Truck Fleet Management Tips for Carriers

Truck fleet management requires a unique blend of skills. It’s a constant quest for operational efficiency that requires a delicate balance of workloads, vehicles, drivers, and scheduled downtime. You also need to keep up with safety regulations, monitor compliance, and be ready for an audit at any time. 

Without the right technology, truck fleet managers may spend hours every week just on admin tasks and documentation. That’s why fleet managers are increasingly turning to software and applications that can make their jobs a lot easier. 

We’ve compiled a list of essential fleet management tasks and ways to boost efficiency for day-to-day operations that will help your business excel. 

Maintenance planning

A truck breakdown can be an expensive problem when your revenue depends on timely delivery. Plus, some types of equipment failures — like tire blowouts — can cause crashes or leave drivers stranded on the highway. Maintenance planning is critical to keep your trucks running, your drivers safe, and the money coming in. 

Scheduling maintenance isn’t difficult when you have a small fleet of dry vans, but as you add trucks and specialty equipment — reefer trailers, for example — maintenance needs can increase significantly. 

Fleet managers already know the key components of any preventative maintenance plan. But the timing of maintenance tasks is the tricky part. If you base maintenance on mileage, how will you know if your long-haul drivers have hit the mileage threshold for maintenance? And how can you track mileage for all trucks without climbing into the cab to check the odometer? Some fleet owners are addressing this problem with predictive maintenance tools. 

Unlike traditional mileage-based maintenance, predictive maintenance is technology that monitors a vehicle’s “health,” instantly detects fault codes, and projects when a truck will need service. The sensors these systems use to communicate with software that fleet managers can access at any time. With the ability to customize notifications, fleet managers can decide how to prioritize alerts based on the urgency of a maintenance need.  

Driver safety monitoring

Safety protocols in truck fleet management significantly lower the likelihood of accidents. And aside from vehicle condition, there are a lot of factors that impact safety, from road conditions to driver experience.

GPS tracking devices can help fleet managers detect unsafe driving habits, like hard braking and rapid acceleration. It’s never a comfortable conversation, talking to a driver about their driving habits, but that’s one way to reduce the risk of a crash. 

Truck routing

In large fleets, companies might have teams specifically for dispatch and routing. But for smaller fleets, truck routing might be a fleet manager’s responsibility. 

GPS-powered mapping software is effective for non-commercial drivers traveling between two points. Commercial fleets need something a little more sophisticated. 

Truck-routing software includes features for carriers, like the ability to map routes to avoid toll roads or low bridges. This technology can also create the most efficient route on a multi-stop trip. So, not only does this tech simplify truck routing, it also reduces fuel costs.  

Compliance tracking

Fleet managers need to monitor federal, state, and local laws to ensure their fleet is compliant. At a minimum, fleet management requires a method of documenting driving hours and creating a log. That sounds easy enough, but federal law requires a long list of documentation, including: 

• Every bill of lading for every trip
• Pay records
• Proof of the employer-carrier relationship
• Every expense receipt for on-duty non-driving time
• Electronic mobile communication records 

TMS software with an accompanying mobile app is the best solution for managing documentation. Drivers can upload documentation from their smartphones, brokers and shippers can share bills of lading through the app, and truck fleet managers can access all documentation from wherever they are.  

Other benefits of TMS software for carriers

TMS software has benefits well beyond day-to-day fleet management and can bring lightning-fast efficiency to any carrier operation, with features like: 

• One-click invoicing
• Automatic IFTA reporting
• Carrier and broker vetting and onboarding
• Analytics for assessing the health of your business
• Real-time rate analysis with custom filtering
• In-app communication

Experience a better way to handle fleet management

Truckstop helps carriers, brokers, and shippers spend less time on the “little things” and more time on the work that generates revenue. Get in touch, and we’ll show you how to save time and money with Truckstop.