There are many challenges a cargo transportation company has to face while moving goods from one place to another with the help of fleet vehicles. It can impact the productivity and efficiency of cargo movement. From express transport to air shipping, every freight forwarder has to achieve efficiency in freight movement operations, regardless of the challenges they face during the complex transportation process. If freight companies implement fleet management solutions, they can avoid such nagging issues. 

Generally, we consider the role of fleet managers encompasses scheduling, tracking, route planning and many more. But there is more to it. They have to properly implement the maintenance of the fleet, driver management to ensure the safety and productivity of both vehicles and drivers. For instance, a fleet manager has to address fleet maintenance, information regarding mechanical failure, parked carriers, those in traffic and which are not operational.  

Often, fleet management solutions become an arduous task, but every fleet manager is responsible for minimising the downtime periods. A proper fleet management system in place would facilitate assessing the statuses of vehicles is the primary step and arriving at the solutions to reduce downtime seems helpful. It is even applicable for vehicles under maintenance because it would help streamline their repairs and release on time.

The fleet management solutions ensure that the total number of carriers that stays idle or in operation is the lowest for any particular period. Coming to driver management, it also forms part of the responsibility of fleet managers. Driver management ensures the fleet drivers are capable of safe and timely freight movement by using the available resources and based on information sent in real-time. 

Managing all these tasks, resources and, information manually can be tedious. Many freight forwarders have long understood the significance of technology in shipping and logistics. The fleet management solutions using advanced technology is the only desirable way out to prevent the above issues. 

Let’s examine how relying on top fleet management software helps fleet managers and freight forwarders in the following areas and aid in overcoming the most common challenges they face during cargo transportation. 

1. Fleet Management  

Fleet management or vehicle management ensures that fleet vehicles are well-maintained, scheduled promptly, monitored for fuel consumption. It also checks the competency of drivers, record keeping, route planning and so on. Fleet management is paramount for any fleet service because vehicles form the most significant part of cargo movement. 

If you use fleet management software, it helps you to achieve all of these tasks with maximum efficiency within less time. If you select fleet management solutions, automation of tasks becomes easy. Fleet managers can access the information on every function associated with vehicle management in real-time. It, in turn, helps responsible persons to implement wise decisions for the maintenance and safety of physical assets and the benefit of customers without much fuss. 

2. Maintenance of Records 

Records of documents for vehicles and drivers is one of the most noticeable functions in fleet management solutions. Fleet managers should monitor the upkeep and update of documents about the fleet and the drivers. Typically, the documents include insurance papers, vehicle registration certificates, vehicle fitness certificates, driver’s licenses. When you rely on a technology platform for record documentation, you can update every piece of information in no time. Plus, there is absolute security of data for the documents maintained.   

The fleet management software stores all documents about the fleet so that responsible persons can access them from anywhere, anytime. It manages all types of electronic document types such as tax documents, image and audio files and so forth. Besides, retrieving these files from any location is very fast as it gets stored with proper indexing. In every sense, fleet management solutions with document maintenance support save considerable time with double efficiency compared to manual handling of these tasks.  

3. Driver Management  

The significance of driver management is as important as vehicle management. Drivers are the kingpin in the transportation process and, without them, freight movement doesn’t even happen. When fleet owners entrust the task of freight movement with the drivers, they want to know if a driver works to his capacity.   

Fleet owners need to keep tabs on idle time, break time, safety issues, managing accidents and driving habits. Through fleet management solutions, every fleet owner can access and monitor all the information relating to driver management. Further, it effectively helps fleet owners to manage drivers if there is any anomaly from the standards set. It also identifies the vehicle idle time, the temperature of the carrier vehicle, fuel efficiency based on driving habits. If any changes are required, fleet owners can implement them from anywhere; to improve overall efficiency and productivity.   

4. Risk Management  

If you select robust fleet management software, it helps you implement risk management very efficiently. For instance, you can get notifications regarding the total working time of drivers. Suppose, if a driver has worked for long durations during a week, the software notifies that the particular driver needs to go for day-offs. He may be fatigued from extra hours of driving without any rest and, it helps prevent scheduling such drivers for further freight movement tasks.   

Thus, through robust fleet management solutions, managers can avoid accident risks from driver fatigues due to long-duration behind the wheel without taking any break. A highly intuitive fleet management software provides information regarding the exact location of vehicles in real-time, helps drivers and goods to be safe under all situations. Apart from these, another advantage is that it helps improve the morale of drivers and employees that their safety is given prior consideration along with the cargo transported.  

5. Exceptional Customer Service 

All efforts on cargo movement get wasted if the freight forwarders fail to offer better customer service management. A centralised fleet management software facilitates easy integration with other applications, for example, a customer relationship management (CRM) system. It assists employees to view, access and exchange customer information seamlessly from one single dashboard. The fleet management solutions would further help employees to understand customer preferences and behaviour for providing ideal services.

Fleet management software with customer service support allows employees to give keen attention to detail while offering customised services for each customer. Furthermore, it is a sure-fire way to retain existing customers. When employees can better manage customer data, they work in an environment where proactive solutions are at the tip of their hand, coupled with hardly any issues encountered in transportation, the result is nothing less than 100 per cent customer satisfaction.  

Endnote  

We have discussed a few of the areas where technology helps fleet services to overcome their everyday challenges. It entails the significance of having a proper tool for tracking cargo, vehicle and drivers, the three most crucial components that steer cargo movement. The biggest fleet management companies rely on sophisticated fleet management solutions that can bring complete transformation in operational efficiency alongside time savings.  

Move your freight through Ianis Cargo Express; to get complete control over the transit goods, no matter if you select express transport, full truckload service, less than truckload service or air shipping. The most advanced digital platform for freight movement, Ianis Cargo, is synonymous with cost-effective shipping and its fleet management solutions give shippers extra peace of mind. Shippers get instant rates by using the live shipping calculator, no matter the type of products or the customer location. Apart from the above services, Ianis Cargo also implements the eCommerce delivery solution and pallet delivery. Get live quotes and move your freight through Ianis Cargo Express to get optimised rates while getting complete assurance on the safety of the transit cargo.