Ford Fleet Management (FFM) has teamed up with Prestige Fleet Servicing, part of the AA, to launch its new FleetVision platform for operators.

FleetVision allows the team at FFM to proactively manage VOR events, not only when they happen, but beforehand in many cases

FleetVision draws on the industry expertise of Ford Fleet Management along with the service, maintenance and repair knowledge of Prestige Fleet Servicing.

The resulting software will provide a platform for a seamless, end-to-end solution that covers maintenance, tracking and compliance – plus a comprehensive uptime strategy dedicated to fleet efficiency.

The new solution builds on Ford Fleet Management’s existing ‘one-stop shop’ business for vehicle operators and has been designed to take fleet management to a different level for its customers.

Ford Fleet Management launched late 2020, initially in the UK and then Europe, providing a multi-make leasing and fleet management for both cars and vans under a collaboration between Ford and ALD (now ALD | LeasePlan and rebranding as Ayvens).

FFM’s vehicle supply, funding and in-life vehicle management solutions provide special value to fleet operators that seek bespoke services with minimum downtime.

FFM FleetVision has been created to bring to life Ford Fleet Management’s aspiration of eliminating unscheduled vehicle off-road (VOR) events for fleets. The FFM FleetVision platform draws on Ford’s connected vehicle data, intelligently presenting a wealth of vehicle health data to FFM’s dedicated Uptime team. This enables them to monitor vehicle health as well as proactively manage emerging issues by utilising the platform’s workflow management functionality.

FFM’s goal is to identify and fix any future health concerns before they cause an unplanned off-road event.

Craig Andrews, head of fleet management services, explained: “By committing resource solely dedicated to proactively managing vehicle uptime based upon smart vehicle data, we are able to pre-empt and manage some of the pressures that fleet operators experience when a vehicle goes off road.”

FFM’s new FleetVision portal offers key benefits, including service bookings made proactively by the uptime team for either a compliance event or based on a vehicle health alert to maximise uptime and reduce the number of service events where possible.

The system also allows fleet operators to see which vehicles are off-road, with notes and updates on progress alongside the telematics data.

And compliance events on ancillary equipment can be managed on the portal, ensuring a holistic view of fleet health.

Meanwhile, FFM’s Uptime team will always look to utilise a mobile solution wherever available to work around customer operation and turn vehicles around as quickly as possible.

Many of FFM’s customers operate mission-critical fleets, so reducing both downtime and the volume of off-road events was a top priority for FFM when developing the system.

FleetVision allows the team at FFM to proactively manage VOR events, not only when they happen, but beforehand in many cases. The team are able to efficiently bundle SMR events wherever possible to reduce downtime and use the FleetVision dashboard to keep the customer in the loop and able to export live reports on demand.

John Wright, FFM managing director, commented: “After a detailed review of our customer requirements we are really excited to roll out this new platform to help them and us manage their vehicles more efficiently. This is a no-nonsense LCV-centric product that meets the day-to-day needs of busy fleet managers by bringing together all of their SMR, Compliance and Uptime needs in one place; it’s the latest tool from FFM that demonstrates our goal of helping our customers businesses to thrive.”

James Hosking, managing director at Prestige Fleet Servicing, added: “We are proud to partner with FFM and provide our unique fleet optimisation platform capabilities for their customers. Maximising vehicle availability is the most important criteria for business-critical fleets, which is why our collaboration is a perfect fit.”