Cartrack Carpool: The Smart Way to Streamline Business Fleet Bookings

An aspect of fleet management that some businesses tend to overlook is vehicle sharing. On many occasions, staff members have to take turns using the same vehicles. When those vehicles are not properly allocated, availability issues arise, leading to operational inefficiencies.

An online vehicle booking system is necessary in this instance to ensure that vehicles are available for staff to use. 

Let us look at the importance of a vehicle booking system and how Cartrack Carpool is the perfect solution. 

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In this article, you will:

• Get to know what Cartrack Carpool is and how it works

• Find out why businesses need a smart vehicle booking system

• See how Cartrack Carpool can improve your business operations

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What is Cartrack Carpool?

Cartrack Carpool is a smart vehicle online booking system and management system designed to streamline fleet operations. It enables employees to book shared company vehicles without scheduling conflicts while allowing fleet managers to efficiently assign vehicles and optimise availability, improving overall productivity.

Employees can also reserve vehicles for specific business needs, such as client meetings, site visits, or business travel, using a centralised booking system. 

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How does carpooling work?

An easy way to understand the concept of the Cartrack Carpool feature is by comparing it to booking a boardroom for a meeting. If you take a chance and walk into the meeting room without booking, you might find a different group of people who might be there for hours. However, if there is a system in place for booking a boardroom, then you would be able to see which one is available and at what time.

There is usually the same problem with company vehicles, making Cartrack Carpool an essential tool. Cartrack Carpool allows fleet managers to view detailed booking requests with information such as who the driver is, the purpose of use, and when that person will need the vehicle. From there, the fleet manager can approve or decline the booking based on the specified reasons. 
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Here are four main Cartrack Carpool features that simplify vehicle booking: 

1. Vehicle status overview: Provides real-time status updates on all the vehicles. The details include vehicles that are booked for use, those currently in use, and a history of the vehicles that have been returned. This section also displays the total number of vehicles versus how many have been requested, approved, or declined.
    
2. Calendar view: Similar to the meeting calendar on MS Outlook, this option gives managers an overview of all bookings in a calendar format, with the date, time, and duration.
    
3. Resources: Improves the management of resource availability by showing how many vehicles each department has available, with views of past and future vehicle bookings.
    
4. Settings: Enable the filtering of vehicles to cater for the specific needs of each department. For example, some companies have a mixed fleet. The small vehicles are used by sales personnel to meet up with clients; the vans are used to transport company equipment; and the trucks are for making large deliveries. Without categorising the vehicles according to departmental needs, a salesperson could mistakenly request a truck for a business meeting instead of a small car. Therefore, these filters ensure that the correct vehicle is assigned to a suitable driver. Moreover, through these settings, bookings can be configured to automatically be approved to speed up the process. 

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Who can benefit from Cartrack Carpool?

Given that this is an internal vehicle booking system, any company with a fleet of vehicles can use our Carpool service. From small businesses to those with multiple offices, warehouses, and vehicles spread across the country. 

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Why businesses need a smart fleet online booking solution

Let us have a look at some of the issues businesses with large fleets encounter daily and why Cartrack Carpool would be the best solution for that:
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Inefficient booking processes leading to wasted time

Manual booking processes are time-consuming and prone to errors. This leads to delays, double bookings, and confusion. When employees struggle with vehicle availability, it impacts productivity. Cartrack Carpool minimises these errors by displaying the availability of each vehicle and allowing automatic approvals to speed up the process. 

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Unmanaged fleet usage increasing costs

Poor scheduling leads to unnecessary vehicle downtime. For example, some vehicles may be booked more than others without anyone noticing. The overuse of these vehicles leads to greater wear and tear, which results in higher maintenance costs. Cartrack Carpool helps distribute vehicle usage evenly, preventing excessive wear and tear on specific vehicles.

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Lack of visibility creating compliance and accountability issues

A manual booking system makes it challenging to track vehicle usage. Some employees might use vehicles that they are not licensed to drive, which not only puts them at risk but also affects the company's reputation. 

Cartrack Carpool keeps a record of the names of each person who has submitted a booking request and allows fleet managers to link employee driver licenses to the vehicles they qualify for. This also reduces issues of accountability. 

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The growing need for sustainable and cost-effective mobility

Sustainability is a very important factor in any fleet business. Sharing vehicles lowers the company's carbon emissions by reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Moreover, this is also a great option for businesses looking for ways to downsize their fleet without affecting operations.

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How Carpool seamlessly integrates with other Cartrack fleet management solutions

Managing a fleet also requires other tools to ensure smooth operations. Here are some of the solutions that work hand-in-hand with Carpool that you can add to your package: 

• Geofence
  Carpool interacts seamlessly with the Cartrack Geofence feature. Fleet managers get to create virtual boundaries around offices, warehouses, and other areas to get alerts whenever vehicles enter or leave those premises. This helps notice when vehicles have gone over undesignated areas, and it is also another way to identify if vehicles were taken and returned on time.
   
• DID tags
  The Cartrack driver identification tags further promote driver accountability by helping you automatically identify drivers and vehicles using the driver’s identification number. If the vehicle is used without a tag, it can be flagged as a risk. The tags also have a start-prevent option, which means the vehicle will not go on unless there is a tag. This prevents unauthorised drivers from using vehicles. Furthermore, DID tags also enable fleet managers to create time-specific limitations and get alerts whenever vehicles are used during unapproved hours.
   
• AI Dual Vision Camera
  The Cartrack AI Dual Vision dashcam solution helps improve the safety of drivers on the road. Through the power of artificial intelligence, these cameras can detect distracted driver behaviours such as drowsiness, cellphone use, and smoking. Once detected, the drivers will receive real-time audible alerts, allowing them to quickly correct their actions. These road and in-cabin-facing cameras also give forward collision warnings to help drivers keep a safe distance. Fleet managers can live stream the footage on the Cartrack mobile app or website at any time.
   
• Risk management
  Another crucial part of managing vehicles is ensuring that they are safe. At Cartrack, we specialise in vehicle safety. Our fleet management system gives you live-tracking abilities, so you always know where your vehicles are at all times. We also have a strong history in stolen vehicle recovery of over 100,000 stolen vehicles recovered in the last decade. In the unfortunate event of theft, our recovery team is available 24/7 to ensure a fast dispatch and effective vehicle retrieval.
   
• Seat pressure sensors 
  The Cartrack seat pressure sensors trigger alerts if there are more people in the vehicle than there should be. This ensures that drivers are not picking up other people who are not staff while on their way to appointments and deliveries. 

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Get started with Cartrack Carpool!

An advanced vehicle online booking system is crucial for every fleet business. Cartrack Carpool speeds up the process and ensures that your staff books the right vehicles for the job. Join us today and eliminate the double bookings and delays.