The challenge: Balancing speed and safety for maintenance

After vehicles and assets have been serviced, commercial fleets may face pressure to get them back in use as soon as possible. After all, when equipment idles, production and profits suffer.

However, many fleets lack the visibility to know when vehicles are ready to return to service. It’s an issue that comes with risks of its own, such as:

  • Premature service return: Causing severe breakdowns and extended downtime. 
  • Safety risks: Endangering operators due to unfit vehicles or equipment.

The Solution: Vehicle & Asset Availability Status and History

Motive’s new Vehicle & Asset Availability Status and History feature is designed to solve these challenges, providing fleet management teams with tools to track vehicle and asset condition. With Motive’s Vehicle & Asset Availability Status and History, fleet managers and administrators can now: 

  • Assign availability statuses to vehicles and assets.
  • Track how long equipment remains in each status.
  • Add notes for additional context.

As a result, teams get better insight into how long vehicles are down for maintenance, allowing them to make more informed decisions about when to return them to service. 

The new feature also provides an additional safety measure, warning drivers when they try to connect to a vehicle that is marked “Out of Service.” This prompt helps ensure that drivers don’t accidentally operate a vehicle that isn’t ready, reducing the risk of maintenance-related accidents. 

In addition, the system generates detailed reports on vehicle status, offering a clear picture of how much time assets spend in each status over a given period. This information can be invaluable for identifying inefficiencies and making process improvements.

Benefits across fleet roles 

The new feature offers significant value across multiple roles within a fleet. Fleet managers can now plan more effectively, ensuring they have the right number of vehicles available for dispatch without over-relying on spare vehicles. Equipment managers benefit from a clear understanding of asset availability, helping them make better decisions about when to bring vehicles back into service. 

Dispatchers no longer have to wonder which vehicles are ready for use, as they can easily view real-time availability updates. Maintenance managers, meanwhile, can reduce the amount of back-and-forth communication with fleet teams by automatically updating vehicle statuses and sharing readiness information seamlessly. Lastly, drivers are kept informed about whether or not they should operate a particular vehicle, improving both safety and operational efficiency.

Key benefits: Productivity, safety, and profitability

The Vehicle & Asset Availability Status and History feature delivers significant benefits in three key areas: productivity, safety, and profitability. By automating the tracking and communication of vehicle availability, fleet teams save time and reduce administrative burdens. The feature also helps prevent accidents by ensuring that vehicles are not put back into service prematurely. Finally, maximizing vehicle uptime allows fleets to take on more jobs, increasing revenue and improving the return on their assets.

This powerful feature is set to transform how fleet managers approach maintenance and asset utilization, driving both safety and efficiency improvements across the board. If you’re looking to improve fleet productivity, increase revenue, and ensure your vehicles are always ready for service, check out the Help Center today to learn more about using this feature in your operations.