WHAT makes a good fleet management solution?

Well, it depends on what you want for your fleet. Maybe you’re looking for top driver management features. It could be that cutting fuel costs is your priority. Or, perhaps, you want a solution that can track vehicles around the globe, while also fitting neatly into your back pocket.

Those are the solutions we’ll be exploring here: the best fleet management systems that are available to use in plenty of spots around the world, and that can be accessed online – whether on a desktop computer or a teeny tiny smartphone – giving you ultimate visibility in the most convenient way possible.

So, without further ado, here are our top five online, global fleet management solutions… 

Verizon Connect

It’d be remiss of us not to talk about this giant among software companies straight off the bat. With global GPS coverage, Verizon Connect offers incredibly accurate and insightful live vehicle tracking.

It also stands out for its alerting capabilities, with a clean, customisable dashboard and real-time notifications for geofencing, driving hours, late starts, long stops, vehicle diagnostics, speeding, idling, and much more.   

For those with international employees, Verizon Connect supports multiple languages – including Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic. It also enables you to tag certain vehicles to specific time zones, giving you more clarity over who’s doing what, and when.

With offices stationed around the world, this truly global solution is currently available in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, the US, Canada, and Mexico – while Verizon also boasts offices in China, Brazil, and Portugal.

Samsara

Founded in 2015, Samsara is something of a new kid on the block – but that hasn’t stopped it from quickly gaining an excellent reputation in the global fleet management space. The company already boasts 10,000 customers around the world, and during the last year alone it launched in 10 – yes, 10 – new countries.

At the time of this writing, Samsara is available in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, the US, Canada, and Mexico. The business has offices in London, San Francisco, Atlanta, and San Jose.

But the breakneck rapidity of its global expansion isn’t the only thing that impresses us about Samsara. With location data refreshing every 30 to 60 seconds, it’s about the closest to real-time tracking as you can get. Plus, the system’s intuitive fuel usage reporting is among the very best we’ve seen, while its automated route optimisation features can help you keep fuel costs down and productivity up.

Vodafone Automotive

Did you know that Vodafone does more than mobile phones and broadband? Yes, it also provides a fleet management solution – and an excellent, international one at that.

Operating around the world through distributors, licensees and national service providers, Vodafone Automotive is available in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, China, Japan, and South Korea.

It’s also worth noting that Vodafone Automotive’s security speciality – its stolen vehicle recovery service – operates in a whopping 54 countries across the world, including 45 European countries. So if you’re a global business with significant concerns about vehicle theft, Vodafone Automotive is definitely an option to investigate.

Interestingly, Vodafone Automotive’s various fleet management features are packaged in separate modules, and you can pick and choose the ones you’d like. In particular, we’re impressed by its ‘crash, claims, and emergencies’ module – with this installed, your system will be able to recognise when an accident has occurred, and automatically notify the right people straight away.

Quartix

More so than its fleet management features, we like Quartix because of how well it supports its business customers. With flexible, short-term contracts and a choice of affordable, transparent payment plans, this is one fleet management company that responds to fleet managers’ financial priorities.

It’s an approach that has appealed to many: Quartix currently has more than 13,000 customers around the world. And while it hasn’t expanded as far and wide across the globe as the providers we list above, it is available in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the US.  

Plus, if you’d like to keep an eye on your global fleet’s carbon footprint, Quartix is a solid option – with a unique emphasis on insightful CO2 reporting that should appeal to green-minded businesses. 

Teletrac Navman

While Teletrac Navman is by no means the most international of fleet management solutions, it still has fingers in a number of overseas pies – it’s available in the UK, the US, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. At the moment, the company boasts a HQ in California, with secondary offices in Keele and Milton Keynes, UK.

You’ll be best placed to make the most of Teletrac Navman’s highly customisable reporting If you have one or two data analysts in your team – or at least someone with a good head for numbers. Why? Well, Teletrac provides an amazingly intuitive ‘build your own report’ functionality, enabling you to customise which data you’d like to see, and when you’d like to see it. This makes it ideal for teams that are ready to understand, handle, and use the data collected from your vehicles.

The verdict

As you can see, there are plenty of fleet management solutions out there for managers who oversee international drivers, and who need to be able to check in on their fleet’s performance online, whether on a dedicated desktop or a smartphone app.

Of course, the right solution for you will depend on what you want most from fleet management – whether that’s boosting efficiency, gaining more visibility of your vehicles’ activity, managing fuel and CO2 output, or all of these things and more. But if you start by exploring the options we’ve listed above, you won’t go far wrong. Good luck!