Fleet & Transport Management
Trip-wise revenue against diesel, driver advances and repairs — so you know which vehicle is earning and which one is quietly costing you.
A transport business is a set of vehicles, each of which is either a small profitable business or a small loss-making one, and the usual problem is not knowing which is which. Freight comes in against a bilty, the driver takes an advance for diesel and road expenses, repairs happen on the road and are paid in cash, and the whole lot is settled when he returns. Averaged across a fleet it looks fine; per vehicle it rarely is.
What gets built here is the trip as the unit of account: freight earned, diesel issued, driver advance and expenses, and the settlement on return. On top of that, cost per vehicle over time — tyres, repairs, parts — and the documents that stop a vehicle dead when they lapse: route permit, token tax, fitness and insurance.
What it fixes
- Freight recorded against a bilty in one register and expenses in another, so profit per trip is never actually calculated
- Driver advances given for diesel and road expenses, settled on return from a handful of receipts and an argument
- Diesel issued without mileage being tracked per vehicle, so a drop in average goes unnoticed for months
- Repairs and parts paid in cash on the road, with no per-vehicle maintenance cost, so an unprofitable truck stays on the fleet
- Token tax, fitness, route permit and insurance expiring unnoticed, with the fine or the stoppage as the reminder
- Party freight bills and broker commission tracked loosely, so recovery against delivered consignments drags
What gets built
A starting point, not a fixed list. The build is scoped to your own process before anything is written.
Bilty and consignment record
Goods receipt against a party with consignor, consignee, goods, weight, freight, whether it is to-pay or paid, and delivery confirmed — the document the whole trip hangs off.
Trip accounting
Freight earned against diesel, driver advance, toll, loading and road expenses for that trip, settled on return, giving a profit per trip rather than per month.
Diesel and mileage
Fuel issued per vehicle with odometer reading, average worked out per trip and per period, so a falling mileage is a flag rather than a surprise.
Maintenance and parts
Repairs, parts and tyres booked against the vehicle with cost and date, giving a running cost per vehicle and per kilometre — which is the number that tells you when to let a truck go.
Driver accounts
Advances, salary or trip commission, expenses claimed and recoveries, as a running account per driver instead of a settlement argued at the end of each trip.
Documents and expiries
Route permit, token tax, fitness, insurance and driving licence with expiry dates and reminders in advance, so a lapse is avoided rather than discovered at a checkpoint.
Who this is for
Transport companies, goods forwarders and businesses running their own delivery fleet — from roughly ten vehicles upwards, where the owner can no longer hold each vehicle's position in his head. It suits long-haul goods transport particularly well, because the trip is a clean unit of account there. A business with three vehicles doing local deliveries will not get its money back from this; a logbook and a diesel register are enough. Passenger transport and bus operations are a different model — ticketing, routes and schedules rather than consignments — and should not be fitted into a goods transport build.
Questions
Can it integrate with our GPS trackers?
Often, and it depends on the tracker and the provider. Most tracking companies offer an API or a data feed, and where yours does, trips, distance and location can be pulled in rather than entered. Some providers do not give customers access to their own data, or charge for it. We would need the provider's name and your account details to confirm what is available before including it in scope, and we would not price it on the assumption that the feed exists.
Will drivers use a mobile app?
Some will, with a simple screen for expenses and delivery confirmation. Many will not, honestly, and a build that depends on driver entry tends to fail. The safer design keeps the record at the office and the booking desk, and treats driver app entry as a bonus where it works rather than a requirement. Worth being realistic about your own drivers at scoping.
We want fuel theft detection.
The system can show you a mileage that has dropped against the usual for a vehicle and route, which is how most fuel loss is actually identified. It cannot prove theft. Fuel level sensors fitted to the tank exist and some trackers support them, but accuracy varies and it is hardware with its own cost, to be confirmed against your vehicles and provider rather than assumed.
Tell us how your fleet runs.
We scope it first — what it takes, how long, what it costs. No obligation.