Fleetio is a software tool for fleet operators that allows them to log and track vehicle maintenance schedules using their mobile phones and OBDII devices. A number of dealerships also use the software to alert fleet clients about scheduled maintenance issues.
Matt Chapman, Fleetio's director of business development, discussed the software and its potential use in the aftermarket.
How would the solution work for a service provider?
Regardless of geographical distribution, you can connect with each other on the same account. So you can create a login or user profile for a customer, and they can see what's happening with their vehicles in all locations. They can set up reminders with different thresholds for oil changes, for example, and receive e-mail reminders. That reinforces the service the repair shop provides and keeps customers in the loop without having to exert much effort.
You can use this with or without an OBDII device?
We have the Vehicle Health Monitor (VHM) integration, which uses a plug-in device, and we've had good adoption with that. Fuel card integration is another easy integration. You can set up reminders based on time intervals as well if you have a pretty good idea of how far a customer is driving. You basically need a current odometer entry for the vehicle to keep that accurate.
Down the line we'd like to go beyond the VHS device to get more enhanced telematics. The fuel card right now is the most popular way to update the system.
Can you use a smartphone with this?
With the VHM device, if you have an Android phone you can download trip records.
What functions are users accessing most often?
Fuel is a big one, because fleet owners spend so much money on fuel. All of the metrics can provide cost-per-mile statistics. You can see how much you are spending on oil changes at one vendor versus another. Some customers are using this to put controls on purchasing.
The service reminders are the most popular, in terms of adding value. That keeps them from having catastrophic failures that can take a vehicle out of service.
With fuel, you immediately save time and data entry. The fleet manager no longer has to manage getting all of the vehicles in for maintenance. There's also an ROI in seeing how much you are spending on fuel or maintenance and making decisions based on that data.
You have a few service providers and dealers using this to manage fleet customer service work. How does the solution work in those cases?
You can set up an account for the customer. As soon as you get all of the vehicles in the system, they can add whatever information they want. If I have a customer they can add their own fuel cards, or add service records automatically. The companies doing this pass the charge along as part of their fleet management service.
What are future plans for the product?
We'd like to add GPS functionality down the road. We get a lot of customer feedback, and they have been vocal about getting a GPS device that can integrate with Fleetio. There are so many options out there that partnering with a handful of device manufacturers may be easier than managing an API (application programming interface) with a bunch of different providers. There are some plans at this point to eventually release an API, and customers could use it to make their device talk to Fleetio. There are a lot of ways of approaching that.
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