The Asset Tracking and Management Challenge for Large Fleets

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Imagine this – your truck that holds precious goods or perishable cargo is lost or unaccountably delayed on the road. That would cost you thousands of dollars in damages or losses. You could jeopardize customer relationships, hurt your brand value, and hurt future contracts because of poor references. 

That’s why it’s so important to acquire the right tools to ensure the assets that make up your trucking business are always safe and secure at all times. Fleet managers must know where their vehicles and other assets are, what condition they are in, and how they are being utilized. 

That means they must properly utilize tools such as asset tracking systems for maximum benefit. But some challenges come along with this. Let’s take a closer look at them.

 

Asset Tracking and Management Issues

1.Human Error

People make mistakes every day, it’s only natural. Traditional methods of asset tracking can be wasteful, especially in large fleets that have lots of assets. There will be numerous trucks, trailers, containers, dumpsters, and reefers on the books and out in the field. A task supervisor may use spreadsheets and save their data locally in their work PC to track equipment, devices, and other assets but these may not be accessible for the others who work in that organization. An error like this is easily avoided by updating your tools and using the latest technology like the cloud. Assess what kind of tools you can use to do your tasks while making the least number of errors possible.



2.Theft

If you fail to do proper asset management, you could be susceptible to losses due to theft or pilferage – especially if you run a large fleet. That’s a case of bad management and a lot of money can be saved if proper asset management is carried out. That’s why it’s important to consider tools like surveillance cameras to gather up-to-date information and supplement that with the most accurate information on the assets available, their location, and their condition. When equipment is lost, damaged, or theft occurs, operations can get affected and delivery deadlines can be hampered. These can also impact your results.

3.Maintenance Issues

Equipment maintenance is a major organizational challenge. You’ll need to maintain your fleet and all the other expensive assets you have invested in to ensure they’re functional and working well at all times. Otherwise, these machines can suddenly halt and your work will grind to a halt. For example, when a reefer can’t cool adequately because the cooling system is overused, it becomes completely unusable. That becomes a classic case of equipment failing for want of maintenance. Productivity and performance also suffer. Have a dedicated team along with the right tools and processes to track equipment usage and maintenance needs and you won’t experience such issues ever again. Ensure you have effective asset tracking software, otherwise, you can experience production loss, rescheduling whole processes, material wastage, overtime of labor, disposal of machinery, and other issues.



4.Wrong Inventory Estimation

Do you know how many trucks you will need if a major new customer signs up with you? To estimate that, you will first need to know how many trucks you have available currently in working condition. Use the best practices in inventory and asset tracking to optimize smart inventory estimation as much as possible. An incorrect approximation can lead to losses due to over-provisioning. Too low an estimate and you end up with inadequate assets to manage deliveries. The right inventory and asset tracking practices must be mandatory so that your personnel can know in advance what assets to stock up on and when. 



 

 

5.Resource Wastage

Missing assets and equipment have adverse reactions on companies and their operations due to lost labor hours, work stoppages, and delayed project deliverables. When required assets aren’t found, operations become inefficient or delayed. That can mess with operations by making you lose out on labor hours, causing work stoppages, and delaying project deliverables. You’ll end up underutilizing your available resources and suffer poor ROI from your asset investments.



How to Address These Common Issues

The solution to these is great asset management software linked to IoT devices and sensors that track assets across the business. That increases the productivity of organizations and equipment. It also enables real-time monitoring of your assets. These inform you about how many fixed assets are owned, their exact location, and their conditions. They can give you notifications, alerts, and more. Your users will also get the necessary information about their assets and equipment. With this technology, you can also capture each asset’s most crucial data and information to make smarter decisions. 

Asset tracking also helps you get the required information you need about various parts of your business and your operating expenses. These can be reduced and revenues can be enhanced without disrupting your daily work. You’ll gain better ROI, and increased productivity. 

Streamline your operations and eliminate your common issues by using the right tools like our trackers. We have solar-powered and wired asset trackers. With these, you can map all your equipment, increase efficiency, and maximize ROI. Our trackers are compact, easy to install, IP67 waterproof, and with rugged solar panels. We’ve also used motor detection, low battery alarms, and removal alerts. You’ll be able to:

  • Instantly locate and remove assets.
  • Locate and recover stolen equipment.
  • Increase utilization.
  • Track usage and engine hours for more accuracy in billing and deployment.

With such a long list of benefits, why wouldn’t you want to use this technology to make your life easier and maximize your profits? Go ahead and contact us today for the best results.