Blue light fleets are crucial to the safety of citizens, be they police, ambulance, or fire service vehicles. Therefore, it’s vital that emergency fleet managers only have the very best system in place for maintaining their vehicles. ForWare has already transformed blue light fleet operations in Ireland. Here are some of the ways we did it.
Blue light fleets, by their very nature, are large and complex. Vehicles, themselves varying in type, can be based across multiple depots situated across different towns, and even counties. In turn, they usually end up being serviced across an array of different workshops. This often means that emergency fleet managers end up dealing with a plethora of different invoices and service records from multiple different depots and workshops. It’s fair to say it can be a bit unwieldy. This is where ForWare comes into its own. It consolidates all monthly repair bills into just one a month, even if they’re from different workshops. For example, one Irish fleet we have worked with managed to reduce 8,000+ annual repair bills to just 52. Just think of all the admin time they saved.
If your workshop partner(s) are on the ForWare Workshop Network, you can use the system to book your vehicles in for a service. If your chosen garage is booked up, the system enables you to look for other authorised repairs that have capacity. ForWare also sends fleet managers notifications as and when vehicles become due for servicing and/or VHCs.
We’ve mentioned how ForWare can streamline your billing process no matter how many workshops your fleet uses. The same is true when it comes to service history. All this information is made readily accessible through ForWare. It doesn’t matter if a given vehicle has been to different garages for every repair; it’s all consolidated onto one filing system. That sure beats ringing up workshops or digging through boxes of paperwork to find one record.
Using multiple systems to manage an emergency fleet means multiple overheads and extra admin time. It’s less than efficient. Discerning emergency fleet managers want to be more than efficient. With ForWare, you get cross-compatibility with garage DMS systems, such as Keyloop and Autoview.
In days when budgets are under increased scrutiny, being able to demonstrate transparency is crucial when managing a blue light fleet. If your directors ask you why so much was spent on fleet maintenance, you need to be able to account for and explain such expenditure. As we already mentioned, ForWare gives you instant access to service history and job cards should you need to present them. It also includes Video VHC, which enables fleet managers or appointed staff to view a video from the mechanic explaining why a repair is needed. This allows blue light fleet managers to make informed decisions on whether or not to authorise a repair.
Fleet managers and service managers alike know the pain of a vehicle repair being held up simply because there was a delay in work authorisation. With a manual system, authorising repairs often means several missed phone calls and emails between the workshop, the service desk and the fleet manager.
With ForWare, this is completely streamlined. The technician sends a notification to the fleet manager explaining what repair is needed and why. At the touch of a button, fleet managers can authorise or reject this spend. You can also have preset spend limits for automatic authorisation. Additional staff members can be given authorisation privileges as needed.
As with service history and billing, ForWare allows fleet managers to access all their fleet compliance records in one place. The system also allows managers to book in vehicles for inspections as they become due, along with post-exam repairs. Such tests include MOT, CVRT and NCT. ForWare Compliance is also compatible with ancillary tests such as those for tail lifts.
ForWare prides itself on just how easy to learn our fleet management system is. We aim to have staff up and running as quickly as possible. It’s not a system that takes days or weeks to learn. We’re about making fleet management simple.
If the above sounds good, contact us today for a free demonstration on how ForWare can transform your blue light fleet operations. Call Alan today on 021 4845550 or email alan@forware.io.
We’re confident that once you’ve tried, you’ll never look back.
Alan is a positive and proactive automotive professional with over 25 years of extensive experience in the motor trade.
Alan has been vital in developing and driving the ForWare System and implementing core workshop processes with some of the most significant state and private fleets in Ireland, the UK and Europe.
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