Picture this — the boss is breathing down your neck. He wants you to get your production numbers up, and diminish the amount of time your drivers spend off road. Basically, he wants you to whip your team in shape, and ensure every vehicle is on the road in tip-top shape as quickly as possible. Sound familiar?

If you manage a vehicle fleet, you should take a look at pre-trip vehicle inspection software. It can make your job a little less stressful. Didn’t know it exists? Let’s dive a bit deeper into what it is and why we think it will be a game changer.

WHAT CAN PRE-TRIP VEHICLE INSPECTION SOFTWARE DO FOR YOU?

As a fleet manager, using pre-trip inspection software such as Whip Around will help you:

• Ensure that all of your drivers are operating vehicles that are road-ready

• Stay organized with easy to access digital files that are always up to date

• Save time and money

• Catch small problems before they get bigger (and more costly)

• Become aware of trends in faults and/or repairs

• Avoid hassles with highway patrol, your boss/shareholders, clients, and more

YOU’LL WORRY LESS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR VEHICLES ARE ROAD-READY

If you’re using the old paper system for your pre-trip inspections, could you say with certainty that every vehicle in your fleet is road-ready right now? Would you even know how many of those vehicles had faults, or ones that were in need of immediate repair? If the answer is no to either of those questions, you need Whip Around in your business right away.

The job of a manager is already stressful enough without having to be concerned for the safety of your drivers, and the other drivers that they will encounter on the road. Our software gives you peace of mind, and digital proof, of the status of your vehicles at any given time. That is of course, as long as you enforce the requirement that your drivers are doing their pre-trip vehicle inspections before every trip — which you should.

A DIGITAL SYSTEM KEEPS YOU MORE ORGANIZED

One of the many benefits of Whip Around is that it’s paperless, auto-updated, and cloud-based to be accessible anywhere with Wi-Fi. If a government official, insurance liason, or anyone else were to come into your office and ask for the records of any driver/drivers in your fleet, you would have all of the reports ready to share with just a few clicks of a button on Whip Around’s web-based dashboard.

As soon as your driver creates a new record with our pre-trip vehicle inspection software, they can send it to your web-based dashboard, and it will automatically sync from their smartphone to your system. This gives you real-time data that can be searched for anything you may need to know when you need it.

And, this all happens without you having to label or file a single piece of paper. The record will come to you with the tag number of the vehicle and be categorized with the date and time of the inspection. Think of the app in part as a full-time filing clerk that always works overtime without fighting you on it, and that takes care of everything virtually without any additional effort on your part.

WHIP AROUND SAVES YOUR COMPANY LOTS OF TIME AND MONEY

What are the elements that cost the most money in your business? If you’re like most fleet managers the answers are:

• high insurance costs

• time off road and

• vehicle repairs and downtime due to those repairs

PRE-TRIP VEHICLE INSPECTION SOFTWARE CAN EQUAL BIG SAVINGS ON INSURANCE

Cue the sound of screeching tires! Yes, Whip Around has been known to help fleet managers save money on levies and insurance premiums. Thanks to the detailed history reports our software provides, you will have a record to share with your insurance providers that can withstand any audit and prove regular safety compliance. Safer drivers are less expensive to insurance companies, so having proof that your drivers are safe can mean lower bills and more money in your pocket.

IT TAKES A LOT LESS TIME TO DO A DIGITAL REPORT THAN AN ANALOG ONE

Let’s face it, pencil and paper is time consuming, bulky and downright annoying. It’s also not the most environmentally friendly way of doing business, but that’s for another discussion.

A lot of time can get wasted trying to do pre-trip vehicle inspections with pencil and paper. Not only do your drivers have to make sure they have plenty of blank copies of their pre-trip vehicle inspections forms, they then have to:

• stand there filling out the paperwork (slowly for the sake of legible reading)

• waste time making sure they didn’t miss anything on the form

• run it to the fleet manager’s office to deliver the report, and finally walk back to their truck to depart for their trip

It’s far too easy for that walk from truck to management office to turn into a long affair complete with an overabundance of water cooler chatter, and dilly dallying. What’s worse is that once they get it to your office, your arduous task of going through their paperwork begins.

This could mean hours of work trying to read their awful handwriting, contacting them to ask questions if anything didn’t make sense, typing up digital copies of those reports, analyzing the data, creating and updating spreadsheets, and ultimately filing the report in a cabinet that may be less organized than you care to admit. Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?

With Whip Around, that long pre-trip process is streamlined effortlessly.  Within mere seconds your drivers can have their apps open on their smartphones and be whipping — no pun intended — through their inspections. They’ll be walked through the inspection across every element you want checked on their truck.

You won’t have to worry if they missed anything either because they can’t get to the next section until they answer questions about the section of the truck they are currently inspecting.

If they find any faults they can instantly snap a photo and type a description of what is wrong. No more illegible handwriting! And, you’ll have a visual record of the fault so you won’t have to guess at it if the description isn’t completely clear.

Your drivers won’t have to waste precious minutes walking their pre-trip vehicle inspection reports to you either. They simply hit submit on their smartphone, and it along with the images, and their signature are automatically loaded to your system.

It’s probably easy to see how the software can save you time. Now, you may be thinking — but how can Whip Around save on downtime and repairs? Vehicle downtime can cost a company more than $1,000 per day, per vehicle. Every minute your drivers are off the road, you’re losing money.

So, how will the software help you there? We’re so glad you asked.

WHIP AROUND REVEALS PROBLEMS WHILE THEY’RE STILL SMALL

It’s common sense that a smaller repair has a smaller repair bill attached to it. By having your drivers use our pre-trip vehicle inspection software you’ll be alerted to, and able to act on the small repairs, before they have the chance to get bigger.

For example, repairing a leaky hose is much cheaper, and will require less time than replacing several engine parts that were damaged by prolonged exposure to those fluids that were leaking out of the hose in the first place. By catching the leak in that first inspection, there’s no telling how much time, money and hassle you could be saving your company than if it had been given the chance to get significantly worse.

YOU’LL BE ABLE TO SPOT WHEN THERE’S A PATTERN OF TROUBLE

Imagine for a moment your company just purchased 20, 50 or more new vehicles. Suddenly, since making the purchase, you’re receiving frequent reports of faults on all of those vehicles at about the same time. Using our software, you’ll have real-time analytics and alerts, so you will be able to instantly spot if the pattern was directly related to the new vehicle purchases.

You’ll now have data to back up your claims that could result in the manufacturer paying for your damages, or could simply result in you’re becoming aware that you shouldn’t purchase from that manufacturer again in the future.

Perhaps it wasn’t a vehicle purchase, but a faulty part that everyone on your fleet is having trouble with at the same time, or some other item that is causing delays or leading to additional repairs. Whatever it is, pattern revelations will ultimately save you money down the road because you’ll have historical reports to reference that help you make better buying decisions.

WHIP AROUND TAKES A LOT OF THE HASSLE OUT OF YOUR JOB

Avoid hassles with highway patrol

When a driver has a random inspection of their vehicle a few things could happen:

• The patrolman might just do a quick walk around vehicle inspection, and then send the driver on their merry way. (Best)

• The driver might be asked for their DVIR, which they can easily provide via their smartphone with our software, patrolman does a quick or thorough inspection, and clears them to move along. (Good)

• Faults could be found on their vehicle that get the driver a fine, and an order to get it repaired as soon as possible. Then, they are sent on their way. (Bad, but manageable)

• Faults could be found on the vehicle, a fine assessed, and they are ordered to have their vehicle towed (Worst case scenario and now you have a fine, a towing bill, repair costs that might be higher than they needed to be, and your driver’s delivery is delayed which could mean additional costs to you. Ouch!)

The second and third scenarios could have been avoided if your drivers were using pre-trip vehicle inspection software to conduct their inspections before their trip. You would have saved yourself and your driver all of that hassle.

Avoid hassles with your boss/shareholders

Your boss/shareholders want to know that the business is running smoothly. They want to know that profits are up, costs are down, and that everyone is performing to the best of their ability. The best way to show your boss/shareholders that things are going well is by giving them thorough reports that actually show them the company’s status.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like that to hand them that didn’t take you hours to prepare? Whip Around’s dashboard analytics save the day once again!

Avoid hassles with your clients

Delays due to a repair, a vehicle being fined, or being taken out of commission completely — all of these factors are irrelevant to your clients. What matters most to them is that they receive their deliveries on time, without any hiccups. Anything less might result in them not wanting to do business with your company again in the future.

Even worse, it could cause them to spread the word to their network that your company doesn’t deliver shipments on time. Your company has a reputation to build and protect — don’t let unnecessary shipping delays destroy that.

Avoid hassles with other drivers your fleet will encounter on the road

I’ll bet you weren’t expecting this one, but it’s important to mention because a vehicle that isn’t road-ready could cause you and your company some big trouble with other drivers on the road.

Every time your drivers get on the road without making sure that everything on their vehicle is operating in good condition, they are risking not only their own safety, but the safety of every other vehicle that they encounter.

For example, let’s say your driver didn’t do a pre-trip vehicle inspection, and there was a problem with one of their tires that results in an automobile accident. If something like this happens, let’s just say your day just got a lot more difficult.

Especially if there was a fatality from the occurrence! Not only could your company face fines and your driver face losing their license, your company could be sued.

Bottom line — Headache prevention is far better than medicating it after the fact. Wouldn’t you agree? Using Whip Around as your pre-trip vehicle inspection software will save you time, money, and hassle. It makes your job as a fleet manager, a little easier. Doesn’t that fact alone make you want to give Whip Around a test drive?

TRY WHIP AROUND FOR FREE TODAY!

You can try Whip Around for free. Come kick our proverbial tires, and test most of our bells and whistles with no financial commitment by clicking here. In minutes you’ll see how Whip Around helps companies increase their bottom line, and save time and money. We look forward to working with you.