march2023 - 22

" We find that people who run a number of
assets, there's lots of overhead-lots of costs associated
with running those assets. And sometimes
they don't need all of them, " said Will Wycks,
chief marketing and product officer, Chevin Fleet
Solutions, which offers the FleetWave platform.
The platform includes a code-free report builder
called KPI Wizard that allows users to quickly add
or remove items from a list of best practice fleet
industry key performance indicators.
" FleetWave analyzes lots of data to provide clear
insight in order to say 'What is the right size of the
fleet that you need to run?' " Wycks noted.
The data analytics aspect is something every
fleet can take advantage of, as every vehicle and
shop is generating data all the time.
" I would encourage anybody trying to understand
their fleet costs or compliance to consider
fleet management systems, because if you can't
measure it, then you can't manage it, " Wycks said.
For specific example, one of the maintenance
platform Fleetio's customers was a small landscaping
company called ProQual Landscaping.
As their business grew, they realized that they
needed more insight in managing their maintenance
operations.
" As they expanded, they were spending too
much time on repairs and experiencing high
vehicle downtime, " said Daniel Simpson, product
marketing manager at Fleetio. " When ProQual
became a Fleetio customer, they immediately
adopted our custom digital inspection forms.
This gave them insight into the state of their fleet
and allowed them to set up unique maintenance
schedules for each type of asset they had. "
After adopting the fleet maintenance system
that helped them " create proactive maintenance
plans, " the Tempe, Arizona-based fleet cut costs by
33% in the first half of the year versus the previous
timespan without one, according to Jeremy
Bader, ProQual Landscaping's Implementation
Manager. This is because the platform combines
OEMs' maintenance recommendations with fleet
inspection data.
" It takes the guessing game out of maintenance, "
Bader said. " Everyone knows when a vehicle will
be out for service and everyone knows when it's
supposed to be back. "
» Most CMMS platforms include accessible dashboards for tracking metrics and KPIs.
Chevin Fleet Solutions
" I would encourage anybody trying
to understand their fleet costs or
compliance to consider fleet management
systems, because if you can't measure
it, then you can't manage it. "
Will Wycks, chief marketing and product officer, Chevin Fleet Solutions
But managing fleet costs isn't just limited to maintenance
schedules. It can also help smaller fleets
decide when it's time to grow their business or how
they can stretch the vehicles they already have.
Meanwhile, this transparency into fleet efficiency
is even more important for fleets with
several hundred trucks at their disposal. Like
the differing KPIs any one fleet might choose to
monitor, management solutions also vary in their
applicability for each business.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution, noted Matt
Wiedmeyer, CTP, director of fleet services at Fleet
Advantage, which provides fleet lifecycle management
solutions. What's good for a grocery chain's
fleet might not work as well for a heavy hauler.
" An entirely different system may be better
because their units work on an entirely different
dispatch system and aren't home every night, "
Wiedmeyer said.
So, how does Fleet Advantage help its customers?
" We'll sit down and we'll talk with them, "
Wiedmeyer continued. " We will look at what
their highest costs are, whether it's tires, brakes,
or the aftertreatment system, the things that can
sometimes kill a fleet. "
Identifying these pain points are particularly
critical for large fleets, when each minute issue a
smaller fleet might be able to postpone is multiplied
across hundreds of vehicles, leading to
marked financial losses.
This is especially true in the years following the
» Fleet management systems increase communication between the front and back ends of operations.
Fleetio
COVID-19 pandemic, which have been rife with
vacillating costs, inflation, and supply chain difficulties
that hindered expenditure management
for fleets.
" In [these] times, it's important that you ground
yourself, " said Brian Antonellis, SVP of Fleet
22 Fleet Maintenance | March 2023

march2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2023