If you manage a fleet of equipment and tools on separate sites, or with technicians who take equipment to different sites, and you don‘t know who has taken the equipment, to work where, or whether your equipment has returned and in what condition, then you often hear the following:

• “The equipment goes out to the sites but we don’t know who took it and whether it has been returned”.
• “We often buy back lost equipment and that costs us a lot of money”.
• “You never know which machine is still on which site – it changes all the time”.
• “You never find the right equipment when you need it, it’s always like that”.
• “Our Excel spreadsheets are never up to date, and if the person in charge isn’t there, we don’t know where we stand”.
• “Inventories are complicated and time-consuming, and all the equipment is scattered all over the place”.
• “Equipment regularly disappears, delaying our projects and costing us dearly”.
• “The guys don’t pay any attention to the equipment, they bring it back all dented”.
• “The tools don’t last long, and breakage is quite common”.
• “We’re having trouble getting to grips with maintenance”.
• “Our inspection certificates are not up to date”.
• “All this is costing us a lot of money, so we need to find a solution”.

What are the advantages of fleet management software?

Good materials management, with the right IT tools, brings many advantages – human, financial and operational – to a company, whatever its sector or size. We have grouped them into several key benefits:

1 – Tracking and tracing your equipment.

Without fleet management software, companies cannot track the allocation, location and use of equipment by their technical teams in real time. This leads to wasted time and delays in day-to-day operations. A lot of equipment is left behind on worksites or goes missing, forcing companies to reinvest in new equipment at avoidable purchase or rental costs.

2 – Maintenance.

Companies often find it difficult to manage the schedules for their preventive maintenance operations, which are essential to extend the lifespan of equipment and ensure that it is working properly and in the required safety conditions. They also need to be able to react quickly to repair faults in equipment, tools or materials by organising corrective maintenance. An IT tool specialising in equipment fleet management can be used to organise and plan maintenance. It can also be used to archive a digital maintenance log for each piece of equipment, with its maintenance history and the cost of each repair, which is very useful for deciding when to replace it.

3 – Stock management.

Having real-time visibility of tool, equipment and supply stocks and their location means you can quickly find the equipment you are looking for, and balance and relocate your stocks to avoid unnecessary and costly stock-outs or overstocking. Improved stock management thanks to computerised fleet management also enables better rotation in the use of equipment and limits recourse to external rental.

4 – Planning assignments and reservations.

Being able to manage the allocation of equipment to technicians, vehicles or sites maximises its availability and use, and avoids under-use. Computerised management of equipment will make it possible to prepare and track tool loans, guarantee their timely return, and avoid losses and delays in making equipment available. It will maximise the use and rotation of equipment by enabling its allocation/assignment to be planned according to operational needs in the field.

5 – Safety and compliance.

With a computerised equipment management tool, it’s easy to trace your equipment and ensure that it is calibrated, checked and compliant with safety standards and regulations in force. The IT tool provides rapid access to the documentary history, verification or periodic inspection certificates and the equipment life sheet. It alerts you when the periodic inspection date is approaching, so you can organise inspection visits more effectively and avoid irregularities that could lead to accidents and, by extension, legal proceedings.

6 – Traceability of materials and equipment.

Equipment management software provides full traceability of the life history and use of equipment and tools: movements of items, users, equipment status, repairs, inspections, warranties….

7 – Cost control.

Centralising the information and life history of each piece of equipment enables the right economic decision to be taken in terms of buy-back, maintenance, repair, inspection, hire, etc. The IT tool helps the equipment manager to make pragmatic decisions based on tangible data to validate equipment renewal, upgrade or replacement operations, taking into account their life cycle.

8 – Managing your tools and equipment.

The IT tool provides permanent, real-time visibility of the status of its fleet. Alerts can be programmed in the event of a problem, and real-time indicators provide constantly updated information: logistical flows, breakages, losses, non-compliant or non-returned equipment, equipment immobilised on site or on hire, costs, etc.

9 – Integrating field data into management software.

The traceability of equipment in the field and the interfacing of the fleet management tool with the company’s other management software will enable information to be seamlessly integrated into these business applications to support decision-making in project management, customer relationship management or accounting.

A computerised fleet management tool offers numerous advantages for managing your fleet of equipment and tools in the best possible conditions, and optimising both accounting and operational management. The investment quickly pays for itself in terms of all the inconvenience and expense it eliminates.