66% of commercial vehicle companies in the US and EU said they would like to reduce their fuel costs.
The same study found that excessive time spent on fleet management tasks is one of the top challenges these companies are facing.
The solution to both of these problems?
Driver management software.
In this article, we will discuss what driver management software is, what benefits it brings to your drivers and your company and how you can make your own using mobile electronic forms.
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What is Driver Management Software?
Driver management software uses your fleet data to provide a productive and safe environment for your drivers.
While fleet management software helps businesses manage their fleet of commercial vehicles for optimal efficiency and performance, driver management software focuses on the staff that operates said vehicles.
It can automatically collect and provide real-time info on your drivers and the condition of their vehicles, such as fuel usage and telematics data, helping you identify areas of improvement.
Driver management software supplies training ensures compliance and streamlines vital areas of your fleet’s day-to-day operations. It also helps you acquire a thorough insight into the safety and productivity of your business.
What Are The Vital Features Of Driving Log Software?
There are several features that every reliable driver management system should include to help with compliance, data tracking, training, and other aspects of daily vehicle operation.
The two most important features are telematics data and GPS, as they provide real-time updates on drivers.
Since your drivers are always on the move, it is important to have an easy way to keep track of their daily productivity. Telematics gives you access to the latest data, including your driver’s location, status, and safety behavior.
The visibility of this information ensures your drivers are operating your vehicles safely. It also encourages proactivity and builds trust between you and your drivers.
Integrating telematics and GPS into your driver management software makes odometer readings precise and secure. The values, which are uploaded automatically, allow you to stay on top of vehicle maintenance tasks.
Telematics data and GPS provide real-time updates so you can ensure your drivers are productive and safe on the road, while also allowing you to communicate arrival times or delays to your clients.
6 Benefits Of A Driver Management Tool
Any commercial vehicle fleet, small or large, can benefit from driver management software. Here are the six major advantages it brings to your business.
Benefit #1: Better Driver And Fleet Safety
The features of driver management tools make the safety of your drivers, your equipment and other drivers on the road a top priority. The implementation of driver management systems can help reduce accidents.
These systems can keep track of drivers’ risky behavior such as speeding or hard braking, ensuring you understand their on-road habits so you can correct unsafe driving or award safe driving habits.
Linking your safety dashcam system to the GPS tracking system provides even more insight into the safety of your drivers. A dashcam provides a view inside the cabin as well as outside, which lets you know how your drivers react when an unexpected event happens.
Benefit #2: Real-Time Alerts
Driving log software alerts drivers and your fleet office of any impending issues or trouble on the road as it is happening.
The software sends an alert to you whenever a driver experiences a mechanical issue, encounters a problem on the road or has an accident, so you both you and the driver can respond accordingly. Be sure that the system you implement also trains your drivers on how to handle these situations with installed cab alerts when something risky occurs.
Benefit #3: Fuel Usage Tracking
Tracking your vehicles’ fuel usage is important because fuel is the biggest recurring cost for every single vehicle.
Driver management software collects data on fuel consumption, monitors usage trends and compares mileage with the distance that your drivers travel daily.
You can integrate your driver management software with fuel cards to log and compare fuel transactions against the location of a vehicle. The system flags any geolocation discrepancies that surpass a certain threshold for a review.
Keeping track of fuel usage and comparing it with telematics data maximizes fuel economy, so you can leverage driver tracking software to train drivers on finding the best routes and the best fuel prices.
Benefit #4: Greater Driver Efficiency
With GPS driver management software, you can route your drivers around congested traffic and construction areas in real-time to improve their efficiency.
This software can also help you automate repetitive daily compliance tasks and generate reports in a matter of minutes. Most driver management tools have a built-in productive maintenance program which means less downtime due to repairs.
Benefit #5: Streamlined Inspection Process
Paper inspection forms may compromise your vehicle assets because they can get easily misplaced or even destroyed. Drivers and vehicle inspectors may also breeze through these inspection forms in order to get back on the road quickly.
A paperless driver management system implements a vehicle inspection process that is simple and reliable. This streamlined process reduces inspection times significantly and, in turn, cuts unnecessary driver downtime.
Conducting comprehensive inspection reports with taps and swipes is easy and fast. When issues do arise, drivers and inspectors can take and upload photos of the problem so your mechanics can address the issue as soon as possible.
You can also see the GPS-based location of every inspection when they are performed through driver management software, so you can make sure the inspections are completed at the correct times.
Benefit #6: Driver Retention
A reliable driver management system can help you retain good drivers, which is important in the competitive job market environment.
To entice positive actions and changes in your feet, some driver tracking software provides driver rewards and gives safety scores to each driver.
As 85% of employees are motivated to perform better when there are performance-based incentives in place, this is a very effective way to retain talent.
How To Create A Professional Driver Management System With doForms
With doForms, you can create customized mobile forms with built-in GPS tracking, timesheets, employee scheduling tools, inventory management and numerous other features.
These functionalities allow you to build a driver management software tailored to your business’s specific needs, gather data in real-time and send comprehensive reports.
You can create templates for all data collection needs and deploy forms and other task-critical information to any device. doForms also enable automating and scheduling reports, digital signatures, calculators, and more.
With doForms, you can:
- Create work orders
- Track and document daily task progress
- Monitor equipment use
- Dispatch drivers and inspection crews
- Configure data flow from QuickBooks, Salesforce, Excel, Access, SharePoint and other third-party integrations
The drivers perform the inspection and send the report to service technicians. The drivers use doForms’ intuitive drag-and-drop form-building platform on their mobile phones to quickly create daily vehicle condition reports, take pictures of specific issues and send them, along with maintenance checklists, to mechanics.
Thanks to doForms’ GPS tracking software, the company is able to track the location of all of their drivers at any time during their daily routes.
Driver Management Software Takeaways
Driver management software provides you and your drivers with valuable information in real-time.
The two main features of this system are GPS tracking and telematics data, which combine vehicle technology and telecommunication to generate data to help you optimize the way your fleet operates.
The reports you and your drivers generate using this system can provide you with insights into fuel efficiency and maintenance issues. You will also know which drivers are most efficient and which require more training.
Other benefits from using driver tracking software include:
- Greater driver safety and efficiency
- Real-time alerts
- Streamlined inspection
- Better driver retention
With doForms, you can create various types of driver management reports specific to your business and your fleet.
doForms’ built-in drag-and-drop features let you:
- Create customized driver report forms
- Use GPS tracking, inventory management, employee scheduling tools and timesheets
- Build work orders, estimates, inspection forms and invoices on the go
Our flexible mobile data collection solutions are available through both iOS and Android devices. They enable unlimited forms, form submission and data storage and support secure workflow and data encryption.
