FleetPal plans to launch a cloud-based fleet network, which connects fleets, repair facilities, parts stores and other business providers together, after a beta testing period beginning in mid-December.
FleetPal is a startup company developing fleet and asset maintenance software solutions for the trucking industry, and Connect is a project the company has been working on since January 2018.
Mike Valnev, co-founder of FleetPal, describes Connect as a Facebook-like network, but instead of connecting with people, it allows fleet businesses to connect with each other through an “easy and quick” integration.
“There’s no system so far that works in a network,” Valnev said. “What we’re trying to build is a network. We’re not going to discover anything that hasn’t been discovered yet … we give the people the connection. We give them the relationships that they’re going to build with other businesses.”
One example of a connection within the software network is a fleet manager connecting with a maintenance facility. Let’s say a fleet knows they have a truck that will hit a scheduled maintenance interval on the road. Through Connect, the fleet can find a maintenance facility on the route who can schedule and perform the repair at the exact time the truck will reach the shop.
"Every little item that is included in this repair order is going into the truck’s history of repair,” Valnev says. “[FleetPal Connect is] going to keep records of every repair so it doesn’t matter if it happens at Shop A, Shop B or Shop C ... Everything is under one roof. Nothing gets lost.”
Fleets and service providers can also share vehicle repair data through the click of a button and an approval from both parties.
“Imagine you’re a parts store, I’m a fleet company," Valnev explains. The fleet can give the parts store full visibility and description of its fleet, including number of trucks in the fleet, type of truck, type of engine, type of transmission and so on. This simplifies service because both parties have accurate records, Valnev says.
Connect is a cloud-based software system which is accessed by user log-in. The platform will offer repair shop management software and service events. It is organized following the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) Vehicle Maintenance Report Standards (VMRS) in order to maintain a universal language among everyone in the fleet industry.
In order to test the product in a real-world application before an official release slotted for ATA's TMC 2019 Annual Meeting in March, FleetPal is releasing the solution for a limited beta testing period.
“We’re going to be looking for direction, basically. We’re going to be looking for feedback,” Valnev says of the testing. “We’re going to be building part of the beta, and everything that is solid and everything that we know is solid and people use, we’re probably going to release in the official version. From there we go to the direction that our users are interested in.”
