You may have heard the common phrase that practice makes perfect. We would advise something a bit different. Practice for the sake of practice does no one good. You must practice correctly and build your skills in the proper manner. A better turn of phrase might be that good practice makes perfect. A similar principle can be applied to collecting and properly utilizing the vast amounts of data that we all must deal with nowadays.
Because when it comes to raw data and information, there is another phrase that should come to mind: “Garbage in and garbage out.” And since so many aspects of a trucking company’s operations now utilize data, smart fleet managers know they must keep a handle on it. Whether it be acquisition, resale, operations, maintenance, recruiting, retention, fuel usage, and so much more – it’s all about the data.
The most important thing is to know what data you need and don’t need. The most inefficient thing a fleet manager can do is get caught up in a mountain of data they neither want nor need. You simply don’t have the time to dig through a mountain of data just to find that one kernel of information you need. So, what can you do about it? First, find your focus.
What is Your Data Focus?
The most important thing you can do to get a handle on all the information coming at you on a daily basis is to find your focus. What is your company’s mission? What are your goals and what kind of operation do you run? If your focus is on safety and sustainability, then you need to make those the object of your focus. Data related to safety and sustainability must be brought to the front of your decision making.
You may also want to take a close look at your company pain points. Are you finding that fuel costs have gotten out of control? Perhaps maintenance costs are way too high? Are your truck drivers getting into too many accidents or breaking down far too often while they are out on the road? These are the questions you need to ask yourself.
Many times, the problem stems from the sheer number of systems trucking companies use. It may be beneficial to invest in a comprehensive fleet management system that brings all your software under one umbrella. This will make it much easier to gather data according to specific points of interest.
Focus on Tracking and Validation
Utilizing inaccurate data to make business decisions is only going to hurt you down the road. Ensure you are completing thorough data audits so that you can be sure the information you use to create procedures is correct. Whether you are gathering information from a telematics system or other digital device, it is still possible to get it wrong, especially where humans are concerned. If humans are entering this data manually, it will always be susceptible to mistakes.
Make sure you pay close attention to data entry. Whether it be a VIN number, odometer readings, purchase dates, registration information, or otherwise, bad data will leave you with bad results. And if you are basing business decisions down the line in bad data, those will be bad business decisions.
Maintenance is an area where it can be very easy to get the data wrong. If you do not properly track maintenance, you may find vehicles back in the shop for an oil change or servicing they do not need. Not only will this result in vehicle downtime, but it is going to hit your bottom line.
Still, fleets often focus on new technologies. With so many new processes, procedures, and technologies available, it can be easy to get lost in the data dump. One of the big technologies on everyone’s mind today is electric vehicle technology. Let’s spend some time talking about how you can collate and use data related to electric vehicles.
Harnessing the Power of Data for Your EV Strategy
When it comes to adopting new technologies, such as electric vehicles (EV), how you collect and use your data becomes more important than ever. Fleets need to know what industry benchmarks they are working with. They need a live analysis that will empower them to understand total cost of ownership and baseline operating costs for EVs. How else will they be able to make an educated guess on what to adopt, and when?
Fortunately, there are plenty of vendors in the trucking marketplace who can help trucking and supply chain companies make sense of existing data streams. Just consider how much data fleets must already deal with. From telematics systems to ELDs, resource planning systems, fleet management systems, fuel cards, in-cab cameras, and so much more. There’s a lot to consider.
Fleet managers need to pay extra close attention to managing business intelligence and providing actionable suggestions to handle all the data intersection points they must deal with. There are really two approaches to take when it comes to managing EV data. First, you want to focus on intersecting data points, then have a close look at individual bits of data that stand out.
Invest in an Intelligent Business Intelligence Platform
What fleets need is a cohesive place where they can conduct vital data-related duties, such as fleet benchmarking, analytics, and management of lifecycle applications. Integrated business intelligence platforms provide a place where siloed data can all be brought into one place and disparate data streams can be combined. This is how fleets gain actionable intelligence out of all their data.
The process involves clearing out unneeded data and cleaning up and organizing what is left. Fleet managers need to be data agnostics, but have the flexibility to choose the data points they want to use. These methods carry great potential for electrified fleets. Why? Because current EV systems come with built-in API connections. They can easily be connected to current systems and programmed to transmit and receive data from across different fleet systems.
When it comes to EVs, most telematics and data vendors focus on front-end metrics. These metrics include everything from capital costs to fuel savings, range, and charging capabilities. Still, vendors are coming out with new systems that integrate this data so that fleet managers can have a holistic viewpoint of how EV usage is impacting the fleet. The best way to do this is to figure out what data points drive EV usage.
Isolating EV Data From the Rest
Given how new EVs are, fleet managers need to get creative when it comes to managing the data they generate. Connections among a broader array of data points can help glean useful bits of information. This could be everything from total cost of ownership to a more reliable replacement cycle. The critical factor is to align EV data with analytics and forecasting systems.
Just take number of EV trucks as one example. EVs are so new that if a fleet has 500 of them, there really is no way to accurately predict maintenance costs over, say, the next ten years. How many technicians will the fleet need to manage those EVs? How much time will routine maintenance take? No one yet knows the complexities and questions related to EVs, from downtime to labor hours and replacement cycles. By focusing on the right data, fleet managers can provide accurate prediction where EVs are concerned.
Right now, all the data related to EV usage comes from passenger EVs, but that does little good for trucking companies. Utilizing the right data will ensure that you are using EVs properly. No one has yet seen an electric truck haul a full 80,000 pounds, yet plenty of fleets use electric vans and pickup trucks. Building useful data points around these vehicles will help set a fleet up for success.
By providing performance analytics on electrified fleets, motor carriers can report ROI insights on different makes and models, so managers can compare them in terms of costs, lifecycles, durability, maintenance needs, power consumption, emission reductions, range, and depreciation. Managers can then benchmark their fleet EV performance against their competitors in the marketplace. The transition to electric will not be easy, but smart fleet managers will use EV data to their advantage.