Fleet analysis for data-driven fleet management

Carrying out a fleet analysis is one of the ways to understand the current situation of the company's operation, looking for improvements that work within the fleet's existing routine and resources.

It is also a type of activity that is becoming more common, given the emergence and advance of technologies focused on logistics and transportation. In fact, it is the main resource the fleet manager has to make decisions that start from what really happens in the operation's day to day.

See below:

• Importance of fleet analysis;
• The main decisions of the fleet manager;
• How to analyze the fleet to make decisions.

Importance of fleet analysis

The importance of analyzing the fleet is undeniable.

It brings benefits such as the optimization of your operation's internal processes, an easier time drawing up new action plans to optimize your fleet and closer, more appropriate control of the routines in the different areas of fleet management.

Main decisions of the fleet manager

The fleet manager has to make many decisions day to day and should be constantly keeping track of and analyzing the data generated in their operations.

Based on what is observed and assessed, the manager decides which actions continue and which stop, identifies new opportunities to improve the fleet and the risks it is facing, among many other assessments.

• Management methodologies

Understanding which fleet management methods are best to apply is an initial step toward a more organized routine in the fleet. It can also be a corrective step, if problems are identified in the control and standardization of activities.

Some well-known methodologies include the 5S methodology, the PDCA cycle and SWOT analysis. But you can also learn about other management methodologies.

• Hiring staff

The manager is the one who makes the main decisions about whom to hire, also with a view to meeting requests from other supervisors and employees of the fleet.

The manager should first notice whether the operation has already reached the best productivity it could and assess which areas are neglected and need new people to meet the necessary demands.

• Technologies used

Logistics and freight transport technologies are fundamental to the work of the manager and the entire team. For the team, they make it easier to carry out tasks such as the inspection of vehicles and tires, and they standardize those tasks.

For the manager, they bring together all the data collected daily and organize it into the best visualization in automated reports.

Before all that, the manager is the one who researches and runs trial periods of the existing technologies to find out which ones best fit the needs found in their management.

• New actions vs. actions to “drop”

The manager must always be assessing the routine of the transport operations to optimize it and make it more productive, increasing operational efficiency as a whole. In other words, the manager needs to understand each action carried out and the impact it has on the operation's day to day.

This way, the manager identifies the actions that work and should continue, and those that do not deliver results within what was expected and should be stopped.

• Fleet renewal

Knowing the age of the fleet's vehicles is fundamental to knowing how much useful life they still have or whether they are already due for replacement. If that replacement is necessary, the manager is also responsible for defining which vehicles to acquire.

At that point, it is necessary to assess which vehicle type meets the fleet's existing demands, considering characteristics such as size, load capacity and so on.

• Tire purchase and disposal

Just as the manager needs to assess and decide on the acquisition of new vehicles, they are also responsible for selecting the best tires for the fleet.

Through tire management performance indicators, such as the CPK (cost per kilometer) calculation, the manager can understand which makes and models offer the best value for money for the operation.

How to analyze the fleet to make decisions

1 – Start with planning

This is a fundamental step for any business process. Here, you define the objectives and goals you intend to reach and which actions must be carried out to meet them.

In addition, you define which metrics you will keep track of and what information is needed to keep track of the results.

To do this, you need to know the types of analysis:

Predictive analysis

This type of analysis predicts problems and actions based on the history of data collected from the fleet. With it, it is possible to detect some patterns and understand when they are likely to occur again.

Prescriptive analysis

In prescriptive analysis, the focus is on recommending actions or decisions to optimize results based on forecast future scenarios. This way, the manager can work on a risk management plan and choose response paths for each situation, should it occur.

Descriptive analysis

It aims to visualize data and understand the impacts at the present moment, through a description that summarizes the fleet's entire current reality.

In situations where immediate decisions need to be made, this type of analysis is the best.

Diagnostic analysis

Like a medical diagnosis, which looks for the cause and consequence of a symptom, diagnostic data analysis has the same goal. It identifies why a situation occurs and what effects it has on transport operations.

2 – Identify the means of data collection and organization

Your operation's data is a highly reliable source, as long as the collection and organization process is too.

The main and best tools for collecting data on the routine of your transport operation are technologies. Among them: tire management, maintenance and refueling systems, electronic checklists and so on.

These systems automate the organization and storage of information and, in many cases, also generate automatic reports.

To speed up cross-referencing data from all these different systems, there are alternatives such as a logistics control center, building a logistics dashboard or even a BI for your fleet.

This way, you can control which information is most important to keep track of and which data should be highlighted when you open your screens.

3 – Generate the fleet analysis reports

With all the information in hand, you can generate reports focused on what matters most at the moment.

If your goal is to reduce the fleet's fuel consumption, for example, you should make this clear right at the beginning of your report and present only data that contributes to that analysis, as well as to the hypothesis you reached about the improvements to be applied.

4 – Make your decisions on solid grounds

In the reports, always make clear how the data presented contributes to the conclusion you reached.

For example, if you are planning fleet renewal and need to decide between two vehicle models, look up the fleet's historical data to compare the two: which had the better CPK, which went through fewer maintenance jobs, which had lower maintenance and refueling costs and so on.

Remember to also consider what makes the most sense for the fleet, within the resources you have available.

One of those resources can be Prolog's fleet management solutions. Book a demo to understand how we contribute to fleet data collection and analysis in your transport operations.