At a recent industry event (Urban Logistics and Vans forum) organized by Logistics UK, 12 fleet managers managing over 25000 LCVs were surveyed to identify key challenges in implementing fleet inspections. Their top reasons involved the person carrying out the inspection – how thorough they were and their competence levels.
The main reasons for them to conduct inspections were related to safety and damage to the vehicles.
Feedback from several small fleet owners including Amazon DSPs has also centered around the quality of data they receive via inspections from their drivers. Drivers may capture incomplete or incorrect images, hide damage, or even document the wrong vehicle. These issues make it hard to maintain accurate records and track damage. ClearQuote’s guided image capture and AI-driven damage detection, ensures fleet inspections are accurate, consistent, and error-free.
What problems does driver-dependent image capture cause?
Traditional vehicle inspection processes often rely on drivers to capture images of the vehicle. This approach has several challenges:
1. Human error:
Drivers may accidentally take unclear or incorrect images, omitting critical parts of the vehicle.
2. Partial inspections:
Some vehicle areas might be hidden or overlooked, leading to incomplete records.
3. Misidentification:
Drivers might capture images of a different vehicle, causing confusion and inaccurate reporting.
4. Unreported damage:
Drivers may intentionally or unintentionally miss capturing existing damage, making it difficult to determine the vehicle’s true condition
5. Time-consuming checks
Fleet managers, OSMs (Onsite Managers), and Depot managers often have to spend a lot of time reviewing inspection photos and reports to determine which damage was new and which was pre-existing. They might need to compare multiple images of the same vehicle from different dates to keep track, which is tedious and not a good use of their time.
How does ClearQuote solve these problems?
ClearQuote uses guided image capture technology to ensure consistent and accurate fleet inspections. Here’s how:
1. Step-by-step guidance:
Drivers are prompted with instructions to capture specific angles and parts of the vehicle. This ensures all required images are taken systematically.
2. Damage detection:
ClearQuote uses AI to identify new and existing damages from the uploaded images, ensuring nothing goes unreported.
What benefits does ClearQuote offer for fleet inspections?
1. Accurate and consistent damage detection:
ClearQuote eliminates human error and ensures every inspection is accurate.
Here’s how it does:
- Scan the van’s license plate to access vehicle details and start the inspection.
- The app guides drivers through an image capture process, ensuring they take the correct type and number of photos during the inspection.
- There is also an optional checklist that can be filled out if needed.
- After the images are uploaded, ClearQuote’s AI analyzes them, identifying parts of the vehicle and spotting damages.
Click here for a detailed app demo.
2. Transparency in damage reporting:
Images are processed by ClearQuote AI and damages are detected and displayed clearly on a dashboard for fleet managers to review. With ClearQuote, unreported damages no longer go unnoticed. The app highlights all damages, ensuring complete transparency in the vehicle’s condition, and helps fleet managers stay informed at all times.
Click here for a detailed demo.
3. Saves admin time and efforts
ClearQuote saves fleet managers significant time and effort by automatically identifying new damage and differentiating it from pre-existing issues. With ClearQuote, there’s no need to manually compare multiple images or review inspection reports, freeing up their time for more critical tasks.
3. Accountability:
ClearQuote creates a detailed record of vehicle condition, enabling fleet managers to track when and how damage occurred.
This helps determine whether damage happened under a specific driver’s responsibility or during a particular trip. This fosters a culture of responsibility among drivers and encourages safer driving practices, making vehicle handovers more transparent and accurate.
ClearQuote integrates smoothly with popular fleet, delivery management, and telematics platforms like Fleetio, UniQore, Geotab and Webfleet. It is possible to sync Fleet and inspection data across systems, making it easy to manage vehicle condition records without unnecessary manual data entry.
Getting started with ClearQuote is easy. Request a demo and see how ClearQuote can simplify your fleet inspection process.
