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Laura Maxwell

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Oct 7, 2016

3 minute read

Fleet Management Blog

Are Your Drivers Pencil Whipping From the Driver's Seat?

Ensure inspection integrity with location tracking on inspection items. Plus improved overdue inspection notices!

fleetio go mobile fleet management software

Ensuring the compliance of your fleet is one of the most important parts of a fleet manager’s job. Unexpected downtime results in lost profits, creates operational inefficiency and can pose serious risks to the safety of employees and the public. FMCSA reports that roadside inspections in 2015 resulted in about 3.8 million vehicle violations. 17.2% of which were Out-of-Service (OOS) violations. That’s a lot of downtime!

FMCSA reports that roadside inspections in 2015 resulted in about 3.8 million vehicle violations. 17.2% of which were Out-of-Service (OOS) violations.”

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There's no doubt that understanding regulatory requirements is important to your fleet, however, the integrity of the inspection is just as important to maintaining compliance and safety on the road. Knowing that drivers are conducting thorough vehicle checks before every trip is imperative to spotting defects and resolving issues before the vehicle ever leaves the yard.


Monitor Inspection Integrity

location exceptions

Let’s be honest. Sometimes drivers do a less than stellar job of conducting vehicle checks. They may fill out a form from the driver’s seat without actually walking around the vehicle or check the vehicle on the road after it has left the yard. While you may be implementing ways to improve driver participation in vehicle checks, paper forms can’t help you monitor inspection behavior.

Fleetio Go, our fleet management mobile app, now tracks the GPS location of every inspection item in a form, allowing you to see if a true walk-around was conducted. Along with inspection duration, you can see if a vehicle check was conducted honestly and thoroughly.

“Knowing that drivers are conducting thorough vehicle checks before every trip is imperative to spotting defects and resolving issues before the vehicle ever leaves the yard.”

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Receive notifications when Fleetio detects location exceptions on submitted reports, alerting you to potentially untrustworthy results. Fleetio even lets you apply tracking to specific forms and adjust alert thresholds to customize notification sensitivity:

  • Proximity threshold - Alert stakeholders if a percentage of inspection items on a submission are completed from the exact same GPS position.
  • Distance threshold - Alert stakeholders if one or more inspection items on a submission are completed greater than a certain distance from the center point of all items.

Along with driver instructions for every item in an inspection form, you can ensure inspections are being conducted properly, helping to identify issues right away. It’s just another way Fleetio Inspections helps you to remain compliant and avoid hefty fines on the road.

Stick to that inspection schedule

Fleetio now gives you three ways to monitor overdue inspections, helping you stay on top of fleet safety and preventive maintenance. When you’re alerted right away, you can address vehicles that need attention immediately. Here’s how:

1. Inspection dashboard widget - View overdue inspections and rolling 7-day item failure rates right on the your fleet management dashboard in the Fleetio web app to stay on top of vehicle checks.

fleetio go quick add

2. Overdue alerts in Fleetio Go - View overdue inspection alerts alongside service reminders and issues in the Fleetio Go mobile app. Click directly into details, create service entries and resolve issues directly in the app.

fleetio go quick add

3. Email Alerts - Receive a daily digest of overdue inspections by vehicle. Click through to manage service schedules directly in the Fleetio dashboard.

over due inspection email alerts

This update goes hand-in-hand with some valuable improvements to overdue alerts and other Inspections items in the Fleetio Go, our modern fleet management mobile app. Click here to learn more!


To learn more about how mobile fleet management software can optimize your fleet operations, get in touch.

About the Author


Laura Maxwell

Laura Maxwell

Product Marketing Manager

Laura is a Product Marketing Manager at Fleetio and has 10+ years of experience marketing SaaS companies. Laura grew up on a dairy farm in Massachusetts with a home delivery fleet and her work gives her daily flashbacks to her childhood.

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