Chevin has reported a significant increase in requests for mobility related features. Demand is coming from existing clients, in RFP's and through inbound inquiries.
Mobility functionality -- including pool car planners; online reservations; route planning and business trip expense submission tools -- have all seen a big increase in demand over the past 12 months, explains Ron Katz, Senior Vice President for North America Sales at Chevin.
"This is evidence that fleets are taking on more responsibilities surrounding transportation as a whole and our software, FleetWave, is increasingly used for managing more than just company vehicles," Katz continued.
"When we look a the traditional one-vehicle-one-driver model, it is quite often the case that the vehicle remains stationary in a parking lot for long periods of time, which means it might not be the most cost-effective or efficient solution," Katz added.
"The ability to view transportation in broader terms, tends to encourage managers to experiment with more flexible alternatives."
With this in mind, the fleet industry is starting to see a cultural shift in terms of mobility and transportation -- and fleets are driving the step-change.
For companies who turn to software such as FleetWave, it becomes easier to implement mobility processes, especially as information regarding personnel and transport types already exist within a fleet system.
"Sometimes, a new process or policy is directly linked to the fleet, but necessarily traditional fleet management as we know it -- and that's especially true when it comes to the mobility of personnel."
Katz said that smartphones and tablets are a great way of tracking business usage and their costs which, in turn, helps to create a bigger picture of a company's mobility needs. Ultimately, new technology grants visibility of existing transportation costs associated with fleet, and can help managers to identify areas where more flexible and economical solutions might be possible.
"There are a range of tools within products such as FleetWave that can be used by fleet managers with day-to-day pooling, asset allocation and the general management of mobility -- and we are certainly seeing situations where vast amounts of useful employee-related 'big data' is now being proactively recorded by some fleets for these purposes.
"In response to this new industry trend, we are working to enhance the breadth of the features that are available within FleetWave, such as electronic key box systems for pool cars and apps to capture information from mobile workers. This capability helps fleet managers manage more than just vehicles," Katz said.
