Exercise is great for our health so it should be easy just to go out and do some…. right?
Yet there are countless Americans who continue to throw their money away every year on unused gym memberships and fitness equipment. According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), gyms typically expect only 18% of members to use their memberships consistently![i]
So, how do you avoid running into this problem every year? The key is twofold. First, you really need to define what you want to do, whether it is losing weight, increasing strength, building muscle or improving your overall health. This way you have the right equipment, membership or program necessary to meet your goals.
Second, you need to find out what will be your motivation and inspiration to keep up with the program consistently, day in and day out. This will provide a long lasting commitment to not only encourage sticking with it, but also lead to a deepened focus of achievement.
Getting a grip on fleet fitness
So why is this relevant to telematics?
A survey in the US conducted by FleetAnswers.com asked 103 fleet professionals about the technological systems they use. When it came to the question of return on investment (ROI), 31% said they didn’t have any and 34% didn’t know.[ii]
So how has this situation arisen? Well, despite the obvious business benefits that can be achieved with the help of telematics, simply investing in a system isn’t enough. Like fitness programs, you can end up wasting significant sums of money if you don’t give serious thought to what your business actually needs and how that system will help you achieve your goals.
This means it is important to outline your priorities before investing in a system and identify what issues affect your business.
If fuel usage is perceived as being high, then it would make sense to find a system that allows driver behavior to be monitored and assessed, providing clear KPI’s for improvement. If productivity is an issue, it may be worth looking at a telematics platform that integrates with routing and scheduling software to allow the creation of smarter schedules, helping to optimize routes and get drivers to jobs on time.
Data holds the key to improvement
However, choosing the appropriate system is only the first step.
Even if the data provided by a telematics system is appropriate to need, change can only be achieved through proper use of that data.
This means it is important to speak to providers up front to determine what data is provided by each system and how that data might be used to help achieve the necessary improvements within your fleet.
If a plan isn’t laid out in advance, it is possible businesses may simply become overwhelmed by the variety and detail of the data provided by the system and will end up using none of it.
If your organization employs a large number of drivers, do you have the necessary resources to process and analyze the available data? Even if such resources are scarce, data can be made more manageable if the system is able to segment it into different reports.
For example, some systems can provide high-level, color-coded charts to highlight general trends within your fleet, allowing you to quickly identify the principal issues and then delve deeper into the data in order to identify the root cause, perhaps in the performance of individual drivers. Check out how WEBFLEETs dashboard displays this information for users.
Equally, smart software integrations can use telematics data to help enhance existing processes, such as routing and dispatching, without creating a greater administrative burden. Automated processes can help to cut down on the need for paperwork and manual record-keeping.
Simplify telematics
Whatever the challenges, it is a case of business leaders being 100% clear and transparent on current and future needs, and setting a clear plan of action for use of telematics.
For their part, providers must be clear about what their products offer and provide the kind of ongoing support that is necessary to help customers get the most out of the technology.
[i] https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/01/05/heres-what-the-average-american-spends-and-wastes.aspx
[ii] http://fleetanswers.com/sites/default/files/2016%20Telematics%20Survey%20Report_0.pdf