In businesses that distribute goods using their own vehicles, shipment management takes on a vehicle management dimension. The vehicle is a resource, the driver is a capacity, and fuel is a direct cost item.
Fuel management: Linking fuel purchases to vehicles and trips, monitoring consumption norms, and identifying deviations.
Maintenance and repair: Periodic maintenance plan, fault records, spare parts consumption, and vehicle downtime.
Tire and equipment tracking: Tire lifespan, consumables, and equipment inventory.
Vehicle tracking system integration: Data such as location, speed, idling time, hard braking, and driving behavior are fed into the system.
Comparison of using your own vehicle versus using an external carrier: Comparing the total cost per trip with the cost of outsourcing the same job to an external carrier.
Fleet or outsourcing?
This decision is made intuitively in most businesses. The correct approach is to calculate the true total cost of your fleet: including depreciation, insurance, taxes, maintenance, tires, fuel, driver costs, lost idle time, and administrative burden.
When this calculation is performed, the typical result is that the hybrid model is the most efficient: its own fleet on regular and busy routes, and external carriers on irregular and distant routes. The system's task is to make this distinction calculable for each shipment.