Thursday 22 September 2011

Fleet Management Is A Mushrooming Enterprise

By Adriana Noton


When a company has many vehicles it needs to have them managed. This is either done in-house or outsourced to a third party. This system of supervising all aspects of trucks, vans, cars and ships is called fleet management. The managers take care of the supervision of the drivers, maintenance of the vehicles, speed, fuel, health and safety and tracking and financing.

As the vehicles age it becomes critical to know when to dispose of them. They will amortize and at some point it is not cost effective to spend money on their upkeep. Replacing parts will cost more than the owner could ever get for the vehicles. Every year Mercury Associates puts out a guide indicating the life cycle of vehicles.The optimum time of disposal will be calculated according to the age and condition of the vehicle. The supervisors will follow this guide.

Tracking the vehicles is one of the first concerns. GPS is usually employed but cellular triangulation can also be used. GPS is the better option if the vehicles are to be in remote areas of the world. Using satellites to track vehicle location in real time is ideal for keeping regular, frequent updates.

Cellular triangulation is a network that is radio based that covers a larger land area. Different areas have a transceiver so that the network becomes connect via the signals that the radio signals send out between each other. Portable transceivers and fixed transceivers can communicate between each other.

The vehicles have computers onboard that record data concerning how the driver drives the vehicle. It will note when and where they stop, where they have gone and any other activity they are programmed to record about the driver. It will also gather data about fuel consumption and other mechanical diagnostics.

Ships at sea need to be kept track of. The company will manage the ongoing activity of the ship such as management of the crew, the maintenance of the ship and the daily operation of the ship. This is a large complex task and it frees up the owner to focus on the business end of their enterprise which is the procurement of cargo.

When required the managers of fleets can disable a vehicle remotely. Truck can be remotely slowed down, have air bled from their brakes or even downshifted and stopped. The dispatcher can warn the driver that the vehicle is about to be disabled. The driver too if in trouble can push a panic alert to the managers. This is located either on the dashboard or in a key-fob. The dispatcher can connect with the driver to find out what the problem is and disable the vehicle if required.

There are parts of the world that are particularly risky for trucks to go. Armed road pirates will stop a truck to either steal the truck, the contents or money from the driver. The managers would at least know the location of the vehicles and try to find help locally. When the driver is out in the tundra area of Russia however, there will be small likelihood of help being so nearby.

Fleet management is easier to control with the help of GPS and software programs. As new areas of the world open up and more management help is required there will be a greater need for trained personnel. In Europe there are 1.5 to 4 million units indicating that the growth trend is very strong.




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