Despite being early into the new year, there are many, new trends for commercial fleet management in 2021 that are manifesting right now. These crucial changes could impact your business and challenge the way you currently conduct operations.
2020 was a year characterized by unpredictability, and during that time many industries were forced to innovate and adopt new operational standards in a short period of time. And of course, the fleet management industry was no exception.
Staying on top of these changes and fluctuations is the key to survival. To make sure that your business stays ahead of this curve in the new year, you’ll need to know what’s new in fleet management.
The Most Promising 2021 Trends in Fleet Management
With remote management possibilities and technological advances, commercial fleet management will be experiencing some interesting changes. Here’s what we’re anticipating for the year ahead:
- Remote Fleets
If there’s one big thing that we learned from 2020 it’s that your team can’t always all be in one place—even you want them to be. As a result, we’re seeing businesses put a lot of effort into establishing remote fleet management processes, particularly for medium duty trucks that are likely to spend a lot of time on the road.
So what does a remote fleet require? You’ll need to have the right software in place to ensure connectivity from any location, as well as a fleet roadside assistance provider who can reach your vehicle’s location regardless of where your driver experienced a malfunction.
- Sanitation and Safety Concerns
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to refocus their efforts on providing a safe and sanitized environment for drivers. The idea of maintaining this new, cleaner standard far into the future is something many organizations are now adopting.
Make sure that all commercial vehicles in your fleet have on-board sanitization supplies like hand sanitizer and clean masks, and implement protocols that require your drivers to adhere to pre-defined health and safety measures when they’re on the road—for their own safety and the safety of others.
- 5G Utilization
5G is here, and it’s changing a lot about how businesses run their fleets. 5G fleet management will allow for faster and more reliable connectivity, which has shown promise in boosting productivity and minimizing downtime. To keep up with the fast-paced environment, we recommend making the switch to 5G as soon as possible. You’ll be able to better track and monitor the location and progress of your drivers, as well as analyze your data for faster analytics.
- Electric Fleet Vehicles
It’s becoming easier and more affordable than ever to help protect the environment from your fleet’s carbon footprint. And, going electric with your medium-duty trucks and cars is good for your bottom line, too. Experts are predicting that electric vehicles may soon be comparable to gas vehicles in cost-efficiency, and they’ll offer big savings in other ways too. The current cost analysis for an electrically-powered vehicle just $0.03 per mile compared to the current $0.16 per mile of gas-powered vehicles.
You can’t predict everything that’s to come, but you can look back to see what lessons you might learn for the future. In 2021, it’s all about mitigating the risk factors that made last year so tenuous for many in the industry, as well as figuring out ways to start incorporating tomorrow’s next big technologies.
Some things never change though, and that includes the need for reliable fleet roadside assistance. Learn about our small business roadside assistance plans and contact us today to find out exactly what our team can do to keep your business protected.