Blog Archives - Page 19 of 62

Part 3: Common Useful Reports – Driver Safety Reports

Posted on October 31, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

One of our biggest client request is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, safety managers use driver safety reports to monitor driver safety and train drivers on best practices.

Driver Safety Reports

Safety is a top priority for many fleets because even a single accident can be disastrous. For instance, think about the BP oil spill a few years ago. In this case, an oil rig leaked and caused wide damage. The company paid billions of dollars in fines and saw a consumer backlash in sales.

Similarly, fleet businesses invest heavily into driver safety to prevent accidents. Some of the most common driver safety reports measure include seatbelt violations, Top 5 Speeding Violators, and Top 5 Aggressive Drivers.

Seatbelt Violators

Many people were taught from an early age to wear their seatbelts. Although most people wear seatbelts, there are still a few folks who don’t.

This problem also impacts fleets. Businesses are partly liable for workplace safety so most fleets have seatbelt policies. Fortunately, a lot of these fleets get visibility on seatbelt compliance by using vehicle monitoring tools.

To illustrate, Geotab uses a Top 5 Seatbelt Violation report to monitor seatbelt compliance. In our example report, the biggest concern is Vehicle 4. As a result of this data, the supervisor knows to follow up with Vehicle 4’s driver on their seatbelt usage.

Top 5 Speeding Report

Another common safety metric is speeding. Speeding is extremely common. For instance, think about the last time you were on the road. How many speeders did you see? Most drivers will answer, “almost everyone on the road!”

Speeding, however, is especially concerning for commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are much bigger and heavier than private vehicles. Therefore, commercial vehicle accidents are usually more serious than non-commercial vehicle accidents.

In response, supervisors use driver safety reports such as Top Speeding Violators. In our sample report, Alex leads the fleet in speeding incidents. As a result, his manager has the data to say something like, “Alex, I noticed that you sped a company-leading 144 times. I expect you to decrease that to X speeding incidents next month.”

Top 5 Aggressive Driving

Is speeding the only aggressive driving habit? No. There are tons of other aggressive driving habits. For instance, in Ontario driving tests, assessors watch aggressive habits such as braking harshly, accelerating harshly, and cutting other drivers.

Harsh braking is a particularly common KPI in modern fleets. Managers found a strong correlation between harsh braking incidents and distracted and fatigued driving incidents.

In response, a lot of supervisors are now collecting video driving safety reports. Fleet cameras detect aggressive driving habits and show a footage of the event. As a result, managers can check if the driver was distracted or fatigued.

Did you enjoy our mini-series on useful fleet reports? Click here to watch a video on other common driver safety reports.

Part 2: Common Useful Reports – Maintenance & Fuel Reports

Posted on October 24, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

One of our biggest client requests is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, fleet managers use maintenance & fuel reports to minimize fleet downtime and fleet fuel expenses.

Maintenance & Fuel Reports

Two of the biggest fleet cost drivers are maintenance and fuel. Maintenance cost includes repair and replacement costs, as well as lost productivity. Fuel costs, on the other hand, are predictable operational costs.

Some of the key maintenance & fuel reports include Engine Light Warnings, Fuel Trends, and Idling.

Engine Light Warning

Engine lights are a vehicle’s first indicator for trouble. For instance, engine lights might indicate that a mechanic needs to inspect a vehicle’s engine or air flow. If left unattended, vehicles can encounter major issues and stop working.

However, the issue with many fleets is that some drivers do not report issues. Fleet vehicles ultimately belong to the business and unfortunately, some drivers ignore engine light warnings because it isn’t their personal vehicle.

A useful report in this case is % Days with Engine Light On. This report measures engine light warnings during a given time period. Therefore, even when drivers are not reporting issues, mechanics will still know which vehicles need further checkup.

Fuel Last 3 Months

Another budget controlling initiative outside of controlling maintenance expenses is reducing fuel expense. Fleet managers are responsible for optimizing fuel costs. As a result, many fleet managers plan and implement strategies such as no-idling rules, driver contests, or fuel replacement.

All of those ideas are great. Nonetheless, the key question for many fleet managers and their performance evaluations is, “are my ideas working?”. This is why fleet managers measure and monitor trend reports. These reports are useful because they paint a long term picture of a fleet.

For instance, here is a fuel report for the last 3 months. Overall, the fleet is experiencing lower fuel costs. However, over the past month, there was a slight increase in fuel expense. This is useful information for the fleet manager. Is there an increase because there is more business? Or, should the policies be re-evaluated?

Idling

Speaking of fuel policies, one of the most common and effective ideas is reducing idling. Unfortunately for many fleets, idling is a major concern. For instance, on my way to work, I noticed at least 3 idling vehicles.

In response, a lot of fleet managers create and monitor a zero idling policy. Idling Reports are a great tool for this objective. To illustrate, view the Idling Report above. Fleet managers can use this report to identify idling patterns and follow up with driver coaching.

Enjoyed our blog on maintenance & fuel reports? Check back with us for our next report set – driver safety!

Part 1: Common Useful Reports – Worker Efficiency Reports

Posted on October 17, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

One of our biggest client request is creating reports. Reports are a useful fleet management tool because they provide snapshots for decision making. For instance, operation planners use worker efficiency reports to plan employee activity and to monitor time usage.

Worker Efficiency Reports

This week’s guide focuses on efficiency. Worker efficiency means producing the most output while minimizing resources. In particular, we’ll split worker efficiency reports into utilization reports, time card reports, and unauthorized usage reports.

Utilization Report

Firstly, we’ll take a look at utilization reports. Utilization reports focuses on vehicles rather than specific employees. In these reports, fleets study a vehicle’s usage rate and if that usage rate is efficient. Why is utilization important?

Utilization is important because businesses can get rid of excessive assets. For instance, most fleets do a “utilization audit” and discover underused vehicles. They can then decide to sell those vehicles, thus cutting down on business costs.

To illustrate, here’s an example of an utilization report. This report is neat because it breaks down fleet vehicles by distance travelled. An operation planner might look at the report and reflect that a lot of vehicles travel less than 100km; it might good time to cut down on fleet size!

Time Card Report

Another efficiency report are time card reports. Supervisors use time card reports to monitor their employees’ job productivity.

In fact, time card reports are probably the #1 need for new vehicle tracking adopters. From my experience, many business owners struggle with employees that start late, leave early, and take long breaks.

There are several reports that target inefficient employees. One of our favourites is the Late Arrival Report. To illustrate, Geotab had a contest for some of their employees to see who were early birds and who were late arrivers. In reality, however, Late Arriver Reports were effective in cutting down time fraud and improving customer satisfaction.

Unauthorized Usage

Similarly to time card reports, another useful efficiency report is unauthorized usage reports. Why? A lot of businesses let employees take work vehicles home. This increases the risk of unauthorized use.

For instance, one business owner noticed a company vehicle outside a bar. Rightfully so, the owner questioned if the employee was drinking and driving with the company vehicle. In another case, an employee used work vehicles for personal jobs.

What can employers do to cut down on unauthorized usage? One way is to track and monitor unauthorized use. In the above example, we can see that several employees broke unauthorized usage rules. This is valuable information because employers can use this as physical evidence against suspected rule breakers.

Enjoyed our blog on worker efficiency reports? Check back with us for our next report set – maintenance and fuel!

Driver Tracking App: Must-Haves

Posted on October 10, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

Last week, we looked at who should and who shouldn’t use driver tracking apps. We concluded that the best candidates were businesses who hired contractors and field employees.

This week, we’ll take a step further. Let’s say we’re one of those businesses. The question then becomes what are the most important things to look for in a driver tracking app. Some essentials include multi-platform, live tracking, rule creation, job management, and on-the-background.

Multi-Platform Apps

One of the most important driver tracking app features is also one of the most basic; the app should be available on both Android and Apple.

A lot of apps are exclusive to a single platform. For instance, some developers take a while or even abandon launching an Apple Store app because of its extensive rules. Apple’s App Store screens apps for things like user safety, usability, and legality.

Live Tracking

Another essential is getting live tracking. A lot of apps locate and report data but have a slight time delay.

For instance, some apps ping every 15 minutes. This becomes a problem when businesses give inaccurate information. Imagine how a customer would react if they were told a package will arrive in the next few minutes when in reality it’s not due for much longer!

Rule Creation

Speaking of customers, some businesses need to create customer service rules. The most common rule is location zones.

Driver tracking app users should be able to create zones and measure when employees arrive in those zones.

Besides zone rules, GPS apps can create other useful rules. For instance, some businesses monitor employee safety by measuring speeding rules.

Job Management

If businesses need a tracking app, they also most likely manage jobs. A job is any event where an employee visits a customer or performs a service.

In that sense, many businesses are looking for ways to assign and manage jobs. For instance, Mobile Dispatch has a dedicated job assignment screen. Businesses can use this screen to schedule jobs, assign due dates, and measure if staff are meeting the deadline.

On-the-Background

Lastly, apps should run on the background. In other words, these apps launch as soon as a phone turns on. The app continues to run until someone turns off the phone.

This is an essential business function because it facilitates easier management. Some driver tracking apps are ineffective because users need to manually turn it on. Hence, the app fails when employees forget to open the app or deliberately choose to disable the app.

Missed last week’s blog on who should use mobile GPS tracking? Click here to read.

Who Should Use Fleet Tracking Apps (And Who Shouldn’t!)

Posted on October 3, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

The GoFleet marketing team recently featured fleet tracking apps in our monthly newsletters. In turn, we had a healthy response from our subscribers. In fact, a lot of people submitted questions such as what businesses should use fleet tracking apps and what should people look for in a mobile GPS tracking program.

For that reason, we are starting a two-part series on fleet tracking apps. This week, we’ll take a look at who should (and who shouldn’t!) use mobile GPS tracking.

Contractor Businesses (Should!)

Businesses that use contractors are some of the best fleet tracking app users. Why?

Contractor managers face the same challenge in tracking contractor productivity and safety. At the same time, however, contract businesses cannot easily install vehicle trackers. Because contractors drive their personal vehicles, businesses have a hard time installing GPS hardware.

On the other hand, fleet tracking apps fill that gap. Businesses can monitor contractors during business hours, while contractors can turn off tracking during their personal time.

Low Managerial Power (Shouldn’t!)

On the flip side, mobile GPS tracking is not recommended in businesses with low managerial power because the program is harder to manage.

In some cases, employees sabotaged mobile tracking programs by turning off their phone or uninstalling the app.

Unless managers can get employees to cooperate, we recommend using a hardware solution. Hardware solutions are connected directly into work vehicles and are tamper-proof.

Field Employees (Should!)

Field service providers are another good mobile tracker candidate since employees leave their work vehicles for most of the day.

For instance, my friend works as a wildlife conservationist. She only drives in the beginning and end of the day. For the most of the day, she works on the field.

In those cases, phone-based GPS apps are more useful than vehicle-based GPS hardware. Phone apps allow managers to monitor field workers when they are away from the work vehicles.

Heavy Data Users (Shouldn’t!)

Another limitation of mobile GPS tracking is that it collects less data than dedicated GPS hardware.

For instance, basic tracking apps only track phone location. Fleets that need to collect fuel mileage data, maintenance logs, and advanced driving habits are better off using telematics devices.

Those devices connect directly into the vehicle’s computer and collect fleet-level data.

Check out our next article related to fleet tracking apps: Driver Tracking App: Must-Haves

Updating Your Fleet for Marijuana Legalization

Posted on September 26, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

October 17th is an important day for many people. Firstly, on a selfish side, I’m looking forward to October 17th because my beloved Toronto Raptors are opening their season with a new superstar. However, for many other people, October 17th is important because it marks marijuana legalization in Canada.

Marijuana Legalization

Several countries and regions around the world already legalized marijuana. Soon, Canada will too. After years of planning, the Canadian government will legalize marijuana on October 17th across the country.

However, there are some valid concerns around marijuana legalization. For instance, most subject experts agree that cannabis impairs driving and that the law should protect the public against impaired drivers.

Impaired Driving Rules

In response to driving safety concerns, the government outlined several standards. For instance, officers can use oral fluid screening on suspected impaired drivers. Just like drunk drivers, cannabis impaired drivers are subject to penalties including license suspension, fines, and jail time.

In addition, marijuana laws particularly affect fleets. In Ontario, commercial vehicle drivers and road building vehicle operators cannot use cannabis at all while driving.

Should Fleets Update their Policy?

Fleets should absolutely update their policy. A sizeable portion of a fleet’s workforce might use marijuana and it’s up to the fleet to control cannabis on the job. After all, fleet managers are responsible for improving safety and reducing fines.

Some examples of strategies include fleet education, impairment detection tools, and random drug testing.

Fleet Education

In our option, fleet education is the most effective way to control marijuana. Similar to a drunk driving policy, fleets should take a firm stance against impaired driving and communicate their stance.

How can fleets educate their drivers? In the past, fleets created employee contracts about cannabis, scheduled regular meetings about drug use, and enforced a zero-tolerance policy against drivers.

Impairment Detection Tools

Another option is using impairment detection tools. For instance, programmers created phone apps that monitor driver impairment. To illustrate, we took a look at Fit4Delay. Fit4Delay uses a 60-90 second cognitive test to identify distracted drivers.

Although impairment detection tools discourage “weeding and driving”, it should not be the only tool. Light cannabis users might pass an app test but get fined by police officers because commercial vehicle drivers are not supposed to use any marijuana.

Random Drug Testing

Finally, some fleets use random drug testing. While this approach might catch and deter impaired drivers, it’s not the most recommended strategy.

Random drug testing is highly controversial and is even illegal in some areas. At worst, fleets that use random drug testing can get sued by employees.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on any fleet strategies in our comment section!

Government of Ontario: Cannabis Legalization

Fit4Duty

4 Tips on Preparing for the Canadian ELD Mandate

Posted on September 19, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

Oh Canada! Where does Canada stand on the ELD mandate? When does the eld mandate take effect? As of today, the Canadian Government has not finalized the Canadian ELD Mandate. However, fleets should prepare today because we expect the final ELD deadline to be within the next 2 years.

In this guide, we’ll share 4 tips to prepare for the Canadian ELD mandate, based on our experience with the American ELD mandate.

[dm-embedable-media media-id=”22640″]

1 – Encourage Better Driving Habits

Before even investing in electronic logging devices, fleets should encourage better driving habits. The biggest reason why some fleets struggled with the American ELD mandate was that some of them relied on skimming hours. For instance, drivers commonly drove overtime by cheating hours on the paper log. These drivers tend to struggle with ELDs because they cannot “fudge” their Hours of Service on ELDs.</>

What can Canadian fleets do differently for the Canadian ELD Mandate? We recommend fleets to educate drivers on how to drive efficiently within their hours of service. In turn, drivers do not have to rely on skimming hours and will not experience major changes with ELDs.

2 – Introduce Technology Early

Another challenge is getting drivers to adapt to ELDs. “The ELD mandate was a bit hard on the veteran drivers,” said one fleet manager. “Some drivers only knew how to use a flip phone or didn’t have a phone at all. The ELD mandate forced them to learn how to use phones, tablets, and Garmins.”

In turn, our next recommendation is to introduce technology in phases. For instance, in order to prepare for ELDs, a trucking fleet started installing tablets in every truck to display route maps.

The company found that veteran drivers quickly learned how to use their new tablets. Afterward, when the fleet installed ELD devices, the same drivers were able to easily use their new ELD app because they had experience using tablets.

3 – Sign Up for Industry News

Our first two recommendations – driving habits and technology – focused on the driver. However, fleet managers also need to adapt to changes in a Canadian ELD Mandate.

Our biggest recommendation is to sign up for industry news. In the US, we found that over 50% of fleet managers did not know enough about the ELD mandate. The other fleet managers, however, were better prepared because they attended industry webinars and read white papers.

Thankfully, GoFleet has you covered! Over the next few months, we are hosting live webinars where you can learn about the Canadian ELD Mandate and get answers on your ELD questions.

4 – Start Early

Seriously, start early! This is something that a lot of fleets did not do for the US ELD mandate, and that led to some serious issues.

Some of the issues with buying ELDs in the last minute include:

Shipping delays due to low stock, resulting in missing the ELD mandate.
Drivers do not get time to learn how to use the ELDs. In turn, some impatient officers decided to fine drivers with ELDs if they didn’t know how to show their ELD logs.

How Do I Get Driver Time Cards with GPS on myGeotab?

Posted on September 12, 2018 | by Jimmy Song | Leave a Comment

One of the biggest reasons why fleets use GPS is to create driver time cards. Before using GPS programs, fleets rely on employees writing their time card, accounting staff inputting time, and an honour system. This took a lot of time and trust. How can fleets simplify the process by getting driver time cards with GPS?

In this guide, we’ll explain how to create time cards with GPS on your myGeotab portal and why time cards with GPS are easier.

How do you use time cards on myGeotab?

Vehicle History (The Long Way)

The first method is going to myGeotab’s vehicle portal. Users can click Maps on their sidebar then hit the Trips History button. Afterward, users can select a time range or select a specific vehicle.

Driver Time Card Reports (An Easier Way!)

Another way to view time cards is to use myGeotab’s built-in timecard report. Users can access this report by selecting Activity on the sidebar, then clicking Work Hours, and finally hitting Time Card Report.

The Time Card Report summarizes a vehicle’s timesheet and even displays useful data such as driving vs. idling time. In addition, some fleets enhance their time card reporting by getting drivers to punch in and punch out with a Driver ID fob systems. In turn, administrators can create employee-specific time cards based on Driver ID data.

Why should fleets get time cards with GPS?

There are 3 big reasons: improving timekeeping, reducing data admin time, and saving business costs.

1) Improving Time Keeping

Firstly, time cards with GPS improve timekeeping because they verify driver location and driving time. Of course, the first thing that managers will think about is reducing time fraud.

In other cases, electronic time cards improves record keeping. For example, in one of my other jobs, I got underpaid because the accountant made a data entry error for my working hours. On the other hand, if the accountant used an automated payroll, they would have avoided that mistake.

2) Reducing Data Admin Time

Another reason for using electronic time cards is reducing data admin time. If you’ve worked in a data entry role, you know that it’s tedious! Without automated time cards, administrators have to collect time sheets from drivers and enter data into Excel.

In addition to being a time crunch, excessive data entry time can also lead to losing good employees. In a HR survey, “excessive repetitive work” is a leading reason for losing ambitious employees who strive for diverse work.

Rather than losing admin time or good staff, fleets use electronic time cards to automatically pull time shifts and calculate payroll.

3) Saving Business Cost

Lastly, automated time cards decrease business cost. Some costs might include reducing paperwork or optimizing operations.

To illustrate the latter, we had a client who used time cards to see that some of their drivers spent too much driving and not enough time on customer sites. They realized it was because those drivers had too many jobs during a day so the operation manager added more crews to balance workload and improve customer satisfaction.

We have other driver time card solutions as well, check them out here and here.

Click here to schedule training for Time Cards or any other myGeotab functions!

Guest Post: How a hunting GPS can save your life when you got lost in the woods – by John Lewis

Posted on September 5, 2018 | by John Lewis

Some businesses and people use satellite GPS tracking as a mandown system. Mandown systems allow people to call for help, even if they are in remote areas. John shares a perspective on how hunters can use GPS to save their lives.

Author Bio: I am John Lewis, a blogger, survivalist and outdoor enthusiast. You can follow me over at Epic Wilderness.

INTRO

Most hunters would ask themselves what they should do when they are lost in the woods. This is an important question to ask because it would spur you to find ways and get prepared for moments when you actually got lost in the wilderness.

Many methods can be employed to get you back to familiar terrain such as understanding how to use a compass or putting marks on the tracks which you just travelled. Using a GPS is one of the most effective methods to help you prevent yourself from getting lost in the woods.

A GPS would rely on at least 24 satellites that fly around 20,000 kilometers overhead. This device can at any moment beam out signals to identify itself, providing its time and location.

Tracking your coordinates

Latitude and longitude are types of coordinates which together would specify a grid for the globe. Latitude lines run from east to west, and it measures the north/south position. While the longitude runs from north to south and measures the east/west position.

This GPS coordinates is really important because this information can help the rescuers track exactly where you are. This GPS coordinates can be tracked on Google Maps or other software, which can pinpoint your exact location with ease.

Giving you sufficient information

Knowing ‘where you are’ consists of three components: your position, your orientation and your intended direction. Your position is the knowledge you have regarding your surroundings with a precision that satisfies your requirement. Generally, a GPS can indicate your position within 15 meters (50 feet) on the high end, and usually is accurate to 10 meters (30 feet).

Your orientation is your alignment with your surroundings. For example, when you reach a juncture at a road, you would know which way to turn because you are familiar with the place enough to know your orientation. Your knowledge on your orientation is highly dependent on how aware you are to your surroundings as well!

As for your intended direction, it is the way you want to travel. Usually, you would either need a compass or a GPS to be able to walk in the intended direction because these devices are capable of supplying sufficient information to you.

Therefore, if you lose your touch on any of these three positioning factors, it could potentially cause any of the factors to tumble. If you start with a wrong orientation, there is no way you can approach your intended direction.

Distress signals

The Distress Alerting Satellite System (DASS), which is designed and controlled by NASA, incorporates search and rescue instruments into GPS satellites.

This is a highly effective method to save you when you are lost because the Earth can usually be viewed by four GPS satellites at any time. After a distress signal is made, the DASS obtains data so that the rescuers would be able to accurately estimate your location.

This would be useful not only when you are lost in the woods, but when you are met with an emergency. Emergency here would mean situations where you are incapable of moving, such as situations where you have been bitten by a rattlesnake.

The ability to do scouting

Scouting is one of the most effective ways a hunter can use to understand the terrain better. Before you hunt, you can utilize computer maps to get an idea of how the landscape looks like. After you marked those locations in which you are interested in your computer, you can transfer those waypoints in your GPS.

When you are scouting on foot, you can mark the travel route you are going. When you are lost, you would be more capable of getting back on track if you have done scouting. Also, the GPS would be able to store waypoints, which would allow you to backtrack effectively.

Utilizing different navigation methods

A GPS can effectively save your life if you are familiar with the different navigation methods. Most hunting GPS are equipped with a variety of navigation methods, this includes having Point of Interests or having 3D locations in which you can access by touching on the screen.

As you experiment with different navigation styles, you can determine which of the navigation styles would best fit you when you are in different situations. This may include situations when you are scouting or when you are on a blood trail. If you familiarize yourself with different navigation methods in your GPS, then you would be able to easily go back on track when you are lost.

Conclusion

Remember to do whatever it takes to keep yourself safe because safety is more important than getting a successful hunt. Taking the effort to attend courses and do research on how you can sustain your life when you are lost in the wilderness may benefit you!

When you pick a hunting GPS, do remember to do thorough research first because a GPS is one of the most complex hunting tool you would possess. With complexity, comes different varieties of functions which you can choose from. After identifying your own needs, you can then choose the best-suited GPS for a price.

If there are any other methods you can employ to save yourself when you are lost in the woods, please share with me by commenting below!

10 Top Fleet Manager Job Skills

Posted on August 29, 2018 | by Jimmy Song

Bill Gates is one of the most successful business superstars. One of his management philosophies include: “We’ve got to put a lot of money into changing behaviour.” How does that quote relate to fleet manager job skills?

Successful fleet managers (or any jobs) need to invest money and time to hone their behaviour. Similar to Bill Gates, one of my mentors taught me that you can only master your craft if you spend time to understand your craft and have passion to consistently improve.

What are the most important fleet manager job skills?

I used a simple tool to collect and analyse top fleet manager job skills. I sampled several Fleet Manager job postings and then ran a top keywords report. And what were the results? According to a bit of fact-digging and statistics, here are the top fleet manager job skills:

Management

Not surprisingly, management leads all job skills. Fleet managers are expected to lead and motivate other people. In particular, fleet managers need to set policies, build relationships, and manage results.

Customer Service Skills

An underrated but important skill is customer service skills. Why? Well, if you think about it, fleets are in the business of customer service. Fleet managers that understand customer service usually have happier customers because these managers know how to create customer-friendly policies.

Transportation Knowledge

The next category is general vehicle knowledge. Even though I consider myself to be good with other people and customers, I’d probably fail at being a fleet manager because I am not as savvy with vehicles. Fleet managers need to know almost as much as a mechanic because they are always chatting with bosses, vendors, or drivers about vehicles.

Maintenance

Even though fleet managers do not directly work on maintenance, they should at least have a background in maintenance. Fleet managers are measured on their fleet’s uptime and efficiency. For that reason, some common tasks include creating preventative maintenance policy and overseeing work tasks.

Diversity & Inclusivity

According to a survey, many new drivers are ethnic and young. Successful fleet managers understand how to relate to different people and overcome challenges such as language barriers or age gaps.

Safety

“Safety is the number priority” – says a million different fleets! One way or another, fleet managers are responsible to creating policies, coaching drivers, and leveraging technology to reduce safety incidents.

Process-Oriented

Fleet managers need to be process oriented. Especially in today’s world of time saving software, fleet managers have to find ways to modernize and efficienize their processes. For instance, some companies completely replaced paperwork with automatic software processes.

Financials

Why is it important for fleet managers to know financials? Though you don’t need to be a math wiz, fleet managers should know enough financials to manage a budget and present financial performance. Nowadays, fleet managers are expected to keep track of their department’s spending and cost.

Vendors

Finally, fleet managers should be very familiar with vendors. Some fleet managers might work with dozens of different vendors such as repair shops, vehicle providers, or software solution providers.

Did you enjoy our list or have any other skills? Leave them below in the comments!