Nowadays, more and more customers rely on the delivery of goods instead of self-pickup due to the pandemic restrictions.
This fact forces most companies to discover new ways of optimizing their fleet management processes to stay competitive and meet clients’ demands.
Fleet management software development is a perfect option for many entrepreneurs to automate their multi-component daily workflows and provide logistics managers, drivers, and customers with easy-to-use software that provides advanced solutions to each party.
To prove the words, the fleet management software market has reached the level of $16.9 bln in 2020 and is projected to exceed $19.6 bln by the end of 2021 according to the Fortune Business Insights report.
Moreover, experts predict that the market will grow up to $59 bln by 2028 with a CAGR of 17% during the 2021-2028 period.
These statistics show that lots of companies are already investing and planning to invest even more funds to optimize and automate their operations with powerful fleet management software.
For these reasons, we decided to shed the light on this topic and discuss the following aspects:
Simply put, fleet management software (FMS) is a cloud centralized technology solution that allows companies to monitor and manage all vehicles, drivers, and technicians using a single multi-component application.
Below is the list of key parameters you can track in real-time:
In general, each functional module can include dozens of features that provide managers with all-inclusive data within a specific process.
It may sound easy but in fact, an implementation of fleet management systems is a huge and long-term process from real-time data requests to satellite GPS to the final UI dashboard with tons of information stored in a centralized system online.
First, everything begins with building fleet management software embedding the required fields, features, and scalability tailored to your specific business models and challenges.
Second, you need to have powerful and secure cloud servers in order to receive and process real-time data that you get from vehicles and transfer to the final dashboard for managers.
Third, one of the most crucial components is electronic logging devices that should be plugged into each vehicle’s OBDII port so they can start sharing real-time data through the network.
It’s worth noting that here you can choose either cellular or satellite type of network for transferring the required fleet management data from trucks to dashboards.
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Ultimately, GPS tracking becomes possible through requesting and receiving data from satellites that go around the Earth, collect tons of information including your fleet management process, and send it directly to dashboards through the satellite connection.
How Fleet Management Process Work
Now we want to share the list of the top fleet management software solutions in 2021 that provide out-of-the-box systems on a subscription basis by Investopedia.
Fleetio is among the top fleet management companies in the USA founded in 2011 by Tony Summerville.
The company provides intuitive centralized web or mobile applications to manage trucks, drivers, and auto parts in a single place for large enterprises, SMBs, and even startups.
One of the key benefits of using Fleetio as a fleet management software is a high compliance level and all-inclusive monitoring features.
Below you can see the core functionality of Fleetio:
What Companies Trust Fleetio?
WeFlex, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Boyle, Subaru, Asplundh, Atlas Air, and Stanley Steemer are using Fleetio, one of the top fleet management software solutions.
What is Fleetio Fleet Management Software Cost?
The company provides two fleet management software pricing plans: Pro and Advanced along with a 14-day free trial.
Each plan starts with $5 and $7 per truck respectively (if billed annually).
UsFleetTracking is one of the top fleet management companies in the USA founded by Jerry Hunter in 2005.
The company has been focused on developing advanced GPS tracking software products that enable businesses to track their vehicle fleets and mobile assets efficiently.
Recently, UsFleetTracking has started providing a powerful vehicle fleet management software on a subscription basis offering the following features:
What companies use UsFleetTracking?
One of the top fleet management companies in the USA is trusted by Standley Systems, East Texas Copy Systems, SP+ Gameday, and others.
Rhino is one of the best fleet management software providers founded in 2007 by the collaboration of Smart Start, Inc and a Senior Software Development Manager from Verizon.
The company offers advanced fleet tracking systems that help businesses monitor and analyze trailers, vehicles, and other equipment in real-time in a secure and easy way.
The core features of Rhino Fleet Tracking include:
What Is Rhino Fleet Management Software Cost?
The company provides an intuitive fleet management software pricing structure: you pay a one-time fee which includes costs of a device, shipping, activation, and the initial service fee.
Onfleet is among the best fleet management software founded in 2012 by engineers from Stanford University.
The company provides powerful logistics management software that allows your business to track any delivery vehicle types like trucks, bikes, or cars.
The transportation management system of Onfleet is a complex of delivery-focused and customer-oriented functionality offering last-mile opportunities like custom reporting tools, advanced route management, automatic driver status updates for customers, and in-depth analytics.
One of the best fleet management software includes the following key features:
What companies trust Onfleet?
One of the best logistics software companies has already powered 100 mln deliveries and is trusted by such giants as Kroger, Total Wine & More, GAP, Sweet Green, Drizly, and Imperfect Foods.
What Is Onfleet Fleet Management Software Cost?
The company provides 4 simple and transparent fleet management software pricing plans along with a 14-day free trial to let your business test their vehicle fleet management software.
Let’s now discuss what logistics software features that are essential in 2021 to serve most needs of your business and help solve any challenges that emerge.
One of the key goals of implementing and using fleet management systems is to manage trucks and vehicles in real-time getting exact data on truck location, current speed, fuel usage, trip duration time, etc.
This all becomes possible by connecting electronic GPS tracking devices with your business vehicle fleet management software and synchronizing them to work in tandem.
For these reasons, vehicle GPS tracking functionality is a cornerstone of any effective and goal-oriented fleet management system.
This feature allows your business to reduce operational costs, increase productivity, make efficient use of fuel, boost safety, and decrease the theft ratio.
Fuel consumption costs are among the key spending patterns for any business providing delivery services. This means that an automated fleet fuel management software is a must-have tool for any logistics management software in 2021.
So, it helps you automatically check all fleet trucks’ fuel levels, the average frequency of refueling and draining, and generally control the fuel costs.
This way, you can get automatic real-time visibility of possible leaks and theft cases to prevent negative risks that directly influence your profit and customer satisfaction.
Fleet fuel management software allows you to set alarms that display warnings each time draining takes place. Moreover, this case can automatically trigger multiple notifications that permanently show tank fuel levels, average fuel consumption per time, and per vehicle.
Truck drivers play an essential role in an entire delivery process transporting goods from point A to point B. This way, driver behavior monitoring functionality is a must-have online fleet accident management software feature today.
First, this feature allows you to keep track of drivers and minimize the fleet collisions ratio so that you greatly reduce operational costs.
According to the Automotive Fleet report, the average annual rate of the US commercial fleet collisions reached the level of 20% in 2018.
This means that each driver has a one in 15 chance of getting into an accident during the year, leading to significant operational expenses on repairing and maintenance.
Moreover, the report also states that average vehicle accident cost losses reach up to $70,000 per truck which becomes one of the most money-gobbling spending patterns for your business.
Second, fleet accident management software allows you to automatically display real-time metrics and generate all-inclusive reports based on deep driver behavior analysis.
The reports may even include heart rates, fast accelerations, rapid braking, sharp turns, and other driving metrics that help analyze their quality of work and create recommendations to improve the general fleet process.
This way, you can implement scoreboards for drivers to stimulate them to work safely and timely by providing quarter bonuses that greatly boost their salaries and overall satisfaction.
So, driver behavior and fleet accident management software help you take care of both a driver’s safety and delivery quality along with reducing your vehicle repair and maintenance costs.
It is an open secret that any fleet and delivery business is based on advanced logistics algorithms. So, vehicle fleet management software is a perfect option to monitor, manage, and improve your operations.
First, a trip log feature is crucial for your fleet business as it automatically monitors and collects multiple parameters per trip gathering them by using electronic vehicle trackers.
So, the best vehicle fleet management software allows you to avoid working with logbooks and spreadsheets by automating these processes through a trip logging feature that collects data in real-time.
Thus, it allows you to reduce labor costs and save much time for fleet managers to focus on more major tasks like business growth and customer development.
Second, fleet mileage calculation functionality is a great opportunity for your business to reach high tax deductions, fuel savings, and performance optimization.
This becomes possible through using a mileage tracking app which refers to an advanced automatic calculator which enables your fleet managers and accountants to request tax period mileage reports that include all the required data.
This way, you can make sure that you comply with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements by simply getting all the needed mileage information that automatically calculates your specific business tax reimbursements.
According to the Automotive Fleet 2018 report, fleet vehicle maintenance costs increased up to 18% in 2018 due to high labor costs and replacement parts prices.
This fact shows that vehicle fleet management software with automated vehicle maintenance alerting and reporting tools is crucial and must-have functionality for your business nowadays.
In order to keep vehicle maintenance and repair costs low, you should carefully monitor and analyze fleet health status by odometer and vehicle type.
So, this becomes possible through automated and just-in-time vehicle maintenance using the best fleet management software as it notifies and alerts your fleet managers each time checkups and repairs are needed.
What’s more, you can easily collect analytical data to generate insightful reports on your vehicle maintenance costs during the past period to improve the low-end processes and reduce expenses in the long run.
This way, online fleet management software allows you to keep track of your current fleet costs to reduce them and streamline your vehicle maintenance processes to driver satisfaction, delivery quality, and decrease repairment expenses.
5 Must-Have Fleet Management Software Features
Now it’s high time to discuss the key steps of building a powerful warehouse management system tailored to meet your specific business needs and solve challenges.
Start with defining the main requirements and business demands you have as any software is designed to meet specific needs and help achieve goals.
You can write down an exact list of features that will help automate your daily workflow and streamline all business processes.
For example, if you want to get an all-inclusive control and management tool that will allow you to get real-time data on fuel consumption, then fleet fuel management software is a must-have feature for your fleet management software.
This way, you can prepare an approximate pool of features one by one that will help you realize whether to choose an out-of-the-box or custom fleet management software.
Once you finish recognizing the core business goals and features, you can proceed to choose the relevant fleet management software type.
The most common options include:
Generally, the best fleet management software providers offer multiple features in a single complex system so that you can get access to all modules by purchasing a single subscription.
However, here comes the difference between ready-made and custom solutions that fully influences the final fleet management software cost. Many providers offer different types of subscription models, but most of them may include tons of features that your company will never use.
This way, you save much funds initially by purchasing a single license but the chances are high that you will overpay in the long run.
It means that if you want to use the exact functionality pool and embed the required infrastructure scalability for your potential future needs, custom fleet management software is the best choice for your business.
At Ascendix Tech, we can build a tailor-made logistics management system designed specifically to meet your unique business demands and serve your day-to-day workflows in the most efficient way.
This option will allow you to save much funds in the future as you no longer need to pay for an additional module or the number of users you want to provide with access to the system.
Let’s now discuss the most common ways of building your own custom fleet management software solution.
Before you start developing any tailor-made software, you should realize the most cost-effective and suitable option for your project.
Now we want to briefly cover 3 opportunities you have to start building a powerful custom logistics management system.
1. Find a technical partner/CTO
This option means that you find an experienced tech-savvy professional in building top fleet management software solutions from both business and technical sides.
Most commonly, you can find a relevant partner while attending offline technical conferences/meetups or using online platforms that gather top professionals with diverse backgrounds.
The most popular tech communities are as follows:
In terms of costs, hiring an experienced technical partner that will handle online fleet management software project development from A to Z embedding the right business logic is a costly affair.
2. Hire freelance development teams
This option may become more cost-effective, but it also has hidden hazards like the lack of transparency and control, missed deadlines, low final product quality, etc.
The most popular platforms that provide lists of top freelancers with ratings and testimonials are:
We recommend finding a team of freelance developers that have solid experience in building similar online fleet management software solutions.
This way, the tech professionals will perfectly know what you need and can even consult you on alternative technology solutions for your system.
3. Outsource to a fleet management software development company
Hiring a reliable and experienced development company with solid expertise in building tailor-made online fleet management software solutions is a great choice for your business if you want to get high product quality, demand-based functionality, ongoing support, and even staff training opportunities.
For sure, this option will initially become pretty cost-consuming, but you will save much funds in the future as your system will be fully prepared for any modifications, scaling, and flexibility challenges.
First, we recommend paying attention to the portfolio of a software development company you want to partner with. It will help you realize what platforms have they built, what challenges were met, what solutions were provided, and what business results were achieved.
At Ascendix Tech, we provide a detailed case study on bus fleet management system development for Flibco.com where we cover all challenges, solutions, and business results delivered through building a powerful bus ticket booking system.
The key challenges included:
Here are the results we have delivered to Flibco:
Learn the full case study below.
Custom bus ticket booking app development case study for Flibco | Ascendix Tech
Second, spare no time on reviewing the latest testimonials of a company so that you will know what customers say about cooperation and other aspects they had while working with a specific technology provider.
What’s more, you can contact them to know more details on the cooperation and get relevant feedback that will help you make a better decision.
For example, we have prepared an in-depth interview with Tobias Stueber, CEO of Flibco.com, where we discuss:
Third, you can ask for a project discovery phase so that you will see how a company will approach your current business challenges and what technology solutions they will provide to solve specific needs you have.
Ultimately, a fleet management software development company is a great choice for your business regardless of the exact requirements you have.
At Ascendix Tech, we prepared a detailed article on the software project discovery phase to answer the key question: ‘when and why do you really need a discovery phase for your specific project’.
Hire Ascendix experts. Leverage our experience in real estate, legal, financial, and transportation industries.
Fleet management software development is a thorny and complex process that requires lots of involvement in case you want to build a fleet management system perfectly tailored to your specific business needs.
Here comes the final decision whether you choose an out-of-the-box platform or custom system which will help you answer the question ‘how much does fleet management software cost.’
If you decide to build a bespoke software solution and want to hire a technology partner, we would be glad to help transform your business requirements into a next-level fleet management system.
Feel free to check our case studies and contact us to get a free quote based on your project requirements.
Daniil specializes in content marketing and has a deep knowledge of promoting the company's products and services through high-quality content. On the Ascendix blog, Daniil shares his tricks and tips on custom software development, provides technology trends and insights, and helps you get valuable content to make your business even more successful and profitable.
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We are going to start up GPS tracker business that why we required such piece of content from an expert team of developers. Thanks for sharing this information.