Fleet software provider Mycompanyfleet has launched a new software module which allows company drivers to remotely log the condition of their vehicles through their mobile phones and other hand-held devices, thus meeting duty of care requirements and helping speed through service and maintenance booking and scheduling.

The new functionality, FleetAcumen Mobile, is an enhancement to Mycompanyfleet’s mainstream FleetAcumen fleet management system and has widespread applications for companies with grey fleet drivers, and both light and heavy commercial vehicle fleets.

Operating through any G3-enabled mobile phone or other hand-held devices such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), FleetAcumen Mobile allows drivers to log on to the main fleet management system and report the condition of their vehicles online and in line with company guidelines.

This could cover areas such as the condition of tyres, auto-glass, fluid levels and other critical factors and meets duty of care requirements, at the same time completing an audit trail that provides the company with a clear-cut record in the event of a future event, such as a serious road traffic accident.

Where there is a defect with the vehicle, the driver can report the severity of its nature through his mobile phone and allow the fleet manager to book the vehicle in for servicing before the fault can become any worse.

For commercial vehicle drivers, the new functionality allows them to confirm that their vehicles are in suitable condition to go out on the road before they start their journey, or to report any defects that their vehicle inspection throws up.

Depending on its severity, they can either arrange to take the vehicle in for immediate maintenance or for a service to be arranged further en-route if its nature is not too serious.

“This new module allows remote vehicle condition and defect reporting through virtually any G3 mobile phone and most-hand held devices and provides the ability to instantly alert the fleet manager or transport department to any potential problems as soon as they arise,” said  Andrew Leech, business manager at Mycompanyfleet, the automotive arm of HR software supplier NorthgateArinso.

“This will not only save time and money, but it will cut down the likelihood of vehicles being allowed out on the road with a potentially serious defect.

“For grey fleet drivers, it immediately provides a record that they have followed company guidelines in checking and reporting the condition of their vehicle or highlights where they have failed to do so,” he added.

Rising fuel prices, which have seen a gallon of diesel reach £6.05 in the last week in certain parts of the UK, pose a major problem for fleets. Tighter management of fuel costs, including tactics such as identifying the top ten highest fuel-consuming drivers in the company, is the answer.

That’s the view from Andrew Leech, business manager at Mycompanyfleet, the automotive division of HR solutions provider, NorthgateArinso, who says that companies should ‘name and shame’ the worst offenders as an example to other drivers if it means that action to control costs is then taken.

According to fuel prices website petrolprices.com, the price of a gallon of the UK’s most expensive diesel went through the £6 barrier last week, with unleaded not far behind at £5.95. The national average was £5.44 a gallon for diesel and £5.33 for petrol, amongst the highest seen so far.

With an increase in VAT to 20% from January increasing prices still further, although most businesses can reclaim the VAT, the onus is on fleets to use whatever management techniques they can to keep fuel costs under control.

Fleet management software can play a key role in helping fleet managers identify where the highest fuel spends are within an organisation. Systems like Mycompanyfleet’s FleetAcumen visually displays key cost centres to show expenditure against budget, and to highlight any areas of potential or actual overspend.

For key areas such as fuel costs, the system can be easily configured to show league tables of the top ten most fuel efficient drivers and vehicles on the fleet and those which are the worst, so that fleet managers can take decisions quickly and effectively to remedy the situation.

“If necessary, fleet managers can use our system to name and shame the worst offenders and to highlight the least fuel efficient vehicles on the fleet. Tough times sometimes require tough measures,” said Andrew Leech.

“This ability gives managers the ammunition to challenge driver behaviours and to consider introducing other initiatives such as eco-driver training, as in the current climate no manager is likely to want to be the winner in  the fuel cost race,” he said.

 Mycompanyfleet systems use dashboard technology and exception reports to identify the worst offenders in terms of fuel consumption for both drivers and vehicles. These can also be configured to show the best performers and the most fuel efficient vehicles on company choice lists.

 By selecting the most fuel efficient and ‘steering’ company car drivers towards them, perhaps with the use of cash incentives, fleet managers can play a key role in helping keep fuel costs in check and make a serious contribution to the corporate profit performance.

“Fleet managers are empowered by our dashboard methodology and exception reporting to take rapid and effective business decisions as soon as an event, such as a cost centre exceeding its fuel budget, occurs,” said Andrew Leech.

“The use of exception reports allows fleet managers and other system users to go straight to the key management information required, allowing rapid and effective business decisions to be made,” he added.

The correct use of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software can help leasing and other suppliers improve relationships with customers, boost margins and identify other business opportunities amongst the existing customer base.

 That’s the view of Andrew Leech, business manager at Mycompanyfleet, the automotive division of global HR solutions provider NorthgateArinso, who says that CRM software can play a key role in boosting supplier profitability across a host of asset classes.

 Leech cites as evidence for his argument the case of KLM Equipment Services (KES), an independent subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which uses Mycompanyfleet YourAcumen CRM software to manage a fleet of 2,500 vehicles and other assets at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and provide a wide range of fleet management services to fleet and corporate customers.

These services include contract hire and leasing, TCO (total cost of ownership) reporting, fixed price maintenance, maintenance management, equipment reconditioning, and workshop and depot management, and all are managed online through a bespoke suite of Mycompanyfleet software solutions.

To meet customer requirements, KES provides a variety of assets of up to €1m in value, ranging from small ground vehicles such as light vans, coaches and mini-buses, to specialised power units, pallet loaders, aircraft tractors and lifting platforms.

Managing such a wide diversity of assets requires a sophisticated, flexible and scalable software solution, and the company utilises the functionality of the YourAcumen CRM system to provide a customer-facing fleet management portal to manage assets on behalf of its business customers.

 Through this facility, fleet customers can request vehicle hire and leasing, identify and log defects, handle airport emergency calls and generally receive an all-embracing, first- rate customer service.

 The YourAcumen system is exceptionally easy to use from a management viewpoint. It uses exception reporting methodology within a highly visual dashboard environment to highlight areas of the business that require management attention, and avoids the overload of information that characterises many other current systems by identifying when key events become due and providing alerts to ensure action is taken.

 Ad Demmers, KES contract manager, said:”We felt that the Mycompanyfleet  CRM software solutions made the perfect fit with our requirements, and provided the ideal solutions to help provide more efficient fleet management services to our major corporate customers.”

 Andrew Leech commented: “KES operates a wide array of motorised assets and provides an extensive range of fleet management services to a diverse customer base.

 “To manage what is a very complex business scenario required a system that was capable of handling that complexity but was customer-centric and easy to use and operate.

 “The whole range of fleet management services available are managed through a completely automated process and to a set of specified work flows that provide real added value to KES’s customer base.

 “Providing enhanced customer services through a series of value-adds in this way undoubtedly aids customer retention as well as providing extended business opportunities for increasing revenue from the existing customer base,” he said.

 KLM is not the only leading company to benefit from the use of CRM software from Mycompanyfleet. Leading corporate fast-fit supplier, Kwik-Fit Fleet, selected a bespoke version of the YourAcumen system to deliver enhanced driver support services to UK leasing companies through its Service24 proposition.

 Kwik-Fit Fleet provides call centre-backed driver support services to the overwhelming majority of the UK’s leading contract hire and leasing companies as defined by the FN50 league table of leading companies.

 And it selected YourAcumen to handle and co-ordinate driver bookings through Service24 for vehicle servicing, glass replacement, breakdown assistance and vehicle recovery for all its key leasing customers.

 YourAcumen delivers streamlined processes and provide greater reporting capabilities than the legacy system it replaced, as well as providing mapping facilities for the entire Kwik-Fit Fleet centre network.

Simon Lucas, Kwik-Fit Fleet operations director, said:”We felt that the Mycompanyfleet solution was the perfect fit for us and the ideal solution to help provide enhanced driver support services to our major corporate customers.”

Mycompanyfleet provided an extensive demonstration of the capabilities of its YourAcumen system, involving a bespoke, personalised and fully operational version of the system that completely met Kwik-Fit Fleet’s exacting and demanding specification and requirements.

“By being able to demonstrate the full capabilities of our solution, we were able to convince Kwik-Fit Fleet that it was the correct one to meet their customer service requirements,” explained Andrew Leech.

New mobile phone technology provides greater opportunities for fleet operators and their drivers to record important fleet information while out in the field and on the move thanks to enhanced connectivity and modern web-based fleet management solutions.

That’s the view of Andrew Leech, business manager at Mycompanyfleet, who believes that advances in mobile phone technology, particularly the advent of 3G-enabled handsets, has opened up a huge number of opportunities for fleet managers.

Many of the new generation of mobile phones have inbuilt applications  or ‘apps’ that cover a whole variety of services and solutions, including road traffic congestion  avoidance, the latest offering from  motoring organisation, the RAC.

Andrew Leech: "advances in mobile phone technology have opened up a huge number of opportunities for fleet managers.

But you don’t need a smart iPhone with a multitude of ‘apps’ to get the full benefits of the connectivity between 3G hand-sets and current web-based fleet management systems, says Andrew Leech.

“Web-based fleet management systems can be accessed by mobile phones and are great for functions such as mileage capture and verifying vehicle condition. Previously these jobs had to be carried out using a dedicated unit such as a PDA, but now it can be done on the same phone that you use for everyday business use.

“There are considerable savings to be made because the need for a dedicated unit has now been removed, and the function can be performed perfectly well by a 3G handset. The saving comes by removing the need for a dedicated unit.

“These web systems are more and more uniform so there’s no longer the need to use a standard phone across your workforce and there’s no need for a particular ‘app’,” continues Andrew Leech. “You can do it all on a phone’s browser –most, if not all, 3G phones can now readily access web-based systems.

“Using mobile phones in this way is far more efficient and effective for companies with large numbers of employees out in the field, such as fleets of mobile servicing engineers or field sales forces. They can remotely enter critical information into the fleet management system, such as mileage data, location, vehicle condition or time of next job – all from their existing handset.”

Andrew Leech also believes there is a move towards using phones as tracking devices. “You can track a phone, so you can track a work journey and record the mileage. This means it gives an accurate reading of your business mileage for any expenses claim at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated tracking or telematics unit.”

This is one facet of Mycompanyfleet’s recently launched journey logger, a  new  addition to the company’ grey fleet solution Driver Self-Serve, which allows drivers to independently log all business trips and update their mileage claims through their mobile phone.

The new functionality works through any 3G-enabled mobile phone, and by logging on to the Driver Self-Serve system in this way, drivers can also be tracked and their location verified through their phone, replacing the need for alternative in-vehicle telematics or tracking systems.