Businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance their operations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. For companies that rely on a fleet of vehicles to deliver goods or services, achieving these goals can be particularly challenging. However, recent statistics reveal a compelling solution that is gaining traction in the industry: The synergy between fleet telematics and fleet rentals. This powerful combination is changing how businesses manage their vehicle fleets, enabling them to stay competitive in an ever-evolving landscape.
How Fleet Telematics and Fleet Rentals Work Together
According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA), businesses that implemented fleet telematics solutions experienced an average reduction of 12% in operating costs. Additionally, fleet rental services have been reported to cut down vehicle acquisition costs by as much as 30% when using the same solutions. The bottom line?
Fleet telematics and fleet rentals work together to help businesses in many ways. Here are the top 5:
Real-time Visibility: Increasing Efficiency
One of the key advantages of fleet telematics is the real-time visibility it offers. A fleet management platform uses GPS and onboard sensors to provide precise information on vehicle location, speed, fuel consumption, and more. When combined with fleet rentals, this data becomes even more valuable. Rental companies can use telematics to track the condition and usage of their vehicles, allowing for efficient maintenance scheduling and reducing downtime for their clients. Meanwhile, businesses renting vehicles gain immediate insights into their fleet’s performance, enabling them to make data-driven decisions for route optimization and driver behavior management.
Flexibility and Scalability: Meeting Customer Demands
Fleet rentals provide businesses with the flexibility to scale their fleet size up or down as needed. This is particularly valuable for seasonal businesses or those experiencing fluctuating demand. Telematics solutions play a crucial role here by helping rental companies and businesses monitor usage patterns. It can also help answer questions such as: Which vehicles are being used the most? How many are sitting idle? Instead of having someone manually keep an eye out for answers, a telematics platform does the job for you. By analyzing this data, organizations can make informed decisions about adjusting their rental fleet size to optimize costs without compromising on service quality. Being able to quickly adapt based on the changing needs of the business also helps ensure that resources are efficiently allocated and not wasted on extra or inadequate vehicles.
Customer Support: Synergy Through Partnership
The partnership between fleet rental businesses and telematics providers creates a unique opportunity to better service end-users. With telematics already connected, fleet businesses are receiving an all-in-one solution when they rent vehicles. In addition, they also get contractual alignment which means fleets are paying for telematics and rentals on one contract, not multiple. This helps reduce headaches down the road when growing or reducing fleet size. Lastly, combining the forces of a rental business and a telematics business means clients get the benefit of working with two different industry experts with advanced knowledge of how their assets and systems can work together to provide the best quality fleet operating practices.
Cost Optimization: A Key to Business Growth
Telematics and fleet rentals go hand in hand in optimizing costs. Telematics data allows businesses to closely track fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance needs, and fleet efficiency. When combined with fleet rental services, companies can rest assured that they are renting the most fuel-efficient, well-maintained vehicles available. This also leads to a reduction in long-term operational costs. For both rental providers and their customers, this is a win-win situation, as cost savings are prioritized while still maintaining top-tier fleet quality.
100% Telematics Coverage: Supporting Rented and Owned Vehicles
Across the fleet industry, most businesses have a mix of rented and owned vehicles. This can often create issues with telematics coverage as rental companies may limit or completely reject clients from installing telematics solutions into their vehicles. By partnering with Fleet Complete, rental companies, and their clients can ensure they get 100% telematics coverage as both rented and owned vehicles can report into one portal.
Let’s expand on this:
ABC Rental Agency partners with Fleet Complete for telematics. XYZ Fleet Business rents 50 vehicles from ABC Rental Agency. In addition to renting these vehicles, XYZ Fleet Business also owns 25 vehicles as well as 60 trailers and 5 forklifts.
Through ABC’s partnership with Fleet Complete, the 50 rented vehicles already have telematics installed and available for XYZ. But what about the other owned assets? The solution is simple – XYZ can get 25 vehicle trackers, 60 trailer trackers, and 5 forklifts directly from Fleet Complete or ABC Rental Agency. In the portal, XYZ will be able to see all their fleet data on one platform. ABC Rental Agency will continue to have access to the data of the 50 vehicles, but not the assets directly owned by XYZ.
Now, let’s say in addition to GPS telematics, XYZ also wants to have a video telematics solution added to all of their vehicles to ensure drivers are safe on the road. XYZ can again go directly to Fleet Complete or ABC Rental Agency and have cameras installed in both their rented and owned vehicles. Similar to the owned vehicle data, video data can be controlled to only be visible to XYZ Fleet Business and not ABC Rental.
The resolution — 100% telematics coverage for both the rental agency and the fleet business. All in one platform.
Looking Ahead to the Future
The powerful combination of fleet telematics and fleet rentals is transforming the way businesses manage their vehicle fleets. Real-time visibility, flexibility, customer support, and cost optimization are just a few of the benefits that come from integrating these two technologies.
In an era where every competitive edge counts, fleet telematics and fleet rentals are proving to be an invaluable partnership for businesses seeking to stay ahead in the race for success. Embracing this dynamic duo may just be the key to unlocking your fleet’s full potential and driving your organization toward a brighter, more efficient future.
To learn more and see how fleet telematics can take your business to the next level, request a demo here.
