Do you remember a time before calculators? No, neither do I.

My father used to try and explain to me how it ‘used to be done’ with long hand arithmetic, trig tables, and so on. I think he realised his enthusiasm was misplaced when he looked at my face: rather than enlightened engagement, all he saw was the look of bored bemusement.

Now calculators are everywhere: on your desk, on your computer, on your smartphone as an app – we use them every day as a valuable timesaving tool.

A bit like the ubiquitous Excel spreadsheet – it makes our lives easier, helps organise complex material into meaningful numbers and reports.

No wonder so many fleets use it to manage their cars and vans – a 2020 survey of multi-national fleets by Fleet Europe found that virtually 50% of companies used tools like Excel and Access to manage their fleets.

And yet in a world where we can say ‘Alexa, turn on the lamps’ in our home or get Alexa to choose a radio station in our car, is sticking to a spreadsheet the smart approach to fleet management?

Well, the answer to that is yes if you don’t use anything at all. Because some form of management is better than absolutely none.

But when we can go online to manage so much of our lives, managing your fleet online is certainly the smart answer to proactive fleet management.

At Fleet Alliance we have e-fleet – it’s our own cloud based fleet management suite that corrals all your fleet data into one place. It can be accessed at any time of the day from anywhere you choose (on the beach if you really want to …).

And it includes all your fleet, whatever the funder, even those employees who use their private cars on business.

There’s mileage and predictive mileage reports, driver lists, inspection reports as well as service due reports and so on – it makes the fleet manager’s job so much easier because the data is proactive, and the interface easy to use. You can spot exceptions easily because the dashboard will tell you – and take proactive steps to manage the exception.

 

e-Fleet and e-Fleet Mobile Images

But we don’t just have the technology to manage your fleet, we have technology that reaches your drivers, too. They can use our e-fleet mobile web app on their smartphones which provides critical support numbers should they require assistance – everything is there from booking a service to booking windscreen repair, along with journey logging so business journeys can be split from private journeys.

Our e-fleet management technology is the answer to managing fleets smartly – and makes fleet management by spreadsheet look like long hand arithmetic.

Finding the right fleet management tools

Do you remember a time before calculators? No, neither do I. My father used to try and explain to me how it ‘used to be done’ with long hand arithmetic, trig tables, and so on. I think he realised his enthusiasm was misplaced when he looked at my face: rather than enlightened engagement, all he … Continued

Virtual eyes are looking at you

If you thought driverless cars were still some way off…well have a look at this! A driverless pod that has virtual eyes that see – well – eye to eye with you! The idea, according to Jaguar Land Rover, is to help other road users ‘understand’ the car’s intent. Without a driver at the wheel. … Continued

How blockchain may underpin your future fleet

It might sound fanciful, but it’s true: blockchain technology may well underpin your fleet and your future mobility requirements. Now, don’t back because this sounds too technical. Because as you know, me and technology are not always the best bedfellows. So let me explain. Blockchain is essentially a highly secure form of ledgers – blocks … Continued

What’s happened to safety?

Airbags. Yeah, yeah, fifteen of them, thanks. ABS brakes. Yup, standard since 2004. Anti-skid electronic stability control – sure thing, yes, got that as well. So? Why are you asking? Perhaps because we’re beginning to take safety a little too much for granted. For all those great strides in safety, such as standard ABS, there … Continued

Frankfurt’s future cars

The Frankfurt Motor Show is always a massive excuse by the German car makers to show off their latest products. The new Audi RS4 Avant is one (oh, yes please). The Mercedes-AMG Project ONE another (I’d happily wait for that). And the 600bhp BMW M5 (reckon I could tuck that away in my garage, too). … Continued

Are your fleet drivers using technology correctly?

I am a great lover of new technology. I’m not always brilliant at operating it, I’ll be the first to admit, but technology has such potential to improve our lives and the society we live in. It can also dominate our lives in unfortunate ways if used incorrectly – or fail to provide the expected … Continued

At last. A commitment to improve the EV charging infrastructure

Whatever your political leanings, the result of the General Election has left the UK looking like it needs …well, a bit of underpinning to restore stability. Nevertheless, I just hope that there’s clear leadership moving forward. And the good news, at least from our automotive angle, was that there was some very clear direction on … Continued

Electric cars – how far how fast?

Electric cars: seems like they’ve been around forever. As ever, there were the initial early adopters, but now they are moving from a niche to the ‘oh that’s interesting’ category as they become increasingly popular. And with improvements to battery technology it means that most current electric cars, or EVs since we can’t have cars … Continued

?How realistic is it to run a ULEV fleet?

I’ve been thinking about this. There’s currently quite a buzz around ULEVs – registrations are on the up and the volume of product is increasing all the time. (ULEVs, by the way, are cars with CO2 emissions below 75g/km – and ULEV stands for ultra low emission vehicle. You’ll be hearing lots about ULEVs in … Continued

A look into the motoring future at the CES show

The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES as it’s more simply known today, is to – put it mildly – indulge in a Las Vegas tech fest. Held at the start of 2017, if you want to know what’s going to be massive in consumer electronics, then this it: CES. There’s all the latest developments in … Continued