Trucks and trailers enable shippers and 3PLs to carry their cargo where it needs to go. But if you lose track of your assets — in the yard or in-transit — it’s worse than not having them. A defective asset can delay a shipment, and a lost asset means financial loss, as well as other potential ramifications. Fortunately, fleet visibility tools allow you to operate efficiently and make informed decisions to improve your fleet and asset management.
What is a fleet visibility solution?
A fleet visibility solution offers real time visibility into your trucks, trailers, and other assets. In Overhaul’s case, we provide visibility into your yard down to the parking space, as well as insights into in-transit shipments. Our flexible platform also enables better asset tracking in warehouses, assistance with reverse logistics, and more.
All of these capabilities come together to offer several important benefits.
Fleet balancing
Fleet balancing helps ensure that you have the right assets at the right place and time. As an example, if you’re a food distribution company, you’re going to have a lot more food coming out of one production center than another at different times of year. With fleet balancing, you can ensure you have the trucks and trailers you need for these high-volume locations.
Other industries can also benefit from fleet balancing. For instance, if you’re a retail wholesaler, you might do more deliveries in September when everyone’s going back to school. Fleet balancing can help make sure you have the assets you need during this chaotic time. It can also be useful when you make changes to route plans and need to rearrange where different assets are going. In this way, you’ll cut down on non-profitable journeys that not only don’t earn your company money but also add wear and tear to your assets.
Asset utilization
Asset utilization helps you ensure you’re getting the most use out of every asset you own. By splitting shipments as evenly as possible across your fleet, and making sure the right vehicles are being used for the right jobs, you’ll prevent certain assets from being overused and others from being underused. This is important because it affects your bottom line.
If drivers always pick the same few vehicles to drive, then some will quickly wear down while others will linger with no mileage. In the former case, that means more frequent, costly repairs. In the latter case, it means you’ve paid for an asset you’re not using, which is wasted value.
Maintenance costs
A good fleet visibility solution will help you look across data and make cost-effective judgement calls. For example, if you only have two trailers and one is in for maintenance, you’ll need to plan accordingly. With a fleet management system, you’ll be able to see if an asset needs any last-minute repairs or if a tractor isn’t where it should be.
Via Overhaul’s fleet visibility tool, Asset Manager, you can now upload your vehicle maintenance records to better keep track of your assets. This will allow you to better understand when your vehicles need preventative maintenance so you won’t be caught unawares.
Fleet visibility
As previously said, visibility is the cornerstone of a fleet management system. You’ll want to be able to see your assets on-the-go and in your yard. You’ll also want to ensure you have up-to-the minute, accurate data. This is where Overhaul’s solution shines.
Overhaul connects assets, distribution centers, yards, and in-transit shipments to our global platform for a single unified view of your logistics program. We’re the only provider to offer data from cargo to cab and include your logistics, security, and quality data down to the product-level. This complete fleet visibility solution offers enhanced awareness, which means better preparedness and more effective processes.
What makes Overhaul’s fleet visibility tool unique?
While other RTTVPs simply offer fleet management tools, Overhaul provides a logistics-focused view of asset management. By tying Asset Manager into our Shipment Manager solution, you’re able to track assets and cargo simultaneously. This way, you’ll gain better shipment insights, asset insights, and overall logistics insights all at once.
With Overhaul, you’ll improve every asset’s ROI by maximizing utilization, simplifying fleet balancing, and reducing dwell time with features like maintenance records. Plus, you’ll get temperature monitoring and remote control over assets via our partner integrations for streamlined asset prep and on-demand quality control.
We also allow you to track any asset you want. You can then use our data to optimize the lifecycle of that asset. When that asset is past its prime, our data can also help convince management you’re in need of a new one.
Fleet visibility is only one part of our larger Overhaul solution. Via driver behavior management, you’ll gain insights into your drivers and vehicles on the road. And with our product-level visibility, you’ll know immediately if there’s a quality issue with your product. To learn more about these solutions and how they can enable your business, contact us today.
