Q&A
The fleet master Edvardas Gindrenas, MD, Softdata Solutions L.L.C., tells Logistics News ME about the latest trends in fleet management
What are the most beneficial fleet management tools currently for logistics companies? A Fleet management system (FMS) benefits companies on a very individual basis. For example, transportation companies may use our software to generate monthly reports of mileage, fuel consumption, driver performance and behaviour to award or re-educate drivers. Construction firms, on the other hand, benefit in reducing machinery idle time and improper use of vehicles. Other companies, such as ones involved in the trading, service or distribution industries often face challenges in cutting out unnecessary employee expenses. These expenses are often caused by staff using vehicles for unauthorised personal reasons, or by the employees simply abusing the vehicles due to lack of road safety education. All of these issues can easily be avoided by using our FMS software, such as iGeoTrack. What are the primary trends in fleet management in terms of product development and client demands? The current market is no longer satisfied with the basic tracking features that have been available for the last 10 years. The demand is growing more towards intelligent and customised solutions. For instance, companies often require FMS data to be available on their existing accounting systems (ERPs). Another example would be large fleet owners, who usually have one or more maintenance garages and therefore require virtual tracking on their vehicle’s maintenance status. Quite often, the FMS is actually used as a part of large IT projects which in turn calls the FMS provider to be dynamic and creative in order to link the software to the END project. However, as our company does both IT integration as well 44 | Logistics News ME | September 2016
About Softdata Solutions Softdata Solutions L.L.C. was established in Dubai and after two years in business counts more than 200 clients in the UAE and MENA, including: Al Naboodah, SEDAR, Al Bayader International, and more. The company has partners in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and even in Africa.
as software development, we are able to satisfy many individual requirements that our partners may have. What do you believe to be the top fleet management techniques to enhance a business’s efficiency and reduce costs? In the current market we see three major challenges that affect the majority of companies in the UAE and MENA. Firstly, drivers or other office staff often tend to feel that they are able to avoid responsibility for the work which they are doing outside the office. However, by putting your drivers under supervision you eliminate any chance of misbehaviour as drivers realise they have to perform or face the consequences of misbehaviour such as, using company fleet for unofficial matters, speeding, harsh driving, ending the duty before the time, etc. Second key challenge is idle, both work and engine. During most of iGeoTrack training sessions we find that a large number of drivers keep their engines running for two to six hours a day while staying at one spot for various reasons (waiting for customers to pick up, colleagues, having lunch even during afternoon nap or night sleep). Removing
idle will can cut companies fuel expenses 10 - 25% and significantly increase vehicle lifetime. The third and last efficiency enhancer of our product is the well ongoing co-operation between client, our support team, and the drivers themselves. We believe that the FMS must be educational rather than enforcing. In order to do so we encourage decision makers and drivers to attend our software training courses so that everyone would be on the same page when it comes to the new rules. We encourage the decision makers to meet our sales professionals in order to create action plans for mentioned and other challenges. What are the latest innovations from Softdata Solutions and how have these been received in the market? If this is not relevant, please answer: What is your most popular product and why do you believe it is widely used in the market? We like to surprise our clients every three to four months with consistent innovations. By doing this we keep the relationship with our customers progressing. For example, recently we have linked speeding notifications with dynamic road limits of every single road around the world, while for another large UAE-based transportation company we have developed the individual truck way bill or trip bill feature that we have seen has improved their delivery rate exponentially. Another potential area of development we see emerging in the UAE is the electrical car industry which we are working to service by regulating its battery level and performance efficiency. In order to help you choose exactly what features you need for your company, our product portfolio offers different packages of iGeoTrack packages.