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Gu iding ights
Page 44
Page 47
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The Tranman Series 5 caters for pretty much any definition of fleet
management so-it-ware you can think of — and does everything short
of actually piloting your vehicles. Robin Meczes takes it for a spin.
What makes a good fleet management package? Inevitably, it depends on your definition of the term. But if it includes workshop activities as well as more conventional areas such as keeping track of drivers, vehicles, incidents and costs, that's where the Tranman Series 5 from RAC Software Solutions comes in.
Launched in 1999 and updated regularly, the software covers almost everything we can think of that might be described as 'fleet management'. What's more, it features a depth of detail some other packages would do well to imitate.Take the drivers' module, for instance. Granted, you'd expect to enter a driver's name.date of birth, sex, full contact details, and even notes on their licence categories and expiry dates.Tranman Series 5 (let's call it T5 for short) goes one step further by keeping a record of their training history. including dates, type of training received, name of the trainer and reason for training. And if you want. you can even keep multiple electronic images of your staff.
Regarding vehicles, there is the provision to store information on make and model, core driveline characteristics, allocated driver, trim and body types, vehicle function, location, purchase and finance details, plus costs. Still not satisfied? Add tyre sizes, livery, radio code number, size of fuel tank and internal/external dimensions, all of which are included among the many other options. And you can store several images of each vehicle — handy for recording and archiving its condition, for example.
Reminders
A particularly useful sub-section within the vehicle records is 'Dates', in which you can record all the key dates for services, vehicle inspections, annual tests. tacho inspections X t• )4 PI -1 tl vor,Geo D PE KAll . and warranty expiry,
,n.,111 11 olvnnri D P.,....
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ivranon 5 SLAM along with all the latest won= Wm ••4 PACE -7.: "•%',....•?7 1401,27, odometer information.
IM 'MO The particulars are MSG.. automatically fed into the software's 'Action Dates' function, a diary reminder feature that alerts you when key dates 11 are coming up (or have been missed).This can even be set up to open automatically whenever the software is started — a handy little feature. Meanwhile,putting drivers and vehicles together often results in something else to manage — accidents.There's an entire module devoted to these. where RTA details are listed. These include weather and road conditions, police officers present, other parties' information, the state of your insurance claim and even any hire vehicles and charges associated with an accident.
Similarly extensive coverage exists for areas such fuel costs, suppliers and customers.
Features certainly don't end there.The comprehensive workshop modules include functions dedicated to progressing and charging for jobs, keeping track of stock, recording parts orders from suppliers and even stock transfer between sites.
Using a memo function, you can create, keep and even circulate notes, sending them to other networked users.A Bookings module is ideal for allocating pool vehicles among drivers, so you're guaranteed no overlap or double-booking. If we have to find a flaw, however, there's a small one with the report writerpossibly the only area where15 is anything less than hugely detailed. Even here, however, a number of standard reports are included for many of the modules fleet lists, due services,cost summaries, accidents by driver, and profit/loss by workshop being just a few examples. For those who want more, the industry-standard Crystal Reports can be used in tandem withT5 so that operators can source more or less any data they want in more or less any way they like.
But enough of the endless functionality -what's the software actually like to use?
On the button
In a word, the system is easy to install, learn and use. It did everything we expected of it (and then some) in a predictable and efficient manner, and didn't misbehave once during our test period: remarkably, no bugs, freezes or discrepancies.Though this should be the norm for all software, it's refreshing and rare to find a product that actually lives up to expectations.
It's also easy to change and modify screens. and there's even a built-in data backup/restore utility -something often missing from other packages.
However,the software failed our'idiot test' by allowing us to allocate a two-year-old driver with an expired licence to a Renault Magnum without question. But then,so has every other piece of fleet management software we've ever tested.
This is a very competent, far-reaching package. Its functionality, plus a reasonable price, mean we have no hesitation in recommending the software to anyone in the market for some computer-assisted fleet management. Remind yourself on a sticky note probably the last you'll ever use. •