Fleet Connections Report: The Data-Driven Fleet

As data continues to transform the way businesses of all sizes make decisions, it’s also helping to provide the means for those businesses to achieve improved efficiency, productivity, customer service and, ultimately, profit.

But technology and data are not inherently useful in themselves. Implementing the right technology to get the right data is key. “To get the greatest value from a stockpile of data, a targeted approach based on clear business cases generates more value than simply throwing out a wide net and hoping something valuable is found among the catch,” according to McKinsey & Company. For companies that depend on fleets of vehicles and mobile workers, much of this incredibly valuable data can be gleaned from fleet management software. This technology both monitors how vehicles are being operated and provides reports that help translate that data into actionable insights.

Managers of successful fleets can use this technology to identify trends, establish benchmarks, coach behavior in key and impactful areas of the business, as well as examine changes over time to achieve improvements in:

• operational efficiency
• risk reduction
• profitability
• driving behavior

The data you need to make improvements

With fleet management data, you gain visibility into the activity of your vehicles and mobile workforce, as a key partner with businesses around the world, Verizon Connect is in the unique position to see exactly how data is being used and businesses are being impacted. Millions of data points from hundreds of thousands of connected commercial vehicles move across our network each and every day, and we can use this data to derive important industry takeaways.

Perhaps the biggest struggle for a business can be enacting long-lasting and positively impactful change throughout. McKinsey & Company reports, “Human nature often resists change, and getting frontline staff to use recommendations proposed by big data analytics can be the greatest hurdle to success.” But by making the leap by implementing and utilizing this technology, businesses are seeing that change happen.

In the new edition of Fleet Connections, our analysis of report utilization by 720 fleets comprising 27,347

vehicles in the United States shows that companies that properly utilize reporting can achieve the following:

• Harsh driving: 12% increase in miles driven between alerts in the first month and 38% increase in the second month¹
• Speeding: 71% increase in miles driven between alerts in the first month and 153% increase in the second month
• Idling: 29% increase in miles per minute of idle time in the first month and 55% increase in the second month²

Additionally, the benefits continue over time: the more companies measure, the more improvement they see, which has an ongoing positive impact on worker productivity, accountability and on-the-road behavior. These improvements can then ripple out throughout the organization and lead to better overall customer service and operational cost savings.

There certainly is a breadth of data available through a system like telematics, but finding the metrics that address your business’s goals areas of primary concern and maintaining consistency with measurement and follow-up is key. Work Truck reports, “As with just about every aspect of fleet management, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to data analytics[…] It boils down to what is important to the business and the culture of the fleet as to what is important for optimization.”

In the new report, we take a closer look at this data and identify the trends that arise to show how companies are making improvements in driver behavior that can have a direct impact on safety, cost control and operational efficiency.

Here are some highlights you can look forward to when you download Fleet Connections:

• The impact of monitoring on improving driving behavior. Dive into stats that showcase how businesses can use technology to monitor the locations and operating behavior of vehicles, receive alerts when drivers perform unwanted actions, and analyze reports of those events over time to identify trends and coach their workers to improve behavior—behavior that can have a significant impact on the bottom line.
• How enhanced visibility and connectivity can drive improvements. According to a July 2017 report by business research company Aberdeen, companies using a service management solution have a 33% greater workforce utilization rate compared to companies that do not. In Fleet Connections, you’ll find out how this technology can have a massive impact on your everyday business operations.

Learn how data insights are driving improvement

Businesses can actively use data to see concrete operational improvements and help drive success in a competitive landscape—and it’s important to have the right data readily available at your fingertips. As the fleet technology landscape continues to evolve through developments like 5G connectivity, smarter sensors, more intuitive software and full platform integration—even utilizing artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things—businesses will have even more power to turn fleet and field service data into actionable insights to drive ongoing success.

To learn more, download the full Fleet Connections report.

¹ Improvement measured in terms of percentage increase in miles between harsh driving alerts or speeding alerts in the two months immediately following running the initial report.

² Improvement measured in terms of percentage increase in minutes of operation between idling alerts in the two months immediately following running the initial report.