Head of Product Management & Quality, Vodafone Automotive
As the world goes in and out of lockdown restrictions to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the transportation and logistics industry has become a lifeline for many.
For those self-isolating, home deliveries have made it possible to get the essential items they need whilst staying safe. For businesses that have had to close their premises, launching home delivery services opened-up new opportunities and a way to keep operations going.
Overall, retail websites worldwide generated almost 22 billion visits in June 2020, up from 16 billion global visits in January 2020.
This increase in demand is only one of the many new challenges facing organisations though. When looking at fleet management, they also need to consider how to keep drivers and customers safe and how to maintain their vehicles and control fuel costs.
This applies across a variety of businesses in different sectors such as car rental & leasing, utilities and field maintenance companies, construction and retail.
Managing your fleet remotely
Digital fleet management solutions can help you keep on top of it all, by giving you a complete view of the status of your vehicles at the click of a button.
This way you can control costs, lower risk, improve productivity and make sure your fleets are compliant with the latest regulations, whether it be cars, vans or lorries you’re operating.
For example, we offer a full solution that gives customers vehicle data and actionable insights thanks to IoT technology.
Using connected devices combined with dedicated and customisable web portals, organisations can monitor and enhance safety through in-vehicle driver feedback and increase the performance and security of their drivers and goods through location tracking and maintenance alerts.
When it comes to perishable items, the visibility offered by such solutions goes much further than productivity and maintenance. It’s about quality control.
Using a platform such as our cold chain solution, businesses can control the temperature inside the van and even the exposure to light, meaning its ideal for transportation of food and medicine.
Take for instance temperature-sensitive medicines, like some vaccines, which need to be kept at a particular temperature during transport. With cold chain, you can be confident that you will know whether the right temperature has been maintained throughout the journey and can react pro-actively to fix any potential issues in real-time.
This also means that you are able to reduce spoilage far more effectively than when using traditional methods.
Customer experience
And let us not forget the most important element in all of this – the customer.
With GPS location updates, you can support productivity and quality control, improving interactions with both your customers and employees. For example, the customer can be kept informed about their delivery, while anonymised data can provide traffic updates to drivers and suggest new, better routes.
This keeps the customer happy and can, in turn, help reduce vehicle mileage and fuel consumption.
Long-term businesses can also look to electric vehicles. As sustainability becomes an increasingly essential part of the business model, it’s time to make sure you’re playing your part and are ready for the future.
