Adding your Vehicles

Once your fleet infrastructure is in place, you can proceed to add your vehicles. This process involves entering various vehicle details such as the registration number, vehicle type, make, model, and year of manufacture. You can also link the vehicle to a tracking device, specify whether the vehicle is used for jobs, and estimate the vehicle's cost per mile and per day. These details are crucial for effective fleet management and cost control.

To add a vehicle, from the top menu, select "Account Settings", and then "Settings". From the side menu, select "Vehicles", followed by "Add - Edit" and then "Add Vehicle".

1. Add vehicle, adds a new vehicle
2. Add asset, adds a new asset. Assets are similar to vehicles but less information is recorded against them (custom fields can be used to record any information required).  ‘Assets’ could be used for trailers, forklifts, tractors, etc and can be tracked on the map with AssetWatch.  With the excepting trailers, which may well have their own tracker, many other assets might be chargeable on an hourly or daily basis.
3. Import allows you to import an Excel list of vehicles from your computer.
4. Import fleet attributes allows you to import the attributes for your vehicles.
5. Export fleet attributes allows you to export the attributes for your vehicles.

To add a new vehicle, select  ‘Add vehicle’ and the popup below will appear:

1. Registration - input the vehicle registration number.
2. Vehicle type - use the drop-down list to select the type of vehicle. This is used to determine speed limits applicable to the vehicle.
3. Group - select the group this vehicle belongs to.
4. Make - make of the vehicle
5. Model - the model of the vehicle
6. Year - the year that the vehicle was first registered
7. Odometer unit - select whether odometer is in miles or kilometres
8. Reference - you can optionally specify a vehicle reference. If you would like to use data import to update vehicle information, rather than just to add additional vehicles, then vehicles will need to have a reference to avoid creating duplicates.
9. Tracking device - link this vehicle to a tracking device. Generally, this is completed by BigChange personnel when your vehicle tracking is set up – changing it may unlink the tracker from your vehicle.
10. Used for Jobs - select whether the vehicle is used for jobs and should appear on the schedule tab. If no is selected, the vehicle cannot be used by resources driving to jobs, but you can still record maintenance and other information, set alerts, etc.
11. Fixed Resource - if there is only ever one driver of the vehicle, eg a private car used for business, select yes. If this vehicle is ever used by more than one person, select no. Selecting yes means the linked resource will be allocated the vehicle by default and removes the ability to select other vehicles.  When you select 'yes' a new field 'Resource' will appear.  simply make a selection from the dropdown list and press 'Okay'. If the situation changes, simply select a different resource from the dropdown list or go to the Fixed Resource field and select 'No', followed by 'Okay'.
12. Cost per mile - an estimate of how much the vehicle costs you per mile. You can estimate this using online tools or manually based on fuel costs, wear on tyres and brakes etc. and services. This field is important as it is used by the Scheduling Assistant to calculate the job costings and determine job allocation.
13. Cost per day - how much the vehicle costs you per day if it does not move. This value would include leasing costs, insurance costs, MOT, etc, which have to be paid even when zero miles are driven.  Calculate annual costs and divide by 365 to find a daily figure.  The cost information feeds through to available reports. This field is important as it is used by the Scheduling Assistant to calculate the job costings and determine job allocation.
14. CO2 - this value should be available on the vehicle V5 document and manufacturer’s information. This information feeds through to populate the ‘Vehicle consumption and emissions’ report
15. Idling fuel consumption - this value should be available on the vehicle V5 document and manufacturer’s information and is used to populate various reports on fuel consumption and idling.
16. Icon - choose the icon that will represent your vehicle on the map.
17. Attributes - select any attributes that the vehicle has and specify expiry dates if applicable.
18. Worksheets for vehicle checks - select the vehicle check worksheet.
19. Vehicle type for defects-  select the type of vehicle for defects, determining the vehicle checklist which will be provided for the tablet user.