5 Reasons Switching Your Old Processes From Paper to Digital Is Easier Than You Think

Especially in the fleet space, many companies are still beginning their digital transformation and radically altering the way they run their business. Maybe this is where your team is at.

The reality is that change can be intimidating since many business owners fear that making the change will be costly, disruptive, and negate any benefits that come from it.

Fleet management is one of the areas where technology has significantly improved the way that businesses operate. For this reason, many changes are actually worth making to stay competitive.

If you have been holding off on your company’s digital transformation because you believe it will be too complicated, you may be surprised at just how easy it is.

In this post, we’ll share 5 reasons why switching from paper processes to digital may be a lot easier than you think.

1. Old processes may be doing more harm than good

When a system has been in place for decades, while everyone might be well-versed in how it works, it may not be doing your fleet any favors.

Take paper forms or spreadsheets relating to vehicle inspections as an example. While it may be convenient to breeze through a daily DVIR for employees, the realty is most fleets don’t do anything with this data other than keep it in filing cabinets for compliance purposes.

Where’s the ability to predict when routine maintenance is needed, or what vehicle hasn’t completed an inspection on any given day?

Every time technology changes enough to be disruptive, there are those that embrace it early and those that hold off until the last moment. In this space, typically it takes a combination of compliance investigations, fines, or lost profits (in the form of too many vehicles are out of service or in disrepair).

 

2. The benefits often begin immediately

It may take a while for the benefits of some digital transformations to begin. Luckily for fleet managers, the switch from paper forms to mobile apps for things like inspections can pay off rather quickly.

Sticking to the inspections example, managers can even get notifications whenever a driver flags a defect, so a mechanic can be assigned to the job and ready to go as soon as the vehicle gets in.

Software like Whip Around will allow you to track these problems through to completion so you always have access to the current state of the repair. Speaking of repairs, a digital system can also track annual inspections and routine maintenance on all of the vehicles in your fleet and allow you to manage all of it from one easy interface.

Day-to-day operations improve as well. Since all of the information is entered electronically, drivers spend less time dealing with paperwork and management spends less time filing and sorting through it all. Whatever information you need about the state of a given vehicle at a given time will be available and easily found on the computer.

With digital fleet management, every link in the chain will benefit from real-time updates and simplified data entry right from the first day that you implement the new system.

3. Good technology makes onboarding easy

There was a time when almost all software was difficult to learn. Few people owned a computer and the focus was put on functionality over ease-of-use.

As a result, software came with large manuals that one had to study in order to become an expert. That focus has changed drastically over the years as even toddlers now have access to mobile devices and are capable of figuring out how to use them.

Of course, fleet management software has come a long way, and when it comes to onboarding drivers with technology, the reality is many of them are already using smartphones every day anyway.

While there may be a learning curve for some, the user experience of a modern solution like Whip Around oftentimes is a lot easier for drivers to learn how to use than they thought it would be.

 

4. An experienced partner will ease the transition

No matter how easy a piece of software is to use, there will inevitably be hiccups as your entire staff makes the switch and acclimates to the new system. This is when it is important to choose a partner in your digital transformation that understands the struggles that new adopters of the technology face.

An experienced partner will anticipate the troubles that you and your staff will have and can talk you through them before they become a problem. This way, there are no surprises that you are unprepared for catching you off-guard and causing undue disruptions to your transition.

Because the software automatically notifies everyone who needs to know about something whenever a change is made, you’ll never have to deal with miscommunications, lost messages, or forgotten tasks again. Your staff can spend less time filling out paperwork and more time doing what you are paying them to do.

5. A more efficient future outweighs the perceived negatives

Managing your daily inspections and routine maintenance on paper makes things far harder to keep track of and takes longer than it needs to.

When you go paperless and see the time it saves you and your operational costs drop, you’ll wonder how you ever lived with the old way.

Solutions like Whip Around almost becomes like an extra employee, keeping things running smoothly, ensuring everything is well organized, and providing you with useful reports that put all the data you need about your operation at your fingertips.

Take the first step 

Making the move from paper-based fleet management to a digital solution will provide minimal disruption to your existing operations and usher in a new era of efficiency and profitability for your company. Inspections and maintenance is a great place to start, especially with so many vehicles and assets.

Whip Around has helped thousands of fleets in multiple industries make the switch, with a team to walk your drivers and employees how everything works.

Ready to take the first step to better management of your fleet and reduce operational costs?

Click here to book a demo of the Whip Around platform at a time that works for you, and see the difference it could make for your fleet. We look forward to helping your team get started, so you can focus on running a more efficient and profitable fleet.