Hennecke Fleet Consulting
Fleet Management Software – Functions, Providers, Selection
“Which fleet management software fits your fleet – and how do you select it?”
Modern fleet management runs on fleet management software (FMS). From vehicle ordering and cost control to damage handling and telematics, digital systems have become the backbone of an efficient fleet.
The market however is crowded, ranging from the free-of-charge reporting tools of fleet service providers through simple SaaS solutions to complex systems, deeply integrated into corporate ERP-systems. As a result the offerings are hard to compare – and a wrongly chosen system is expensive and painful to replace. Selecting the right software is therefore one of the most consequential decisions in fleet management.
Read the full overview below, or jump directly to Our Consulting Services.
What is fleet management software?
Fleet management software is a digital solution to manage corporate fleets centrally: from vehicle procurement, maintenance and damage management, through invoice handling, to driving-licence checks and telematics. It brings data together in one place, replaces isolated solutions, and structures and automates processes. However the term is not protected – everything from a simple spreadsheet to a fully integrated platform is called “fleet software”.
When we talk about FMS in the following, we mean software from an external provider. This is fundamentally different from software that fleet management service providers, such as leasing companies - usually provide to their customers free of charge for reporting purposes. And it is equally different from the still-largest competitor of any fleet software today: Excel.
But even so, the term remains very broadly defined. Depending on the type and size of the fleet and the fleet management activities relevant to it, very different kinds of software can be meant. To ultimately arrive at a selection, we recommend a clear classification of fleet software – primarily by the software's functions and by further characteristics.
What functions does fleet management software have?
The core of every fleet management software is always a database of vehicles and drivers. Beyond that, the solutions cover different areas of fleet management activities. The following list gives a (not exhaustive) overview of the functions of fleet management software:
-
Vehicle and driver database: Master data, process data and associated documents, such as contracts, images or emails.
-
Standard management activities: Managing service & maintenance, checking of cost estimates, damage management, tyre management, fuel-card management, insurance handling, vehicle returns, etc.
-
Vehicle procurement: Configuration of vehicles, where applicable checking compliance with a car policy, obtaining and comparing quotes, obtaining approval by decision-makers, triggering the order, coordinating the delivery and the retrofitting of vehicles
-
Invoice management: Support for capturing invoices from suppliers, verifying invoices and approving or rejecting them, processing payments, sending data to ERP systems for finance and controlling
-
Cost management: Consolidating all costs as Total Cost of Ownership: Costs retrieved from invoices but also depreciation, taxes etc. Displaying for individual cars, for the whole fleet or for specific segments.
-
Reporting: Overview of relevant data, configuring individual reports, reconciling with planning systems
-
Driver communication via mobile app, e.g. for reporting damages, receiving tasks from fleet management or scheduling service appointments
-
Duty of care: Driving-licence checks, driver instruction, driver training, vehicle inspection, charging-cable checks
-
Pool vehicle management: Defining rules for booking, booking process, handover and return of vehicles, key handover
-
Special daily management: Dispatching of drivers and vehicles, tour planning for multiple orders
-
GPS-based services: Route planning, geofencing
-
Management of equipment: Managing vehicle bodies, tools, trailers or machines related to the vehicles
-
Damage detection: Automatically detecting new damage on vehicles
-
Workshop management: Managing repair orders, calculating repair cost, managing parts for an in-house workshop
-
Leasing/rental: Calculating rates, issuing contracts, managing payments if you lease/rent vehicles to customers
-
Corporate mobility: Offering further mobility alternatives (rail, public transport, car subscription, etc.) and integrating into a holistic mobility budget
-
International features: Multi-language, different units (e.g. kilometers vs miles), country-specific rules (e.g. taxation, fines handling process)...
-
Interfaces: Integrations with various other IT systems internally (e.g. finance, payroll, HR-training), suppliers (e.g. leasing, insurance, fuel) and other specific external systems (e.g. weighing of vehicles, corporate access management, electric energy management)
-
Specific IT features: E.g. data security requirements / single sign-on
"The functional scope of fleet management software varies.
Different systems usually cover only part of the maximum potential scope of fleet management activities."
How much does fleet management software cost?
The cost of fleet management software typically comprises various cost components:
-
Price per vehicle per month/ year
-
Price per driver per month/ year
-
Fixed costs for the entire fleet per month/ year
-
One-off fixed price plus yearly maintenance fee
-
Costs for third-party systems e.g. telematics or driving-licence checks
-
Implementation costs for customizing and training, plus development of features out of standard scope
Price per vehicle per month: Typically for SaaS, but also in on-premise-solutions. Prices range from free or below EUR 1 to EUR 10 or more. Very low costs are usually only for basic features, and often used by providers just to get customers locked-in. Maximum price depends on the functional scope. In cases where the fleet size does not change dramatically, costs per vehicle are charged per year, in order to simplify the billing process.
Price per driver usually comes on top of price per vehicle for features like pool car management or driver license checks. If charged monthly, this is may be between a few cents to 3 EUR. Don't underestimate this cost, if you have significantly more drivers than vehicles.
Fixed price for the entire fleet per month or year is usually an alternative approach to the above mentioned. In some cases it is a basic price combined with a cost per user of the fleet management software.
One-off fixed price: Usually for individually programmed software, ranging from a few thousand up to several million EUR. Usually with an annual fee for maintenance of approx. 15-20% of the initial fixed price.
Costs for 3rd-party systems: Costs for additional software in case a fleet management system does not cover 100% of the required feature scope (e.g. telematics-data, driver license checks or driver training). Costs depend on the type of the solution required. To be considered: In some cases the providers of the standard FMS have agreements with specific providers resulting in discounted prices.
Implementation costs are charged for customizing, data-testing and user-training, plus eventually the development of features that are outside the standard scope and building integrations to other IT systems. Costs range from zero up to hundreds of thousands of Euro. While customizing and training is usually offered for a fixed fee, development costs are usually defined by a fixed cost per hour and charged depending on actual effort.
The total costs of a fleet management software therefore depends on various factors. In general, however, it is mainly driven by fleet size and fleet complexity:
"From a certain point onwards, costs for customizing and implementation exceed the costs per vehicle per month.
Fixed price becomes more attractive with increasing fleet size and complexity."
Summary: Small fleets with little complexity will be perfectly fine with a standard SaaS solution at a price of EUR 1 or 2, up to maximum 10 EUR for maximum standard scope. Once the fleet size or the fleet management complexity increases, costs for implementation and customizing rise. At some point, for a large and highly complex fleet, an individually programmed software for a fixed price will be cheaper.
Fleet management software providers
Provider Overview
The market for fleet management software comprises well over 100 providers (focus on Germany), from very simple tools to highly complex and comprehensive systems or very specialised niche solutions.
The overview below lists the providers, neutrally and alphabetically, without rating or ranking, and is non-exhaustive, as orientation on the breadth of the market.
Addsecure
AEB
Aladin Fuhrpark
Alpega TMS
AMS
Anaplan
Ansys
Autofacets
Avrios
Azowo
Bettermile
Biblus
Board International
BRIXX
Cantamen
Carano
CarLo Soloplan
Carmada
Carpool NET
Chevin
C-Informationssysteme
CocoSoft
Comfleet
COS Online
C-Rent Fleet
Crossware
Ctrack
CX9
Disponline
Doll + Leiber
Ecologic
Ecovium
Enyore
fireTMS
Fleet Complete
Fleet Control Monitor
Fleet3 OfficePro
Fleetcontrol
Fleetfuhrpark
Fleethouse
Fleethub
Fleetio
Fleetize
FleetOS
Fleetster
Flottenmanager
FMS / Austrosoft
FucoPAC II
GAC
Ganacos
GEHR
Getmancar
Impargo
Innuce
InstaPAC II Fleet+
IPMC
IT.S FAIR
Jedox
Kemas
KISTLER
K-Soft
LIS/WindSped
Mobexo
Mobility ONE
MOQO
Motum
MSA
MuP
Neuro red
on Dispatch
OneStop Pro
Onestream
Oracle Fleet
ORTEC
Phoron
Praxedo
Protransport
Ratiosfotware
Remoso
Ronya
Senoty
SimPlan
S-TEC
Stella Architect
TCS
Timocom
TIslog
Trampas
Transdata
Valentin Software
Vanongo
Verizon Connect
Vimcar
Webfleet
Weisang
WinFuhr Disposition
WinSped
WSPone
Xpertour
YellowTracker 200
Provider classification
Given the large number of providers, we find it helpful to understand the provider landscape through a classification based on their background: how long have they been on the market, which product did they start with, and what is their strategy?
We distinguish the following provider types:
-
Giants: providers that have often been on the market for over 30 years, with a great deal of experience, the most comprehensive functionality and integrations with a very large number of third-party systems. Very strong for all large and complex fleets. Frequent drawback: the core of the engine is relatively old, the look and feel is often still old-fashioned, and implementation is very lengthy.
-
Special features: these rather young providers started out focusing on one feature – for example telematics, e-mobility or damage management. Driven by customer demand for a broader functional scope, they then expanded their software. Assessment: very strong in their original area, but weaker for more advanced requirements.
-
SaaS wave: providers that used the then-new concept of software as a service to build comprehensive fleet software via SaaS from the outset, initially without deep fleet expertise. Advantages: modern look and feel. Disadvantages: not the breadth of the giants, not the depth of the specialists, and little flexibility for special requirements.
-
IT in the background: providers with an IT company behind them that has been active far longer and has developed fleet software as a new product. Advantages: high IT competence for complex tasks, relatively fast implementation. Drawback: fleet management know-how must first be acquired through projects. Special case – SAP system houses: very strong on integrations, but typical SAP look and feel and high costs.
-
AI-driven: very young providers that have developed fleet software within a very short time using AI-assisted programming. The decisive question here: do they have both broad and deep fleet management knowledge and the IT experience to control AI-driven software development?
By which criteria should you select fleet management software?
Five criteria
We recommend selecting fleet management software according to the following five criteria:
-
Functionality which of the features described above do you really need?
-
Technology: Cloud-based or on-premise? Standard or individual? Data storage?
-
Usability, look & feel: How important is this fleet managers, other users and drivers ?
-
Speed and flexibility: How important is time implementation time and later adaptions of the software?
-
Cost: Last but not least
The most important criterion is definitely the functional scope, as characterised above. It determines not only the direct cost of the software but also the efficiency of your system and thus the indirect costs.
Before you apply any further criteria: choose software that matches your requirements exactly! If you choose software that does not meet your needs, all the other criteria are worthless. If you choose software that can do far more than you need, you pay too much. And if your fleet setup is so complex that no software can meet all your functional requirements, then we should talk directly.
Beyond the pure features, we see digital workflows and automation as important criteria: is the software built as an expert system, where every user has to find the next step themselves in menus? Or does it offer workflows in which one activity, once completed, automatically triggers the next – until the entire process is finished and you, as the manager, can see how long an activity has been pending? Can the system automate standard decisions and relieve the fleet manager by directing their focus to the important decisions?
Some providers do have workflows, but only hard-coded and for specific processes such as the ordering process. If workflows matter to you, check whether they can be set up for any process via customising! With automation we are still at the beginning, but some providers already have useful approaches that can provide relief with simple rules.
Technology: should the software run cloud-based, on-premise at your site, or is either conceivable? Is a standard software-as-a-service product enough for you, or do you need individual customisations? How important is it to you where your data is stored? Depending on how you answer these questions, different providers are relevant.
Usability, look & feel: how important is it that the colleagues who use the software can operate it easily and intuitively? How many clicks does a standard activity take, how quickly do windows load? How quickly does the provider's technical support respond? A word of caution: not every piece of software that looks good at first glance is efficient to use in daily operation. We see large differences between different providers, regarding this.
Speed and flexibility: how important is it that the new software is implemented within a specific timeframe? Does the provider have sufficient implementation capacity? How long do later adaptations of the software to future process changes take? We experience implementation time ranging between 2 and 6 months for more or less the same scope.
Cost, as described above – “last but not least!” Of course cost is very important. But look at the total cost, not just an obvious direct price! And pay attention to the implications of the right functional scope and the other decisions!
Feature overviews?
Several free overviews exist that characterise fleet software by using a checklist to show which provider offers which feature and which not, for Germany for example see Fuhrpark.de oder Flotte.de.
In our view, the problem is that these criteria are formulated far too generally and at the same time neglect the key questions that effectively make the difference between providers. As a result, almost every provider has “yes” ticked for almost every criterion – which makes the overviews worthless.
Just one example, the procurement process: roughly, you can state whether the FMS supports an approval workflow or not. But: is there a configurator that both maps the car policy and regularly updates supplier conditions? Does it also work for commercial vehicles and purchased passenger cars? Is the approval workflow individually configurable, or do you have to adapt to the software? Can quotes from different providers be requested automatically and compared in a structured way?
The FMS-Matching-Tool from Hennecke Fleet Consulting
Based on our years of experience with fleet management software, we have taken the idea of a checklist further and built an interactive tool that determines the suitability of a fleet software individually for each fleet. The latter is important because different fleets have different requirements, and consequently different FMS providers are suitable in each case. The tool works like this:
-
Over 100 individual criteria as described above: on the functions – including workflows and automation – on the IT foundation, interface capability, etc.
-
Characterisation of the FMS providers: depending on how well the providers meet the criteria, points are awarded and an overall score is calculated. We have already tested and included numerous providers, and we can flexibly add more.
-
Match with individual requirements: depending on which parameters you enter for a fleet (size, share of passenger cars vs. commercial vehicles, the importance of specific operational processes, IT requirements…), the points are then weighted – and thus the individual fit of each provider to each specific fleet is measured.
This is, of course, still a very standardised approach. For selecting fleet management software in a highly complex environment, it is therefore not sufficient on its own – although we use these criteria there too, in order to reach a structured decision. For small and simple projects, however, this check is often sufficient.
Common mistakes in fleet management software selection
Mistakes in selecting the FMS lead not only to inflated costs for the software itself. Far more serious: they mean inefficient processes, dissatisfied users and thus overall excessive indirect costs.
Based on our long experience as independent consultants, these are the mistakes we see most often:
-
Unclear functional requirements: Customers don't know exactly which features they need. As a result they choose an oversized scope or, conversely, later miss elementary functions
-
No market knowledge: The usual market overviews present feature lists where almost every provider has ticked every feature anyway, because the criteria are formulated too generally. The real differences do not emerge from these lists. Anyone who selects purely by the number of ticks selects wrongly.
-
Looks deceive: Customers sometimes opt for “appealing” software and only notice later what is missing. Look and feel matters to users, but it isn't everything.
-
Wrong cost focus: The price of the software per vehicle per month can be misleading. Implementation costs and the costs of later adjustments are sometimes higher than the base costs.
-
No flexibility: Anyone who fundamentally changes their processes to fit the software is making a mistake. If later changes are only possible with difficulty, it gets expensive.
-
Implementation: Even when the software is perfectly chosen – the rollout is about people and change. Without good change management that brings all stakeholders on board from the start, the rollout fails.
OUR SERVICES
There is no single “best software” for every fleet! We help you to find and implement the right fleet management software for your fleet.
Our structured approach in four steps:
-
Clarifying the requirements: What features do you need?
-
Market overview: Which providers are suitable?
-
Selection: Obtain and evaluate providers, negotiate
-
Implementation: Support the rollout as your quality manager
Depending on the complexity of your fleet: For simple tasks, we recommend our FMS-Matching Tool, guiding you steps 1-3 in our approach in an interactive way. For complex projects we will make you an offer for an individual consulting project.
We have already carried out numerous projects on fleet management software, ranging from quick recommendations to projects with several consultants over several years. Check our references.
Next Step: CONTACT US directly.