Business Day - Motor News

Fleet assistance for small businesses

LAUNCH NEWS

- Lerato Matebese

As a small, medium micro enterprise (SMME), which generally is a company with a turnover of just under R5m per annum, finding cost-effective solutions remains an integral part of the company’s profitabil­ity and bottom line.

Subscribin­g to a telematics fleet management solution to aid in increasing a company’s profits has been, for the most part, reserved for much bigger firms.

Now Ctrack has launched mobile app-based software dubbed Drive that will benefit SMMEs with a fleet of up to 30 vehicles to manage them in a more efficient way. The software is aimed at companies whose fleet is not its core business and do not have the finance to employ a full-time fleet manager.

According to the company, the Drive solution provides the fleet management tools business owners require without the prohibitiv­e costs and complexity of current offerings. Drive’s intuitive dashboard, for example, can be viewed and administer­ed on computers and mobile devices and provides a topdown view of vehicles, drivers and tasks simultaneo­usly.

The solution can also provide a full overview of a company’s in-progress and scheduled tasks, with the tracking of deliveries and job statuses. This makes it possible to schedule jobs beforehand, assigning these to specific drivers and/or vehicles, as required.

After entering the tasks for the day, the built-in route optimisati­on function provides the most efficient routes for drivers to travel. This reduces the time taken, distances driven and the amount of fuel consumed on a daily basis. It also means drivers waste no time phoning controller­s for assistance.

Furthermor­e, jobs and customer visits can be scheduled on a driver’s phone, thereby assisting drivers with planning and structurin­g their tasks. Turn-byturn navigation means drivers never get lost, while a trip score highlights areas needing driver behaviour improvemen­ts.

Real-time driving violations can be depicted, as can where vehicles were driven, where they stopped or where they idled excessivel­y. Using geofencing capability, vehicles can be limited to predefined areas, with alerts sent when breaches occur. These alerts can be sent and received via the Drive app, SMS or e-mail.

In addition, the software also doubles as a vehicle tracking device which can work as a secondary or primary tracking device, depending on the company owner’s requiremen­ts.

“Ctrack is proud to launch this innovative solution for the SMME market at a competitiv­e price,” says Cobus Grove, Ctrack global chief operating officer. “Drive is the culminatio­n of 30 years of experience and reflects a deep understand­ing of the needs of customers across the diverse fleet telematics market.

“This system grants business owners full online visibility of their fleet, for improved operationa­l efficienci­es, on the move. Drive enables Ctrack clients to make split-second decisions that reduce costs from the first day of implementa­tion.”

THIS SYSTEM GRANTS BUSINESS OWNERS FULL ONLINE VISIBILITY OF THEIR FLEET, FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCI­ES

 ??  ?? The Drive system is app based for ease of use by drivers and managers.
The Drive system is app based for ease of use by drivers and managers.

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