Mobility Management: Moving Into a New Era of Fleet Management

By Michele Cunningham, Senior Vice President, Products and Services, Element Fleet Management

Today’s fleet manager needs to be familiar with fuel costs and maintenance, policy strategies, and, increasingly, connected vehicles, electronic logging devices (ELDs) and the latest in-vehicle safety tech. Modern transportation is changing rapidly and bringing fresh opportunities with it, especially for companies that manage fleets.

The companies who will succeed in this new era must move beyond acknowledging the changes in fleet management to embracing the new mindset of mobility management. Entire organizations can benefit from a smart, modern mobility strategy by getting ahead of competitors and solving the pain points that can come from antiquated practices.

As fleet management moves into a new era of mobility management, here are a few strategies companies should keep in mind to make the most of the change.

- Think Outside the Fleet. It’s important for companies to move beyond the traditional fleet and think more holistically. New technologies will continue to change the way we move people, goods and services from point A to point B – gone are the days of simply checking mileage, scheduling maintenance and improving driver productivity.
  
  Forward-looking mobility managers will think bigger. They’ll ask questions like: How can we better manage assets to optimize use, recover costs and turn them into profit centers using telematics data and fleet/asset management systems?
  
  Identifying modern solutions to questions like these can even impact a company’s overall mobility strategy outside of fleet vehicles. For example, digital-mobile solutions can help identify cost-saving opportunities from fleet- and non-fleet drivers by understanding mileage/travel expenses and employee commuting patterns. In an age of technological disruption, having a company-wide line of sight driven by mobility management is vital for business’ success.

- Know What Data Can Do. Data and analytics are increasingly impacting companies in all industries – it will be critical for fleets to put their data to work, too. It’s becoming simpler than ever for mobility managers to use data insights to inform business strategies that solve for current problems and predict future outcomes. Data can be gathered from many sources, including fleet management platforms, in-vehicle diagnostics and third-party sources.
  
  Teaming up with the right technology partner will help mobility managers distill what can be overwhelming amounts of data into actionable insights and implement improvements across their organization. Just like asset management data and operational costs/accounts payable data can inform financial recommendations, information on hard braking and fast acceleration can shape HR policies and employee training.

Training for the Future. Look at training as an investment rather than an expense. As new processes are implemented, responsibilities will change, as will the skills needed to maximize each employee’s talents. Empowering employees with the knowledge to do their new work will be an investment that drives cost optimization. It will be important to educate every role – from operations to sales to HR – so everyone in the company knows how these technologies are impacting their part in the business’ mobility strategy.

Beyond job roles and skills, companies should invest in learning how technology is making the next generation of mobility managers more efficient. New mobile device apps, for instance, will increase flexibility through on-the-go maintenance scheduling. Integrating newer technologies like these – and training everyone in the organization to use them – will help businesses increase productivity in new ways.

Transportation is entering a new era, and today’s fleet management companies can stay ahead of the competition by making changes to their organization’s mobility strategy, embracing data and analytics and training for the next generation of mobility managers. It’s critical to adjust now to move into this new age with confidence and excitement.

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