Why You Should Build a Custom Fleet Management System

Fleet vehicle and overall fleet performance enhancement have been actively developing the last couple of years. More and more companies, including Tesla, Daimler, and fresh startups, are getting interested in self-driving trucks and completely automated long-distance delivery systems. Although full autonomy is miles away, a lot of businesses are already forced to build a fleet management app to maintain a competitive advantage.

Custom fleet management software development requires expertise, data, and a lot of resources. In most cases, however, it guarantees the return of investment. Take a look at the gains you get from such a system and decide for yourself whether you need one.

Fleet management system benefits

As the fleet management system focuses on different aspects of shipment, it delivers improvements on each of those fronts. That’s why you should build a custom fleet management system.

Fleet vehicle and overall fleet performance enhancement have been actively developing the last couple of years. More and more companies, including Tesla, Daimler, and a number of fresh startups, are getting interested in self-driving trucks and completely automated long-distance delivery systems. Although full autonomy is miles away, a lot of businesses are already forced to build a fleet management app to maintain a competitive advantage.

Custom fleet management software development requires expertise, data, and a lot of resources. In most cases, however, it guarantees the return of investment. Take a look at the gains you get from such a system and decide for yourself whether you need one.

Fleet Management System Benefits changes, although, might not become noticeable right away. Here are the changes you should be able to observe after the management system implementation:

• Reduced fuel consumption due to unforeseen detours – GPS vehicle tracking software allows for better driver coordination. Additionally, this discourages drivers from making course deviations for personal reasons;
• Acquisition of data for better course layout and resource spending – there are sensors you can set up along with the vehicle tracking system software. With the data, you get from them (from the tire temperature to the vehicle speed on certain road sections) you can optimize the delivery path. The logistics improvements can even be built-in features of your app;
• Better overall cargo management capabilities – fast and efficient digital data gathering makes it much easier to organize each process connected to the delivery. Automation of data analysis saves a lot of time you can spend on more challenging tasks;
• Easier maintenance and malfunction prevention – additional devices you connect to your automobiles will be able to alert you about vehicles with worn-out parts (or just in need of regular inspection). This prevents road accidents and leads to strict maintenance cycles.

Overall, you can create custom fleet management software to have a single control center to manage each of your tracks. Having a lot of data is always a perk, and with the right tools to interpret it, you can save resources.

Parts the management system should consist of

As we’ve already discussed, each automotive tracking system consists of a number of modules. Each part of the system either gathers different types of data, directly allows you to control a certain system, or is a mix of both. Although each component can be viewed separately, at the end of the day, they remain connected. That’s why the more you want your system to do, the more it would cost to develop.

In order to understand how the essential parts of fleet management software function, let’s take a look at basic modules that are used in most systems of this type.

1. Location data

The first things you need to know to control your vehicles are where they are and where they go. The technology behind this part of the system is familiar to everyone – a simple GPS tracker should do the job. You can make your own GPS tracker, but that is unreasonable – they are widely available for purchase and easy to set up.

To use this module to the most, you should use the data it provides together with data from other sources – about the state of the roads, weather conditions, and traffic jams.

2. Real-time data on vehicle handling

Information about the fuel consumption, engine exhaustion and other data on the state of the car is an integral part of proper fleet management. They are both helpful for immediate correction and further investigation for course improvement.

Most modern vehicles are equipped with an onboard computer. Some versions already gather massive amounts of data on how the car is being handled. However, even if there is no such built-in functionality, you can easily make a vehicle tracking system with the tools found online. There are a number of devices capable to gather any data you need and send it to a server for storage or immediate use.

3. Control panel

This is a part the whole system would be incomplete without. The size and complexity of the control panel depending on the size of your fleet and the intricacy of other modules. One of the best ways it could be set up is by creating a mobile app. This way, you would be able to monitor the stats on the go and you could give access to data to anyone who needs it.

If your fleet is big enough that you have to hire a dispatcher to manage it, the control board should also be able to connect to each driver separately. Another additional function is access to different open databases for more complete data analysis.

4. Data analyzing tools

Although data processing can be a part of the dashboard, in some cases it requires too many resources not to be separated into its section. This part of the system is open for use of innovative tech. For example, some algorithms allow using AI to calculate the best route.

Apart from the search for improvement, data breakdown can be used to create a complete report. This concise and illustrative form of data presentation is the best way to address your achievements and to compare results from different vehicles and trips. Be wary, though, that the more data you have the more resources it would cost you to process it.

How to effectively build a custom fleet management system

At first glance, the fleet management system might not seem that complicated. There are even pre-made solutions that cover part of the job a good fleet managing system should do. If you want to have complete control over your business, however, you need to create a custom fleet management software that would fulfill all your needs and won’t perform unnecessary tasks.

The pricing for such a project varies depending on a number of parameters. In many cases, the software for the modules you need can be found as an open-source solution. However, if you want more polish and better responsiveness, you would need to pay for access to better software. Additionally, big data arrays require more storage, which is not free as well. You would also need some money to spend on sensors and other IoT devices.

Overall, if you don’t have people on your team that can deal with both hardware and software, it would be better to outsource your fleet management system development. Each part of the system has to work perfectly if you want the software as a whole to be useful.

 

The custom fleet management system is a powerful tool. Before you try to make one, you need to examine the goals you want to reach in order to determine the modules you need to include. Both the preparation and development processes require a team of experienced professionals that can change your current software, create programs from the ground up, and configure the hardware needed. If you have clear goals you want to achieve, we’re ready to help you. Our team of developers has all the experience and expertise needed to create a fleet management system of any scale, from a couple of vehicles to dozens of trucks. Contact us if you want to be in control of your business.