BEYOND THE DASHBOARD: STEERING FLEET MANAGEMENT INTO THE FAST LANE

Global supply chains have often grappled with challenges, more recently tariff upheavals or fuel-price volatility. Fintech as a solution does more than digitise payments or transparency; it yields a newer approach – a way to reimagine logistics with unprecedented financial precision.

- An article by Avinash Godkhindi, MD & CEO, Zaggle

The word ‘Fintech’, often and colloquially interpreted with banking or finance, has a wider application in logistics and fleet management. In the last decade, rising logistics costs, fluctuating fuel prices, and the need to comply with a litany of issues ranging from state policies to international tariffs, have left logistic businesses in a state of flux. In such a volatile and uncertain premise, operational efficiency in fleet management needs transparency at every stage of operation – with financial as well as business processes.

For example, the uncertainty during the recent US-tariffs pushed a number of automobile enterprises into an overdrive. Changes to tariffs and their implementation caused last minute cancelled sailings which in turn led to situation where ports across US and China saw volatile fleets of cargo being held up for documentation. Adding to the woes of the shipping industry is the uncertainty of currency volatility – this in addition to dampened outlook. For the record, tariffs alone were responsible for a $6 billion loss according to a recent estimate.

RE-IMAGINING FLEET MANAGEMENT

The geopolitics of the environment demands that fleet management transition from a reactive to predictive operational setup. Until some decades, traditional logistic depended on post-expense reporting. This left businesses vulnerable to cost overruns and financial surprises.