Comparison
Dealer Fleet Programs vs. FleetShield: Tracking a Mixed-Brand Forklift Fleet
Many forklift manufacturers and dealers offer their own fleet management programs for tracking maintenance and cost. If your fleet is one brand serviced by one dealer, that can work well. If you run several brands or use more than one service provider, check whether the program covers all of them. FleetShield works from invoices, so it covers every truck no matter who made it or who services it.
What should you ask any forklift fleet program?
- Does it cover every brand in my fleet, including rentals?
- Who enters the data, and what happens to invoices from other dealers?
- Does it check invoices for labor rates, duplicates and parts billed twice, or only record them?
- Can I see cost per truck, per site and per operating hour?
- Does it show which rentals are on site, for how long, and what they've cost?
- Is it tied to a service agreement, or can I change dealers and keep my history?
How does FleetShield answer those questions?
- Every brand. FleetShield reads invoices, not truck data, and rentals are tracked from their invoices too.
- Invoices from any dealer or service provider come to FleetShield and are matched to the truck by serial number. Onboarding is done for you.
- Every invoice is checked: labor above your agreed rate, rates creeping up over time, more labor hours than a job normally takes, duplicates, parts billed twice, hour meter problems and repeat repairs get flagged.
- Cost per truck, per site and per operating hour.
- Every active rental, with time on site and cost so far.
- FleetShield is independent of your dealer, so your history stays with you if you change service providers.
When is a dealer program the better fit?
If every truck you run comes from one manufacturer and one dealer does all of your service, that dealer's own program may give you what you need. FleetShield is built for the fleets that don't look like that: several brands, several sites, and more than one service provider.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use FleetShield alongside a dealer program or telematics?
Yes. FleetShield reads the invoices, so it can run next to a dealer portal or a telematics system.
Does FleetShield replace telematics?
No. Telematics shows how trucks are used. FleetShield shows what they cost and what's due, and you don't need telematics to get that picture.
What happens to my data if I change dealers?
Nothing changes. Your invoice history stays in FleetShield, and invoices from the new dealer are added to the same trucks.