As responsibility for fleet strategy moves increasingly into the boardroom, with directors focused on reducing costs, the era of the spreadsheet dominating how fleet operators manage their cars and vans may be coming to an end.

With an estimated 3,000 fleet management software systems in use among the 70,000 or so companies running fleets of more than 10 vehicles, there is clearly still some way to go before the spreadsheet is replaced.

However, the need to reduce costs, coupled with health and safety legislation such as the Corporate Manslaughter Act, means a professionally- run business needs a professional management system.

Take the view of Neville Briggs, managing director of one of the UK’s biggest fleet management software system CFC: “Spreadsheets, no matter how they are used, will not help them to do everything that is needed when it comes to tackling the key issues crying out for attention on their fleet right now – pressure on costs, corporate manslaughter issues and environmental concerns.”

Below, Fleet News features five software suppliers – four management systems and one process system – and asks them to outline the case for their product.

Ken Trinder, epyx/1link

What is the payback for fleets investing in your system?
Our fleet software products are used to make common fleet processes lower cost to operate, more accurate and faster at a minimum upfront cost. 1link e-commerce platforms replace largely manual systems relying on phone, fax and paper, with fast, accurate and cost-effective online mechanisms.

What’s the cost? Fleets are charged per transaction. The fees vary for different types of 1link platform.

Does your system integrate with other company departments, e.g. finance, HR, accounts? Yes, as required.

Is your system web-based or standalone? Web-based.

Who owns the information on the system – you or the company? All parties involved in the transaction have shared ownership.

Multi-user access? Yes.

Do you have automatic updates/transfer of information, for instance new appointments, promotions, points on licence? 1link systems can be set up to do this as required.

Does the system automatically flag up exceptions, e.g. who’s missing fuel efficiency targets? Yes. 1link Service Network will flag up exceptions in service and
maintenance spending that vary from agreed transaction prices.

Do you charge for software support? No

Do you charge for updates? No

Is the initial consultancy free? Yes

Do you charge for training? Free as part of the implementation.

What is involved in the training? Little formal training is usually necessary – if you can use eBay or Amazon, you can probably use a 1link platform. We have a regular review process with fleets where we audit their use of 1link systems, suggest ways in which they could gain additional benefits such as reduced costs and show them how to carry out recommendations.

Andrew Leech, Mycompanyfleet

What is the payback for fleets investing in your system?
The areas of greatest benefit are probably in fuel cost management, out of contract charges and accident costs. Out of contract charges are very difficult to budget for and can spiral out of control if left unchecked. Keeping a close check on vehicle utilisation and driver usage through software is of extreme importance.

How much does it cost?

£1 per vehicle per month. Users can opt for a pay-as-you-go system to help cash flow and smooth out any payment peaks and troughs.

How much of your system do you need to invest in if you are running a fleet of a) 50 vehicles, b) 250 vehicles, c) 1,000 vehicles? For a fleet of around 50 vehicles our basic FleetHR system provides all the functionality needed.

For a fleet of 250 vehicles where  additional functionality and possible integration with back-office systems, such as HR/finance and procurement, is required, then Fleet Acumen is more appropriate.

For a fleet of 1,000-plus vehicles where a much greater degree of functionality is necessary, then, again, FleetAcumen is ideal. In every case, the same basic charge of £1 per vehicle per month applies and the monthly fee reduces as the size of the fleet increases.

Does your system integrate with other company departments? Yes. Integration is in real time, without the need for remote data input, thus saving considerably on time and effort.

Is your system web-based, web-enabled or web-portalled?
All our systems are flexible. They are web-based and can be delivered as ‘software as a service’ where the client’s details are hosted on our servers but can be accessed directly from the client’s own systems. However, some clients prefer to have their fleet software hosted locally on their own IT systems and we can provide that facility too.

Who owns the information on the system – you or the company?
The fleet customer, who can access it anytime, anywhere, 24/7.

Do you allow multi-user access?
Yes, we do, and we even allow access for remote users off-site, such as drivers, through G3 mobiles and PDAs.

Do you have automatic updates/transfer of information?
We can provide automatic updates and transfers of information where the third party suppliers provide that degree of functionality.

Does the system automatically flag up exceptions?
Yes. As soon as the fleet manager or other user logs on then exceptions are flagged up automatically through our dashboard presentation tools. Or we can send emails to users whenever an exception occurs, should they prefer.

Do you charge for support? No

Do you charge for updates? No

Is the initial consultancy free?
With our FleetHR system, consultancy is not generally required because of the ease of use, and the ease with which users can set up the criteria and the parameters for exception reporting.

Do you charge for training?
There is an initial fee of £250 per attendee for a web-based training module that is valid for 12 months.

Jason Francis, Jaama

What is the payback for fleets investing in your system?
The return on investment is always based on:
 

  • Reduced administration through automation and online records – less time spent on tasks, pushing paper and queries.
  • Better cost control – a good system will monitor, control and reject erroneous expenditure and provide automated checks and balances to make sure that processes are operating within predefined parameters.
  • Key performance indicators and management information enable identification and forecasting – most expensive vehicles, is it more cost effective to keep a vehicle for four years rather than three, how much will we save if we cut emissions, etc
  • The non quantifiable – proactive driver risk profiling, driver licence checking and grey fleet duty of care management.

How much does it cost?
From £250 per annum.

How much of your system do you need to invest in if you are running a fleet of a) 50 vehicles, b) 250 vehicles, c) 1000 vehicles?
a) Entry level is £25 per month.
b) A mid-size fleet management system costs £150 per month.
c) A 1,000 vehicle fleet will will probably require integration to an internal HR and finance system – from £385 per month.

Does your system integrate with other company departments?
Jaama’s Key2 Vehicle Management is capable of integration with any third party software, including finance, HR, payroll, external supplier systems, and the DVLA.

Is your system web-based or standalone?
Web-based.

Who owns the information? The company running the system.

Do you allow multi-user access?
Unlimited from any location.

Do you have automatic updates/transfer of information? Yes

Does the system automatically flag up exceptions? Yes

Do you charge for support? No

Do you charge for updates? No

Is initial consultancy free? Yes

Do you charge for training? £195.

It covers all aspects of the system. Often customers take a certain amount of training initially and then top up as they start using more of the software’s features.

Stuart Jardine, Chevin Fleet Solutions

What is the payback for fleets investing in your system?
The fleet manager can manage the fleet rather than the fleet managing them. From the implementation of a RoadBase or Fleet Wave system time previously spent inputting data and gaining worthwhile reports from that data has been vastly reduced.

How much does it cost?
Terms are relative to each customer. Options are: Outright purchase, licence over ‘x’ number of years and a hosting including licence proposal.

Does your system integrate with other company departments?
Yes, via one-way or two-way interfaces, again dependant on customer requirements.

Is your system web-based, web enabled or a portal system?
RoadBase is PC based. FleetWave is web-based.

Who owns the information?
The company owns the data, we own the IPR.

Multi-user access? Yes, from within the company but also via web-user name and password for third parties, i.e. ideal for remote users for monthly expenses and from lessors to update a vehicle file with a service repair.

Do you have automatic updates/transfer of information? Yes.

Does the system automatically flag up exceptions?
Yes, via a traffic light colour system. Those that are within the required/set target
show green, those within a warning area are amber and those missing efficiency targets show in red.

Do you charge for support? Yes.

Do you charge for updates? No.

Is initial consultancy free? Yes

Do you charge for training (how much)? Yes - £750 per day for up to four pupils.

What is involved in the training and is it ongoing? We have a dedicated trainer who scopes the customers’ training needs and the audience that need the training: are they IT super users or daily users or workshop fitters? All training is supported by our operator manuals, either general system overview or bespoke manual for each
application. Training is ongoing and either on site or at our HQ in Belper, Derbyshire.

Neville Briggs, CFC Solutions

What is the payback for fleets investing in your system?
Fuel: Through fleet software, you can spot individual drivers and vehicles that are using more than an average amount of fuel.

The environment: CO2 reports automatically calculate the carbon footprint from whole fleet to individual drivers and vehicles.

Grey fleets: Fleet software treats a grey fleet vehicle exactly the same as if it was part of the existing fleet. In this way, you can provide – as HSE requires – an audit trail.

Driver licence checking: Licence Link allows online checking of driver licences to ensure they are still valid and do not have and undiscosed penalties and restrictions.

How much does it cost? Most of our software is sold on a pay-as-you-go basis, paid monthly per user. In the future, we see all of our software being supplied in this way, especially as we move to more web-hosted products.

Does your system integrate with other departments? Yes.

Is your system web-based or standalone? We provide web-based and server based systems.

Who owns the information? Information is held securely for the customer, with no access or usage by any other entity – internal or external. The data is the customer’s.

Do you allow multi-user access? Yes.

Do you have automatic updates/transfer of information? Yes.

Does the system automatically flag up exceptions? Yes. Our systems work on the basis of exception reporting. Once a fleet policy has been written that covers all the key performance indicators that you wish to monitor, it can be encoded in your fleet software.

Do you charge for support? Included in the PAYG package.

Do you charge for updates? Included in the PAYG package.

In the initial consultancy free? Included in the PAYG package.

Do you charge for training? Charges for training start at £50 per hour for online training. Initial training is required to introduce most of our new users to our systems. We then engage in a regular review process with customers and teach them new skills that may be required in response to changing demands on their fleets such as new legislation, although this rarely requires any additional formal training.