts then they can answer client questions with more confidence. Vehicle security is directly related to consignment safety. Sometimes the assets the vehicle carries are more valuable than the vehicle itself. In such cases, clients only trust the transporters with advanced software aided operations for their consignment’s safety.

   3. Increased Fleet Profitability

You can’t measure what you can’t see and if you can’t measure something you can’t expect to better it. To increase the profitability of your business, you must have every aspect of your business under control. If you can monitor the real-time fuel level of the vehicles, tire pressure management and other aspects of vehicle maintenance you not only curb pilferages and risks but also tackle basic anomalies that later become major issues. These are factors that improve the efficiency of the fleet, which further improves the profitability of the business. 

    4. Better Security of Vehicles

Features such as parking mode, SOS button, battery security and Immobilisation ensure 100% vehicle security. This feature may not seem a big deal at first but these security features can save you from bearing big losses. Parking mode enables your driver to park the vehicle safely anywhere at any hour without worrying about it getting towed or stolen. Lock/unlock immobilises the vehicle then and there in case it has got stolen. The battery disconnection alarm goes off when someone tries to remove the battery from the vehicle. 

    5. Reduced Carbon Footprints

Imagine the amount of paper you are saving only by moving reports and planning parts to the software. You get a backup of reports for six months that you can further export in pdf format and store in the system. All the routes, trips and tours are saved on the portal itself. Documents such as driver’s licenses, PAN, Aadhar, etc. of drivers are stored on the portal saving tons of paper usage and reducing carbon footprints.

   6. Timely Servicing and Maintenance

Get reminder notifications in advance when the servicing is due for the vehicles. You can feed other details such as expiry dates of the permits, pollution and other documents of the vehicles and get alerts two weeks before the expiry dates. 

This ensures you do not bear heavy challans and fines for missing deadlines. 

Top Features of a Fleet Management System 

Fleet management software comes loaded with many features and you can always ask for custom features as per your industry. Here

       1. Real-time tracking of Vehicles

You can track the vehicle in real time on the app. See them moving live on the map. See the last geofence, the next stop, leave speed, etc. on the app. 

        2. Dynamic Dashboard

The dynamic dashboard comes with custom analytics such as the top five performing vehicles, Five most travelled vehicles, five top-performing drivers, etc. It also shows the live status of the vehicles with graphs and charts of the analytics. 

        3. Payment and Invoicing

Chuck the hassle of switching between the apps for making payments or creating invoices. TrackoBit brought these crucial aspects of the fleet business on an all-in-one platform.

        4. Nearby 

Find nearby vehicles to a particular location or a vehicle. In case a vehicle breaks down you can find nearby vehicles and transfer the load from the broken vehicle to the other vehicles. 

        5. Access Management

Access Management enables the manager to manage the access control on a hierarchical or privileged basis. 

       6. Alerts and Announcements

Get custom alerts for events of your choice and skip the ones you don’t need. TrackoBit has created more than 80 app and SMS alerts. Announcement equips you to make in-portal announcements to clients in the form of pop-ups. 

       7. API Integration

APIs simplify the life of both fleet management software providers and software users through push and pull APIs. 

       8. Six-Months Reports

Other than getting live updates on various aspects, you also get detailed reports such as travel summary reports, geofence reports, trip reports, etc.

       9. Inventory Management

Manage device & sim inventories in the app itself. You have to download the template that you fill out and upload it on the portal in case of bulk entries.

Where to find the best Fleet Management Software?

TrackoBit is purely an IT company that specialises in providing custom white-label software to clients. One of the leading players in the market, TrackoBit has provided services to more than 500 clients across 15 countries. Get in touch with the team and learn more about our services.

FAQs on What’s Fleet Management Software

• What is fleet management software?

  Fleet management software is a streamlined way to allocate trips, track vehicles, and keep up their routing and maintenance scheduling needs. It’s an all-encompassing platform to gauge driving events and drivers’ activities with on-time alerts and notifications.
  It provides complete visibility into drivers’ behavioral and skill-led events like their attentiveness level, and ability to manage the vehicle without any harsh acceleration or brakes.

• What all fleet management software should offer?

  A fleet management software should include the following feature set:
  - Real-time vehicle location tracking
  - 6 months route history with playback
  - Route planning and trip management
  - Vehicle scheduling and servicing reminder
  - Live streaming of in-cabin
  - Fuel tracking and management
  - Driver behaviour and driving events tracking
  - 50+ alerts for irregular driving events
  To know about more features in our suite, get in touch for a free demo.

• What are the benefits of fleet management software?

  Fleet managers get better oversight of operational and vehicular data by using data-led, connected fleet management solutions. They get options to assign and real-time track efficient trips, schedule maintenance reminders, and check up on mileage and fuel consumption. Additionally, it lets managers receive route deviation alerts and other 50+ alerts concerning odd or irregular events.
  All in all, it ensures that drivers are on a safe, secure and efficient path and the driven fleet is well coordinated and routes for on-schedule arrival.