Efficient fleet tracking systems allow trucking businesses to monitor their fleet’s performance in real-time, enhance driver safety, and reduce operational costs. Consequently, over 72% of fleet management industry stakeholders, such as fleet managers and executives, employ GPS fleet tracking software.
While this software is indispensable for trucking businesses reliant on diesel fuel, what about entities using electric vehicles in their fleet? Such companies can leverage battery analytics to track their fleet, optimize operations, and streamline processes.
Is Battery Analytics Needed to Innovate Fleet Tracking?
Electric trucks are commercial vehicles that transport goods and consume batteries instead of fuel. Their motors have fewer moving parts than diesel vehicles, so they don’t require multi-speed transmission. This improves their reliability, decreases maintenance costs, and eliminates noise pollution.
Additionally, profitable government initiatives for promoting electric commercial vehicles and rigorous emission regulations levied on fossil fuel-powered commercial vehicles are driving the growth of this segment. Further, reduction in the cost of batteries for electric fleets is contributing to the growing demand for such vehicles.
Consequently, the international electric truck segment is expected to reach a valuation of $3.86 billion by 2030. Moreover, the global electric truck market is estimated to reach 324,100 units by 2026, with medium-duty electric trucks accounting for nearly 93%.
Since electric trucks are gaining traction in the freight transport segment, it’s essential for beginners in this domain to capitalize on battery analytics to inform their decisions and start a successful trucking business.
But what is battery analytics, and how does it impact fleet tracking?
How does battery analytics impact fleet tracking?
Though a less popular concept than fleet tracking software, battery analytics provides tools and processes to help fleet managers and operators observe and analyze the performance of batteries in their electric commercial vehicles.
Since battery-driven electric vehicles consist of large lithium-ion batteries and need electricity, fleet managers can track certain key metrics to gain real-time insights into their vehicle’s health and take remedial measures to fix potential issues before they become expensive problems.
As such, it’s vital for electric fleet management and optimization.
Importance of battery analytics for electric fleet
Battery analytics allow fleet operators to:
- increase their vehicle’s efficiency and reliability,
- cut down operating costs, and
- ensure that the vehicles are always at par to hit the road without any complications.
For instance, tracking the battery capacity, charge and discharge rates, and temperature of the battery can help them understand its performance capacity. This reduces unwarranted downtime and ensures that all the vehicles are used per their capacity.
If leveraged the right way, battery analytics have the power to innovate fleet tracking for startups and established businesses alike.
3 Ways battery analytics can innovate fleet tracking
The angel is in the details. Improper usage of battery-powered electrical trucks:
- shortens the lifespan of batteries,
- increases maintenance costs,
- leads to sub-par vehicle performance and unexpected downtime, and
- reduces profit due to high operational and replacement costs.
This makes battery analytics crucial for startups that don’t have any cash to burn. When interpreted correctly, battery analytics can change the name of the fleet tracking game and make it incredibly simple and easy for fleet operators to check up on their electric commercial vehicle’s health to improve operational efficiency.
So without further ado, let’s dive into the many ways battery analytics will innovate fleet tracking for trucking businesses.
1. Helps inform work orders
Comprehensive documentation forms the backbone of business operations, and their importance can’t be overstated.
As a fleet manager and operator, you need to keep track of the maintenance or repair required on one of your vehicles. However, this can be tiresome to maintain, making it challenging to communicate this information with your team members.
This is where a work or repair order comes in.
These documents allow you to monitor the work required and completed on your electric commercial vehicles. Having access to in-house and outsourced maintenance work and service histories of individual vehicles lets you maximize the return on investment (ROI).
But scattered data and unsystematic work orders are the perfect recipe for chaos and lead to more headaches than you signed up for.
To counter the unsystematic issue, you can use standardized work order templates to ensure everyone in your organization follows the same structure. This will ensure that your technicians spend less time thinking about and filling out the work orders and more time on the field.
As for the scattered data challenge, you can adopt an order-tracking software solution for tracking your fleet work orders easily. The best part about this software is that they manage, sort, and organize your data in no time. Moreover, all required stakeholders can access work orders when they need it.
This all sounds great, but where does battery analytics figure in?
How does battery analytics inform work orders?
But the cherry on top is the customizability of work order tracking solutions. While there’s nothing wrong with standardized templates, custom fields let you enter and manage data for all your assets.
For instance, analyzing the data from battery analytics informs you that certain vehicles in your fleet have low-performing batteries. In contrast, if others have high-performing ones, you can enter this nugget of information into the work order in case you want the high-performing ones to take precedence over their counterparts.
Similarly, if you have a mix of battery-electric and fuel-powered trucks in your fleet, you can ensure it’s mentioned on the work order so that your technicians can take the required precautions. For example, wearing protective equipment to protect themselves against shock when working on electric trucks.
While you might think that they already know this, prevention is always better than cure.
Besides allowing you to monitor your vehicle’s service history, such software aids you in breaking down the expenses associated with servicing a vehicle and closely examining the costs, labor, and parts needed.
2. Battery intelligence solutions to the rescue
Gleaning actionable insights from battery analytics might seem cumbersome, especially when you compare it with fleet tracking solutions. So what can startups do?
Say hello to battery intelligence analytics. Cloud-based battery intelligence solutions will help you maximize your battery electrical trucks’ performance, safety, and longevity. Let’s break these elements down to understand how they truly work.
- Performance: such software will let you use your vehicles optimally so that you don’t overlook key metrics, such as a vehicle’s range, power, and faster charging ability.
- Safety: get informed about the faults, anomalies, and potential safety issues early to minimize the involved risks. For instance, overheated batteries can lead to accidents.
- Longevity: you can unlock deep insights regarding your fleet’s past, present, and future health. Moreover, you will receive personalized recommendations based on these insights to extend your fleet’s life and boost your ROI.
Besides these, fleet managers can simulate the impact of vehicle usage on battery life and performance to optimize their fleet. Think of such solutions as a potent mix of electrochemistry, AI (artificial intelligence), and real-world understanding of complex battery systems.
3. Reviewing the gathered data
Though battery intelligence solutions will take a load off your plate, you can dive into the deep end to do things the old-school way if you’re not ready to use such solutions yet.
Review the gathered data and identify patterns in battery performance, like sudden spikes or drops in capacity, to recognize battery degradation symptoms. Try getting to the root cause of the problem and take proactive measures to halt the degradation in its tracks.
This will help you avoid expensive repairs and replacements in the future. For instance, if you notice that one of your vehicle’s batteries is acting up, you can replace them or take other steps to improve its performance to extend its lifetime.
It’s a cost-effective approach that reduces your operating costs because you get to extend the lifespan of your vehicles in need and hold off on replacing the batteries for your vehicles in good condition.
Similarly, you wouldn’t want to put a low-battery vehicle on the road that’ll leave your driver stranded on the side of the road. Paying attention to battery analytics will let you work out an optimized charging schedule to curtail downtime and minimize energy costs.
Moreover, working out the battery performance and capacity for each of your vehicles will let you apportion tasks accordingly. So you can let a low-performing electric vehicle make lightweight deliveries in close range and vice versa.
Battery analytics is a treasure trove of information that lets fleet managers use their resources optimally while cutting back on unnecessary expenses.
Battery analytics data is essential for fleet tracking
Electric commercial vehicles are the future. They’re energy-efficient, environment-friendly, require less maintenance, and depend less on fossil fuels. However, startups and established businesses must review and analyze battery analytics to make the most of their fleet.
Battery analytics provides actionable data that can help fleet owners, managers, and operators extend their fleet’s lifespan, boost its safety, and maximize its performance.
