The fleet team at Broad Oak Property has reported a major time saving after adopting software from FleetCheck.
The Staffordshire-based business, which has a 170-vehicle fleet centred on 3.5-tonne vans, is using the company’s Professional level product to replace a range of spreadsheets and says it’s now saving 12 weeks annually.
Broad Oak Property initially introduced spreadsheets but found these became hugely labour-intensive and unmanageable as the fleet grew.
Andy Gill, group facilities manager, explained: “If a member of our team forgot to input something, the whole process would break down.
“Switching to FleetCheck has massively simplified our task management. Thanks to automated workflows and centralised data, plus a traffic light system of alerts, our team is saving around two hours daily, equating to reclaiming 12 weeks annually. It’s a massive saving in resources.”
Additionally, the move to specialist software has enabled Broad Oak to take a more strategic view of its fleet, rather than just concentrating on day-to-day tasks.
“As a business, we’ve been expanding rapidly in recent years, and just keeping the fleet on the road has become an increasingly time-consuming part of our facilities management in terms of booking services, monitoring compliance and more. Day-to-day fleet management was taking up more and more of their time.
“Now, 90% of fleet functions happen automatically and the workflow is much, much smoother. By automating key tasks such as storing invoices, tracking odometer readings, and scheduling services and MOTs, we’ve streamlined processes, gained real-time insights and improved our operational foresight.”
Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, said the company continued to see businesses with fleet activities being held back by a reliance on spreadsheets.
He expounded: “In a very real sense, as a company in our market, the primary competitors are not other fleet software providers but invariably spreadsheets. Many businesses bump along using increasingly unwieldy spreadsheets to manage their vehicles but ultimately, they are just becoming less and less efficient at daily tasks and have little overall operational insight.
“As Broad Oak have explained, switching to specialist software can bring about huge time savings but, perhaps more importantly, it provides the means to take a step back and make the strategic decisions that every fleet needs. We’re very pleased to welcome them on board as a customer.”
