Why fleet management is critical to construction operations

Construction companies need to keep track of their vehicles, equipment, and supplies used in each project to ensure that resources are delivered to worksites as scheduled. To save time and money, and work within limited resources for each building project, companies are turning to fleet management software to manage their site coordination with ease.

What is fleet management?

Fleet management is the process of overseeing a company’s fleet of vehicles. This comprises vehicle planning, organizing and tracking to improve fleet performance and efficiency. A GPS vehicle tracking system is paired with fleet management software, allowing fleet managers to monitor all vehicles and fuel usage in real-time, and also make arrangements for driver dispatch.

How fleet management software is used in the construction industry

Fleet management software can help construction businesses keep track of their assets at all times, allowing them to allocate resources to multiple construction sites. With the right fleet management tools, construction fleet managers can improve route planning, asset tracking, and fuel efficiency. Below are three key points which show how useful fleet management software is in construction operations.

• Driver location:

Construction fleet managers can analyze driver locations and trip histories to determine which routes will provide the fastest ETA, and also speed up arrangement of driver schedules in response to site order requests. Additionally, driving behavior may be tracked to ensure that drivers are not being reckless and breaking safety regulations while also prohibiting any unauthorized usage of vehicles.

• Equipment deployment:

When construction organizations use fleet management software, they can always know where their equipment and supplies are. This way, they can optimize deployment of construction vehicles and also send equipment or building materials to sites efficiently with little time wasted on coordination.

• Team communication:

To expedite the building process, construction managers should always have open lines of communication with their site workers and drivers. Instead of contacting individual drivers to check their whereabouts and project progress including the required building materials, fleet managers can use fleet management software to instantly determine vehicle locations on the map and monitor dispatch status in real-time.

What construction businesses stand to gain with efficient fleet management

Reduced fuel consumption and emissions, enhanced safety, and higher operational efficiency are just a few advantages when construction businesses get serious about improving how they manage their fleet.

• Increased productivity: Construction fleet managers are responsible for coordinating vehicle and equipment dispatch to ensure construction projects are completed on time. Fleet managers can use fleet management software to discover the most optimal routes and dispatch the closest available drivers to meet site needs. This improves the construction company’s capacity to adapt to last minute changes on the go.
• Lowered emission levels: Construction fleet managers can use route optimization and fuel monitoring tools in fleet management software to get the fastest and most fuel-efficient routes. Because gasoline is a significant fleet operating expenditure, construction businesses can save money by keeping track of their fuel costs. Besides cost savings, reduced fuel usage also helps in protecting the environment.
• Improved security: Construction businesses can check whether drivers are prone to reckless driving and avoid accidents by discouraging such behavior using real-time GPS monitoring. They can also rely on real-time warning alerts to instantly know whether drivers are idling or traveling outside permitted areas. By keeping a watchful eye over their drivers, construction businesses will be able to significantly decrease safety concerns.
• Enhanced truck load monitoring: Truck loads can be monitored using IoT sensors and fleet monitoring software for quality control and efficiency. For example, cement mixer drum sensors and temperature sensors can be used to keep track of cement truck drum rotations and concrete mix temperatures. Should there be any problems, construction fleet managers will be alerted through notifications and will be able to resolve them promptly.
• Reduced repair and maintenance expenses: Truck failures, in addition to fuel costs, can be exceedingly expensive. With regular vehicle maintenance, fleet managers can extend the life of their construction fleet, hence cutting repair costs, preventing downtime due to breakdowns, and reducing the risk of accidents caused by vehicle malfunctions. Fleet management software is helpful in this case as it enables managers to follow up on vehicle repairs with ease and not miss out on important servicing dates.

What is a GPS vehicle tracking system and how does it work?

A GPS vehicle tracking system uses GPS devices equipped on vehicles to interact with GPS satellite networks to locate vehicle positions. Fleet management software then gathers real-time data from these GPS devices and presents it in informative charts and graphs. Using a computer or mobile device, construction fleet managers can easily access this data and see where each truck is situated on a map and where it is traveling towards next. This is highly advantageous for construction businesses as they can gain real-time visibility and information into their fleet operations whenever they want without hassle.

Conclusion

Construction businesses generally face limited fleet visibility and poor driver communications. This typically results in a lot of downtime, incorrect fleet budgeting, inaccurate forecasting, and low productivity on top of disrupted workflows. To prevent these problems from interfering with critical operations, many prominent construction firms invest in fleet management software to support their workflows. In doing so, construction businesses can maintain their competitive edge and optimize their resources.

Fleet management software is useful for supervising daily construction operations, forecasting resources, planning for future construction projects, and reducing environmental impact with reduced fuel consumption. If you need a solution which can help you optimize your construction fleet operations, V3 can help. Contact us to know more.