August 27, 2020 Fleet Management 0

What is Fleet Management?

Summary

This article provides an overview of fleet management in the logistics industry, including the functions and benefits of fleet management, challenges faced by fleet managers, and the evolution of fleet management software. It also covers topics such as vehicle tracking, fuel management, expenses management, vehicle maintenance, and Indian traffic rules and laws.

The article emphasizes the importance of effective fleet management in reducing costs and improving efficiency in the transportation sector.

How much knowledge do you have? Do you really know about logistics and fleet?

Logistics and Transportation is a vast aggressively competitive business in this economy. Every year lots of people entering into logistics business, but how many are successful?

Do you want to become successful in this industry?

Knowledge is the key to become successful! Transportation industry supports all sectors of economy — Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sectors! Approximately 10 million trucks are running in Indian roads. But what about the logistics sector? Still most of the companies are unorganised in India!

Logistics are vast, Logistics are deep, Logistics are enormous.

Here we are, to guide you in the right direction.

Logistics is just a part of Supply Chain Management, Transportation is just a part of Logistics, Fleet is just a part of Transportation. Do you agree?

Every dot in Supply Chain and Logistics are interconnected. Let’s get more information about logistics deeper and grow with logistics in this article.

Topics Discussed in the article:

What is Fleet Management?

Fleet Management is the management of transportation and logistics vehicles. It includes various commercial motor vehicles such as cars, ships, vans and trucks.

Fleet management (here we discuss vehicles such as trucks) can include a variety of functions, such as truck financing, truck maintenance, vehicle telematics (location tracking and analytics), driver management and roistering, asset tracking, speed management, fuel management and health and safety management.

Fleet Management helps to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with vehicle investment, improvement in efficiency, productivity and reducing their overall transportation and staff costs. These functionalities can be incorporated either as an in-house fleet-management department or through an outsourced fleet-management provider.

Transport management entails trip scheduling, vehicle repair and maintenance, fuel management and allocation of duties to drivers.

Fleet management is the function that takes care of various aspects such as coordination, facilitation of the transport sector and transport-related activities. Effective fleet management reduces the overall cost in logistics business through effective utilization of resources such as vehicles (trucks and trailer), fuel (diesel), spare parts, maintenance of vehicles and lot more factors involved in the fleet management.

‘Fleet’ is no longer just a term applicable to traditional company cars and vans. Today, corporate responsibility extends to employees using their own vehicles for work purposes, cash for car schemes, pool vehicles or any combination of the above. In each case, appropriate policies and tailored packages are required with solutions that are not only cost-effective but also protect the business, its employees and the wider general public (users and consumer of services rendered by the fleet operator/manager). Running a fleet is a complex area where professional advice can reap and lead to significant rewards and in a situation whereby not doing enough could cost the business negatively a fortune.

Problems Faced by Fleet Industry

The Fleet industry, at present, is facing numerous problems. Typically, the problems relate to the following aspects of the industry:

Structure of the Industry

Freight business in India are dominated by small fleet operators performing mainly the haulage function and dependent on others, such as brokers, 3PL, for business.

In the recent study done by Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) survey, 77% of transport operators own a small fleet of less than 5 trucks; of these, the majority are single truck operators. Only, 6% of the trucks are owned by companies with a fleet of more than 20 trucks.

The existing structure makes the achievement of objectives of conservation of fuel, environment protection, structured maintenance and promotion of road safety difficult.

Insurance

Insurance of motor vehicles against third-party risk is a mandatory requirement under the Motor Vehicles Act. However, the goods carried are not automatically insured. A separate insurance policy has to be taken by the consignor or consignee if the loss or damage to such goods is required to be made good by the insurance company.

In turn, the insurance company initiates proceedings for recovery of the claim amount paid, against transport operator under the right of subrogation since it is the responsibility of the transport operator as a carrier to reach cargo safely to its destination. This causes avoidable financial hardship to the truck operators. There is the added problem of tardy settlement of insurance claims. This aspect needs to be looked into.

Overloading of Vehicles

Overloading of goods trucks / trailers is a common phenomenon in India. This adversely affects the road pavement, is a threat to road safety and reduces the life of vehicles. Though the MV Act is against overloading, the provisions for the compounding of this offence encourage the continuance of overloading.

Driver Shortages

The driver shortage has been among the top concerns for fleet managers in the past decade. As the demands for cargo transport increase and the number of new driver applicants continues to stagnate, logistics experts predict the shortage of delivery truck drivers may approach 250,000 by 2022.

Recruiting inexperienced drivers can also lead to safety issues and the need for driver monitoring tactics. Technology can help monitor driver responses and safety protocols. While such systems are beneficial, they add one more complexity to maintaining the fleet

Inadequate and Deficient Road Network

The expansion of the road network has lagged behind the growth of motor vehicles. While the road network grew at an average rate of 4.5% per annum, the overall vehicle population has grown by 8 to 10% per annum since 1951. Traffic by road has increased manifold over the years. This has led to congestion on the roads, increase in accidents and lower productivity of vehicles.

Road Safety

India’s vehicle population is 1% of the global vehicle population. However, its share in road accidents is 6%. Moreover, the number of accidents is on the increase.

The reasons for increasing road accidents in India is because of lack of training and proper working conditions for the drivers, congestion on roads, absence of a traffic management system, overloading of vehicles and drunk & drive.

Unregulated Booking Agents and Brokers

The small truck operators cannot perform the functions of aggregating, handling, delivering of cargo and marketing. They depend on others for these functions. While booking agents accept and store goods and arrange for their transport, brokers and suppliers act as intermediaries between users and booking agents on the one hand and truck operators on the other. They charge hefty commission which is disproportionate to the services rendered by them.

Fuel Costs

Some plants must budget for high fuel costs, depending on the type of fleet vehicles deployed. Even modest fluctuations in diesel cost can have a major influence on the company’s financial bottom line. Maintenance teams must stay on top of reports of fluctuating fuel usage, alert for issues which can be resolved or downtime which can be prevented.

Driver Behaviour

There is a strong correlation between driver behaviour and vehicle maintenance needs. Reports that highlight aggressive driving behaviour, excessive idling, improper shifting or deactivating safety controls can all be used to improve training and encourage improvement.

Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Customers need to get to work or their consignments on time, but if your vehicles are always late, they’ll turn to more reliable service providers. According to statistics, acquiring new customers is 25 times more costly than retaining existing ones.

Regulatory Compliance

The ability to prove compliance with various regulation laws governing fleet activities can save you thousands in penalties. This means certifications, licenses, registrations, insurances, and inspection reports should be readily available when the authorities ask for them.

Lack of Wayside Amenities

There is a lack of adequate wayside amenities for long-haul operators on our road network. Truck drivers have often to drive long hours and consequently need rest, toilet facilities. Even at the petrol pumps on the main roads, toilet facilities are either not available or poorly maintained. Various conveniences required such as drinking water, toilet, food, parking, vehicle repairs, fuel, telephone are not available in an organised way. There are incidences of vehicles parked on the road on a large scale.

Challenges Faced by Fleet Managers in the Logistics Industry

As I said before, using a vehicle in business brings a lot of issues and challenges. These issues are taken care of or controlled by Fleet Managers. There are some key areas where fleet managers face challenges to manage the fleet.

1. Real-time Fleet Tracking

Tracking is one of the major reasons to use the fleet management system in an organization. Fleet tracking helps us to track the location of the vehicle with the help of the ‘Global Positioning System’ (GPS). By this, we can make sure that our goods are safe and in the right hands. It also provides updates on the goods reaching the final destination.

2. Transparency

Fleet management improves transparency in the logistics sector. It empowers both ends, goods origin and the consumers. Both the parties have the information and updates of goods that are being transported, this improves the transparency on both ends. This transparency is valuable for both parties.

3. Fuel Management

Fuel Management is one of the major cost-saving methods in the logistics industry and also a challenging task for fleet managers. With increasing, fuel cost in the market, handling fuel pilferage and diesel theft prevention is a critical task for fleet owners.

4. Route Optimization

Optimization of the route does not only control the fuel. It can also help to deliver goods in a short time. We can also identify the risk level of travel in the route and also the climatic condition of the area. With this optimization, we can carry our goods safely to the right destination in a short time period.

5. Driver Management

Driver management is one of the important components to be considered also a challenging component to ensure drivers safety. It is a nightmare for fleet managers in handling driver’s way of driving and the speed issues, which affects both safety of the driver’s life and the vehicle’s maintenance.

6. Vehicle Acquisition

Fleet managers need to analyze a report on the type of vehicle, the number of vehicles, manpower to drive that vehicle, knowledge on the vehicle, the benefit of using that vehicle, and there is even more things to be considered while purchasing a vehicle. Fleet managers should have the knowledge of purchasing strategy to acquire a vehicle in an organization.

7. Overall Cost Reduction

Fleet managers should analyze every tip and corner to reduce the production cost in any way, it may be fuel cost, operating system, wages, or anything. If there is a possibility to reduce the overall cost fleet manager should proceed with that to increase the productivity and this overall cost reduction should not affect the captivity.

Fleet Management Software

Fleet management software enables the fleet manager to perform a series of specific tasks in the management of various aspects relating to a logistics fleet of vehicles. These specific tasks encompass all operations from vehicle acquisition to disposal.

Fleet management software, depending on its capabilities, allows functions such as driver allocation, trip scheduling, trip planning, expenses management, vehicle efficiency, vehicle document maintenance and other aspects of fleet management.

It can provide remote control features, such as Geo-fencing, vehicle location tracking, route optimisation, status updates from drivers, fuel monitoring and speed management.

Fleet management software enables the fleet operators with a higher amount of information available for both drivers and dispatchers of a fleet.

Fleet Security and Control (Remote Vehicle Disabling systems)

Recent advances in fleet management allow for the addition of over-the-air (OTA) security and control of fleet vehicles.

Fleet Security and Control include vehicle security whether it is parked, idle / shed, service or in operation and the ability to safely disable a vehicle while in operation. This feature allows the fleet manager to recover stolen or rogue vehicles while reducing the chance of lost or stolen cargo.

Fleet replacement and Lifecycle Management

The timely replacement of vehicles and equipment is a process that requires the ability to predict asset lifecycles based on cost, vehicle utilization and age of the vehicle.

To replace the vehicle, there are various factors that come into the picture like funding for replacement, vehicle maintenance cost, current business scenario, following government guidelines.

As a fleet operator, need to make wise decisions when it comes to vehicle lifecycle management and the replacement because spending too much for vehicle maintenance is also not advisable and investing heavily for purchasing new vehicles. The decision is the key in the vehicle management

Evolution of Fleet Management Software

A few decades ago no one would have images there will big revolution in the logistics industry and transportation fleet business with the revolution of introducing GPS tracking into the fleet management. With the launch of GPS tracking in fleet operations, the process of managing the fleets has be changed and brought more streamline to the fleet management.

Before the introduction of GPS tracking in fleet operations management, the conventional method was followed by the fleet managers in managing the vehicles for the logistics business. In that traditional method, they are lot of inefficiencies and not able to manage the growing demand of the logistics market.

History of Fleet Management Systems

The concept of fleet management came into the picture around five to six decades before. In the initial days, the fleet managers use the conventional method, almost all the data, trip documents, POD are all maintained in files.

The idea of managing the fleets was conceived by the US automotive industry even before the invention of GPS in 1974. In the initial stage, the fleet telematics process improvement was started with order processing, status updates and automated communication. Only big automobile industries such as ford, General motors were following this fleet management process in their daily routine.

In the early 1980s, the concept of telematics was introduced by France using telecommunications for communication purpose. After this development only more research involved in the logistics sector to improve the management of the fleet.

Introduction of GPS in Fleet Management

The GPS technology was started as an experimental project by the US in 1978. Finally, in 1994, it came into the technology reached its zenith and launched 24 satellites in space for making the GPS technology fully operation.

The GPS technology was fully operational and revolutionised the fleet telematics. The logistics industry started installing GPS devices on vehicles for location tracking of vehicles. Later based on requirement and improvement in the telematics technology various features started getting added in the fleet management process improvement.

The new features like streamlining staff management, weather forecast, geofencing, speed monitoring, vehicle idling and lot more for further advancement in the fleet telematics.

In near future, there are next level of advancement in the fleet management with automation like the driverless vehicle, augmentation reality, Artificial intelligence to bring the real changes in the fleet management.

How does Fleet Management Software work?

Fleet management software acts as a bridge between human and technology interface. The fleet management software acquires the data from the GPS devices and processes the data in the secured server. The consolidated, formatted data is presented to the fleet owners/managers in the report form to analyze the business position to know more about productivity, profit, operational cost, vehicle health report, and much more data that support in making business decisions.

Fleet Management Software is basically a Telematics system. Telematics is the combination of telecommunications and Informatics. It includes anything from GPS systems to navigation systems. Fleet management uses GPS or GLONASS or a cellular triangulation platform. Once vehicle location, direction, and speed are determined from the GPS components installed in the fleet are transmitted to a fleet management server via satellites

The key component of fleet management is vehicle tracking and management of the vehicle. Logistics is known as the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption. So, real-time monitoring of the vehicle has become a major need. By this tracking system, we can track the direction of the vehicle, location of the vehicle, speed, and fuel consumption of the vehicle.

Fleet operations are controlled through Fleet managers using fleet management software. Fleet managers are the people who’re going to control these fleet Operations like monitoring, managing the fleet to reduce the production cost in any way for their organization.

Benefits of Fleet Management in the Logistics Industry

If an organization is using technology or software means it somehow benefits the organization. Likewise, the major benefit of fleet management is

Lowered costs, greater returns: by limiting inefficient business practices such as excessive idling or out-of-the-way travel routes, fleet managers can reduce fuel consumption and increase productivity.

Increased overall business efficiency: the positive results from having a well-run fleet can overflow into other areas of the company as well. Customers receiving their goods and services in a timely manner are likely to become repeat customers. Regular vehicle maintenance can lead to reduced instances of costly vehicle breakdowns that cut into the company’s overall annual budget.

Improved employee happiness: an impartial structure and established company policies applied fairly and accurately across all levels of employment leads to increased employee satisfaction with the company and with their own jobs.

Fleet management is a complex and largely data-driven process that requires involvement in every part of a company’s fleet. A successful fleet management program will track, analyze, and work to optimize every aspect of the fleet, which encompasses hiring and training drivers, acquiring vehicles, tracking the fleet, regulating maintenance and safety protocols, mitigating risk, and preparing for all operation situations.

While it may require a significant amount of work at program outset, you will see benefits on every level of your organization, which will greatly outweigh the front-end labour. The bottom line is that there are innumerable advantages to developing and implementing a successful fleet management program, including increased profits, decreased unnecessary expenses, improved employee retention and happiness, and better risk management.

If we implement Fleet management in the logistics industry we can enhance our profit, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Fuel Consumption Control

The fleet operator should take strict control over the fuel consumption for their logistics business. Fleet management software integration in fleet operations will send regular notifications and alerts to fleet manager/owner on fuel level, fuel filling, fuel theft on installing the fuel level sensor on the vehicle fuel tank.

Also, the fleet manager can access driver performance using the fuel management feature in the fleet management system. The data and report will assess the trip level mileage, vehicle wise mileage and driver behaviour such as harsh driving, over speeding, diesel theft can be seen visually with the aid of fleet management software reports.

Apart from this, with the usage of fleet management software, the fleet manager can communicate with driver by sending messages to his driver app (FleetOS application has this feature) to direct driver on vehicle idling, parking the vehicle with the engine on, approving the driver request for fuel fill.

By way of using fleet management software on logistics business, fuel consumption control can be done effectively by the fleet manager.

Preventive Maintenance Control

Fleet management application would enable the fleet manager in vehicle maintenance and preventive maintenance of vehicles in their logistics fleet.

In the fleet management solutions, the vehicle operator should feed the vehicle details while on-boarding the vehicle on the application. At the time of the adding vehicle on fleet management software, the fleet operator should enter basic vehicle details such as vehicle purchase date, battery details, tyre details, vehicle fitness certificate details, pollution certificate details and all other vehicle vitals on the fleet management application.

Based on the data fed, the application algorithm will send alert notifications to the fleet operators. The fleet manager can plan the preventive measure such as vehicle break down, fleet safety by following the proper maintenance cycle of the vehicle.

In such way, the fleet management software helps the fleet manager to maintain vehicle health and balance customer retention with effective vehicle maintenance using software applications.

Automated Reports and Insights

This is one of the best benefits of fleet management software for fleet operators. The application provides various reports, analytics, visual graphs in the application dashboard, these data can be utilised for various purposes for the fleet business and avoid manual errors.

Real-time Fleet Data Analysis

Each of your fleets will generate numerous data on each trip and these data will be getting accumulated for all your vehicles. The fleet management software will process all the data to simplify the process of the fleet operator to locate vehicles, send messages to clients about the delivery progress.

Most of the companies will be integrating or use various software applications for different purposes like trip planning, expenses management, vehicle maintenance. The application like fleet management software will integrate all the requirements in a single platform to perform better data analysis for business progress.

Fleet Safety

One of the most important features in the fleet maintenance management software is driver behaviour monitoring and driver management using the driver app (this feature is available on FleetOS <>Driver app).

In some occasions drivers will be overspeeding the vehicle or apply sharp breaking on the roads, this, in turn, affects the vehicle maintenance in the fleet. On such occasions, the fleet manager will be notified using the fleet tracking system and warn drivers using the report generated by fleet management solutions.

Delivery Deadline Compliance

By using most advanced fleet management software solutions the fleet manager can handle the logistics delivery planning better. With the tool, the fleet operator can have clear progress of the consignments, when the loading point reached, how long it took for loading when the vehicle left loading station and the same cycle applies to unloading station too.

The fleet manager can also make quick decisions using fleet management solutions by rescheduling, route planning and suggesting best routes to the driver to reach the customer destination as early or as scheduled according to the trip plan. Also, the customer can also have clear status updates on the delivery progress of his consignment/goods.

Accidents and Risk management

Effective of use of fleet management software application will reduce the risk and accidents of vehicles by proper maintenance and training to drivers based on various data analytics from the solution.

Vehicle Tracking System

In simple terms, a vehicle tracking system allows to track and control vehicles with aid of an online computer, mobile app, tablet 24×7 using GPS tracking device, telecommunication and GPS satellites.

Vehicle Tracking system not only allows to track the vehicles but also monitor other major vitals like speed monitoring, driving route of the vehicles, stoppage points, vehicle idling location, parking time and place all these data are captured in maps and it can be processed later as reports as per the need of logistics operator.

How does the vehicle tracking system work?

Today, telematics technology is getting integrated into the vehicle and home appliances where the end-user can control the asset within their home or at their comfortable location of choice.

WorkFlow of Telematics

The GPS hardware is installed into the vehicle or any asset for tracking. A SIM card and modem in the hardware device enable communication through mobile data networks.

The data captured by the telematics devices like the vehicle position, G-force measured by the built-in accelerometer and speed of vehicle are sent in an encrypted format to the data centre.

In the data centre, the message gets decoded to get the details of the vehicle. Later this data is processed using the advanced software solution to present the data in the user-readable format.

Here, this message gets decoded in order for the data centre to obtain the condition and whereabouts of the vehicle.

The processed information can be accessed by the end-user directly with the help of mobile application or internet-based tracking software to track the vehicle and alert the drivers for further information.

Difference Between Vehicle tracking System and FMS

Most of the times, the word vehicle tracking system and fleet management systems are used synonymously without understanding the true meaning of fleet management and GPS tracking.

GPS vehicle tracking is a subset in fleet management. In fleet management, tracking of vehicles, location, speed monitoring is one of the aspects. Apart from that, there are various elements involved in fleet management, to list a few:

Vehicle Management
Driver Management
Customer Management
Fuel Management

So, to make it clear, fleet management is completely different from the basic location tracking using vehicle tracking system.

Types of Vehicle Tracking System

There are two types of vehicle tracking system in the fleet management system.

Using GPS Devices
Without using GPS Device (SIM Consent)

1.Tracking with GPS Device

GPS tracking system has become common in commercial and transportation fleets. The GPS tracking system software displays the vehicle performance data and location data from the installed GPS device in the vehicle. The data from the GPS device helps to analyze the vehicle performance in real-time to improve safety, productivity, and fuel efficiency. The telematics data with the vehicle tracking information is viewed by the FleetOS application, to offer complete visibility into the fleet.

Features of Vehicle Tracking System

Real-Time Tracking

Instant vehicle position reports get your fleet information updated in real-time even as they move meter by meter

Graphical Reports

Reports in the graphs which can be easily understood and interpreted.

Instant Notifications

Alerts in the form of SMS | Email | App notifications from our powerful and comprehensive Software

Geofence and landmarks

Creation of a virtual boundary in terms of fencing and sending alerts when your vehicles enter or leave a particular area/locality.

Speed Monitoring

The speed of the vehicle can be regularly tracked to ensure the vehicle’s safety and well being.

Fuel Level Monitoring

Fuel monitoring can be done on installing a fuel level sensor on the vehicle fuel tank to track the live fuel level of the vehicle using a GPS tracking system.

Engine On/Off

Using GPS tracker device and software, fleet operators can control the engine remotely. If there is an emergency or vehicle is being theft by someone, the fleet operator can cut off the engine.

Idle and Parking

Vehicle idle timing and parking location all can be tracked using vehicle tracking software. The report and data will be captured on GPS software.

2. SIM-bases Tracking (Tracking without GPS)

SIM-based tracking or SIM consent is an accurate way of vehicle tracking system that helps you to point out the exact location of the SIM, which is connected with the nearby cellular network. It helps to track the driver without installing a GPS device in the vehicle or without making a call to the driver.

SIM-based tracking is something further than a GPS device tracking system, it works just with any operator SIM card in a working condition mobile phone, either in a smartphone or basic mobile phone. SIM-based tracking an instant and flexible solution for vehicle tracking systems. It works the same as GPS device tracking. It helps to reduce fuel theft, vehicle theft, improve efficiency, a flexible method to track and cost-effective.

Stakeholders involved in Fleet management

Fleet managers work in a complex environment as he/she is sitting in Kaun Banega Crorepati ‘hot seat’.

As a fleet operator for proper management, the fleet managers has to interact with various stakeholders both internal and external. Let’s discuss the next level of pain points faced by Fleet managers!

Internal Stakeholders

HR department
Finance department
Sales
Marketing
Service and Support department

The above mentioned are the broad departments in the logistics organisation and fleet manager has to interact with various people in each department day-in and day-out.

Starting from human resources manager for effective handling of resources to serve people for maintaining vehicle health.

To know the real demand in the market, fleet managers should be in good rapport with marketing people and in the same way with the sales team to know the requirements of vehicles need to be allocated in a given day.

This is just the scenario of internal stakeholders of fleet managers! The real challenges….! External Stakeholders

External Stakeholders

Drivers
Police
Mechanic
RTO Officials
Loadman
Customers — CEO, Managers, Ground level staffs
Loading Place manager

The smooth flow of goods carriers is hampered by the frequent stoppage of vehicles for one reason or the other at various check-points. Detention of vehicles is causing substantial wastage of productivity of the trucking industry and is adversely affecting its viability. Broadly, the detention is one of the following kinds:

(i) RTO Checking

Vehicles are detained for checking the essential documents such as registration book, driving licence, permit, etc. Detentions take place either at specified RTO check posts or on the way.

(ii) Checking for payment of commercial taxes

Vehicles are also detained for checking the payment of taxes such as sales tax, octroi and other local taxes. These checks are generally done by the respective agencies at separate points resulting in more than one detention for this purpose.

(iii) Police Checking

Vehicles are also detained for booking the drivers for violation of traffic rules and regulations.

(iv) Border Post Checking

Vehicles are also detained at state borders before these are allowed entry from one state to another. At border check-posts, normally transport vehicles are checked.

Fleet Drivers in Fleet Management

The most important part of a transit organization is a team of well-qualified, well-trained, and motivated drivers. An agency’s drivers not only essential for operating the service, but they are also responsible for safe and reliable service and are the most visible representatives of an organization. It can be challenging to recruit and retain good people, particularly when funding is tight.

Hiring Drivers

The following are some ideas for recruiting new drivers and evaluating how well they would likely fit the job.

Recruiting New Drivers

Promote job openings on the organization website and social media accounts.

Consider starting an employee referral program, rewarding employees who refer to successful recruits.

Create a realistic job preview video featuring several drivers talking about what it is like to work for the organization and why they do it. Ideally, the drivers in the video should represent a diverse workforce to appeal to potential recruits from different backgrounds. Post the video online and share it through the organization’s website and social media accounts

There are a number of different qualifications and characteristics that you should look for when hiring fleet employees. These qualifications will vary based on the classifications of vehicles in your fleet, but good baseline requirements should include the following. The Beginner’s Guide to Fleet Management The applicant must have a valid driver’s license with the appropriate class requirements. In many cases, truck drivers may need to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to operate your fleet’s vehicles. Similarly, a driver’s CDL must be of the appropriate class for the type of vehicle they will be operating.

The Driver must have the mental and physical capability of safe vehicle operation. The Driver must pass a certified pre-employment drug and alcohol screening. The driver must have an appropriate amount of experience.

While this requirement may vary greatly from business to business, you will likely want someone who has had their license for an extended period of time and who has driven in a variety of conditions. Other information you should consider requesting include equipment operated, miles are driven, transferable work experience, and a history of stable employment. The applicant must have a clean driving record. This allows you to learn about someone’s work ethic, on-the-job behaviour, personality, skill level, and competence in the field.

Driver Training

Training Ideally, your fleet drivers will start at your company with an adequate level of experience and training, but there are advantages to offering supplemental training opportunities. These company-sponsored training programs could include instructions for driving on different types of terrain, first aid training, education on the dangers of distracted and impaired driving, and more.

Additionally, offering both mandatory and optional training programs on a regular basis is a valuable way to keep your drivers up-to-date on industry news and trends, revised company protocols, and any other applicable updates and changes.

This combination of ongoing on-road and off-road training initiatives ensures that your drivers will be operating your fleet vehicles safely and effectively.

Driver Behaviour Assessment

The most important aspect of fleet management is driver behaviour monitoring and assessing driver performance. Drivers are the key player in vehicle maintenance, delivery compliance, handling loading and unloading of goods.

To assess the driver performance there are some basic factors the fleet manager need to consider and to get these data, the fleet management solutions will support the fleet owners.

Factors to assess driver behaviour are listed below:

Speeding

Vehicle Speed driver drives on the entire trip. To get the driver speed details, the fleet operator needs to install the GPS device on the vehicle to get speed details of vehicles. On getting the speed details, the fleet manager will come to know when the driver was over speeding and how much speed he was driving.

Over speeding issue of the driver can affect vehicle health, the safety of goods and brings risk to lives. In driver performance assessment, Speeding factor is one of the important factors.

Road Rules Regulation

The best quality to become a successful driver on roads is one who follows the road rules and regulations that are prescribed by law of the land.

In driver performance assessment, the fleet operator should give utmost importance to drivers knowledge on road rules and regulations need to be followed on roads.

Braking Pattern

The next factor to assess driver performance in braking pattern the driver does while driving the vehicle. To assess the braking, the fleet manager can get the reports and insights using the GPS tracker.

If any driver has done harsh braking and frequent braking while driving it will be recorded on fleet tracking software. Based on the analytics, the fleet manager can assess driver performance.

Acceleration Pattern

The same way methodology as we discussed above for braking pattern, the fleet manager need to assess the driver on acceleration patter using the fleet tracking solutions.

Idling and Parking Time

The fleet vehicle tracking system allows monitoring the vehicle idling and parking locations using GPS devices. The efficiency and time management of the drivers can be assessed using these parameters.

How to Monitor Driver Behaviour

The driver behaviour monitoring can be done with the aid of telematics technology and GPS fleet tracking systems.

Driver Safety

The best fleet management software enables the fleet manager to monitor driver behaviour during the route of delivery. The operator will get all the vitals to monitor the drivers using the application. The role of fleet manager to get the reports from the fleet tracking solution to ensure the driver safety, vehicle safety and consignment safety.

Vehicle Dashboard Reports

Real-time vehicle dashboard data and reports are readily available in the fleet software application. Driver monitoring can be done using the vehicle dashboard data, such as kilometres driven, engine performance, travel time, idle time, fuel consumption, fuel expenses during the trip, mileage report.

Driver Reporting

Based on driver reporting to the fleet operators the driver behaviour can be handled. The drivers need to submit POD documents, loading receipts, unloading receipts, bills and invoice copy for the expenses occurred during the trip, trip sheet update.

Trip Planning

Vehicle Loading

On reaching the loading location the driver needs to update the lorry receipt (LR) and E-Way bill of the consignment to the fleet manager using the driver app integrated with fleet management software solutions (Feature available in FleetOS application).

Before starting the trip from the loading point the driver can request for fuel filling (if there is any requirement).

Fuel Expenses

It is the responsibility of the driver to update the fuel filling receipts, bill copy for any payment done on the route. In most of the organisations, the fleet manager only approves the fuel filling based on available fuel level, destination distance and mileage of the vehicle. The approvement process will be simplified using the advanced fleet management solutions, where the driver can request the fuel requirement using the driver app.

Intransit Service

During the trip, the vehicle or driver may face various issues at the time of travelling from loading point to unloading point. Say, for example, the vehicle tyre getting punctured, the driver met with an accident or facing any local gunda issues.

It is the responsibility of the driver to update the information to the fleet manager either by using the driver app or convey the message by phone. Based on the instruction from the fleet manager, the driver needs to act on the situation in transit services.

Destination

On reaching the destination, the driver will unload the consignment and get the proof of delivery (POD) from the customer. Also, the driver needs to update the unloading charges (amali charges) after completion of unloading, trip expenses, services expenses, loading charges through the driver app or sending the bills and invoices to the fleet manager.

Trip planning is the core in the logistics sector, the fleet manager needs to create trips for vehicles and assign a vehicle to the driver for loading the goods and safe transit to customer destination.

In the trip planning process, the fleet manager needs to create a trip plan using the advanced fleet management software application. On creating the plan, the fleet manager selects the vehicle for the trip, assign the driver to the vehicle, update details like pick location of vehicle, loading destination and unloading destination with approximate timing for all the destinations.

Transportation Routes of India

Roads are known to be the nerves of India, an important mode of transportation for Indians. More than 60% of goods are transported on roads and 90% of common people in India prefer road transportation.

India is known for the second largest road network size around the world around 58.98 lakh km. This includes National Highways (NH), Expressways, State Highways (SH), Major District Roads, Other District Roads, and Village Roads or Rural roads.

Highways	length
National Highways	132,500 km length
State Highways	156,694 km length
Expressways	1,642 km length
Other Roads	5,606,835 km length

Do you know?

1. National Highway 44 (NH 44) is said to be the longest National Highway in India of 4,112 km length runs from Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south.

2. National Highway 966B (NH966B), is known to be the shortest National Highway in India, which spans 6 km length from Ernakulam to Kochi in Kerala.

3. Leh–Manali Highway connecting Leh in Ladakh to Manali in Himachal Pradesh spans up to 428 km length, known to be the world’s second highest-altitude motorable highway.

According to the government vehicle registration increases in India every year. Unfortunately compared with 2019, 2020 vehicle registrations decreased by 5.52% one of the major reasons may be Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic all over the world.

Vehicle registration count in 2019 : 2,14,51,275

Vehicle registration count in 2020 : 1,55,13,262

Indian Transportation and Logistics

We know India is one of the largest and busiest road networks. India is transporting around 8.225 billion passengers and 980+ million tonnes of cargo annually on road.

Highway construction in India increased by around 21% in 2019 compared with 2016. Even the production of commercial vehicles in India increases to 752,022 between 2019–2020 which shows India is getting stronger in the road network and the logistics industry.

Average 67% of freight traffic occurs across the country. The CAGR of the logistics industry is growing to 10.5%. Currently, in 2020 the size of the Indian logistics industry is expected to be worth $215 billion. In the first five months of 2019 alone, the logistics sector has already gained a capital infusion of $6.25 billion just with eight deals.

Previously, India was faced with 17 indirect taxes and 23 types of cess (tax on tax) for goods transportation and Highways. After the GST amendment in 2017, all multi-layered indirect taxes and cess for goods transportation and highway roads were included in one tax, named GST(Goods and service tax).

5 impacts of Pre-GST and Post-GST for Logistics, Road Transportation, and Highways in India?

PRE-GST	POST-GST
Trucks spent 20% of their runtime in the inter-state checkpoint. The idling time of trucks increases.	22 states have already removed checkpoints, the runtime of trucks decreases around one-fifth.
We had a complex tax structure and paperwork for the transportation industry and made them spend 50- 60% of resources.	The structure of GST created a better environment for doing business in India, which can create a better platform to increase economic growth.
Halting at check posts is considered to be one of the reasons behind the inefficiency of the logistics sector.	There are no separate state taxes and the introduction of technology processes took border corruption in control.
India was loaded with 14% of the total value of goods in the logistics industry where other countries are at 6–8% of the value of the goods.	India’s logistic cost was down to 10–12% goods value.
Indian trucks run 50,000–60,000 km a year, where a truck in the US can run up to 3 lakh km distance. Previously trucks covered 225 km a day in India.	After the introduction of E-waybill, which is supported by the National Information Centre (NIC) has made documentation and transactions easy. Today trucks cover around 300–325 km a day in India.

We came to know that the road route offers greater flexibility to transport a high volume of goods compared to rail or water and GST brought efficiency in transportation and decreased the idling time of a truck. Then, why do freight travel slowly on Indian roads?

Reasons why freight moves slowly on Indian roads?

We know India has the second largest road network but …..?

Does India have a good road infrastructure? How about some social issues? seasonal issues? Even we need to consider the myth factors in India.

Let’s get to know more about the factors blamed for the difficulty in transporting freight on Indian roads.

Seasonal Issues

Seasonal climatic issues are one of the main reasons for slow freight transportation on Indian roads. Extreme weather events like heavy rain, excess heat will affect transportation. These climate changes would increase the risk of delays, disturbance, and damage across the land-based transportation systems.

Especially in excess heat, many vehicles can overheat, and tires will worsen more quickly. However, water stagnant due to heavy rain, storms, flooding, and cyclones will affect the transportation systems. Mainly Coastal roads vulnerable to sea-level rise, which could delay transportation

Climate changes can affect business in core operations, business transforming ideas (value chain), and risks in the economy and infrastructure of a business. Climate changes also increase the cost of the nation’s transportation systems.

Festivals

India is mainly known for its wonderful festivals. Various festivals are celebrated by various communities in India. We know people will not celebrate festivals on Highways and expressways. Then, why do freight transportations will get affected by Festivals?

India has 5,606,835 km length of Other Roads which is (Major District Roads, Other District Roads, and Village Roads or Rural roads). Where many transportations will occur on the other roads. These districts and rural roads are covered with festivals and people. Also, transportation in the inner major cities of India will get affected by festivals.

Accidents

According to the Economic Survey 2018–2019, India accounts for 69% of freight truck traffic. There are 9 million truckers and transporters who move freight across India’s traffic network. What causes frequent truck accidents on Indian roads?

Drives drive for days without a break/sleep to earn a good bonus, which leads to a lack of health and makes them vulnerable.
Drivers’ worst behavior like high speeding of the vehicle, rash
driving, etc.
Consumption of alcohol and other drugs.
Irregular vehicle maintenance like sudden brake issues, steering problems, etc.
Road Infrastructure
Natural disaster.

Accidents are preventable, accidents are even costlier for a business. Preventing and taking precautions for accidents are encouraged. Every life has value, we do not accept accidents are part of life. We hope you do the same.

5 Toughest Roads in India for Truck Driving

Driving and driver both need a lot of patience, especially on Indian roads, things get more intense and difficult with trucks on Indian roads. Truckers seat has many responsibilities, He/She needs to be very careful on Indian Roads. Here are the 5 toughest Routes in India you need to know before riding.

National Highway 22

National Highway 22 (NH 22) 459 km long from Sonbarsa in Bihar to Chandwa in Jharkhand named as ‘Highway to hell’ one of India’s most dangerous and toughest highways. This highway cuts you through the mountain, cliffs tunnels. NH 22 became famous by History Channel’s TV series ” Deadliest Roads”.

National Highway 33

National Highway 33 (NH-33) 443km length runs from Arwal to Farakka, an important highway linking Bihar and West Bengal. NH-33 is one of the famous highways for suspicious accidents, People also named it ‘Cursed Road’. Where accidents can’t be explained usually because they appear to be the most unusual mannered.

Zoji La Pass (NH 1)

Zoji La Pass (NH 1) is a high mountain highway in the Himalayan range elevated up to 3,538 m (11,575 ft). Located in the Indian union territory of Ladakh, This highway is a major link between Ladakh and Kashmir

Transportation on this highway will be stopped every year during winter due to heavy snowfall. Just a single and tiny mistake will land you and your vehicle straight down from an altitude of 3,538 meters. Zoji La Pass is one of the fearest roads in the country. This mountainous highway was frequently used by truckers and oil tankers.

Leh — Manali Highway

The Leh — Manali Highway is 428 km long Elevated to 5359 m (17,582 ft) runs from the northernmost region of India connecting Leh, the capital of Ladakh, to Manali in Himachal Pradesh. This highway is mainly known for unpredictable weather, improper roads, landslides, and traffic jams, this makes the journey difficult for the truck drivers

Kinnaur Highway (NH 505)

Kinnaur Highway (NH 505) length 275 km covers Kinnaur and Lahaul, one of the challenging routes for heavy vehicles it is also known as the ‘valley road’. It extends from 2320 to 6816 meters in altitude. Kinnaur highway is famous for blind turns and narrow roads. Uncontrolled and sudden mistakes in this road divers you into the Baspa river.

Effective Fleet Fuel Management

According to the fleet management study report, 25% of logistics business expenses is fuel expense. Management of fuel is more critical in the logistics fleet business.

For effective fuel management, the fleet managers should be well equipped and aware of various factors involved in fuel monitoring. Listing the major factors for fuel monitoring in fleet operations.

Complete knowledge about Fleet
Monitoring Driver Behaviour
Efficient Route Planning
Purchasing of Fuel

1. Complete knowledge of Fleet

As a fleet manager, one should have detailed knowledge of vehicles, when it comes to fleet management, understanding of vehicle is more critical.

The fleet manager should understand:

Type of Vehicle — Truck, trailer, Container
Mileage of the vehicle
How to handle the vehicle
what is the vehicle maintenance cycle

If the fleet manager knows the basic details of the vehicle, the operator can handle the fuel efficiently. If drivers request for fuel fill, the manager should be in the position to understand the requirement and approve for the fuel fill after analysing the multiple factors like mileage, route, current fuel level and other aspects.

2. Monitoring Driver Behaviour

Driver behaviour such as over speeding, harsh driving, irregular gear changes, braking pattern all has a negative impact on vehicle fuel consumption.

If vehicles drive properly according to the speed regulations it could impact positively in fuel management. According to a study report in Europe of 150 vehicles, proper speed management has reduced thirty thousand Euro. Imagine, if the fleet manager handles speed properly and communicate effectively to the driver there will be save of fuel cost.

The driver is the key person for effective fuel management, but most of the drivers doesn’t follow the guidelines that affect fleet fuel management.

3. Effective Route Planning

A fleet manager should have the complete picture of routes that he/she handles for loading and unloading destinations in their daily routines.

To bring fuel consumption down, the fleet manager should guide the drivers properly to reduce the fuel wastage. Many times, drivers wait in long traffic or spend idle with engine on, take longer routes. If there is proper route planning the fuel management can be improved.

4. Purchase of Fuel

Now there is complete digitisation as most of the banks and fuel stations are allowing us to use the bank cards. Apart from this, for the logistics business, banks provide fuel cards.

Fleet managers can provide the fuel cards to drivers for fuel filling and record the purchase of fuel expenses digitally. In the logistics sectors, fuel theft, fuel bill malfunctions are very common and because of such practices fuel expenses are increased, which in turn puts more pressure on fleet manager in fleet management.

Different Types of Fuel Level Sensor

In the market to monitor fuel consumption, different sensor technologies are available. These can be broadly classified into

Resistive Fuel Sensor
Capacitive Fuel Sensor
Ultrasonic Fuel Sensor

In the resistive fuel sensor technology, it has some drawbacks like prone to fire and the accuracy level of the sensor is very low.

In the same way, the ultrasonic sensor is cheaper in the market but when it comes to data capturing the sensor performance is very poor. Which is proven by the detailed study conducted in one of the Vamosys clients.

The best fuel sensor technology is Russian Capacitive fuel sensor because the data captured are precise and the results provided by this sensor are yielding good results to the clients which are proven one.

Benefits of Using Fuel management

Reduces the operational cost acquired by fuel usage.
Receives a warning when there is a sudden change in the fuel levels.
Reports help in analyzing the cost and usage.
Reduces the man-hours utilized to maintain track of fuel level and usage.
Easy access to the reports with the mobile and web application in a snap of fingers.
When the fuel management is coped up with the GPS tracker, it is easy to know which route the driver uses and if it is a cost-effective one.
When the transport is at a stop, and there is a fuel theft, you’ll receive alerts including the vehicle location when you have the GPS tracker.

Fuel Management System will enable your company to reduce your operational costs with the data interpretation, with which you can increase the efficiency of your operations.

Documents

Traffic E-Challan

Government is making regulations on traffic rules and fines to streamline the process. In that, one such process is moving from paper challan to e-challan. The world is moving towards the digital age, all the information, message, and docs are stored digitally. For any traffic violation in India, there will be some fine imposed for minor accidents and disobeying traffic rules against vehicle or driver’s driving licence. Now, the traffic department is issuing e-challans for such violations and detect fine from the card or UPI payment methods.

We will discuss in elaborate about e-challan, its process and how to check e-challan online to verify and pay fine online.

About E-Challan

E-Challan or Electronic Challan is an online copy of any traffic violations that are committed by a person on Indian roads. The concept of e-challan was introduced to bring under one single platform for ready availability to access the digital documents of traffic violation fines and challans.

An e-challan will be issued by the traffic department in India for breaking the traffic rules either to the vehicle or driving license holder. The Indian traffic department has installed various cameras at various signal junctions, crowded places, accident-prone areas. If any vehicle violates the traffic rules, the installed camera takes images of the vehicle number plate and identify the owner address details and contact number from the vehicle registration database. The e-challans will be sent to the registered address and message will be delivered to the registered mobile number.

Now, with the help of the received e-challan, the user can pay the fine online mode to avoid any further penalty from the traffic department.

How do you make traffic e-challan payment online?

The Government of India has simplified the process of payment for e-challans as different states were using different methods for payment of e-challans. Now, the process has been simplified for payment.

Step 1: Visit the Vahan Jankari app or website
Step 2: Click on “E-Challan Jankari” Section to add your vehicle
Step 3: Add Your Vehicle for the payment process
Step 4: Select Your Added Vehicle (if the vehicle is already added)
Step 5: Select Your e-Challan & Click Pay Now for the payment process

Registration Certificate (RC Book): Check Vehicle Registration and Owner Information

One of the important vehicle document needs to be carried on the road in registration certificate for all motor vehicles. It is mandatory for all the vehicles under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 to have proper vehicle RC book by the vehicle owner or driver riding the vehicle.

What is the RC book?

Registration Certificate, also known as RC book is an official document that contains vehicle details and owner details is proof that vehicle is registered with the government of India.

How to check vehicle registration details online?

Government of India has simplified the process to check the RC book details on online. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways created the Vahan portal to check the RC book details, it is a centralised national-level platform for vehicle-related documents and summary.

By using this VAHAN portal, the user can check the RC book details of the vehicles registered under the Government of India. To check the RC book details, the user needs to follow the below-mentioned steps:

Step 1: Log in to the Vahan Jankarai application or website
Step 2: Click on the “ Registration Jankari” Section
Step 3: Enter the vehicle number details to check RC book online

Details mentioned on the RC book

The RC book is a proof of vehicle registered under the government of India. It is mandatory to have a proper registration number and that number needs to be displayed in the vehicle under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. In the registration certificated issued by the government, the below-mentioned details are provided on RC book:

Vehicle Registration Number
Vehicle Registered Date
Chassis Number of vehicle
Engine Number
Vehicle Owner Name
Vehicle Class
Fuel Type of the vehicle
Vehicle Manufacturer Details
Fitness and Registration Expiry dates
Motor Vehicle Tax
Insurance Details
PUCC Date
Emission Norms
RC Status
Vehicle financed or not details

Vehicle Fitness Certificate

To drive the vehicle on road, one has to carry various documents to comply with the traffic rules such as driving license, RC book, insurance and vehicle fitness certificate. Be it any vehicle on road today, documentation should be done properly as per Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) under Motor Vehicles Act.

Fitness certificate is one of the essential document for both private and public transport vehicles. The vehicle owner should have the proper fitness certificate for the vehicles as per standards prescribed by government norms.

Let’s discuss in detail, about the procedure need to followed and how to get the fitness certificate for all types of vehicles.

How to get fitness certificate for vehicles in India

If you need a fitness certificate for your vehicle, the vehicle owner can apply the fitness certificate either online using the Parivahan sewa online portal launched by the government of India or apply offline by visiting the nearest Regional Transport Office (RTO).

Steps to followed to get the vehicle fitness certificate in India using the online portal:

Step1: Login to the Parhivahan sewa online website
Step2: Enter the vehicle registration number and submit
Step3: Select Online services from the menu section
Step4: Select the Application for Fitness certificate
Step5: Fill the form details like chassis number, registration number and submit to generate OTP
Step6: Enter the OTP generated and proceed for online payment of fee
Step7: Make the online payment to complete the process

Once the online process is done, the vehicle owner need to take the print out fo the online application form and fee payment receipt. With the online form and vehicle, the owner needs to visit the nearest RTO office to the get the vehicle fitness certificate by providing the below-mentioned documents along with online application.

Orginal Vehicle fitness certificate
Vehicle Insurance certificate
Pollution control certificate

Driving License verification Online

To check the driving license of the driver, Government of India has launched the online parivahan portal to check the driving license status and RC book status of vehicles.

If you are looking to verify whether the driver has a valid driving license, his accident history, fines he paid for any taffic rules violations details can be checked online by entering the driving license number on parivahan portal.

How to verify the Driving License Online

To verify the driving license of the driver, just visit parivahan.gov.in and enter the driving license number and date of birth of the driver as mentioned in the driving license. Once you submit the right number details you will get the driver history.

Format of Driving License to be entered in parivahan website:

SS-RRYYYYNNNNNNN — This is the correct format of Driving license number
SS- State code (TN for Tamil Nadu, KL for Kerala, RJ for Rajasthan)
RR- RTO office code (01, 02, 09 etc)
YYYY-Year of driving license issues (2005, 2012, 2020 etc)
NNNNNNN-number of driving license

Proof of Delivery (POD)

For the logistics sector, POD i.e, Proof of Delivery is an essential document in the delivery system. Proof of delivery is the significant part in the delivery of consignments by the logistics industry, in the process POD establishes that the package has been delivered to the customer. POD is like a receipt that proves the delivery has been made.

Proof of delivery document consists of

Acknowledgement of receiving the order
Date and Time received
The name of the person who received the order

Importance of Proof of Delivery in the Logistics business

The parcel or consignment leaves to customer location after loading completes from the warehouse. Once it reaches the unloading point, the transportation driver has to get the POD from the customer base.

The customer has to check the delivery he received from the transportation company, if there is any damage or missing in the consignment he should mention clearly in the POD document, if the consignment is safe and clear, mention that too clearly in POD to avoid any future hassle.

In the same way, the seller or sender also should ensure that the consignment is safely packed and reach the customer destination without any damage.

At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the customer to check the delivery properly and mention the status clearly in the POD.

Different Types of POD

There is hard copy POD, where the customer needs to fill the delivery status manually and hand over to the logistics operator.

Now, with the advancement of technology, e-POD has been launched, electronic Proof of Delivery, where the customer can update the status of delivery online.

In the current scenario, most of the logistics operator is migrated to e-POD, but still few of them following the traditional hard copy POD.

Fastag

Government of India has made various regulations in the transportation and logistics sector. One such latest update is bringing digitisation in toll payment for vehicles, the government of India has launched Fastag for online payment of toll charges.

What is Fastag?

Fastag is prepaid rechargeable tags for payment of toll charges on all toll booths in India. It is an electronic mode of toll collection system introduced by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). It works based on RFID technology (Radio Frequency), which is affixed on the widescreen of vehicles. Fastag has no expiry dates, it can be used till it is able to readable in all toll booths.

How to purchase Fastag?

Government of India has authorised to buy the Fastag from the 22 certified banks. (Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Syndicate Bank, Federal Bank, South Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, Punjab & Maharashtra Co-op Bank, Sarawat Bank, City Union Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Union Bank, Nagpur Nagarik Sahakari Bank Ltd.) Also, the fastag can be purchased from the e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart.

To recharge the Fastag card, it can be done through various online modes such as Debit/Credit card, net banking, UPI payment, NEFT.

How do Fastag works?

The vehicle owner has to purchase the Fastag from the authorised provider and affix in the vehicle front screen. Once the vehicle has reached the toll booths, the device detects the Fastag RFID fixed in the vehicle and detects the amount automatically from the prepaid charges that the owner has already paid on his Fastag account.

E-way Bill

What is E-way Bill?

E-way bill is an electronic bill for the transit of goods, the bill needs to be generated eWay bill portal. A GST registered person need to send the goods exceeding Rs 50,000 need to send goods with proper eWay bill along with invoice copy or delivery challan.

When eWay is generated, a unique E-way bill number (EBN) will be generated and it will be available to supplier, recipient and transporter.

Who should generate an E-way bill?

Registered Person: E-way bill should be generated when there is transmit of goods of value more than Rs 50,000 for to or from a registered person.

Unregistered Person: Unregistered person can also generate the E-way bill. If the unregisterd person goods to registered person, then it is the responsibility of registered person to ensure that the goods tranported meet all regulatory compainance.

Transporter: The transporter need to generate the E-way bill if in case, the supplier has not generated the E-way bill

Part A and Part B of E-way Bill

Part A has other details such as the quantity and value of goods supplied.

Part B of the e-way bill has details like the transporter’s vehicle number.

The validity of e-way bill is one day up to 100 km, with some exceptions.

Expenses Management

Managing a fleet is hard, but managing the fleet expenses is even harder.

Expenses management is a process followed in businesses. Activities like maintaining, analyzing, monitoring expenses are really essential for the business to expand operations and production. Expenses are not something that company owes to only employees. Expenses are something spent to increase productivity and business growth, it includes fleet expenses, employee expenses, travel expenses, and many more.

What is Expenses Management?

Expenses management is the process of managing the expenditure only which meets the set of conditions laid by the business terms, it doesn’t include any non-work-related expenses. In a business, expenses management should have a clear and well-defined policy.

Managing Expenses is an important task?

We know expenses are greatly important to a business, the same importance should be given while managing the expenses of a fleet. Day-by-day business grows, investors increases, the quantum of money increases, but where are the records?

No, please don’t search for your hard copies or ledger book.

Technology said bye! to old age practices and said Hi! to Excel spreadsheets and Tally for your accounts.

How you ‘should not’ manage your Fleet Expenses?

Is Excel enough for your fleet business?

Absolutely not! coz fleet business expenditures are based on many factors and excel has many disadvantages.

People used to believe that fake manipulation occurs in excel spreadsheets.

Is that true?

Yes! It is, The main reason behind the excel spreadsheet fraudulent is the lack of protection, which makes the accuser alter formulas, values, tables, or dependencies easily.

Many fraudulent e-mails use excel spreadsheet attachments to download malicious code in the system. An attacker uses tricky techniques of excel sheets in the spam campaign.

There are many factors why you should not use Excel for managing business expenses

Isolated, Offline, and resistant (non-collaboration)
Explosion of Data
88% of spreadsheets contain has to error
Non-mobile-friendly
Excel Macros

Macro transformations in our lives are acceptable in some circumstances; but Macros in Excel, are Non tolerable in any circumstance.

6. Premium! Money! Premium! Money!

We hope these major factors are enough to avoid Excel spreadsheets for managing business expenses. Know more and detail about the pitfalls of Excel in fleet management.

How to manage expenses in a fleet business? Before that let’s see what expenses are there in a fleet Business.

What are the expenses that happen in a Fleet Business?

1. Planned service expenses

Planned vehicle maintenance ensures that your assets are well maintained and increases the performance of the vehicle. It helps you to save money on unplanned repairs in a vehicle.

Performing regular maintenance and health checks includes inspections on the vehicle controls, regular servicing, oil change, wheel tire pressure, spare parts replacements, brake steering, headlights, doors, horn, first aid kit, and much more.

How to achieve this planned maintenance on time?

Fleet management software allows you to set reminders with vehicle details. We know you can simply set an alarm on your mobile phone to remind you,

but what is the benefit of using FleetOS while scheduling maintenance?

FleetOS let you set reminders with vehicle details like vehicle number, focus issues on this vehicle, and helps you to analyze the performance of the vehicle before and after the vehicle maintenance.

Notifications from FleetOS maximize the uptime of the vehicle and prevent unnecessary expenses.

Today vehicle maintenance might cost you a few hundred banknotes, but tomorrow replacements and unplanned repairs might cost you thousands or much more banknotes.

2. Fuel cost

Do you think Fuel management is important to manage your business expenses?

Yes! Fuel expenses are the attention seeker in business expenditure.

Petrol or diesel, fuel prices fluctuate steadily. These are No1 factors contributing an increase to the total fleet operating costs every year.

Reducing fuel consumption is not a simple task but an effective task. Here are 5 tips to minimize fuel expenses in your fleet business.

Regular and proper vehicle maintenance
Selecting optimized routes
Replacing of aged vehicles
Controlling rash driving
Implementing fleet management software(FleetOS)

3. Toll / calculate toll expenses

A fleet owner should also consider toll expenses in the overall business expenditure. Calculating approximate toll expenses before a trip could help a fleet manager to manage overall trip expenses.

A toll road is also known as a turnpike, toll highway, tollway, or toll route. Typically it is a public or private highway. Toll fee is a pricing method of the highway implemented to regain the costs of road construction and maintenance. Totally India consists of 562 toll plazas.

National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) launched Fastag lanes in 370 toll plazas and the Indian government made fastag mandatory on all new vehicles sold after December 2017. Fastag was made mandatory on all National Highways (NH) on October 19, 2019.

FASTAG — A Digital Toll Payment

Fastag is an electronic toll collection system in India. Works with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to make toll payments directly from the bank account linked to it.

It is pasted on the windscreen of your vehicle and enables you to cross the toll plazas without stopping for cash transactions. This technology exactly works based on Radio Waves in the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Fastag transacting needs 2 components which is RFID Tag (pasted on the windscreen), and RFID Scanner which scans the Fastag, as soon as a vehicle enters the lane.

Fastag used to collect every detail of the vehicle using RFID scanners like Fastag ID, vehicle registration number, vehicle weight, vehicle Wheels i.e. distance between 2 axles, transaction number, the temperature inside the vehicle, and lane information.

The Indian government released 7 different colors of Fastag for 7 different types of vehicles.

Violet Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 4 for Car, Jeep Van mini Light Commercial Vehicle
Orange Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 5 (2 Axel) light Commercial Vehicle Mini-Bus.
Green Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 7 (2 Axle) Bus and Trucks.
Yellow Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 6 (3 Axle) buses and trucks.
Pink Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 12 (4, 5, and 6 Axle) buses and trucks.
Sky blue color Fastag: Vehicle Class 15 more than (7 Axles) trucks
Black Colour Fastag: Vehicle Class 16 HCM (Heavy Construction Machinery) and EME (Earth Moving Equipments) like JCB etc.

What are the benefits of using FASTag?

1. An easy transaction that saves time and you can avoid traffic

2. Online Payment using Credit Card, Debit Card, UPI, Net banking, etc.

3. Alerts as SMS for toll transactions, low balance reminder, etc.

4. Valid for 5 Years.

4. Service AMC and Tyre AMC

Annual Maintenance Contract or Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC). AMCs are offered by all manufacturers for their product after selling it i.e, every manufacturer should provide maintenance service to their buyers for their products. This AMC maintenance may be chargeable, or chargeable with discounts, or free of charge according to the AMC contract.

Mainly AMC is provided to a commercial buyer. A fleet manager can get an AMC contract for vehicle services and for tires of the vehicle. AMC also covers engine oil, grease pack, oil filters, fuel filter, air filter, brake oil, Coolant, AC, etc.

A fleet manager or owner should not get confused between warranty and AMC. Many fraudulent things happen in the name of AMC. Then what is the difference between AMC and warranty?

AMC is only for commercial purposes and there are no terms and conditions, AMC can be charged or it can be done cost-free. Warranty was given by the manufacturer to their product by providing security or any repair or replacement can be done with specific terms and conditions for a period of time, mainly warranty was given for both commercial or domestic purpose consumers.

5. RTO Charges

Road tax or motor vehicle tax are known to be RTO charges. This tax was laid by the State and the Central government on every vehicle before it was used on the public road. This tax is a single or yearly payment tax.

In India, each and every state has a different tax amount, if you’re buying a new or a used vehicle for commercial or domestic purposes, you should be aware of the tax policies in your state.

Do you know?

Karnataka has the highest amount of tax in India rate of 14.43%
The north-east region has the lowest road tax in India, mainly Himachal Pradesh only has 3% of the maximum road tax.

6. DRIVER salary/ payments

Drivers’ salary is the main part of fleet business expenses. The driver’s salary depends upon the market rate, type of vehicle they drive, years of experience. Today technology helps to maintain salary through many different kinds of resources management tools.

7. Freight Brokerages

A freight broker is someone who acts as an intermediate between a shipper and freight service provider. Freight brokers can be specialized in several types of freight, such as materials hauling on lowboys, oversize materials, bulk tankers, or other types of freights. Freight brokers are responsible for arranging transportation.

A fleet owner can lend extra or any Ad Hoc vehicles from Freight brokers. These broker charges can be paid on a commission basis. An average brokerage fee can range from 15% to 20%.

8. GPS/ telematics

A highlight expenses in the fleet business. GPS/Telematics expenses are considered to be valuable and worthable expenses in the fleet business. How GPS/Telematics devices help a Fleet owner?

Optimize your route for transportation
Fuel Managing and Monitoring
Theft Control
Evaluating overall trip expenses
Increase efficiency, transparency, and customer satisfaction.
Increase the driver and vehicle safety

9. Fitness Certificate Check

Fleet owners should have an eye on fitness certificate constantly, every object has a lifetime. Checking vehicles steadily will help to keep drivers safe and it can help you to increase productivity.

A fitness certificate (FC) is issued for every transport vehicle for two years and it needs to be renewed every two years till the vehicle becomes eight years old. After that, the vehicles have to renew fitness certificates for everyone year after paying tax. Renewal of fitness certificate for transport vehicles older than 15 years should be done every six months once.

What is the fee payable for a fresh commercial vehicle fitness certificate in India?

Every different state in India has a different fee amount payable for the government.

10. Loading/unloading charges

Loading and unloading charges are the cost paid for the services of loading or unloading cargo between any place or points.

Demurrage and Detention are the types of charges paid by the merchant for containers waiting at the loading or unloading point.

when you’re running late with your goods in the containers. The number of free days from the day you exceed, demurrage and detention charges will be added.

11. Unplanned en route expenses

Unplanned en route expenses are expected expenses by a fleet owner. Every fleet manager or owner should be ready for unplanned en route expenses if they don’t want to stop their work in between.

Goonda tax

Goonda related to the term “gunda-gardi”, which means “bully-boy tactics”. Goonda tax refers to bribe/graft/tips or money extorted in a protection racket.

A protection racket is a scheme where a hazardous group assures protection from violence, looting, raiding, piracy, and other threats posed by them, which is illegal and punishable.

For example, a group of people can stop a driver from his work by looting freights or not letting him inside a particular area for delivering the goods and many more.

To overcome this act a driver needs to pay a separate amount to this group of people if the work needs to be continued. Many states of India have special laws and regulations to deal with goonda tax.

Some of these laws permit harsh treatment such as giving the police the right or power to shoot those people on sight. But anyway these tax and the scheme continues in many corners of India.

Roadside service expenses

Roadside sudden unplanned services result in unplanned costs for your fleet operation.

What unexpected things happen en route?

Puncture
Breakdown
Spare problems, etc.

These downtimes of vehicles affect the productivity of the business. But, a fleet owner should never stop his work in between, he/she should be ready to face these unexpected expenses en route.

There are many ways to minimize expenses in a business, but in the fleet industry, it becomes the toughest task. Using FleetOS expenses reports in a fleet manager can reduce fleet business expenses and improve productivity.

Vehicle Maintenance Management

Vehicle maintenance refers to the effective maintenance of vehicle, proper repair process and upkeep of vehicles owned by the fleet owners for logistics business. The agenda behind the vehicle maintenance management is to bring effectiveness and safety of using the vehicles.

Most of the fleet operators provide outsourcing with vehicle maintenance to AMC providers in the market. But it is the responsibility of the fleet manager to keep the vehicle in proper condition for efficient business development.

To run a successful fleet business the fleet operator should maintain the vehicle in good condition for the smooth process of business progress, since, the organisation entirely depend upon the health of the vehicle and vehicle availability for delivery of the consignment.

Proper management of vehicle increases the profit of the company and improves productivity.

Significance of Vehicle Maintenance in Fleet Business

In the logistics business, maintaining the vehicle in good condition improve profit margin but it has also other impacts such as the better resale value of the vehicle, enhances environmental compliances, reduces the operational cost related to the fleet maintenance plan and finally reduces the repair cost of the fleet.

Preventive Maintenance

Regular scheduled maintenance of the vehicle like truck and trailers should be done after 50,000 kilometers.
The oil of the vehicle should be checked and change after every 30,000 kilometers
The vehicle tyre needs to be rotated every 5000 kilometers after checking the wear and tear of the tyre.
The air filter needs to be cleaned after every trip and tyre air checkup should be done before every trip is started.
The grease for joints in the vehicle spare parts should be properly greased after every 500 kilometers
The grease for pin should be checked for every trip
The vehicle oil needs to be checked atevery trip and if it is stopped more than an hour the oil should be properly inspected due to heat.
The engine radiator need to check regularly after stopped an hour.
The tyre rotation of inside to outside and outside to inside can be done based on tyre wear.
Need to replace the oil of the vehicle if looks thik black.

Logistics Simplified

Logistics is managing the movement of goods or services from one location to another location.

There are three different types of logistics.

Inbound logistics:

Let’s take amazon or Flipkart as an example. They source millions of products to their warehouses. The movement of products (goods) to their warehouses is called Inbound logistics.

Outbound logistics :

Once a customer buys a product via their website, the goods should be moved from the warehouse to the customer’s place, right? That’s called outbound logistics.

Reverse logistics :

On a customer raises a return request for whatever reasons (defective or something else), amazon or Flipkart must arrange pickup from the customer’s place. This is called reverse logistics. In some cases dealers may opt to return unsold goods.

Modes of Transportation

There are multiple modes of transportation involved in moving the good — namely, Road, Rail, Air & Ship. There is one more mode available that is “pipe.” But that mode is too much away from our line of discussion hence ignoring it.

Road logistics in detail

In Road logistics, multiple types of vehicles are involved in moving the goods from one place to another place.

Containers trucks, mini trucks, pickup trucks, and bikes. Usually, last-mile delivery is handled by bikes or mini trucks, or pick up trucks. Last-mile delivery means, movement of products from the warehouse to the buyer’s home or office.

Logistics is the second biggest sector in India, next to agriculture. It employs millions of people. It roughly cost around 14% of GDP (~200 billion USD) in India. And it’s growing rapidly.

Steps involved in moving a product (goods) from a manufacturing location to the seller’s warehouse:

Fleet Operator or Logistics operator (3PL) receives an order to move freight. FLeet Manager does a planning based on truck availability &TAT (Turn around time), lane (routinely served route), gross weight (total weight of the freight) moves one or more trucks to loading point to execute the order.

On reaching the loading location the driver should inform the loading supervisor.
Usually there will be some wait time before loading starts. Wait time depends on so many factors like backlogs, workforce availability, etc. Loading charges varies from case to case. This is negotiated and documented properly.
On loading completion the driver receives the “Receipts/Bills/Bilty/Lorry Receipt (LR)” and E-Way Bill. E waybill is a bill generated on the govt website. It’s a mechanism to inform the govt a sale has happened and goods are going to be moved from one location to another. To know more in detail pls click this link.
The driver must upload the bill and report the expenses via the driver app immediately.
At times loading can be rejected if the trucks don’t meet the supplier’s specifications (manufacturer). A driver must inform the fleet manager immediately by making a call or via the driver app.
On loading completed, the driver should ensure the seal, take a photo of it and upload it via the driver app.
The truck may be loaded fully or partially. If it’s loaded fully, it’s called FTL. FTL is beneficial for the fleet operator. If loaded partially, it’s called LTL. LTL means Less than truckload. If the truck is not fully loaded, fleet owner usually hunt for more freight to fill the truck. In that case they need Blanket EWAY bill.
Assume that the trucks moved smoothly to the destination place (unloading location). In this case, seller’s warehouse.
The driver should report to the unloading supervisor.
The goods may be unloaded into the warehouse or loaded into another truck. If the loads shifted from one truck to another truck it’s called cross-docking. Cross-docking has multiple benefits and also challenges. Benefits are less handling cost, less operating cost, and no storage inventory cost. But it has others challenges like timely availability of trucks to unload.
If the unloading didn’t start after the agreed time, the detention charge could be levied. Detention charge should be negotiated and documented with freight provider or broker before start of the trip itself. A broker is an intermediary between a freight shipper and a carrier who can transport their freight.
On unloading completion, the driver should get a seal and signature on the bill. It’s called POD. Proof of delivery. Immediately upload the photo of the POD via the driver app. This can act as E-POD (Electronic Proof of delivery).
In case the delivery is COD (Collect on Delivery), the driver should collect the cash at the unloading point.

Important terms to know in Logistis business

Milk Run: Similar to milk men delivering milk every day to every house holds by sourcing entire milk at single point, Milk run trucks moves good from warehouse to manufacturing plants repeatedly.

Long haul: Also know as Line haul. Movement of trucks from city to another city. Usually it involves crossing of multiple state borders. If loading and unloading happen within a state, only locally registered trucks can be used. Only for interstate movements, any trucks can be used

Types of Trucks

Trucks or lorries, those motor vehicles are designed to transport goods. Trucks come in various shapes and sizes with different configurations. Almost all trucks share a common construction but have different responsibilities.

The logistics industry is one of the largest complex industries, where it completely depends on transportation, approximately 60% of world trade happens on roads with trucks, and another 40% move with different modes of transportation.

The needs of the logistics industry change every day according to the demands. There are different types of trucks, but all are used in Logistics?

No! all are not used in logistics.

Each truck has different configurations, transporters should choose the trucks carefully according to the purpose, which should not affect the profit or productivity of the transporter.

Here are some different types of trucks.

What are the types of trucks used in logistics worldwide?

Commercial trucks in logistics are commonly classified into 3 types by considering the weight factor.

Lightweight trucks

Lightweight or Mini-trucks serve a wide range of uses like delivering lightweight loads over short distances. These mini trucks are classified as low-speed vehicles, they approximately have 25 mph (40 km/h) and weigh up to 6,350 kg. These vehicles are found uses for construction sites, inside large scale industry or small scale industries, agriculture, cattle ranches, and replacements for golf carts.

Medium weight trucks

Medium trucks are normally larger than lightweight trucks but smaller than heavyweight trucks. Normally medium truck weights between 6,351–11,793kg like pickup trucks, garbage trucks, fire-fighting trucks, mobile cranes, etc.

Heavyweight trucks

Heavy trucks are considered the largest ones. They can weigh between 11,794–14,969 kg. In some countries, heavyweight trucks are restricted or they should have special permits to travel inside cities. By restricting heavyweight trucks will avoid road damage and accidents.

What Are The Different Types Of Freight Trucks?

Freight trucks are mainly and widely used in the logistics industry. Those trucks are best for off-road driving. Freight trucks normally work with advanced and high-power engines. These trucks are designed to carry the bulk of the load on the road. Every driver needs to be aware of the various types of freight trucks they operate because each model has a different power, capacities, and different designs. Any truck driver who operates these trucks must obtain a special permit license legally to transport freight.

Semi-Trailer Trucks

Semi-trailer or tractor-trailers or 18-wheelers, or big rigs are widely used trucks to transport goods in Logistics. 85% of goods transported in a semi-trailer truck especially 18 wheeler. They have an openable top and from the side to load the freight. These Semi-trailers have a maximum capacity of 20–22 tons which is nearly 19,000 kg.

Straight Trucks

Straight trucks are another popular commonly used freight truck in logistics also called a cube van, cube truck, or box truck. These trucks are well closed, generally used to transport furniture, home appliances, and small goods. The maximum capacity of a straight truck is 5–6 tons nearly 4,500 kg.

Jumbo trailer Truck

A jumbo trailer truck bigger version of a semi-trailer truck. These jumbo trucks can carry an average weight of 24,000 kg. These trucks are best for transporting a large number of goods as it has a lesser wheel diameter and spacious.

Tail-lift Truck

A tail-lift truck or lift-gate truck is one of the heavy-duty trucks. The specialty of lift-gate trucks is the lifting mechanism of these trucks, which helps to load extremely weight goods in a few minutes. These tail lift trucks may use a hydraulic mechanism to carry goods. The average carrying capacity lies between 0.5–2 tons nearly 2000 kg.

Flatbed Truck

Flatbed trucks or open cargo bed trailers, these trucks are well known for their adaptability. They are designed to carry extremely oversized goods and helps to make loading and unloading easy. These flatbed trucks can carry 20–40 tons of load easily. These trucks are mainly used to carry cars, heavy machinery, wood, pipes, construction material, etc.

Tanker Truck

Tanker trucks are especially known for their name, they consist of a large tank. These tanker trucks can only carry liquids like chemicals, oils, and gases. These trucks are extremely dangerous and even they are fireproof trucks. The maximum capacity of a tanker truck will be 24,000 liters.

Reefer Truck

These trucks have the facility of refrigeration. These trucks are mainly used to transport edible goods like agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, etc. These trucks can control the inner temperature of the trailer from + 25 ° C to -25 ° C. These trucks are known to be expensive than other types of trucks by 5–25%. The average capacity of this truck lies between 12–22 tons.

Truck Transportation and Logistics in India

Transportation has become a significant task in India, especially when it comes to land. Most businesses depend on this roadway transportation. The need for the logistics department in India became vital.

Transportation Ministry became a crucial task in India. Major and majority cities of India like Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, have restricted the transportation of heavyweight commercial trucks inside the cities. To avoid traffic, road damages, and accidents.

Unfortunately, each type of heavyweight truck presents different types of dangers in the event of a traffic collision on road. If heavyweight trucks wanted to travel inside the city, the Transportation Ministry has certain rules and regulations for them to get special permissions and they are not allowed during peak hours. School & office timings (8 am — 11 am and 4 pm -11 pm) are peak hours. Essential goods like milk, fuel, and medicines, are few exemptions from this rule.

TRUCKS USED FOR INTER-CITY TRANSPORTATION IN INDIA

We know roads are an important mode of transportation in India. Truck manufacturers in India manufacture different types of trucks, but there are only a few trucks with certain specifications that can be used in the inner-cities of India.

Light open body trucks

These light open body trucks should lie between 14–19 feet and the maximum capacity of this truck should be 3.5 to 10 tons.

Heavy open Body Trucks

These heavy body trucks come in 22–27 feet with 10–14 wheels, the maximum capacity of these heavy open body truck should be 31 tons.

Heavy closed body or Container truck

These trucks are used to carry heavyweight goods. These trucks can have up to 32 feet multi-axle with 16 tons capacity maximum.

The productivity or operational cost of your business depends on choosing the right trucks for your logistics transportation. Choose wisely and maintain your trucks with FleetOS.

List of Traffic Violations and Penalties under New Motor Vehicle Act 2019

To have a safe ride on roads, drivers need to follow the basic traffic rules for not only avoiding penalties but also for running a successful logistics business. Some of the essential traffic rules in India:

Keep Left: In the Indian roads, the vehicles should always keep on the left-hand side of the road and drive on the left side of roadways.
Use Indicators: While driving vehicles, use proper signal indicators to avoid road mishaps and accidents.
Wear Helmet while Driving 2-Wheeler: It is mandatory to wear helmet for two wheel driving under section129 r/w 177 of Motor Vehicle Act.
Wear Seatbelts in LMV and HMV: Always wear the seat belt while drving light motor vehicles such as cars and also for heavy duty vehicles as presecribed under138 (3) CMVR law.
Avoid Mobile phones while driving: It is punishable offence to use mobile phone while driving vehicle under section 184 of Motor Vehicle Act.
Display Vehicle Registered Number Properly: Proper display of vehicle registration number is mandatory (39 r/w 192 of the Motor Vehicle Act).
Always Overtake from the right side: While driving vehicle, overtake the vehicle from the right side and avoid the left side overtaking.
Give way for emergency services: Ensure proper way has been given to emergency vehicles such as Ambulance, Fire services (194E of Motor Vehicle Act).
Maintain Lane Discipline: Follow the lane rules, side rules and yellow line strictly while driving vehicles.
Maintain Proper Speed Limit: As per road standards and sign boards follow the speed rules on roads.
Follow Road Signs: Follow the signs that are mentioned on roadside while driving (22 (b) RRR 239 MMVR 177 Motor Vehicle Act).
Give way for Pedestrians: Avoid driving at pedestrians and let the pedestrain serve the purpose of walkers.
Carry Driving License and Insurance Certificates: Always need to carry valid driving licence under section 3 of 181 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Also need to carry vehicle insurance certificate and need to submit the insurance to the traffic department on demand under section 130 r/w 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Carry valid documents related to vehicles and trip to avoid penalty under 130 (3) r/w 177 Motor Vehicle Act.
Follow Signal Rules: 121 RRR 177 Motor Vehicle Act
Avoid Drunk and Drive: It is punishable offence under section185 of the Motor Vehicle Act for consuming alcohol and driving the vehicle.
Avoid Overloading: If it is goods carrier ensure the vehicle load is as mandated and directed by transportation laws, vehicle capacity. The same applies to passenger vehicles.
Avoid Overspeeding: Overspeeding is punishable offence under 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act
Vehicle Permit for Commercial Vehicles: Need to carry vehicle permit for commercial fleets under130 r/w 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act
Fitness Certificate: For comercial fleet and personal vehicles the owner of the vehicle should have a proper vehicle fitness certificate under 130 r/w 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Offence	Penalty under New Motor Vehicle (amendment) Act, 2019
General Offence for first time	First-Time Offence: Rs.500
General Offence for second time	Second-Time Offence: Rs.1,500
Violation of Road Rules	Rs.500 to Rs.1,000
Ticket less Travel	Rs.500
Disobeying orders from the Authorities and Refusing to Share Information	Rs.2,000
Driving an Unauthorized Vehicle without License	Rs.5,000
Driving Without License	Rs.5,000
Driving Regardless of Disqualification	Rs.10,000
Over-Speeding fine for Light Motor Vehicle	Rs.1,000 to Rs.2,000
Over-Speeding fine for Medium Passenger or Goods Vehicle	Rs.2,000 to Rs.4,000 and impounding of DL for the Subsequent or Second-Time Offence.
Dangerous / Rash Driving for First time offence	Imprisonment of 6 Months to 1 Year and/or Fine of Rs.1,000 to Rs.5,000
Dangerous / Rash Driving for Second time offence	Imprisonment of up to 2 years and/or Fine up to Rs.10,000.
Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Intoxicating Substance for First Time Offence	Rs.10,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 6 months.
Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Intoxicating Substance for Second Time Offence	Rs.15,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 2 years.
Oversized Vehicles	Rs.5,000
Driving When Mentally/Physically Unfit for First time offence	Rs.1,000
Driving When Mentally/Physically Unfit for Second time offence	Rs.2,000
Accident Related Offences for First time offence	Rs.5,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 6 months.
Accident Related Offences for Second time offence	Rs,10,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 1 Year.
Driving Uninsured Vehicle (without Insurance) for first time offence	Rs.2,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 3 months.
Driving Uninsured Vehicle (without Insurance) for second time offence	Rs.4,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 3 months.
Racing and Speeding for first time offence	Rs.5,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 3 months.
Racing and Speeding for second time offence	Rs.10,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 1 year.
Vehicle Without Permit	Rs.10,000 and/or Imprisonment of up to 6 months.
Aggregators (Violations of Licensing Conditions)	Rs.25,000 to Rs.1 lakh
Overloading	Rs.20,000 and Rs.2,000 per extra tonne
Overloading of Passengers	Rs.1,000 per extra passenger
Not Wearing Seatbelt	Rs.1,000
Overloading of Two-Wheelers	Rs.2,000 and Disqualification of License for 3 months
Not Wearing Helmet	Rs.1,000 and Disqualification of License for 3 months
Not Providing Way for Emergency Vehicles	Rs.10,000 and/or Imprisonment of 6 months
Offences by Juveniles	Rs.25,000 with Imprisonment of 3 years for which the Guardian / Owner shall be deemed to be guilty.
Power of Officers to Impound Documents	Suspension of DL under Section 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E
Offences Committed by Enforcing Officers	Double the Penalty under Relevant Section

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Summary

Topics Discussed in the article:

What is Fleet Management?

Problems Faced by Fleet Industry

Structure of the Industry

Insurance

Overloading of Vehicles

Driver Shortages

Inadequate and Deficient Road Network

Road Safety

Unregulated Booking Agents and Brokers

Fuel Costs

Driver Behaviour

Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Regulatory Compliance

Lack of Wayside Amenities

Challenges Faced by Fleet Managers in the Logistics Industry

1. Real-time Fleet Tracking

2. Transparency

3. Fuel Management

4. Route Optimization

5. Driver Management

6. Vehicle Acquisition

7. Overall Cost Reduction

Fleet Management Software

Fleet Security and Control (Remote Vehicle Disabling systems)

Fleet replacement and Lifecycle Management

Evolution of Fleet Management Software

History of Fleet Management Systems

Introduction of GPS in Fleet Management

How does Fleet Management Software work?

Benefits of Fleet Management in the Logistics Industry

Fuel Consumption Control

Preventive Maintenance Control

Automated Reports and Insights

Real-time Fleet Data Analysis

Fleet Safety

Delivery Deadline Compliance

Accidents and Risk management

Vehicle Tracking System

How does the vehicle tracking system work?

WorkFlow of Telematics

Difference Between Vehicle tracking System and FMS

Types of Vehicle Tracking System

1.Tracking with GPS Device

Features of Vehicle Tracking System

Real-Time Tracking

Graphical Reports

Instant Notifications

Geofence and landmarks

Speed Monitoring

Fuel Level Monitoring

Engine On/Off

Idle and Parking

2. SIM-bases Tracking (Tracking without GPS)

Stakeholders involved in Fleet management

Internal Stakeholders

External Stakeholders

Fleet Drivers in Fleet Management

Hiring Drivers

Recruiting New Drivers

Driver Training

Driver Behaviour Assessment

Speeding

Road Rules Regulation

Braking Pattern

Acceleration Pattern

Idling and Parking Time

How to Monitor Driver Behaviour

Driver Safety

Vehicle Dashboard Reports

Driver Reporting

Trip Planning

Vehicle Loading

Fuel Expenses

Intransit Service

Destination

Transportation Routes of India