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f you need some help managing your fleet of vehicles but you don't want to spend more than koo, then EasyFleet, Chevin's entry-level system, is well worth considering. Baby brother to the company's larger and more expensive Roadbase for Windows system (CM 19-25August '999), Easy-Fleet has much of the same functionality and, in its most basic form, caters for fleets of up to 50 vehicles (though fleets of up to 250 are also possible—see panel for details).
For this, you get a package that lets you record a vast range of information on vehides, drivers, fuel costs and maintenance activity— all the key things you need to keep track of daily. On top of this it has a neat diary function that can be used to jog your memory about that overdue service or licence renewal.
It also has a range of reporting options that let you analyse various vehicle costs, like fuel expenditure, over any timeframe you want and for any vehicle(s) you want. There's also a very useful accident recording and analysis module that lets you enter all the details for incidents your drivers are involved in, along with notes about possible culpability, weather conditions, status of any insurance claim, repair costs, even police involvement, and then lets you generate reports that shows which vehicle(s) or driver(s) are most often involved—useful stuff.
Using the software
Installation began automatically once we put the CD into our test machine. It took under a minute and placed new shortcuts in sensible places on our Windows Start menu. So far, so good.
Opening the software showed how similar it is to its older brother—the 'Explorer' screen looking identical to Roadbase and still appealing to us because of its similarity to the Windows Explorer layout. Along with the overhead toolbars, this helps make Easy-Fleet instinctive to navigate around with all the modules (drivers, vehicles, maintenance, etc) clearly shown on the left hand side and the details shown on the right as you click on each one. There's also a nice toggle switch on an overhead toolbar that makes switching between this and more detailed screens for each entry a doddle.
When we started to play with the Vehicles module, we found the amount of data that can be held there is enormous.
It includes: • Make, model and colour; • Registration details; • Engine and fuel tank size; • Chassis and engine numbers; • Vehicle location; • Usual driver; • Odometer readings; • Original price, financing and depreciation details; • Service information; • Tax, warranty and annual test dates; • Details of vehicle components like tyres, batteries and gearbox.
There are many other fields, too, including one for any extra notes you might wish to add.
Similar levels of detail can be entered in the other modules, but the good news for busy hauliers trying to get to grips with the package is that you don't have to fill all this out at once—you can leave many of the fields blank until you're ready for them.
Playing around with your data is easy enough and generating the various available reports is also fairly straightforward. Updating and saving any of the records is stress-free with the minor exception that when you click on a field, while the whole field is highlighted you cannot simply backspace to delete it or overtype it. What's more, the cursor jumps to the middle of the field, rather than the beginning, forcing you to delete both ways, character by character before entering fresh data.
Deleting a record is also slightly unusual as it is a two-stage process that involves first marking the record for deletion, then confirming the command as you exit the module. Not Windows-standard operation, but manageable.
Another minor irritation is the lack of any word-wrap feature (the function by which the computer 'turns' the line as you reach the end of the space when typing) in the spaces for notes.
The coding system (used for vehicle or accident types, for instance) is a bit rigid, as is the case-sensitive nature of most of the database fields, but both will doubtless prove easier once you get used to them.
These minor points aside, interacting with the software really wasn't any problem. When we looked at Roadbase for Windows a year ago, we found that constant system crashes made it almost impossible to use at times. Fortunately, Easy-Fleet is very different While we did encounter a total of three crashes in our testing, two of which threw us out of the software altogether, this is a minor niggle rather than the major upset we felt it to be with Roadbase.
It would be nice if the error messages generated on these occasions clearly indicated what the problem was. But as with Roadbase, the crashes seemed almost spontaneous and, as with Roadbase, they occurred on two separate test PCs with very different system configurations.
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Overall this software performed well and we particularly liked three features about it. First, the Diary function, which performed as expected and, while not unique to Chevin, is a major plus for any hassled transport manager that not all packages include. Second, the Accidents module, which provides good record-keeping and management reports to help you weed out any problem vehicles or drivers. And finally we liked tlit. detailed fuel module, which allows you to record every fill-up of every vehicle, see a vehicle's mileage PROS: between fills, record a database of fuel prices at • Extremely useful fuel cost, different locations, and keep records of fuel accident recording and diary card issue and expiry. functions.
True, Easy-Fleet did fail our 'idiot' test, • Very detailed level of record allowing us to allocate an underage driver keeping available.
with an expired licence to a vehicle, but then • Familiar Explorer' interface. every piece of software we've looked at so far CONS; has done the same. • Quirky procedures in places.
At the end of the day, we feel that all the • Failed 'idiot' test. features mentioned above, combined with
the software's extensive vehicle and driver
database functions, make Easy-Fleet a worthy Other fleet management contender for your cash, as long as you don't packages tested by CM so far: mind getting used to the one or two eccen• lfmhaul 2000 tricities that we identified. (CM 0l825 Feb 1999).
It might be nice to have some element of • Rapid FM Pius job-scheduling or a proper customer database (CM 20-26 May 1999). within it, but this software's emphasis is • Roadbase for Windows firmly on vehicle management rather than ( CM 19-25 Aug 1999). transport management. In this respect, it ful• Roadrunner for Windows fils its mission quite admirably. (CM 16-22 Dec 1999).