Why All Fleets Need Field Resource Management

Fleet GPS tracking has been around for decades. It has become ubiquitous among fleets worldwide. In recent years, it has evolved to become more comprehensive and offers more than just vehicle tracking. This new type of platform is referred to as Field Resource Management.

Many organizations constantly utilize their Field Resource Management systems in order to streamline operations. Others occasionally use them to protect themselves from theft or the legal liabilities associated with an employee driving a company vehicle. Field Resource Management can help your business save time and money, keep your fleet safe, and improve sustainability. In today’s article, we’ll list five reasons why fleets adopt Field Resource Management to manage their resources.

1. Theft Recovery

In 2019, the FBI stated that there were an estimated 721,885 thefts of motor vehicles nationwide. This represents a rate of 219.9 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the NHTSA, a vehicle is stolen every 43.8 seconds in the US.

Vehicle theft costs all US insurance policy holders more than $6 billion annually, with an average of $8,886 in annual losses per vehicle. These losses can be catastrophic for a fleet of vehicles.

While GPS tracking devices don’t always prevent theft, they can certainly help you recover stolen property quickly. One of our customers, Specialty Doors and Automation, discovered this recently. When one of their work trucks vanished from a job site, Specialty Doors used their FieldLogix telematics capabilities to locate their stolen vehicle in minutes. Edye, President at Specialty Doors, said, “Thanks to our GPS, we retrieved a stolen vehicle within 30 minutes of the theft. They did manage to get some tools off the truck, but we showed up during the process and got the truck and materials back!!! Thank you!”

2. Driver Safety

Field Resource Management systems can help change driver behavior for the better, cutting down on safety incidents and violations. In fact, aggressive drivers are 66% more likely to cause a fatal accident.  Without a form of accountability, drivers are more likely to speed and drive aggressively. The fact that drivers are aware that their driving activity is recorded with a telematics device forces them to be more conscientious about their driving habits. Monitoring your drivers also protects them, and provides evidence of safe driving practices, should they ever become involved in an accident.

In one case, a speeding fleet driver without a telematics system caused an accident that resulted in a lawsuit that forced the fleet operator to pay $4.68 million in damages. Our telematics capabilities will help ensure that drivers drive safer because they know that you can hold them accountable for their actions.
Many insurance companies recognize the safety benefits of our technology.  In fact, they often reduce a policy holder’s insurance premiums by 10% to 15% when they are using a Field Resource Management system.

Personal use of company vehicles is a problem that occurs all too frequently. In addition to increased wear and tear on fleet vehicles, it also presents a major legal liability. Ensure that your drivers aren’t using your fleet vehicles after work by setting up notification rules for personal vehicle use. Reduce the likelihood that your drivers will drive your vehicle home from a bar or to take their kids to their sports practices after work hours.

Here are are the key features which are an absolute MUST to monitor driver safety effectively:

• Real-time GPS location updates
• Aggressive driver reports
• Driver safety score-card
• Optional in-cab safety alerts
• Speed limit violation alerts & speed trends
• ML-powered crash risk report

We have encountered many situations where the data from our Field Resource Management system has helped fleets when they received complaints and litigation brought by motorists. In one case, a pedestrian sued a fleet operator claiming that their driver was involved in a hit and run accident. Upon reviewing the GPS data, it was found that the vehicle was nowhere near the location of the incident at the time.

FieldLogix has taken driver safety one step further by predicting the likelihood that a driver will be involved in a crash by using Artificial Intelligence.  We built a predictive model that compares driving behavior and weather to crashes that we’ve observed in our system and we built a Crash Risk Report.

Curious about your fleet’s accident risk? Check out our Accident Risk Calculator to find out!

3. Employee Litigation

We often encounter instances where an employee may bring legal action against an employer for issues such as unpaid overtime or unpaid wages. In many cases, these fleet operators must retrieve employee activity records from prior years in order to present a strong defense in court. Often, this data is the only defense that the fleet operators have in order to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. Our Field Resource Management system stores details of all of your driver’s activity, which can be retrieved in order to help you should you find yourself in a similar situation.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners says that payroll fraud is the #1 source of losses to US businesses.

Field Resource Management can help in this area in several ways. First, we will record the time and locations where your drivers start working each day. This data is often used to verify the accuracy of time sheets that might be missing location data. We also record each time your drivers stop their vehicles and show you whether they were at any of your job sites. These time and location stamped records can be used to verify any other job activity records that your techs provide you.

We will also allow you to set up restricted areas such as your technicians’ homes in order to get alerts if they go home during their shifts. Zones can be scheduled to turn on during their shift and off when they take the vehicles home after hours.

4. Vehicle Maintenance

According to Automotive Fleet, the average breakdown cost is $634, per driver, per day. This is due to driver downtime from the loss of use of the vehicle, vehicle rental costs, and emergency repair costs.

We help you proactively schedule maintenance needs through our system to reduce the likelihood of surprise vehicle breakdowns. You can create unlimited maintenance schedules to receive reminders when the vehicles are approaching your mileage thresholds.

We also connect to the vehicle’s engine computer to alert you if your check engine light is triggered. We will provide you with any Diagnostic Trouble Codes so you can address the issue right away and avoid the additional repair costs associated with delayed notifications from the drivers.

5. Greater Sustainability

Inefficient routing often leads to wasted fuel and dissatisfied clients. Field Resource Management enables you to make cost-efficient routing decisions that help you quickly dispatch routes to your drivers. More efficient routes means completing more deliveries per route and less fuel wasted.

Planning delivery routes and dispatching drivers has become more efficient and accessible than ever because of recent innovations. Routes are now optimized to find the most efficient route from one stop to the next to avoid traffic, reduce pollution and reduce fuel consumption. These features are vital during the transition to a greener fleet and also save valuable time and money.

Here are are some features that improve sustainability:

• Enhanced route scheduling
• Predictive traffic for routes
• Estimated arrival times
• Add breaks to routes
• Custom forms for completed jobs/deliveries
• Easy drag and drop interface

To stay competitive, all fleets need a basic Field Resource Management system. FieldLogix is the leading provider of innovative and award-winning solutions for managing your whole fleet from anywhere on any device. Enter our virtual product tour to see how our technology can help you.

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