Thanks to technology, the fleet management system of today’s commercial fleets is capable of getting large amounts of information pertaining to effectiveness, through hardware and software installations. But it is with difficulty that this pool of information, which is simply a cluster of data, gets assimilated for analysis and measurement, and be utilised to get inferences. However, there is a way to audit this data to measure fleet effectiveness and take action and correction to improve effectiveness of the fleet.
Audit as a methodology.
The Audit is actually a review to authenticate the data collected and data interpreted. Based on this and other factors, benchmarking of performance is done to evaluate effectiveness. Develop a consistent logical methodology to measure the sorted data is essential. The audit helps to identify a level, to help you go to the next level. Measuring the same critical factors with quality data consistently, will give you a reliable audit result. The audit is the management’s effort to plan, coordinate and direct the fleet’s efficiency, and for assigning goals.
Benchmarking the fleet performance.
Benchmarking is an important element of the audit process by taking into account a number of elements crucial to the process of measurement in the context of best practices. It’s a standard point of reference to measure quality of performance. It can be chosen for any area of the operations, based on your experience. It can be in reflection of past maintenance costs or on reports of the industry publications or surveys. Sometimes, it could be legal standards, like emission guidelines. GPS enabled devices integrated to the fleet management system can generate useful data inputs for benchmarking.
Choose types of Benchmarks.
Businesses or organisations can define benchmarks, based on various aspects of operations of the fleet. Operational costs can be used for maintenance, driving safety, vehicle utilisation and fuel efficiency. Even customer satisfaction can be measured by response to inquiries by customer service. According to the industry or trade, types of benchmarks can be chosen to develop metrics. A fleet management software can be of great help here.
Grouping the fleet information.
The regular flow of data needs to be sorted to be helpful in evaluation. Fleet information systems can include, besides operational data, financial data, maintenance data and telematics. The system should be developed to capture, record and report information relevant to the goals with help of technologies and solutions. As on-board and telematics solutions offer or provide data without human interaction this increases accuracy. This helps in improving maintenance, routing, engine diagnostics, vehicle utilisation, etc.
Interpreting a picture.
The audit process and benchmark analysis and filtering of data, all help in creating a picture of fleet operations. The data-driven picture is built from the consistency of key elements in the methodology. Metrics don’t give answers but only lead you to it. The audit and benchmarking data is used to quantify and qualify the data. The contextual picture is important to answer the questions of efficiency and effectiveness of the business and operations.
The Audit process and Benchmark analysis help fleet managers and owners to interpret the health of the business and the fleet. To know more about Trinetra’s fleet management system and the installation certification, which also help improve safety and productivity of your fleet, please contact us for a demo, or visit www.trinetrawireless.com. Or just leave us an enquiry and we’ll get in touch.
