Jaama's Key2 Vehicle Management software enables companies to set their own business rules so that drivers, irrespective of whether they are at the wheel of a companyprovided vehicle or use their own private car on business trips, can feed in data to meet individually set timetables. Jason Francis, managing director of Jaama. says: 'This method is changing altitudes and processes by getting the drivers to own the responsibility of capturing their mileage which brings a number of benefits. With companies looking to practice corporate social responsibility and climate change a major concern, the efficient management of mileage is crucial to putting in place environmental programmes.
Only by collating full details on all journeys and the mileages clocked up can companies start to analyse whether they can eliminate any trips and so reduce pollution. Kev2 Vehicle Management has relegated the days of drivers filling in paperbased mileage logs and expense sheets on a monthly basis to the history books. However, fuel is paid for and whatever parameters are set by individual companies for capturing business mileage, the flexibility of Kev2 Vehicle Management enables the accurate recording of information immediately a journey has been completed.”
Understandably, says Mr Francis, drivers who pay for all fuel and claim back business mileage feel the pain if they miss mileage return deadlines or provide insufficient information for their expenses to be calculated and paid on time. “It is important therefore that the mileage capture process eliminates the possibility for drivers to make mistakes.’ he explains. “Not only is our system easy to use from a driver perspective, but there are builtin validation processes to safeguard businesses against fuel fraud by checking how much fuel has been used against miles driven and vehicle tank capacity.”
Using Jaama’s internetbased Key2 Vehicle Management system, customers can stipulate vehicle choice lists according to CO: bandings so encouraging drivers to select the most environmentallyfriendly vehicle possible. Not only can the system be setup to highlight the tax burden in terms of the longterm environmental impact of a driver’s chosen vehicle but it can identify alternative models with lower CO: emissions.
‘However, vehicle selection is only one item on the best practice ‘eco” list with fuel management, improved journey planning resulting in fewer trips and driver education training all vital in a business achieving environmental best practice. But. fleet chiefs can only achieve significant CO: emission savings if they have a raft of data available that enables them to efficiently measure and manage operations. Key2 Vehicle Management system integrates with organisations’ own intranet to allow drivers to log on and keep a daybyday record of journeys, business mileage and fuel expenditure.”
Ian Scarle. sales & marketing director. VT Software Solutions, explains how his company’s Tranman system can help fleet managers ensure the fleet is run according to best environmental practices. ‘Fleet managers will increasingly find pressure placed upon them to reduce the impact of their transport operations on the environment. Fleet operators will increasingly adopt green fleet policies such as choosing company cars with greater fuel efficiency and lower CO: emissions, sv. itching to alternative fuels such as biofuel, gas or electric, or even hybrid vehicles and optimising fuel consumption.
‘The major role of fleet software is to assess and measure the impact of the fleet on the environment. Management reports will highlight how much CO: is produced by the fleet in its entirety and comparisons can be made between departments or vehicle makes and models to highlight which vehicles are more environmentally friendly than others.
“Fleet software can also help the fleet manager to ensure the right vehicle is selected for the right job by analysing vehicle utilisation. For example by examining vehicle use. fleet operators may find they can switch to smaller, more efficient cars for short journeys, thereby minimising the environmental impact as well as reducing fleet costs.
By reducing mileage and travel time through optimising engineers’ daily schedules and providing access to back office systems while out in the field, companies will find quantifiable cost savings can be made on the running costs of their fleet operation.