EUREKA, CA - The Humboldt County, Calif., Office of Education (HCOE) has selected FleetCommander fleet and motor pool software to automate the management of its fleet of vehicles. In addition to student transportation, the department maintains a fleet of 55 vehicles for work-related use by 350 employees, whose responsibilities take them to school sites, students' homes, or other locations throughout the county, according to Agile Access Control Inc., creator of FleetCommander.

"The HCOE needed to automate the fleet management processes that have become so cumbersome for them. Manually reserving vehicles, collecting odometer data, keeping track of keys, keeping track of vehicle preventative maintenance, managing their motor pool and assigned vehicles, and maintaining paper log books for special education buses have all become very challenging for the HCOE," said Matthew Wade, vice president of sales at Agile.

FleetCommander technologies will automate each of the manual processes, including reservations and motor pool management, maintenance tracking, billing, assigned vehicle management, and key control.

In particular, Wade said the ability to automatically collect odometer and trip data will be a crucial improvement for HCOE fleet operations. "Right now, the fleet staff relies on human input of mileage, which they tell us is often inaccurate. The FleetCommander UDC (utilization and diagnostic chip) is our newest product that will collect that information from within the vehicle and transmit it wirelessly to FleetCommander, eliminating the need for users to input that data themselves," he said. Wade added that the small device (measuring approximately 1" x 1.5" x 2") can be easily and quickly installed on a vehicle's OBD port and operates on a secure network. In addition to odometer data, the UDC automatically collects information such as driver behavior, utilization data, and trip details, and uploads it to FleetCommander. Once collected, FleetCommander can provide reports that can help fleet staff make recommendations to drivers regarding safe driving practices, and understand if they have too few or too many vehicles.

FleetCommander's online vehicle reservation capabilities will help with another challenge the HCOE has faced: last-minute vehicle reservations. Wade said tis will eliminate the need to submit paper requisition forms, recuing the burden of last-minute scrambles for vehicles. In addition, the HCOE has decided to implement a secure key box technology to enable users to pick up and return keys around the clock, without assistance from fleet staff.

The HCOE is expected to have the technology running by March, according to Agile.