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1. THE BEGINNING
This innovation came to life when…
The fleet manager at a very large hospital said, “My staff want to know which cars are available to use on any given date.” The hospital uses cars to deliver community care and patient home visits, including mental health and hospital-in-the-home. PoolCar was born to connect the availability of vehicles in the “pool” (supply) to staff who need to use them (demand). Fleet expenses divert valuable dollars away from community initiatives, so it is critical that fleet size/mix is optimised and aligned to operational business needs.
2. WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
PoolCar is car-sharing technology for internal vehicle fleets. We’re grabbing the crusty fleet management industry by the wheel nuts and giving a twist. PoolCar helps run a safer, more effective fleet, resulting in massive cost savings to taxpayers.
It does this by…
- Optimising the fleet size and chassis mix to reflect actual usage profiles. Usage profiles are arrived at by collecting vehicle bookings, then our algorithms do the rest.
- Streamlining fleet administration and centralising vehicle data, doing away with spreadsheets and replacing them with cloud technology
- Reporting, benchmarking and alerts for maintenance, utilisation, CO2 reporting and driver safety.
3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
Unlike traditional fleet software which views the vehicle as a balance sheet asset, with language like acquisition, disposal and depreciation, PoolCar views the car as a business tool — a utility. PoolCar is all about who is using vehicles when and why. Only by understanding usage profiles can you run a fleet that is relevant to the business.
The benefits to the customer/end-user include…
- Cost savings through scrutiny of utilisation. By eliminating eight cars from the fleet, each one costing $5k a year to operate, that’s an annual saving of $40k.
- Ease of use
- Driver safety and custodial processes
4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
Companies used to outsource their fleet management to specialist companies. Where companies retained in-house control, software was limited to record keeping and FBT reporting. All solutions were/are vehicle-centric.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
Specialist fleet management companies like GE, sgFleet and LeasePlan. Software products like Figtree, Chevin and TechnologyOne.
5. TARGET MARKET
This innovation is made for…
Shared vehicle fleets, like hospitals and health networks, councils, universities and non-profits, like family services and community welfare groups.
6. DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
It is available for sale through…
Direct, using cloud servers. We have a free test-drive account using instant provisioning technology so that customers can evaluate the software before they buy.
Our marketing strategy is to…
Extend our Australian customer base and expand into the US and UK. We’ve signed about 30 organisations here in Oz already, two in the UK and one in the USA. We’re exhibiting in the US in April at NAFA, the largest fleet management show in the world.
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FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.
