“In addition, legislative considerations are coming into force and, for example, the software can assist a company to monitor its carbon emissions.”

Martin Evans, sales and operations director of software company Jaama, agrees that the travel manager aspect of software for pool car fleets is proving increasingly popular.

He says: “Our clients are looking to use the software to ensure that they are using their fleet of pool cars in the most effective manner.

“And it also enables them to adopt a more strategic approach to their business by ensuring that they are spending on the right areas.

“For example, the software quickly enables them to realise when there are specific departments which are consistently using certain pool cars throughout the year and, in these instances, they might be better off leasing rather than paying hire rates.”

Jon Tandy, business development manager at Mycompanyfleet, highlighted the increasing use of the pool car software to ensure that rental hire vehicles are not booked unnecessarily.

Tandy says: “Companies are all too ready to allow daily rental or short-term hire vehicles to be booked to meet their short-term mobility needs, without first taking stock of what pool vehicles they already have on the fleet that are currently being under-utilised.

“By having up-to-the-minute vehicle details on the fleet management system in real time, the fleet department can see at a glance what utilisation levels are and what vehicles are available.

“These can then be compared against vehicles that are being booked on daily rental and the variances highlighted for department managers to act upon.”

Case studies

Countryside council for Wales

Gareth Roberts, fleet manager

Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) needed software to  manage its pool cars effectively  while also placing its
environmental credentials centre stage.

The solution

The organisation turned to its in-house IT team to create a bespoke software package called Cyfarch.

This is linked to CCW’s intranet site and has helped increase the utilisation of its pool car fleet “dramatically” to more than 70%.

Employees can now book one of CCW’s 56 pool cars “with minimum fuss” when they needed to travel between its 11 offices and nature reserves.

It has also fostered a “culture of car sharing” by ensuring staff could view when and where colleagues were travelling.

Gareth Roberts says: “Our system was implemented two years ago when we introduced targets to reduce the number of miles travelled by staff.

“Colleagues like the fact that they can actively look to cut the amount of business miles by car sharing when possible.”

Cyfarch only allows employees to book vehicles when their licence details are current and it also records details of vehicle inspections.

This “audit trail” proves useful in demonstrating that duty of care is at the heart of CCW’s fleet operations.