• real time overview
• reduced fuel costs
• insight into time keeping
• control of driver behaviour
• efficient
• reducing the risk of theft

• fieldlog
• fielddesk

• testimonials
• customers

• about us
• innovation
• partnerships

• send in your question

• address
• information

More information about vehicle costs

Cost control and mileage logging for company vehicles

Some years ago, Ben Baltus of Beja, a company specialising in cleaning services, realised that he had very little meaningful information about vehicle costs and vehicle mileages.

"We have a staff of 65 people, 60 of whom are out in the field", he says. "The costs associated with the use of our company vehicles, such as mileage and hours, were far too dependent on the accuracy with which our staff filled out the mileage sheets and timesheets. This not only has an impact on the travel time and mileage allowances and fuel costs, but also information relating to the hours worked."

The Dutch tax system and mileage registration for company vehicles
Changes in Dutch tax legislation in 2001 made finding a foolproof system even more important for Beja. The new legislation also meant that each employee with a company vehicle, 25 in total, was required to keep a fully reconcilable and detailed mileage log. However Beja's field operatives wanted to keep extra administration to a minimum. Baltus immediately realised that keeping the mileage logs up to date was potentially a major problem. Beja decided to invest in the Fieldlog vehicle logging system in order to ease the burden on its staff while at the same time gaining a better insight into vehicle costs. Ben Baltus consulted a variety of suppliers before he finally came into contact with ITmobile.

Vehicle cost management with Fieldlog GPS mileage logging
Fieldlog mileage logging requires no input from the financial administration and the drivers of the vehicles. The driver cannot start the vehicle without logging in on the on-board computer in the vehicle. Private and business mileage, including the destinations, driving time and starts and stops are automatically logged for each category. As the black-box system is equipped with GPS journey logging, the destination information is automatically stored when the engine is switched off. This makes it possible for Beja to identify the journey time, distance driven and hours worked for each individual project and customer. It is also possible to display the route taken by each vehicle on a daily basis. All the information is automatically transferred to the office system as soon as the vehicles return to base. A modem in the office detects each Beja vehicle within a radius of 200 metres and retrieves the new information from the on-board computer.

"This makes life a lot easier" says Ben Baltus. "I had visions of having to chase around after my staff in order to retrieve the information held in their data loggers. But, fortunately that wasn't necessary and I now have a complete mileage registration and accurate information about vehicle costs at my disposal – something I have wanted for some time. I can't be precise about exactly how much money we have saved, but I do know that the system has already paid for itself. My staff are happy as well because they no longer have to fill out complicated mileage forms so that we can keep track of vehicle costs. Furthermore, they receive a clear report detailing the exact use of their company vehicle, which they can attach to their tax returns."