How to handle the holiday season

The holiday season is traditionally a busy time for many fleet-reliant businesses.

Whether you’re a utilities business responding to extra emergency calls due to the cold weather, a courier company coping with an increase in deliveries or any other business just looking to tie things up before the end of the year – December can be a little overwhelming.

But it doesn’t have to be. With a bit of careful planning and the help of some clever tech, coping with a busy December, or any other month, doesn’t have to be a headache.

Here is some advice on how to cope with an increase in demand:

Plan ahead

Of course every day starts with a plan but during busier periods there are some extra steps to take.

This doesn’t just mean making sure you have enough resource to meet increased demand. It also means accounting for any common pitfalls that tend to arise during busy periods, such as factoring in delays due to poor weather or leaving extra capacity to take on emergency jobs.

Schedule smarter

Taking on extra staff during busy periods is a luxury that many businesses cannot afford. If this is the case then you must find a way to do more with the resources you already have.

Smarter scheduling can help you do this. By optimising your daily routes with the help of GPS vehicle tracking, it is often possible to add more jobs to into the working day. Near real-time location data can also be used to reroute drivers to any new jobs that arise and quickly ascertain the nearest driver to a location in the event of an emergency callout. 

Communicate

Communication is important at the best of times, during busy periods it’s absolutely vital. You need to keep a clear line of communication open with your drivers, your in-house staff and your customers to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Again, GPS fleet tracking can help you here.

With near real-time location data for every driver available at a glance, it’s easy to keep your customers up-to-date with accurate ETAs. Plus, if you do need to reroute a driver during the working day, new instructions can be sent instantly from within the dashboard, without the need for a phone call.

See how GPS fleet tracking can help you boost productivity and meet demand in the holiday season and beyond.