Today’s cars are full of communications equipment and 100 million lines of programming code that return up to 25 gigabytes of data every hour, according to a McKinsey estimate.
The connected car provides fuel, mileage, location, and health status of your vehicle in real-time, and down to the second when directly linked into a vehicle’s telemetry feed.
How can dealership fleet management access and use this data?
This data is critical for minimizing costs, predicting maintenance needs, and even preventing theft.
Dealerware’s Connected Car Services automates the transfer of this data between a dealership’s car and its fleet management platform.
We do this by using either the direct telematics connection to a car’s onboard computer mentioned above or by using wireless devices that plug into OBD II ports.
A connected fleet provides service departments the power to optimize their fleet maintenance and rental operation.
The Immediate Benefits Of A Connected Fleet
Fuel and mileage are key data points to track for every dealership car rental contract. You need to charge customers for fuel used, especially with today’s rising car prices.
Equally important, you need to charge for mileage overages to cover the further depreciation cost of a vehicle. Ensuring that a car is retired from fleet duty before it hits a certain mileage point maximizes profit margins from certified pre-owned sales.
However, If you are manually tracking fuel and mileage, human errors will most likely occur.
Dealerware’s internal data shows that up to 20% of all dealership contracts could include manual data-entry errors like incorrect mileage and fuel levels.
For example, common errors include recording 100,000 miles instead of 10,000 or forgetting to update mileage altogether.
Misreading the fuel gauge is particularly expected when closing a rental contract due to the inaccuracy of a car’s gas needle reading, which won’t move from “F” until a couple of gallons are gone.
Incorrect data and the added time manual data entry requires can put a wrench in your operation’s bottom line.
With Connected Car Services, precise, automated measurements can help dealers save valuable employee time, accurately report the mileage status of a vehicle, and recover more fuel used.
To learn more about the data points fleet managers should watch closely watch, What the Data You Don’t Have Costs You.
Better data equals better-managed fleets
It’s easier to find vehicles on your lot when they’re connected.
Visibility into the location of your fleet allows for more control over the day-to-day of your operation.
Dealerware’s Connected Car Services helps service advisors avoid something as simple as overlooking a car parked farthest from the service drive which can impact overall fleet utilization.
Over time, an aggregated view of the mileage accumulated by each vehicle, and how costs are spread across different contracts will provide insight to managers about the performance of their fleet.
To learn more about how to extract performance insights from data to make strategic decisions download our Insights to Action Playbook.
Connected vehicles also make maintenance planning easier.
The ability to more accurately track mileage helps dealerships keep up with regular vehicle maintenance.
Moreover, direct telematics can instantly pull in other vehicle health data to prompt service warnings and alert service depart staff.
This helps to avoid renting out a car to a customer with high risks such as a low battery or bad tires.
Preventative maintenance can save the dealership from large repair costs, and happy customers means returning customers.
Connected fleets are protected fleets
It’s also easier to find vehicles off of your lot when they are connected.
GPS fleet tracking can alert fleet managers to vehicle misuses like out-of-state travel that may be restricted by insurance companies or when a car leaves the lot without a contract.
Whether it’s a customer that wasn’t contracted (and needs to be) or an employee taking a joyride, connected fleets help you limit unauthorized uses of fleet vehicles.
Finally, GPS fleet tracking can help you locate a vehicle if it is stolen and work with the appropriate authorities to recover your car.
There are two ways Dealerware can connect to your dealership rental cars.
Direct telematics delivers the most precise data and removes the need to manage devices or worry about customers disconnecting the device.
Wireless devices provide more flexibility for which vehicles you put into your fleet — just plug in a device and go!
Contact [email protected] for more or schedule a demo here.
