What are the most important considerations if you’re implementing fleet management technology for vehicle sharing?
After taking on a large number of fleet management technology implementation projects, it's amazing how consistent the challenges are from one project to the next.
Fleet Management Technology Challenges
One of the keys is to have a strong champion who will see the project through to the end. This champion will understand the benefits of the solution for those who will be impacted, as well as the relationship to other projects that may be going on in the organization.
This champion should also understand the priorities of the organization and how the project will help to reach those goals.
Objectives of Implementing Fleet Management Technology
The next thing you need is an understanding of the project’s objectives.
The ultimate objective is not to implement fleet management technology. The real objective is to reap the benefits of that technology.
The more you can focus on the objectives of what you're trying to achieve and less on the technology side, the better your outcomes will be.
Further, getting driver buy-in is critical. If the drivers understand what's in it for them, they're gonna accept this project much easier.
Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. If it were you, you would want to know why things are changing, and what the benefit to you would be. The same is true for drivers in your fleet management technology project.
Addressing Cultural Changes
Another key aspect of implementing fleet technology is to address the cultural changes that may occur.
And there's no better way to do that than to share the stories of other fleet drivers who have been through the same experiences.
Let them talk about how they used to do business just like your drivers do, versus how they do business now using fleet management technology.
The benefits are tremendous. And once they know that other people like them have gone through this change, it's much easier to accept.
Managing Momentum
One key task for the project champion is managing momentum or the change to the status quo that is happening within the organization.
One example, which is pretty common when you move from an assigned vehicle model to a shared model, has to do with budgeting.
When organizations assemble a fleet, there has to be a budget for that. The organization purchases its own vehicles, year after year, and pays for maintenance year after year as well.
When you transition to a centrally managed pool, the purchasing and all the administrative burden maintenance, that all moves from the departments to a central organization, likely a fleet organization.
With that in mind, you will need to change some of these things proactively. That can include budget cycles, as well as taking vehicles off of a department’s books and transitioning them to a general pool.
This is just the nature of change, and it's something that the project champion can manage from the onset.
Executive Buy-In
One of the last things to address when you're implementing vehicle technology is executive buy-in.
This might be easier than you might expect. If you look at your organization's vision statement or mission statement, you'll probably find something in there that links your values directly to this project.
If you have a green initiative to make your county operations more sustainable, for example, you can tie that into your fleet management project. And if you can show that this vehicle technology project is fueled by the goals of your executive team, then you've succeeded.
It also never hurts to highlight the financial savings that you get from a project like this. Show your executives the financial ramifications of implementing technology and vehicle sharing. The numbers might astound you and will reduce any objections from your executive team.
Your Fleet Management Technology Partner
The team at Agile Fleet is excited to work with you to implement fleet management technology.
One of the reasons is that we've been there and done that. We've implemented more than 200 unique systems across federal, state, and local governments, colleges and universities, social service nonprofits, and other fleets.
We offer a 30-day risk-free trial, and the system is easy to implement. It's a web-based technology that can be fully implemented, even with automated key control systems, in less than 90 days.
We're happy to provide you with references to clients like you who have already gone down this path so that you can learn from their organizations’ successes.
The Agile Fleet team has some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any vendor in the entire fleet industry. We take great pride in that.
Also, Agile Fleet integrates with more than 150 external systems. We can leverage your existing investment in accounting systems, ERP systems, risk management systems, and the like.
Our team looks forward to seeing you succeed with our FleetCommander software. We want you to be recognized as one of the top fleets in your industry. We will help you promote your successes and share your story with the fleet industry for others that are going down this path, just like you.
To learn more about implementing fleet management technology, set up a FleetCommander demo.
