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Keys to improving motorpool management operations

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By Stacey Papp, Director, Content, Ridecell

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.

 

Digitize keys to improve your motor pool operations

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.

Driver rewards tech provider Lightfoot to attend Fleet & Mobility Live 2022

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Lightfoot, the innovative British green-tech company and provider of the UK’s leading in-cab driver coaching and rewards platform, will be exhibiting at this year’s Fleet & Mobility Live show at the NEC Birmingham.

Taking place from 11th-12th October, Fleet & Mobility Live is the country’s foremost annual event for the fleet and transport community, delivering strategic insights into a range of key topics affecting the industry – from the electric future of vehicles to compliance, risk, and all the latest technology innovations.

You’ll find the Lightfoot team on Stand E52, ready and waiting to answer your questions on everything from fleet decarbonisation to fuel savings and road safety, and to demonstrate Lightfoot’s cutting-edge fleet management technology.

Get in touch with the Lightfoot team to book your slot now

A true partnership approach

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When investing in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, it is important to get it right first time. Making the right choices in terms of charge point capabilities and their support package will save you a lot of money in the long run.

At Mer we take a true partnership approach, meaning that we work with you every step of the way, to ensure that your EV charging points properly support your transition to ultra-low emission vehicles.

Site surveys

Our experts carry out detailed site surveys to determine what infrastructure is best for you and how you can overcome any limitations on power availability.

Charger specification

We ensure you get the right chargers for you, whether that is fast chargers for overnight or top-up charging, or rapid chargers for faster turnarounds. You can even set tariffs for employees and visitors using your charge points.

Grant support

We can help you access subsidies towards the cost of your charging infrastructure, such as the Government’s Workplace Charging Scheme. After you’ve filled in a few basic details, we can do the rest for you.

Aftersales service

Get superb insights into your charging infrastructure through our Mer Connect platform, providing data on usage, plus alerts if there are any issues with your charge points. We also provide comprehensive technical support packages.

Call us today

To find out more about how we can help your business, call us on 03300 562 562, email sales.uk@mer.eco, or download our Fleet Managers Guide to Electrification at https://uk.mer.eco/fleet.  

Ease the financial burden on drivers with PayByPhone’s fleet management solution

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The cost-of-living crisis is putting pressure on businesses as fleet managers look to ease the financial burden on their drivers who fork out parking fees and must wait for reimbursement. PayByPhone Business, the dedicated parking solution for fleets and on-the-go workforces from the global leader mobile parking payments PayByPhone, is the answer.

UK inflation has hit double-digits and UK workers are feeling the pinch. This is hitting fleet drivers in their pockets – they pay for parking before claiming it back on expenses. The outlay can build up, putting a strain on disposable income when every penny counts.

With PayByPhone Business, fleet managers help their drivers through this economic crisis by keeping more money in their drivers’ wallets. An added benefit is the drivers don’t need to save receipts or worry about including lengthy parking details on expense reports. They keep their money in their pocket when paying for parking, avoiding personal spending for business parking altogether.

Fleet managers simply securely add a corporate card to the account. Each authorised fleet driver, in an authorised vehicle, has the option to pay using the corporate card when starting a business parking session. All they need is the PayByPhone app they may already have for personal use.

With businesses not immune to rising costs either, prudent fleet managers will want to prevent unauthorised parking charges. PayByPhone Business comes with security built-in as corporate card details are protected against interception or misuse. For added convenience, PayByPhone Business brings a company’s parking under one easy-to-use, centralised system so one or more admins have visibility over all parking activity in a simple solution – one app and one interactive dashboard.

Fleet drivers must never be in a position where they can’t afford to work because they are waiting to be reimbursed. By removing the financial burden of paying for business parking out of their own pockets, PayByPhone Business supports fleet drivers through these challenging times.

For more information on how PayByPhone Business can help your fleet drivers, please visit https://park.paybyphone.co.uk/business/.

Turning fleet data insights into automatic actions

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By Mark Thomas, EVP Marketing & Alliances, Ridecell

How Automation Technology Can Transform Your Fleet

Data has become invaluable for fleet-based businesses. Organizations are increasingly leveraging more data from telematics and dashcams, where everything from real-time engine diagnostics to crash detection is readily available. But while GPS tracking information and data dashboards provide benefits for your fleet, you may not be getting the most out of the information these tools provide.

With the help of fleet automation technology, organizations can take the mountain of alerts and insights coming from their fleet systems to review and respond—all automatically. While today’s fleet management systems are great at producing insights and recommended actions, these required actions become to-dos for the fleet manager. By turning those same fleet management insights into triggers for automated actions, managers can avoid repetitive and mundane tasks while streamlining daily fleet operations and helping keep vehicles and drivers safe.

How does fleet automation help?

Fleet managers are constantly inundated with notifications and suggested actions such as fleet locations, schedules, driver behavior, maintenance issues, cabin monitoring and more. They also may be receiving alerts and information from multiple systems and dashboards, making it difficult to sort through, prioritize and act on these insights.

By automating some of the simpler fleet processes, many of those notifications can be turned into automated actions. Managers can set and prioritize business rules moving towards a “self-managing” fleet that prioritizes and resolves alerts and tasks on its own—automating routine tasks by setting up digital workflows that act like digital employees.

A fleet automation platform reads every notification and automates tasks where there is a routine resolution. For example, if a check engine light is showing low windshield washer fluid, a simple work order to the staff employee can be created directing them to the vehicle and initiating the resolution. If it’s a cracked windshield, the glass vendor will be notified along with the vehicle type, year, make and model with a note about which glass to replace or repair. In these and many other cases, there is no need for a fleet middleman to read the alert and manually assign someone to resolve it. Every notification coming from your fleet is prioritized and acted upon if possible.

And automated fleet actions aren’t just for the mundane and routine. They’re perfect for situations where time is critical and action is required immediately. Automating dispatching an ambulance to an accident, or the police to a vehicle that’s detected as being stolen are two examples where a few minutes can save lives or prevent a theft.

Gain control and keep vehicles safe with keyless tech

Moving vehicle keys to the cloud is a crucial part of fleet automation. While physical keys can easily get stolen or lost, keyless technology serves as a digital security system that allows drivers to unlock and lock vehicle doors,fundamentally changing how you access and use fleet vehicles.

  • Assign or reassign drivers to vehicles and provide instant access from anywhere
  • Remotely control who can start a vehicle and the areas they access
  • Grant specific access based on roles
  • Set doors to lock automatically as the driver walks away from the vehicle, increasing security of the vehicle and its contents
  • Unlock doors as the driver approaches to increase efficiency

By leveraging keyless entry, you gain true control of your fleet’s accessibility. Your drivers won’t have to worry about picking up a physical key or carrying it around during deliveries, and with the help of a proximity locking solution, drivers, vehicles, and the cargo they carry are more secure, saving valuable seconds per delivery.

And, with a fully automated security management solution, you can protect your vehicles and their contents around the clock. The system will automatically detect if a vehicle is moving and whether an authorized driver is present—if not, it will prevent theft altogether by digitally immobilizing that vehicle the moment the engine is stopped and instantly notifying authorities.

Choosing the right solution for your fleet

Is it time for your fleet to embrace true change management and take the next step in your digital transformation journey?

To truly be set up for success, be sure that your automation solution checks off the following boxes:

  • Provides actionable data insights that can efficiently inform real-time decisions
  • Offers an intuitive technology experience for everyone—from fleet managers to drivers
  • Delivers a speedy implementation timeline—that can have you up and running for faster ROI
  • Uses flexible architecture that can easily integrate with your organization’s fleet management tools, ensuring a seamless automation experience.

How delivery drivers became the centerpiece of the heatwave crisis

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By Andrew Tavener, Head of Marketing, Descartes

This year, the UK has become subject to heatwaves of record-breaking temperatures, widely attributed to  climate change. Over the next week, parts of the UK are expected to hit highs of 30 degrees once again, encouraging many of the general public to stay indoors, work from home and choose their day outs in moderation.

However, for some there is no choice but to endure the heat, despite official warnings and the last few weeks have not been kind to last mile logistics, with some reports of negligence amongst retailers and their lack of air conditioning in vehicles, down to reasons seemingly as illegitimate as weight issues. During last month’s heatwave, one last mile delivery driver actually collapsed after enduring unbearable conditions.

Heatwaves in the UK are here to stay, so it’s time we looked at how we can adapt fleet management practices, and take better care of our drivers.

A duty of care

Despite a reluctance to implement solutions such as air conditioning in home delivery vans, retailers still have a duty of care when it comes to their workers. From an HR and legal perspective, this becomes even more concerning when there’s a driver shortage.

If they think they’re being driven hard in extreme conditions, workers may be forced to leave their current company and seek employment elsewhere. These businesses therefore should look to retain their employees in any way possible and prevent them from adding detriment to their health when it could be easily avoided.

On top of this, vehicles are more susceptible to issues in extreme weather; drivers have been warned of fires or exploding tyres, so vehicle safety checks need to be up to scratch. This includes checking the vehicle fluids and ensuring they are getting service checks regularly or if the driver suspects that something is wrong.

Embracing the night shift

Even during the peak of summer in the UK, most delivery drivers are expected to work during daylight hours – just as they would during any other month of the year. By comparison, in Spain it’s common for people to work after 4pm because of the temperatures. Perhaps one fleet management solution could be a complete reshuffle of what’s expected in the UK when we’re encroaching on a heatwave; if delivery drivers were enabled to work during the cooler hours of the day and into the evening, the domino-effect would include an easier, cooler environment alongside less congested roads and improved environmental impact.

Since the pandemic, working habits have changed substantially, with many people still working from home or having access to flexible timetables or working hours. On the road, we live in an increasingly congested environment, where the working days could do with a complete overhaul. Not only does this make things easier for delivery drivers, but for each and everybody on the road. Less traffic means less pollution and accidents; and happier workers.

The intervention of innovations in crisis

Some retailers are still behind when it comes to extreme temperatures. If air conditioning isn’t a viable solution in a delivery van then perhaps there are other ways to reduce the struggle for delivery drivers working in these recent hot temperatures.

Alongside factoring in the setbacks caused by such heat, including less productivity and the risks to health, these major players in retail need to be able to understand such complexities before they know how to address them. For example, self-scheduling technologies have been used to improve parts of the process like route density and delivery productivity.

With access to more transport intelligence such as inventory, information, and assets that enable driver efficiency, companies will be able to respond to rapidly changing environmental factors as well as changing market and regulatory conditions, in turn adequately supporting their employees and better serve customers.

With the Government pushing the UK ever closer to an electric future, can the grid cope?

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By Pulkit Malhotra, WhichEV

The short answer is yes – but there are some factors at play in that reply.

The obvious things include the way we light our homes and buildings.

When we were kids, it was normal to have 60w bulbs around the house and 100w in the kitchen/other areas where more light was needed.

Then we went through the low energy/halogen phase – and now have 5-10w LEDs that are bright enough to make you squint.

Similarly, on the roads, the massive sodium street lights of yesterday have been replaced with daylight-bright LED – further reducing load.

Upshot?

Compared to the UK’s peak demand in 2005 – we are now down around 20% on that figure.

PLUS: Most EVs will be charged (most of the time) overnight, when rates are cheaper.

Click here to read the full story.

Find out how much you could lower your fleet’s fuel consumption today

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Lightfoot’s fuel and emissions calculator will show you how much your fleet could be saving simply by training your drivers on the go and helping them to drive more efficiently in real-time.

The green tech company’s game-changing in-cab driver coaching technology helps create cleaner, greener fleets by steering drivers towards a smoother driving style through real-time feedback. By correcting harsh driving behaviours in the moment, Lightfoot can make a tangible difference to fleet performance without the need for any awkward conversations, time-heavy data analysis, or long-winded training courses.

The result is a 15% average saving on fuel expenses across the fleet, which can make a significant difference to a business’s bottom line. More importantly however, by training drivers to handle their vehicles in a more efficient, eco-conscious manner, Lightfoot helps fleets reduce their CO2 emissions by as much as 15%. This goes a considerable way in helping businesses move towards their decarbonisation goals and reduce the carbon footprint of their fleet.

See the difference it could make to your fleet by trying out the calculator for yourself here.

Factors to consider before getting your first electric car

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By James Morris, Which EV

Ten years after Nissan began selling the Leaf in UK showrooms, the UK market for electric vehicles finally took off in 2020. Now, almost 15% of all the cars sold so far in 2022 are pure electric, but with so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to pick the best car for your needs. To help you make that choice, we’ve covered the six most important questions you need to answer before making your purchase or starting a new lease.

So what are the major factors you need to consider? Click here to read WhichEV’s guide for fleet and private users.

Industry welcomes £450m government EV charge point investment

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By James Morris, WhichEV

More EVs were sold in 2021 than in the previous decade. With close to 450,000 EVs on our roads today, the 30,000 public chargers that are available to the public are clearly not enough.

To help bridge the gap, the Government has confirmed a direct contribution of £450 million alongside a massive investment from the private sector. This programme has been driven by the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, and has been applauded by industry leaders like Ian Johnston from Osprey Charging.

WhichEV looks at the details and evaluates the impact this money is likely to have – Click here to read more.