Case Studies

The Colony manages a growing municipal fleet of around 575 assets, including police vehicles, trucks, trailers, generators, and emergency equipment. As the fleet expanded, maintaining accurate records and keeping departments aligned became increasingly difficult. The city had evolved from paper records to spreadsheets and a legacy fleet management system, but these tools did not provide a scalable way to share data across departments or support modern fleet operations.

Recognizing the need for a more unified and efficient solution, the city turned to Fleetio to streamline operations and improve visibility across departments. As a result, they expect to realize a strong return on investment, projecting that in their first year, they will fully offset the cost of their subscription.

Before Fleetio, a lot of our process was still manual and access to the system was limited. Moving to Fleetio opened that up across departments and gave everyone visibility into the same data. Dustin Palmer, Fleet Manager

Understanding the Core Challenge

As The Colony’s fleet grew, it became clear that no one was working from the same version of data. Fleet, finance and risk management each maintained their own records, and over time those systems drifted apart. Meanwhile, assets showed up differently depending on where you looked, and some were duplicated while others were still active on insurance schedules even though they were no longer in use. What looked like a data issue was really a visibility problem that quietly created unnecessary cost.

At the same time, daily operations relied heavily on manual coordination. Communication about repairs and preventive maintenance (PM) happened through email, phone calls and follow-up, making it difficult to get a clear, real-time view of asset status. For outsourced repairs, staff were spending 15-30 minutes manually entering each invoice, adding hours of administrative work each week and increasing the risk of missed or incomplete data.

Operational information was spread across multiple systems, so even simple questions, like where an asset was, whether it needed service or what had been done recently, required switching between tools or tracking someone down for an answer.

This created a compounding mechanism of loss:

• Unnecessary spend from duplicate and misaligned assets
• Labor inefficiency from manual processes and system switching
• Risk exposure from incomplete or inconsistent records

For Dustin, the challenge was creating a system that multiple departments could rely on to get everyone on the same page. He needed a platform that could bring fleet, finance, risk management and department leaders into the same workflow without adding friction or cost barriers.

Our fleet has grown a lot over the years, and we needed a system that could grow with it. Fleetio gives us the flexibility to manage vehicles and equipment across departments while continuing to add new features and integrations. Dustin Palmer, Fleet Manager

Determining the Approach to a Solution

When The Colony evaluated alternatives, the decision wasn’t about choosing the cheapest option. It was more about finding software that could support real operational needs across departments. The city selected Fleetio to create a single system that fleet, finance and department leaders could all use.

Smart Uploads has been a huge time saver for us. What used to take 15 or 30 minutes to manually enter from repair invoices now takes a couple of minutes and reduces the chance of missing information. – Dustin Palmer, Fleet Manager

“When we evaluated software, we weren’t looking for the cheapest option — we were looking for the one that actually solved our problems. Fleetio checked every box we needed, from integrations to cross-department access," said Dustin, Fleet Manager.

A major part of The Colony’s Fleetio rollout was Dustin’s goal to “integrate everything possible.” The city uses integrations and connected workflows to bring more operational data into Fleetio, including:

• Telematics and diagnostic data for real-time asset visibility, making it easy to see where an asset was last located or whether a new check engine light appeared overnight
• WEX and FuelMaster for fuel transaction visibility
• Keycafe for vehicle access and assignment tracking

That unified view reduces time spent switching between systems and allows staff to access critical asset information instantly, improving speed and accuracy in day-to-day decisions.

Fleetio has helped us uncover costs we didn’t realize we were carrying. Once we centralized our asset data, we started finding equipment still on insurance schedules and duplicate records, which helped us avoid more than $12,000 in unnecessary costs. Dustin Palmer, Fleet Manager

Results: Cost Savings, Time Reduction and Operational Control

~$32,000 in identified and avoided costs

• ~$20,000 uncovered through asset cleanup and standardization
• $12,000+ avoided through removal of duplicate or unnecessary assets from active records and insurance schedules

6-7 hours per week saved

• ~2 hours/week from reduced manual data entry
• ~4-5 hours/week from improved communication and reduced follow-up

Improved data accuracy and auditability

• More complete repair records
• Consistent asset histories across departments *Reduced risk of missing or incorrect documentation

The city avoided approximately $32,000 in unnecessary costs within the first several months of using Fleetio. Through fleet rightsizing and record cleanups alone, they were able to fully recover their annual investment in Fleetio and expect to uncover more cost savings through reduced breakdowns and improved maintenance compliance with continued use of the platform.

What Changed Day-to-day

The Colony’s move away from a legacy fleet management system was driven by the need for a more scalable, connected system. After replacing the legacy system with Fleetio, The Colony saw benefits that include:

• Under two minutes to process repair documentation with Smart Uploads
• Real-time visibility into asset status, service schedules and history
• One shared source of truth across fleet, finance and insurance
• Faster coordination and fewer delays across departments

Faster access to asset status and service needs also reduced delays in scheduling and responding to maintenance issues, helping keep more vehicles in service and improving overall uptime and operational throughput.

Additionally, the switch helped reveal inconsistencies that had built up over time. Different departments were working from different asset lists, unit numbers had been reused and finance and insurance records didn’t always align with fleet records. The city was able to clean up those discrepancies and improve decision-making by establishing Fleetio as its operational source of truth.

The Colony is still early in its Fleetio journey, but already the platform is helping the city move from reactive recordkeeping to strategic fleet planning.

One thing I appreciate about Fleetio is that the platform keeps evolving and adding capabilities that help us manage the fleet more effectively. Fleet Map, for example, adds another layer of visibility to the maintenance data we already manage in Fleetio, so when an issue comes up, we can quickly see where an asset is and make better service decisions. Dustin Palmer, Fleet Manager

By replacing disconnected systems with a centralized platform, The Colony transformed how it manages fleet operations across departments. With better visibility, cleaner data, and more efficient workflows, the team uncovered meaningful cost savings and built a stronger foundation for long-term planning.

Fleetio enabled the shift, but the city’s leadership and adoption made the results possible.