Wheels was recently awarded a gold Stevie® award in the Business and Competitive Intelligence Solution category for its new FleetView™ Analytics features, so I’d like to honor the occasion with an exploration of the solution.
Changing Times Require Advanced Fleet Analytics
For years, Wheels has integrated all aspects of fleet data, including: fuel and maintenance usage, tolls, motor vehicle records, vehicle condition reports, personal and business mileage logging. But the real game changer has been connected vehicle data. The data we receive directly from the vehicle not only enhances the value of all the integrated data sources, but also enables new opportunities for optimizing fleets.
Nowadays, there is a greater expectation that fleet decisions are based on documented criteria and then tracked to analyze performance. While still valuable, tenure and well-developed instinct isn’t enough. Sourcing and supply chain experts have played a large role in shaping expectations. Those functions have been at the forefront of data-driven decision-making.
What Should Your Fleet Management Software Do?
With multiple layers of data, fleet managers can easily answer these three questions:
1. What’s happening?
This information includes high-level metrics to alert someone of an area that might warrant further investigation. It’s fully customizable based on subject areas that are most important to the user.
2. Why is this occurring?
Equipped with interactive dashboards, users can manipulate data to determine the why behind a number of outcomes. Adaptive narratives help guide the user, offering clearly written insights to explain trends, such as: “Your fuel expense went down because your fuel economy improved by 4.5% compared to last year.”
3. What’s my main takeaway?
Lastly, FleetView offers a detailed view of individual vehicles, drivers or transactions causing a trend that may require further action. For example, it provides a list of drivers whose vehicle registrations are approaching expiration and have not submitted appropriate documentation for renewal.
Advanced Fleet Analytics On Your Terms
As the product manager for FleetView, my focus is providing functionality for the majority of data needs. We recently expanded our data visualization tools within FleetView to allow users to explore, manipulate and take action on fleet trends. We’ve made this an organic, intuitive experience for users to drill down through layers of data, from high-level key performance indicators to sophisticated dashboards at an individual driver or vehicle level. The result is a more seamless workflow versus having to run a separate report to understand what is behind a particular trend.
We also know that different users process data in different ways. Some want raw metrics so downloadable spreadsheets may be most efficient, while others are more visual learners who benefit from charts and comparison tools. FleetView is designed to include a combination of data representations to be accessible to a wide variety of users. Our configurable reports are popular for users who want to pull down data or want data pushed to them. These reports can be automatically shared with members of the fleet team on a one-off or on-going basis.
As we continue to get insight from users, we’ll design more interactive visuals and integrate with more areas of fleet. Your feedback and insights have helped us make FleetView what it is today. Please continue to share your thoughts at [email protected].