Data-driven insight into operations is the new norm on offer for businesses across Australia. In decades passed it would have been impossible to capture and collate the real-time data now available to transport and logistics businesses through telematics. The GPS monitoring solution processes crucial operational parameters, enlightening fleet managers about how the business works under the hood.

While this may seem like the perfect solution to numerous field challenges, many still ask - how exactly does vehicle telematics aid real-time fleet management?

Why do fleet managers need the aid of real-time data?

From overseeing field vehicles down to analysing the service records of active assets, fleet management encompasses numerous responsibilities relating to safe and efficient operations. Although ensuring driver security is the main focus, managers also aim to optimise asset use, maintain compliance standards and streamline day-to-day tasks.

These duties all share one challenge - they require managing vehicles and drivers hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from a control centre. In lieu of being in the field to address issues, managers lean on GPS fleet monitoring data produced on the job to gauge how operations are progressing. Without this field information, fleet management would become a box-tick exercise with little value-added to the business.

Real-time data on distances traveled is useful when trying to improve fleet operations.

What is real-time fleet data and how is it generated?

Kilometres traveled. Speed. Time spent idling. When you breakdown the factors that play into the overall costs of a fleet operation, telematics' potential cost and time saved is significant.

Real-time data is gathered on both vehicle use and driver behaviour, offering fleet managers a more detailed picture of what happens after a vehicle is dispatched. This data is generated through a network of interconnected software and smart devices linking the operational performance of each field asset to headquarters. This mass of unprocessed data is then collated into easy-to-use reports for fleet managers to take insight from.

The Australian Fleet Management Association claims telematics monitoring was always a useful tool for logistics businesses - but now real-time data capture is a vital start point. Let's look at the positives of using real-time telematics data in fleet management.

How does real-time telematics data help fleet management?

As mentioned before, fleet managers have three primary professional responsibilities:

• Ensure drivers and vehicles are safe when in the field.
• Optimise how assets are used to save operational expenses.
• Maintain compliance standards for worker safety and road use.

Fleet management software is a vital solution for generating the data in real time needed to aid expert managers. The benefits of focusing on this GPS technology include:

Duress safety features - fleet operations can take drivers and assets to remote locations around Australia. Telematics allows managers uninterrupted fleet monitoring, no matter the communications infrastructure. Man down safety features also allow drivers and field operators to emit an emergency beacon, transmitted to control centre, if they are in trouble. This offers fleet managers peace of mind.

Improved operational ability - allowing fleet managers ongoing access to the location of vehicles and drivers, as well as real-time information on traffic delays and road closures, means better route planning. Cutting travel times and delays saves on fuel costs, reduces wear-and-tear to assets and means more journeys can be completed within the same roster.

Seamless compliance monitoring - the fleet sector, be that in logistics businesses, oil and gas operations or local government projects, comes with numerous compliance standards. From up-to-date vehicle maintenance records to the hours worked by drivers and technicians, fleet managers need to be across it all. Telematics allows operators to gather this real-time date on one central platform, ensuring that each compliance standard is met to the letter.

Want to learn more about vehicle telematics? Get your journey underway by contacting the expert team at Pinpoint Communications below!