Debate worth having: should fleet managers prioritize sustainability or digitization?

Driver shortages, fluctuating fuel costs, shipping delays and regulatory pressures – logistics today is challenging. And many companies are increasingly digitizing their fleet management operations to enhance decision-making and efficiency.

Cost, lack of internal expertise and disruption were seen as the most common barriers to adopting new fleet management solutions, found a study by HERE Technologies, Amazon Web Services and ABI Research.

Even though 85% of respondents surveyed said they have or are developing a digital transformation strategy, many fleet managers still feel that they lack the resources to overcome transport management challenges.

That includes being able to effectively track assets, but also using technology to improve sustainability goals by optimizing routes, maximizing asset utilization and ensuring regulatory compliance.

But where should fleet managers put their focus – meeting sustainability goals or staying on top of technology advancements? In fact, it’s possible to achieve both, with the right fleet management solution.

To find out how, we spoke to Ryan Wiggin, senior analyst, ABI Research, author of the report.

Ryan Wiggin, senior analyst, ABI Research

“Every time we've done a survey with fleet managers, we've heard that sustainability is becoming a higher priority and that's coming both from company-wide sustainability goals that might be regulation enforced, or just companies trying to do better for the planet.

“Sustainability is a great target to go after. From a fleet management perspective, looking at more efficient operations, how you can route trucks better, how you can allocate stock and taking trucks off the road, ultimately helps to achieve both sustainability and cost initiatives.

“A lot of companies consider sustainability as a cost, but I would argue that it goes hand in hand with more efficient operations, which ultimately can end in cost savings as well.

“When you're looking at how you can achieve more sustainable operations, you really have to take a full network view, because if you're looking at single areas, it's very hard to find many efficiencies. This can come from adopting a fleet management solution with good tracking technology.

“A lot of fleet management solutions now offer more advanced analytics. This means you can run network-wide cost savings and efficiency projects where you look at the routing, stock allocation and fuel usage, you can really start to drill down into areas where you can achieve more sustainable operations. Part of this is adopting fleet management solutions that give you the analytical capabilities to then target those sustainable objectives.

“Data availability isn’t much of an issue anymore but taking that data and being able to leverage it and actually run cost-saving projects with it is. Some fleet management systems don't currently provide enough analytics capabilities to allow fleet managers to run these types of efficiency projects. So it comes down to choosing providers that are able to provide the analytics capabilities, but also support the data integration to allow that.

“Simple things like truck routing, truck maintenance, truck scheduling, inventory allocation, all of these different factors can really add up to building much broader efficiencies. You might be able to route trucks better, which ultimately takes the mileage down, optimizing your stock allocation. Rather than having 50 pallets moved on three trucks, you might be able to find where you can consolidate that into two trucks. Downtime can also be really costly, but if you can monitor your vehicles and monitor your assets better, you can then schedule maintenance much more frequently when it's necessary, and that can ultimately then help achieve cost and sustainability goals as well.

“Fleet managers are focusing on the day-to-day and not necessarily taking into account what the broader corporate goals are. So I think it does often require more centralized planners within a company to take that more holistic view of the operations and then communicate those efficiencies down to the day-to-day fleet managers. I think there can sometimes be a bit of a disconnect there.

“Data is also very disconnected. You'll have data that doesn't work with other feeds of data. It will be coming from different areas, different devices, different providers. Part of the solution to that is having fleet management solutions and software that is accompanied by strong professional services. A lot of times, companies need that additional support with understanding where their data is and then consolidating that into the fleet management solution. Lack of internal expertise is a big one, and understanding how to leverage the data.

“Sustainability is not just on its own. It's part of your broader network efficiency. And ultimately, that helps with cost, which is always the top KPI we hear.”