Fleet management software is used by mainly couriers, oil and gas delivery, hardware or other delivery industries, utilities, repair and service industry, truck and car deliveries, boating industry, businesses to ensure responsible vehicle use, confirm safety and enable real-time tracking. 

An efficient fleet management software is significant in fleet and logistics management. So, we will be discussing how to build a fleet management software like Uberfleet to manage your fleet business effectively and with great ease. The purpose of the fleet management app is to ensure proper fleet management and ease business. A fleet business has many aspects to its business, like marketing, operations, finance, human resource, resource management, database management, etc. For efficient management of all the aspects, you would need a team that has great expertise in each area. The fleet management app will help you minimize human errors and help in increasing the efficiency of all your resources.

Dependencies of Fleet Management:

The fleet management system is dependent on various factors like the customers and drivers. The ideal system where the system would work the best is when drivers are given a separate panel/ app; the customers are given a separate panel/ app.

• The driver app: The main purpose of this app is to track the real-time location of the driver so the fleet owner can know the location of the driver at any given time. Alternate to this app can be a GPS device attached to the vehicle of the driver through which the driver’s location can be tracked. This GPS device is normally very cheap but it will be limited to GPS tracking wherein the driver app can offer a lot of features.
• The customer app: Through this app, the customer can order services of the fleet. Full customization options will be available to the customer and this will help the system generate the order requirements in a particular format that the fleet management software can read.

User Personas for Fleet Management Software:

The following are the key user personas:

User Stories for Fleet Management Software

Fleet Admin:

As a regional director, I am very busy with my day to day task and it is very difficult for me to manage all the aspects of fleet management effectively. I have a major issue to track my drivers as it has been seen that the drivers may have been implying an incorrect location. I face trouble with supply-chain management. I want to see a complete list of drivers, orders and jobs that are nearby. We need a common platform where I can communicate with all the drivers easily.

Sample Wireframes for Fleet Management App

Features:

1. Registration / Sign up: This is the most initial module of the fleet management app. It should consist of mandatory information like the fleet company name, mobile number, email address and documents. Users should be able to set up passwords with OTP verification. This process will help the admin to verify the authenticity of the fleet owner and would serve as evidence in case of any frauds.
2. Driver Information: The most important feature of your app should be the drivers’ information. As the drivers are the main focus of this app, the mobile app should allow the fleet owner to create new drivers, edit them and delete them. Specific information that should be taken about the driver is: Full Name, Mobile Number, Vehicle registration number, Type of Vehicle, Load capacity of the vehicle (this will help the system to know which orders are apt for which truck/ driver) and Driver’s License. The mobile app should allow creating new drivers with a unique ID and password. The unique ID should be the mobile number rather than the email id as the drivers might not have an email id.
3. Live tracking: It is very important from the business point of view to track the live location of every individual driver. The fleet owner should know the location in real-time. Fleet tracking helps the fleet owner in assigning new orders to drivers as well as they can track if the driver has changed his route and will redirect them to the right direction. Live tracking will be dependent on the driver’s smartphone’s GPS or alternative to this can be a GPS device attached to the truck which costs very cheap.
4. Nearby Jobs: The fleet owner should be able to view the jobs that are near to its drivers. Here, a complication arises, when there is more than one driver then which driver’s nearby jobs should be shown. Don’t worry; we have a solution for that as well. There should be a filter before showing the nearby jobs in which the fleet owner will select the driver for whom he wishes to view the nearby jobs. He can then later change his selection of the driver. This feature will help the fleet owner to optimize jobs according to their driver’s current location. This will help in providing the best to the customer as well.
5. Orders: Fleet should be able to view each and every order and should be able to manage and cancel the order. Orders should be presented in a way that the different order types can be shown, like:
   • New orders: Orders which are sent to the fleet owner for confirmation. Under this all the details about the order should be mentioned like: pick-up location, drop-off location, goods details, passenger details.
   • On-going orders: Under this, details like order status, live tracking should be available to the fleet owner. Options, like chat with the driver and chat with customers, should also be available to the fleet owner so that fleet owners can chat with them and resolve any queries.  This chat will be saved for later future assistance.
   • Completed orders: These orders will be the orders which are completed by the drivers. This will help the fleet owner in maintaining the history of orders which have been completed. This should show the complete timeline of events that had taken place for the particular order like pickup date, drop date, etc.
   • Canceled orders: These orders show all the details with the inclusion of order cancellation reason and the order cancellation date.
6. Notifications: It is very important for the fleet owner to be informed in real-time the course of actions that are taking place in reference to orders and his drivers. Some of the important notification that should be sent to the fleet owner is:
   • New order notification: As soon as a new order is generated, a notification should be sent to the fleet owner’s mobile via the mobile fleet management app that he has received a new order. Then he can assign a driver to it and notify the customer about the date by which he will receive the delivery. There should also be a cancellation option available for the fleet owner if he has no driver available in that region or the order is not satisfactory in terms of money.
   • Order completion is near: This notification should be sent when an active order’s completion date is near. This will alarm the fleet owner that the order completion date is near and he will check the driver’s current location and verify that everything is on track.
   • Order completion notification: This notification will help the fleet owner to know that the order is completed and so he can assign a new job to the driver.
   • Driver vacancy notification: If a particular driver is vacant for more than 1 day (the time should be configurable) then there should be a notification sent to the fleet owner “Hey! The driver named John Smith is vacant from past 1 day, find nearby jobs for him now”
   • Payment notification: As soon as payment is credited into the fleet owner’s account, a notification should be sent saying “payment for order no: XXXXXX has been credited into your account. It may take up to 48 hours to reflect in your bank account. In case of any queries please feel free reach out to via our customer care chat option or info@engineerbabu.com”
7. Pricing for order: This is a major factor to consider from the business point of view about what should be the pricing structure for each order. If you’re looking to make uniform prices for all the drivers/ orders based on the km (For example 1$ per km), then this might not work in the case of long routes when the driver has to face bad roads, busy border times and high congestion areas. An alternate strategy that one can adopt for pricing strategy is that the fleet owners can bid for each job that has been posted by the customer and then the customer can select the bid that they find most apt for themselves. This bid should consist mainly of 2 things, i.e; pricing and the delivery time. Some drivers might cost higher, may deliver in lesser time, some might cost lower and deliver in a higher timer, there can be any kind of bid. This will get the customer to get the best deal from the list of all the drivers that are available on the platform. This will also help the driver to predict cost with their intelligence as they would know which route costs higher and which route costs lower.
8. Chat option: The chat option should support 3 types of chats:
   • Chat with driver: A list of drivers should be seen from which the fleet owner can select the driver with whom he wants to chat. The major advantage of the chat option is that the driver can reply to the fleet owner whenever he gets time. While driving, the driver will not be able to take calls so it’s better that the fleet owner sends him a message which he can revert back whenever he is comfortable.
   • Chat with the customer: Our target should be that the customer and the fleet owner should not exchange their contact details as it can result in finalizing the order outside of our app, which is of loss to us. However, in some cases, it would be necessary to share the contact details of the customer or the fleet owner.
   • Chat with app support: This will help in resolving the queries of the fleet with great speed efficiency and speed.
9. Payments: This should be a mandated feature of your app. The payment module should consist of all the transactions that have happened in terms of payments that might have been deducted or credited to the driver/ fleet owner’s account. In the payments section, the transaction is both debited and credited with the date and the order ID. After clicking on each transaction detail, the screen should open where it shows the transaction date, order details, bank account details (bank account details of the fleet owner/driver), payment reference ID, customer chat option, print invoice option. There should be monthly and yearly statements as well to show the fleet owner his monthly and yearly deductions and earnings as well.
10. Analytics: This module can be of high benefit to the fleet owner as the owner can track and analyze from the data which features of his business are working well and which features are not. Following metrics should be considered in analytics:
    • Estimated order time v/s actual time to complete order: Under this metric, the estimated order time should be compared to the actual order time. Under this, if the estimated time is more than the actual time than the driver’s efficiency is high and if the estimated time is less than actual time than the driver’s efficiency is low.
    • Driver’s vacant time: Under this metric, individual as well as collective driver’s vacant time should be shown. Through this, the fleet owner can predict that he needs to get more jobs in order to make full use of his drivers.

The analytics may include other basic features like no. of orders per day/ week/ month/ year, Income per day/ week/ month/ year, KMs traveled per day/week/ month/ year, etc.

Must have restrictions:

1. Driver restrictions: Mandatory restriction must be present for the drivers. For example, if a driver is on the way for a particular job, another job cannot be assigned to him at the same time. Although the same driver can be assigned a new job for a future date, assuming by then, his on-going order will be finished.
   In the driver panel, the driver should not be able to change his information on his own. The information about the driver’s profile should be changed only by the fleet owner. The reason behind this is the fleet owner should have full control over editing the driver’s information as the driver may input the wrong information.
2. Pre-job confirmation restrictions: Before both the customer and the fleet owner have confirmed the job, the contact details of both the customer and the fleet should not be shared with each other. Otherwise, a case might arise when the customer and the fleet owner finalize the order outside the app. So it is important the contact details of both should be shared only after the job is confirmed.
3. Pricing restrictions: According to your business, there should be pricing restrictions. If your business model is designed in such a way that you take a commission for each order, then there should be some percentage that should be taken out for each order.
4. Jobs should be opened for a limited time: The jobs that the customer posts should be opened for a limited time. The purpose behind this is that customers will not wait forever for the fleet owners to bid on their jobs. This will also create urgency in the fleet owner’s mind to bid as soon as possible.
5. Customers can choose only one driver: There will be scenarios where more than one fleet owner is applying for a particular job. In this case, the customer should be able to choose only one driver/ fleet owner with whom he will confirm the order.

Recommended Readings: How Fleet Management Software improves Supply Chain Efficiency?

Pre-requirements:

The pre-requirements of the fleet owner to register on the fleet management app should be:

• The fleet owner should be a registered company and should provide relevant documents according to their country/ government norms
• The fleet owner should take full responsibility for the driver’s information including the driver’s license, the vehicle’s information including the vehicle’s registration. The fleet owner would require submitting the above documents while registering a new driver.

Real-life challenges:

Fleet management software will help in solving many real-life challenges:

1. Live tracking: In real life, a fleet owner would normally call the driver and ask his location, under this there can be cases that the driver may be lying or the fleet owner might not believe the driver’s words. But with fleet management software, the location of the driver is generated through GPS which will help the owner knowing the accurate location of the driver and hence ensure effective fleet tracking.
2. Data Management: The fleet management app will help create a database of all the historical and on-going events that are occurring. This will include order details, payment details, and communication details. In real life it is very difficult to manage all the details at one place as communications can take place face to face, via email or via phone.
3. Source of business: Many of the fleet owners find it hard to procure orders from the market. This fleet management software will work as a source of business for the fleet owner. Through this, he can get various new orders and can use different filters to procure the orders that suit his business the best.
4. Payment: With the help of this app, the payment procedures are simplified as the customer will make a pre-payment to the app owner and the app owner will release the payment once the order is completed successfully.

Payment Gateway – Stripe

The Stripe Connect API will be used to transfer money between the fleet owner and admin. The way Stripe connect API can be seen below:

The API link for the Stripe Connect is https://stripe.com/docs/connect

If you are also looking to build your own fleet management software or something similar, please feel free to reach out to us. Our team will be more than happy to help you at EngineerBabu. We have been developing similar apps and our mobile app developers can help you build the same as our team has already tested and tried the errors that may come and we have good experience in this field. Do not hesitate for any queries. Feel free to reach out to us even if you are in the initial planning phase. To read more blogs, you can visit our website.

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Fleet Management, roughly translated into layman’s language refers to vehicle management and tracking, field force and route optimisation for freight technology. It falls under a sub-category of logistics management software that automate data relating to the supply chain management.

75% of shoppers believe proactive communication is an important aspect of the delivery experience.

-(source)

Well, communication between business owners and their clients is now more convenient than ever. It has even grown to become a major revenue driving factor. With efficient fleet management, not only can businesses generate more revenue, but also drive innovation in the otherwise tedious task.

Let’s see how.

Fleet Management for Vehicles

One can easily run a fleet management business with a limited number of requirements like: a fleet of vehicles and monetary investment for an application to automate every process. Also, tracking the fleet of vehicles is important for various delivery purposes.

These applications can be integrated with multiple features ranging from Order Management, Driver Management and Vehicle Management with facilities like route optimisation, vehicle vendor listing, payment per deliveries/ orders completed, etc.

Assets Management with Fleet Management:

The fact that so many delivery businesses depend on the mobility aspect is a clear indicator that there’s a huge demand in the market for fleet management software. Take any online business that facilitates deliveries. From groceries, food, flowers or cakes… there are numerous things that are now accessible for delivery on an hourly basis.

An individual specifically assigned for the particular task will be required for every delivery being made. While it provides employment on a large scale, it even requires an investment on the assets like

• Commercial motor vehicles: such as cars, vans, trucks, specialist vehicles (mobile construction machinery), forklifts, and trailers
• Private vehicles used for work purposes
• Aviation machinery such as aircraft: planes and helicopters, Ships, Rail cars
• GPRS, Privacy of the consumer, etc.

The Market For Fleet Management:

With the credibility that firms like Amazon and FedEx are enjoying, it’s obvious that the competition is all set to grow in the coming years. From pickups to delivery, the lucrative industry caters to every domain, be it ecommerce, export-import or a simple parcel delivery.

Fleet Management Market size is expected to reach $34,629 million by 2022, from $7,755 million in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 24.5% from 2016 to 2022.

-(source)

To add to this, there’s statistics that state: 94% of the consumers will blame the retailer if the delivery goes wrong. In which case, if you’re about to start a fleet management supply chain of goods, you must maintain the quality and create a brand name for yourself. It’s essential to gain the trust of your retailers before you plan to expand.

The Different Aspects of Fleet Management:

Suppose one of your vehicles left the facility from your end but never made it to the destination. In this case, it would still be under your management to track and complete the delivery process. However, there could be numerous reasons behind the failed or delayed process. There’s fuel shortage, vehicle damage or repairing emergency, something related to the inability to track the routes taken by driver partners, etc.

Interestingly, with logistics management software, it’s possible to resolve all of the aforementioned as well as other issues. Be it vehicle damage or traffic stagnancy, you can simply provide your entire team with applications for inventory management, capacity planning, real-time visibility and analytics, dispatch and other detailed reports.

Check out this picture for instance.

Makes everything clear, right?

If you have an automated database for all your vendors’ bikes/ vehicles, the details from dispatch to payments, there’s a very less probability of something going out of hands, and you not being able to track it.

Quality Control

One important aspect of fleet vehicle maintenance is proper monitoring of the work completed on assets. Undoubtedly, the team’s service providers might be doing an excellent job at conducting thorough repairs and servicing. But, it’s never worth risking the chance and not verifying yourself.

Inspections are necessary to ensure the quality of the vehicle maintenance upto the standards. Such routine and scheduled quality checks shortly after the servicing is complete go a long way in the over-all performance.

Also read: Integrated Logistics Management Software: Uber For Supply Chain Management

Vendor Contracts Based on Performance:

To confirm the quality of your vendor’s work, you might want to negotiate the terms of service prior to agreeing to any maintenance. Just ensure that you have prepared with you a list of services needed. You can present them prior to any sort of negotiating. You can even integrate performance metrics to hold the service providers accountable for their work.

These can include (but not limited to) repair turnover rates, comeback rates and the results from your own quality control review. Measuring performance might seem mundane, but it surely can’t be overlooked. This will prevent your assets from being stuck in the shop for too long in addition to ensuring timely transactions with the vendors.

It not only prevents any sudden need for additional maintenance, but also gives a reassurance that right maintenance providers have been chosen for your fleet. Afterall, having peace of mind that your fleet vehicles are fully-functioned is a value that cannot be overlooked.

The Development of Fleet Management Software:

Undoubtedly, the potential of the industry is immense. Your software for fleet management will cater to all the pain points of the domain but you need to hire the right tech partner for getting the software developed in the first place. The pricing plans being offered to you are not as important as the quality.

Before hurriedly jumping in to any conclusions, make sure you’ve thoroughly conducted a market research for the persistent problems. It will give you an edge over your competitors.

A right development partner will be able to guide you with the appropriate frameworks, the coding standards followed by them that would also be implemented for your business niche. Before hiring, explore their portfolio and check if they’ve doe any similar work before. Now was it a successful project? Go through the reviews to cross-check.

A scalable, secure and robust fleet management software is not that difficult to develop if the team has enough domain experience. The UI and UX must be interactive and user friendly. Check out the app Delivr we made for one of our clients:

Summing Up…

Adopt innovative delivery management system to get an improved asset utilisation, better customer satisfaction with reduced fuel usage. Regardless of whether it’s for transport or logistics, automation via reliable fleet management software is the answer to this.

At EngineerBabu, we have previously developed applications in this domain. It includes Delivr and MaalGaadi, 2 of our best ones, yet. And yours could be next!  Just drop us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com. Don’t want to wait?

Get in touch now!

Liked the article? Also Read:

1. How To Set Up An Offshore Development Center In India?
2. In 9 Years of Learning, I Saw 500+ Products Failing: Top Reasons Why Startups Fail
3. How Much Does Mobile App Development Cost?

The post A Fleet Management Software to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.