A new fleet management information system has helped the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority improve its fleet operations efficiency and its ability to make informed decisions, according to a case study recently released by Chevin Fleet Solutions.

D.C. Water had access to another system used by the authority's on-site maintenance contractor, but Timothy Fitzgerald, fleet director, said he was looking for a more robust system with an automated approach to data management for the utility's 690 units.

The utility rolled out the Chevin FleetWave system across the organization in August 2012 after staff reviewed offerings from various providers that had participated in the request for proposal (RFP).

D.C. Water uses various FleetWave modules to increase its efficiency. For example, the Maintenance module automatically schedules repair and maintenance tasks for fleet vehicles; flags looming compliance details such as pending, due, or past due inspections; and automatically emails in-depth reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to technician productivity to all relevant personnel.

The Vehicle Orders module is used to automate and streamline the management of equipment procurement and specifications, while providing complete audit capabilities. D.C. Water also uses FleetWave's Motor Pool, Accident Management and Driver modules.

For Fitzgerald, one of the most valuable benefits of FleetWave is its ability to automatically track and measure the organization's KPIs, which he believes provides his team with the needed insights for smart decision-making.

"The access to accurate, real time information and performance measures via a simple-to-interpret and navigate dashboard has provided our organization with an invaluable knowledge base that supports intelligent decision making and enhances our ability to produce detailed reports quickly and with ease," Fitzgerald said.

Part of D.C. Water's vision for the fleet department was to gain increased control over disparate operations and workshops and increase control over expenditures. D.C. Water now uses FleetWave to manage all inventories across multiple warehouses, including consignment vendor stock.

FleetWave is further used to manage financial information, including the billing and invoicing process between D.C. Water's maintenance contractor and authority, as well as managing all of the fleet's financial processes from annual budget development to oversight of actual fleet spend.

D.C. Water anticipates more widespread adoption of the fleet system and resulting process optimization, specifically in relation to resource sharing, work order management, field service operations, emergency response, and rapid fleet deployment.