The public sector balancing act

Nearly 600 Mayors, CEO’s, councillors, and key business and not for profit players from across New Zealand met last week in Auckland. The focus was on the future of New Zealand at the annual Local Government NZ’s conference and EXCELLENCE awards.

The forward-looking theme of the conference was ‘Creating pathways to 2050: liveable spaces and loveable places’. Over three days, a series of presentations highlighted importance of local governments’ role up and down the country.

Teletrac Navman attended to showcase the strengths of fleet management software in improving transportation, delivery and road safety. Operating a government fleet is a constant balancing act. Governed by stringent regulations and working to tight budgets, councils must also focus on serving the public and using public funds responsibly and efficiently.

Using videos of DIRECTOR software in action, we highlighted the tools these vital organisations can use to track large fleets, improving productivity and supporting smart decision making.

Utilisation and efficiency

Operating a lean organisation and utilising assets responsibly is especially important to government organisations. Fleet GPS tracking can be used to manage every vehicle and asset in the fleet; council cars, service vehicles, waste management assets and heavy equipment. With data on the fleet, managers know exactly what equipment is being used and how, so they can ensure nothing is sitting idle or being used inefficiently.

In terms of back-office integration, large organisations can get a big picture view by integrating telematics with other business systems. Driver hours can be integrated with payroll systems or tasks can be scheduled in the job management system using vehicle location data.

On the ground, transport managers can create a better scheduling process for jobs by using real-time data to locate each vehicle and match them to incoming jobs. Track this data alongside budgets to eliminate areas of inefficiency.

Green Fleets

With sustainability and global emissions targets being hot topics for governments across the globe, introducing new technologies are key to greener fleets. Using the DIRECTOR software, managers can accurately track how much fuel is being used, while generating a vehicle-by-vehicle breakdown of C02 emissions. They can easily identify drivers who are burning through fuel by straining engines with harsh driving, or idling too long.

Carpooling is good way to reduce a fleet, but needs to be well managed to work for everyone. When organisations are using vehicles more efficiently, they need not purchase so many, making it cheaper to integrate hybrid and electric vehicles. Using a tracking system, managers can see if a car is booked but hasn’t been used, and can free it up for someone else. When a vehicle is running behind schedule the fleet manager can be alerted in the system, check the vehicles location and contact the driver if required.

Workplace Health & Safety

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requires businesses to have a workplace safety policy in place. Everyone in the chain of responsibility is responsible for proactively mitigating risks.

Capturing driver behaviour data helps create a safe and compliant fleet. The ability to replay incidents allows managers to build a clearer picture of unsafe driving habits like harsh cornering or speeding, while real-time alerts encourage drivers to make corrections on the spot.

If vehicles head to remote locations, fitting a satellite modem ensures drivers remain contactable. Furthermore, tracking vehicle use to schedule regular maintenance checks based on distance travelled, ensures vehicles are safe and unlikely to suffer unexpected failures.

Operating a government fleet is a balancing act - Get the balance right with GPS Fleet Tracking software.