How to choose fleet management software: look beyond maintenance
The short answer to how to choose fleet management software for an equipment fleet is this: choose the software that keeps the work done with the machine in a single record, not just the machine's maintenance record. If allocation and dispatch, timesheets, operator, rental billing, and machine and project cost can be read from the same machine card, and you can see this on screen with your own data, your choice stands on solid ground.
What is meant here is not tracking software that follows vehicles on a map. The subject is software that manages the daily operation on site of machines such as excavators, loaders, trucks and cranes. If all you are looking for is a maintenance plan and fault records, the CMMS and maintenance software selection guide makes that comparison; this guide starts where maintenance ends.
Ten criteria: why they matter, how to test them in a trial
Every row in the table turns into a demo or trial question. Score what you see on screen with your own data, not what the vendor tells you.
Selection criteria for fleet management software
| Criterion | Why it matters | How to test it in a trial |
|---|---|---|
| Allocation and dispatch | This is where giving the same machine to two projects on the same day, and nobody owning the day spent in transit, begins. | Try allocating a machine to two overlapping dates; check whether machines in dispatch and machines with an open fault are separated in the available list. |
| Timesheet | Rental, labour and project cost rest on the timesheet; in a timesheet compiled by hand at month end, days get lost or counted twice. | Check whether a daily draft comes out of a week of real meter, downtime and operator data, and look at corrections and the month-end lock. |
| Operator | Who works on which machine is a shared input for the timesheet, faults and document tracking. | Assign an operator to a machine with a date range; see that the assignment is reflected in the timesheet draft. |
| Rental billing | If the lessor's invoice and your own record do not give the same figure, the month-end meeting turns into guesswork. | Have the period amount for a rented machine calculated from the approved timesheet and put it next to the lessor's real invoice. |
| Machine and project cost | Items must be posted not only to the machine but also to the project the machine worked on that day. | Enter labour and parts on a fault record; watch the amount appear on the machine card and in the project report. Try an item in a different currency. |
| Multiple projects, multiple companies | The owner and the operating company of a machine can be different companies; cost and timesheet must be posted to the operating side. | Enter the owner and operating company separately, move the machine to another project mid-month, and check that the records are split by date. |
| Data sources | Manually entered meter and fuel data arrive late; maintenance timing and consumption review are late as well. | If you have a telemetry account, ask about the supported connection. If not, upload your own Excel file with a preview and try uploading the same row a second time. |
| Permissions and scope | A site manager should manage their own project and must not be able to change another project's records; seeing and writing are separate permissions. | Open a user whose scope is limited to a single project; check whether they can see and whether they can write to a machine and cost in another project. |
| Field use on a phone | If the foreman and operator do not enter the record at the machine, the data is written in the office, from memory. | Open and enter the same record in the browser on a real phone on site. Try opening a record at a spot with weak connection and write down what happens. |
| Relationship with ERP | If machine, project and supplier master data are entered a second time by hand, the two systems drift apart over time. | If you use an ERP, ask which data goes in which direction, the license scope of API access and the external reference mapping; ask for a working example in your own ERP format. |
The question of where the data will come from speeds up elimination
The value of fleet software depends on how current the data inside it is. Ask the same question for each type of data: by which route closest to the machine does this information enter the system today? The right order is first a connected automatic source, then bulk import with Excel, and lastly the phone or a QR code form. Meter and fuel are not field records; field records are faults, checklists and photos.
In Reper Axis, this order works as follows by data type:
- Working hours and kilometres: on supported connections, working hours are taken from the telemetry account; if there is no telemetry, an Excel meter import is used, and if there is none, entry by phone remains.
- Fuel: fuel automation sends refills with an API key; the distribution list is imported with Excel; if neither exists, the QR code refuelling form comes into play.
- Machine, operator, project and historical records: loaded in bulk with ready Excel templates. A preview is shown first, then the records are saved, and the same row is not written twice.
- Faults, checklists and photos: entered from the field, with the browser on the phone.
If the vendor says we connect to everything
Ask in writing which telemetry provider, which data and in which direction. The list of supported connections varies from product to product; for a provider that is not on the list, Excel import or entry by phone are realistic fallbacks, and in the trial you also need to run this fallback. If the fallback does not work, the data source question has been left unanswered.
Field and permissions: two different users on the same phone
Reper Axis works in the browser on a phone. What you should check in the trial is that the foreman and the operator can open the record on their own phones without interrupting their work. Learn its offline behaviour not from the product's promotional page but from a trial at a spot with weak connection.
In permissions, the real distinction is between seeing and writing. A site manager approving the timesheet in their own project should be able to be only a viewer in another project. The details of the role and scope setup are explained in the multi-site machine fleet guide; what you need to do in the trial is log in with an account whose scope is limited to a single project and try opening the machine and cost screens outside that scope.
The weight of the criteria changes in three hypothetical fleets
The three situations below are hypothetical; choose the one closest to your own fleet and weight the criteria accordingly.
- One site, 12 machines, all company-owned: the allocation and multi-company criteria are light. Timesheet, meter source and cost per machine come to the fore; being able to define an hourly or daily unit price for a company-owned machine is a detail to check.
- Three sites, 40 machines, half of them rented: rental billing, allocation and dispatch, and distributing the amount of rented machines across projects are decisive. In the trial, be sure to use a real lessor invoice.
- A joint venture and a project with subcontractor machines: the distinction between owner and operating company, scope-based permissions and what subcontractor users will see come to the fore.
Relationship with ERP: being able to connect is enough, being connected is not required
In a company that uses an ERP, machine management software should not contradict it but should not wait for it either. Master data comes from the ERP, and events and summaries from the field go to the ERP; which data originates where is explained in a table in a separate guide: the difference between field software and ERP.
On the product side, ask three things separately: can data be both read and written through the API, does a notification go to the other side when a record changes, and at what stage is the ready-made connector for the ERP you use. With us, API access is an add-on module tied to the license; the SAP connector is still in preview, so its scope is clarified in the technical discovery. If you have no ERP, the purchasing process should be completable from start to finish inside the software.
Three criteria that mislead the selection
Three things look impressive in a demo but are often weak grounds for a decision.
- Number of features: if the first ten screens of a product with dozens of screens that touch your work are not filled in on site, the list says nothing. What should be counted are the flows you will use.
- Reports that look neat with ready demo data: do not score before seeing how the same report looks with your own incomplete and scattered data.
- The map screen: location helps allocation decisions but does not by itself produce the timesheet, rental billing or cost. If location information is available, count it as an input, do not make it a criterion.
Which roles should take part in the trial
If one person runs the trial from the office, only that person's screen is tested. Include four roles: the site manager tests the timesheet and approval, the equipment manager faults and maintenance, the foreman the record on the phone, and the finance side the cost and billing report. Write down whether each role can complete a single task; these notes are what will be scored in the meeting.
Eight questions to ask in the demo and the trial
The demo data the vendor prepares looks good in every software. The questions below turn the screen into your own data.
- Can you upload ten rows of my own machine list now and show the preview?
- Can you open a machine's last four weeks of timesheet together with its downtime records on a single screen?
- Can we log in with a site manager account and try to open another project's cost?
- Can you show how the period amount of a rented machine is calculated when there is a day that has not been approved?
- How is the cost of a machine whose project changes mid-month split?
- Which of this product's features are live, in preview and coming soon; can you give a written list?
- Which modules are licensed separately, and when added later, does the existing data stay in place?
- Can I export the cost and machine report to Excel?
Try it with your own data
After the demo, the real test is done with your own machine list. In our product, this is the free 15-day pilot with up to 10 machines; its terms, the day-by-day plan and how to write the success criteria are in the 15-day pilot plan guide. If you are trying another product, set up the same arrangement: one site, a few machine groups, written criteria and a dated decision meeting.
