04/12/2013

What can Fleet Management Learn From the World of Sport

Quite a lot actually! Sports teams regularly use data to help them assess player performance, reduce injuries and work on new tactics in training. All these principles can be applied to your fleet management system, with the help of the TomTom WEBFLEET software. In this blog, we look at how.

The story of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, inspired an Oscar nominated film starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Pitt played the team’s put upon general manager, forced to assemble a team based around the data provided by his nerdy sidekick played by Jonah Hill. The success of the Athletics, inspired other sports teams to follow the same pattern and it’s one that can easily be transferred to business.

In this blog, we look at the ways that a similar Moneyball style approach to fleet management data can help improve the way your fleet is run.

Preventing Injury

In sport, an injury to a key player can have devastating effects on your team’s chances. We’ve all heard the groan from the terraces, as your star centre forward starts to chase after the ball then pulls up suddenly holding his leg and hobbling about. The same can be said about vehicle managers. Damage to a vehicle, which puts it out of commission for a few weeks, could end up costing you time and money, just like a player on the physio bench. TomTom WEBFLEET can tell you when it’s time to give your vehicles a check up and give you a chance to prevent faults before they become too serious.

Increasing Efficiency

Marathon runners are trained to pace themselves during a long race, and consequently make efficient use of their time. You often see runners holding back from the front of a race, in a bid to conserve their energy for a sprint finish. This is intelligent behaviour, and can definitely be transferred to your fleet. Poor driver behaviour makes your fleet less efficient, but with TomTom’s Active Driver Feedback, you can highlight poor driving behaviour immediately and make sure you make your fleet safer and more fuel-efficient.

Getting the Best Players

Football clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool use data to highlight the best players in their squad and also players they should be targeting. WEBFLEET can help you identify your best drivers, based not just on the jobs they’ve completed but on the way they drive and the amount of fuel they use. Don’t think of it as a tool for rewarding good drivers and punishing bad ones. Think of it as a way to identify which drivers need more training to improve their skills.

Improving Your Tactics

Tactics play a huge part in many different sports, and many teams and individuals will look at data to ascertain what the best tactics are. They can give you a top down view of a particular situation. A football team might work on a particular corner kick routine, or a rugby team might look at what to do at a line out. Tactics can also help with your fleet management. WEBFLEET can show you the best approach to your job, which drivers are in the best positions to deal with that job and also which is the best route to take.

These are the key lessons that we can take from using data in sport. And TomTom WEBFLEET can help you with all of these targets.

And, as an added bonus, we’re giving all new customers who sign up for WEBFLEET subscriptions, FREE WEBFLEET FOR THE REST OF 2013!

Interested? Call us today on 01925 715 724.

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