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Fleet Management Software That Can Do Retail Also


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I'm trying to find a shop software solution to manage a 40 vehicle delivery fleet that is maintained by an in-house auto repair shop which also does a few retail customer repairs each day.

Fleet management software software I've looked at has little or no capability to properly handle retail customers. Simple things like part markup matrixes, custom labor rates, or creating a customer invoice from a work order may be lacking.

Retail shop software I've looked at has little or no capability to track vehicle expenses critical for fleet management.

A fleet manager needs cost per mile data and weekly overhead cost for individual vehicles. Tracked expenses include fuel, routine maintenance, non-routine maintenance, insurance, depreciation, accidents, registration, loan interest or lease expense, cleaning, logos, communications, etc. It has to show which vehicles have the highest and lowest non-routine maintenance expense and the highest and lowest frequency of on the road break downs. It should give the fleet manager an indication of the optimum time to replace the vehicle. It should also show the percentage of vehicles out of service each day for maintenance.

Trying to run two software solutions, one for the 40 vehicle fleet and one for a couple of daily retail work orders, is extremely difficult as both need to track inventory and scheduling and can't exchange information. It's also expensive to pay for two systems.

Are there any fleet managers here with in-house repair shops who also do some retail work who can give me advice on how to solve this? Or maybe shop owners whose customer base is primarily fleets and part of their value added service is providing fleet mangers with reports to track vehicle expense and down time.

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         5 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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