Total Motion has always been on the front foot with the development of software and technology to help the fleet manager, identifying problems and finding innovative solutions to support the fundamental objective of driving down costs and improving fleet department efficiencies. Our Driver Management Portal is another example of that, helping the fleet manager with the challenging issue of grey fleet and not only providing management tools to address any shortcomings, but also providing functionality to make efficiency and cost improvements.
Around 40% of the UK’s work vehicles are grey fleet, which amounts to around 14 million vehicles on the road. This highlights the need to manage grey fleet in parallel to the fleet vehicles owned by the business, and to dedicate the same resources, responsibilities and duty of care.
What is the Driver Management Portal?
Our Driver Management Portal is a fully integrated online grey fleet management tool, which is accessible by both the fleet manager and employees who use their own vehicles for work purposes. The portal provides a central focal point for the management of grey fleet and feeds internal and external data as required.
Who uses the Driver Management Portal?
Any of our clients with grey fleet – vehicles used for business purposes but not owned by the business – can sign up to use the portal to manage the grey fleet activities of the business and analyse associated data. Likewise, employees of our clients who own and use the grey fleet can use the portal to update and check information and log details such as driver authorisation – existing or pre-employment, vehicle authorisation, DVLA licence checks, insurance verification, MOT validation, maintenance history submission and online driver assessments.
When the employee completes their details on the portal, they are allocated a unique authorisation number which identifies them for the period of their employment, or for however long they are driving grey fleet.
What are the benefits of the Driver Management Portal?
For drivers themselves, the portal provides a central hub where their vehicle and driver data is gathered and available to access. The system will also send them alerts as a prompt to login, update information and carry out certain tasks, such as renewing insurance, arranging service and maintenance visits and carrying out an MOT.
The business also benefits from the portal in terms of managing compliance, linking driver information to HR payroll functions and by providing bespoke performance reports as and when needed.
However, in terms of the fleet management function, the grey fleet Driver Management Portal offers our clients a wealth of specific benefits, including:
- Risk status – Information gathered can help the fleet manager assess the risk status of a driver and/or vehicle, in terms of vehicle age, mileage, service and MOT status, driver behaviour, accident management and driver status. This can also help identify training needs.
- Authorisation – The fleet manager can easily see who is authorised to drive grey fleet and who isn’t.
- Effectiveness – The portal helps the fleet manager assess whether grey fleet is working for the business and where improvements can be made. They can monitor the numbers and types of grey fleet being used, and whether a shift in working practices dictates or justifies bigger decisions on the company’s fleet. Through this, the fleet manager can also assess the validity of alternatives to grey fleet, such as lease vehicles, pool cars or car sharing schemes.
- Links – The portal can be linked to other reporting tools used by the fleet manager, such as mileage reports, fuel usage, journey approvals and accident management.
- Consistency – Using the portal, the fleet manager can ensure that grey fleet is managed in combination with company-owned vehicles, and hence the company fulfils its duty of care. This ensures grey fleet is tracked, managed and issues diagnosed in the same way as company-owned fleet, so that cross-referencing data and reports on efficiencies and fuel costs is more meaningful and effective.
Contact Total Motion for support and information on managing your grey fleet
As an innovative fleet management solutions provider Total Motion can assist in explaining the benefits of the Driver Management Portal to your fleet management function and employees driving grey fleet. We can also assist with the implementation process and how data can be migrated to the system to ensure you enjoy the benefits and see real efficiency and compliance improvements straight away. So if you’re an existing Total Motion client and think our Driver Management Portal could be the perfect addition to your current services, contact our team at Total Motion today.
