Category: Press Release

The first-ever top-to-bottom rewrite of FleetCheck’s core fleet management software is being launched at Commercial Vehicle Show 2023 (April 18-20).

Designed to be easier to use and faster than the existing product, it will also provide future flexibility for artificial intelligence and management information enhancements.

It is being rolled out during this year at no additional cost to the 7,200 users of the existing system, who use the product to manage a total of more than 180,000 cars, vans, trucks and other assets.

Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, said: “Our original software has been continually enhanced but the basic technology dates back a decade and, to move forwards in the years ahead, needed to be completely rethought.

“Our developers have been working hard on this new version of FleetCheck for more than a year and we are very pleased with the results. It uses a completely new technology stack and leading edge technology such as .net core 7.

“Much effort has gone into improving the customer experience with a new interface and it simply feels faster, slicker and more effective in everyday use. We can’t wait to start showing it to people at CV Show 2023.”

Like its predecessor, the new system is fundamentally designed to enable businesses to handle their fleet management tasks efficiently with users kept up to date through a traffic light system that allows them to prioritise tasks.

It integrates over 250 data streams while creating a robust audit trail to underpin legal requirements and includes more than 600 different types of standard fleet report as standard. Being cloud-based, all data is securely backed up to FleetCheck’s servers.

Peter said: “A key part of our success is that the user interface of our software is designed to be equally easy-to-use for the fleet novice as the seasoned transport professional, delivering for each person exactly what they need. We have worked hard to retain and enhance this characteristic of the product. It’s essential to the whole FleetCheck experience.

“What is really interesting now is where we can take FleetCheck in the future. It’s now viable for us to add all kinds of new features and we have been looking at what we can do with artificial intelligence for some time. It’s very much a case of watch this space.”

FleetCheck will be demonstrating NewGen FleetCheck at CV Show at hall 5, stand C65.

Arguments in favour of exempting some key commercial vehicles from internal combustion engine (ICE) production deadlines are growing, FleetCheck believes.

Peter Golding, managing director at the leading fleet management software specialist said that difficulties remained around the electrification of a relatively low number of vehicles that were used in specialised roles.

He explained: “Fleets can see a pretty clear pathway to electrifying the vast majority of their car and van fleets. While there are some quite complicated teething difficulties, especially surrounding the latter, there is every reason to believe most of these will be resolved ahead of the stated ICE production deadlines of 2030 for light vans and 2035 for heavy vans.

“However, in both these categories, there are a number of vehicle roles that are not easily electrified in terms of fulfilling basic requirements. Examples include certain blue light vehicles such as ambulances and off-roaders used by power companies in the event of outages.

“If you have an ambulance with a real world range of 100 miles and a recharge time running into several hours, then its utility in a crisis is potentially severely compromised. Not having that vehicle available could have a serious human cost.

“These difficulties are compounded in more remote areas where charging infrastructure development is likely to be slower. Fixing power outages in the Highlands requires an operational flexibility that electric pick-ups and 4x4s would not be able to easily supply in terms of current technology.”

Peter said that electrifying vehicles in these kinds of applications was possible – but was difficult, expensive and consumed amounts of resources that were difficult to justify.

“If you need to recharge an electric emergency vehicle during a power outage, then some kind of major generator or large scale battery facility is required. These can, of course, be installed by operators but at a very high price. Also, these solutions in themselves have a high environmental impact and simply require a considerable investment in terms of time.”

Peter said that increasingly among FleetCheck’s user base, there were conversations suggesting some essential use vehicles should be exempt from planned production deadlines.

“We’re certainly seeing arguments for exceptions in these areas increasing. The thinking is that electrifying 99% of fleet cars and vans is something that can be feasibly done and operators should be able to concentrate on that task ahead of 2030 and 2035 without having to try to resolve issues around vehicles for which solutions remain very difficult.

“Even if the deadlines on these essential use vehicles was set back just five years, it would allow easier electrification across the vast majority of fleets. We could then move on to these trickier cases that would be easier to tackle because industry knowledge about EVs would be so much higher and the infrastructure in a much more advanced state of development.

“It’s interesting to note that the new EU policy on ceasing ICE production exempts manufacturers below 1,000 units completely so, while that no longer directly affects the UK, there will potentially continue to be some petrol, diesel and hybrid production.

“The fleet vehicles that we are highlighting represent a tiny fraction of the overall parc and the miles it covers. Not electrifying them for a few additional years after 2030 and 2035 would have a very, very limited environmental impact.”

A new series of free fleet training videos have been added to the FleetCheck online Learning Library resource.

Typically lasting two minutes, they cover fleet management basics including fuel management, tyre management, driver licence checking, telematics, defects management, driver training, driver safety management, fleet solutions and using spreadsheets.
There is also a video on FleetCheck’s Fleet Confidence Challenge, a free fleet safety assessment programme designed to help managers evaluate whether they have the right policies and procedures in place, are up-to-date with current laws and legislation, and are doing everything necessary to ensure that drivers are safe. It also contains a guide on how to create your own comprehensive driving for work policy documentation.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet management software specialist, said: “In recent years, we have very much made it our mission to not just be a provider of fleet software but a source of high quality, best practice advice and consultancy for car, van and truck operators.

“In pursuit of this aim, we’ve produced everything from book-length guides about fleet management to advanced online assessment tools, and the new videos added to our online Learning Library are the latest development.

“They are designed to be highly informative, easy to understand, and provide a good briefing for managers who are often very time-poor. We expect that they will find a ready audience, and believe they will be especially useful for the small-medium sized companies that make up a significant part of our user base.”

FleetCheck’s Learning Library can be found at https://uberdrive.com/learning-library/.

Fleets could consider increased support of UK-produced vehicles, FleetCheck is suggesting, as Nissan this week questioned the future of its Sunderland plant.

Peter Golding, managing director at the leading fleet management software specialist said businesses that bought vehicles could have an impact on local manufacturing.

“I don’t think it is particularly desirable that we see a revival of old school ‘Buy British’ campaigns. We live in a global economy and that is generally a good thing for fleet operators.

“However, UK motor manufacturing has already lost Honda in recent years, electric MINI production has gone to Germany, and it seems Jaguar Land Rover are doing more and more overseas. Replacement investment is not necessarily forthcoming, especially when it comes to the process of electrification, such as the ups and downs surrounding BritishVolt.

“The fact is that fleets are generally completely agnostic about where a car is produced when they draw up choice lists and perhaps we need to start having a conversation about the advantages of supporting local manufacturing. If we lose Sunderland, Burnaston and Oxford, then the UK’s claim to be a major manufacturer of cars is pretty much over.

“Fleets can have a voice in whether that happens by voting with their orders and supporting manufacturers that invest in the UK such as Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and BMW MINI. We are not without influence and it is perhaps appropriate that we have a conversation about the future of motor manufacturing in the UK and the role we could play.”

Peter added that the damage caused to UK motor manufacturing by both Brexit and the Covid crisis had been considerable, and further factories could disappear with surprising speed.

“It sometimes seems as though car manufacturers are a permanent feature of the economy but when Honda decided to go, the factory was closed very quickly. Similarly, those with greyer hair will remember the eventual end of MG Rover happening quite rapidly.

“To me, it would be a great shame if we were to see further losses of this kind in terms of jobs, prosperity, expertise, and the general health of industry in the UK.”

Fleet managers are starting to recognise the pros and cons of different electric vehicle (EV) battery types in a similar way as they would the differences between petrol and diesel power, says FleetCheck.

The trend is still new, the fleet management software specialist says, but is a potentially important step on the road to widespread fleet EV adoption.

Peter Golding, managing director, explained: “This is something we have noticed from our user base. A few are no longer seeing an EV as just an EV, with a single technology powering all, but are starting to recognise that there are differences.

“At the moment, the key point is knowing about the cost, safety and charging capabilities of the two main types – LFP and NMC batteries* – especially as the latter are starting to find their way into more and more entry level EVs.

“In a lot of ways, it’s similar to knowing about the pros and cons of diesel and petrol in combustion engine terms, especially as some manufacturers such as Tesla and MG use both battery technologies in the same models.

“To some extent, each has characteristics that are suitable for different applications. We’re not quite at a stage yet where manufacturers advertise which types of battery they are using in particular models but that might not be far away.”

Peter said that the situation was likely to become more complex with the arrival of new battery technologies over the next few years.

He explained: “It seems there is a story in the press every week about new potential battery technology for EVs, with sodium ion being a favourite. Some or all of these may well have a place on fleets in the future. Especially, there could be an acceleration of interest in new options thanks to raw material shortages such as nickel.”

*LFP (lithium iron phosphate) and NMC (nickel manganese cobalt).

Six out of 10 businesses say that using fleet management software helps them to reduce unplanned vehicle downtime, FleetCheck is reporting.

Peter Golding, managing director, explained that research the company had undertaken among users of its products shows that cutting downtime is considered a key benefit.

He said: “Unplanned vehicle off road (VOR) rates are a subject that is moving higher up the agenda as production shortages mean that fleets are operating ever older cars, vans and trucks. These inevitably are more difficult to keep roadworthy, breaking down more often.

“We are finding that managing VOR is becoming an increasingly important factor in businesses choosing to adopt fleet management software. This new research backs up that point and also shows the technology is effective in minimising the problem.”

Peter said that primarily, fleet management software helped to reduce VOR by creating much greater visibility over maintenance events and defects, both ensuring that routine servicing and maintenance were carried out, and that any other issues were recorded and resolved.

Also, the technology allows multiple events to be brought into line. For example, a service and an MOT could be carried out on the same day, removing the need for two days off-road.

“Software brings much greater structure to service and maintenance management, which is what essentially helps to reduce downtime. As fleets continue to age – something that looks inevitable for some time to come – it will become more and more significant in this respect.”

Fleets need to remain on top of fuel costs, says FleetCheck, as prices are predicted to continue to fall from the record levels seen in mid-2022.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet management software specialist explained that interest in fuel management at a corporate level often tended to rise and fall in correlation to pump prices but that an ongoing, strategic approach to fuel management was essential.

“The RAC are predicting that decreasing oil prices will start to feed through to sharp falls at the pumps quite quickly, meaning that a litre of fuel could soon be substantially cheaper than just a few months ago. In these situations, you can almost hear an audible sigh of relief across the fleet sector as prices are perceived to have dropped to a ‘sensible’ level.

“However, while lower prices are certainly welcome, they are not a pretext for fleets to take their eyes off the ball. Buying fuel remains a major expense in the running of cars and vans and, even if there is a substantial market adjustment forthcoming, it is a fundamental of fleet management to ensure that basic cost control measures remain in place.

“Of course, some fleets are good at controlling fuel expenditure on an ongoing basis – tracking fuel use to examine both overall trends, and drivers and vehicles at an individual level – but in others the subject tends to be more of a cyclical priority in response to current prices.”

Peter said that FleetCheck continued to encourage its client base to track fuel expenditure intensively, gathering accurate data and producing useful reports that had a genuine impact on costs.

“In our experience over many years, the best way to gather fuel data is through a fuel card alongside journey information from telematics, and the best way to assimilate that data is through fleet management software that is able to make sense of the mass of information. This approach helps fleets to make strategic decisions at both a macro and micro level.

“However, there is also a step beyond this where questioning fuel use is ingrained into the culture of a business, where a line manager will raise questions about whether individual employees or whole departments need to be making all the trips they are undertaking. This can be much harder to achieve but, to our mind, is very much worthwhile and has a longstanding impact on fuel expenditure, whatever the current pump prices.”

One in 10 vans operated by fleets are not compliant with the London Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which is being substantially expanded from August 2023, FleetCheck is warning.

Peter Golding, managing director at the leading fleet management software specialist said that to be ULEZ-compliant, vans needed to meet Euro 6 standards, which generally meant they were registered after late 2016.

He explained: “There’s something of a problem in the fact that many fleets are now running older vehicles that would’ve been seen before the pandemic. In pre-Covid times, there would have been very few six-year-old-plus vans being used by fleets but factors such as low production volumes in recent years mean that there are now more than in the past.

“Looking at data drawn from across our customer base, which is quite heavily biased towards SMEs, 10% of vans still being operated won’t be able to be used in Greater London from next August. This is not a huge number but it is also not insignificant.

“As a company, we believe that the achievements of the ULEZ in terms of improving air quality are to be applauded and support its expansion but this development may present practical problems for these fleets.”

Peter said that two choices were available to businesses with non-compliant vans who needed to enter the ULEZ – either swapping Euro 5 with Euro 6 vans within their organisation to put the right vehicles was in the right areas, or to buy compliant replacement vehicles.

“Option A is perhaps becoming a little bit trickier thanks to the growth of low emissions zones across the country and will depend on the composition and needs of each fleet. However, option B is also relatively difficult at the moment because of production restrictions. Especially, replacing any kind of specialist light commercial vehicle could be difficult as manufacturers tend to be concentrating current production on simple panel vans.”

Peter added that FleetCheck had been providing guidance to its fleet management software users who were facing these issues, and the advice given differed quite widely based on individual circumstances.

“There’s no easy answer to this problem for the fleets affected but it is something that needs to be solved somehow and we are helping them to identify appropriate solutions.”

Some leasing companies are refusing to extend maintenance packages when cars and vans are taken beyond their initial contract into a fourth or fifth year, FleetCheck is reporting.

Peter Golding, managing director, said that while the practice was not widespread, as far as the fleet management software specialist could ascertain, it was certainly taking place and creating significant problems for some fleets.

“Ongoing production issues mean that many fleets can’t get hold of the new vehicles that they need and so are extending their current leases well beyond the original three or four year termination point. This has been going on for some time.

“However, we are now hearing some reports from within our user base of leasing companies extending the car or van but refusing to do the same with the maintenance element. To some extent, this is understandable – once a vehicle is out of warranty and heading towards a six figure mileage, maintenance costs both increase rapidly and become less predictable – but it does leave those fleets high and dry.”

Peter said that, because the fleets in question habitually bought maintenance packages with their lease, they tended to have no arrangements for buying their own servicing in place.

“This is a double-edged problem, really. These businesses need to quickly create a structure for maintaining the vehicles in question while, at the same time, they lose the certainty of a fixed monthly maintenance cost.

“They may well find major bills arriving for items such as cambelts or a complete set of tyres that is massively in excess of what they are used to paying to keep their vehicles on the road. It’s quite a financial and managerial shock.”

There were no easy answers for businesses in this situation and it once again showed how difficult the effects of new car and van shortages could be, he added.

“Production delays are causing many kinds of issues, from slowing down electrification to service and maintenance conundrums of this kind. It really would help fleets if the supply situation started to markedly improve in 2023, although there are mixed reports about how likely that might be.”

Digitalising walkaround checks and defect reporting is the number one reason that businesses say they want to adopt fleet management software (FMS), according to FleetCheck.

An analysis of the top five reasons mentioned by companies planning to buy FMS also included, in order, removing a reliance on spreadsheets, improving compliance, centralising fleet data and ensuring that key diary dates such as MOT tests are recorded.

Peter Golding, managing director at the FMS specialist, said: “This survey has been compiled from businesses who have contacted us over the last year with a view to adopting our software to improve their fleet management – and it makes interesting reading.

“The fact that walkaround checks top the list shows that there continues to be a high level of interest in moving away from paper-based systems for these essential processes and towards the improvements that digitalisation can deliver. Further to this thinking, it’s also noteworthy that ‘improving compliance’ is mentioned prominently in the survey.

“Looking at other results, it’s interesting that the desire to move away from spreadsheets remains a key factor in FMS buying. This has been an argument for the adoption of specialist fleet software for many years and, as fleet management becomes ever more sophisticated, the limitations of using a spreadsheet are becoming ever more apparent.

“Finally, the desire to centralise data is something that has very much been driven by post-pandemic conditions. More people are still working from home, including those involved in managing the fleet, and having remote access to information is essential to them.”

Peter added that sales of fleet software continued to be strong, with FleetCheck having seen 25% growth in client numbers since the start of the year.

“This is very much a growth phase for FleetCheck. We have just moved into new offices as a result of our ongoing expansion and the reason, we believe, is that our products are directly answering the needs of fleets – as shown in this survey.”