Vehicle fleet management with Doxis: digital, automated, scalable and traceable
Say an inspector stops one of your trucks, three states from headquarters, and asks for proof of insurance. You know the certificate exists. Do you know where it is?
If your paperwork sits in different places, a binder at one yard and an inbox at another, that question gets hard fast. Digital fleet management solutions put everything in one place, so you can find that certificate in a minute.
Investigators will go through your records. In fiscal year 2024, FMCSA and its state partners completed 11,968 investigations, and carriers were cited for about six violations each on average, according to the agency's Motor Carrier Safety Progress Report (March 2025). Every document you can't find quickly counts against you.
Here are seven steps to get your documents under control, whatever systems you use.
Key takeaways
- OCR and AI can do the capturing, sorting and data entry, and your team only reviews what the software isn't sure about
- Once an expiry date is a data field, the system can track it and send reminders
- Filing by document type gives each type its own retention period, and driver qualification files stay on hand for employment plus three years
- Each document type needs an owner and a backup, so every notification reaches a person
What is vehicle fleet management?
Vehicle fleet management refers to all the processes related to a company’s vehicles, from vehicle procurement to maintenance to sale. When implemented correctly, fleet management ensures full transparency with regard to processes and costs. You’ll see at a glance which vehicles are in the carpool, what driver is currently using a vehicle and whether a vehicle is allocated for transporting people or goods.
Overview of specific activities in vehicle fleet management:
- Manage scheduling: Who is using the vehicle and for what time period?
- Monitor deadlines: When does the leasing contract expire?
- Meet legal requirements: Have we correctly implemented the driver’s license checks?
- Process administrative offenses: Are all the speeding tickets paid?
- Manage repairs: What is the repair status of the current claim?
- Maintain and repair vehicles: When is a vehicle due for inspection?
- Create reports: How did the KPIs change from period 1 to period 2?
- Control costs: Are you meeting your cost objectives?
Vehicle managers also handle communication channels. For example, in the event of damage, they write to the body shops, negotiate contracts and conditions with leasing companies and manage the insurance channels.
Challenges in vehicle fleet management
The more vehicles there are in a fleet, the more complex it is to manage. In particular, shipping companies, such as delivery services, have several hundred vehicles in their fleet. The number of documents they have to manage is even higher. Entering this data manually is an error-prone and time-consuming undertaking.
It can be even more error-prone when processes are not connected with each other, i.e. when service dates are in an Excel spreadsheet, employees still fill out booking plans in writing and systems do not automatically record claims. In this case, interruptions in data flow lead to a lack of information transparency and can result in missed details or inconsistencies.
If an accident occurs, for example, it might be unclear who caused the damage because driver X is not on the list. This means that your company incurs costs that, in the worst case, you cannot even allocate and therefore cannot optimize.
Which documents does an enterprise fleet need to track?
Some of your fleet documents come from regulators and some from your own contracts. The table lists both, with the owner and the renewal trigger for each.
| Document | Owner | Renewal or review trigger |
| Vehicle registration and title | Fleet operations | State renewal date |
| Driver license and endorsements | HR or safety | License and endorsement expiry |
| Medical examiner's certificate | Safety | Individual driver schedule |
| Insurance certificate | Risk or finance | Policy term |
| Annual inspection certificate | Maintenance | Every 12 months |
| Permits | Operations | Trip or validity period |
| Lease agreement and handover | Purchasing | Lease end |
| Fines and tickets | Fleet operations | Payment deadline |
| Damage claims and accident reports | Risk | Claim status |
Look down the owner column and you'll see how many departments are involved, which is why a single compliance spreadsheet rarely covers everything.
Tracking all of that by hand is a lot to ask of a team, and there are good reasons to stop.
The solution for bringing transparency to vehicle management is fleet management software.
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Read nowHow digital technologies are transforming vehicle fleet management
Digital fleet management solutions gather data related to processes, and the available solutions vary in their functionality. Best-of-breed software specializes in specific functions like claims or deadline management. Meanwhile, all-in-one software provides comprehensive coverage of all fleet management processes for every user.
When employees book a vehicle from the fleet, they can view all the relevant data digitally:
- which vehicles are available
- details for the selected vehicle
- return dates and assignment plans
Software solutions streamline the way vehicle fleets are managed. Drivers can maintain a digital logbook directly within the software, which automatically tracks mileage, and even allows them to upload their driving licenses. These tools significantly ease the burden on vehicle managers by digitizing the entire workflow and task management system. This includes managing deadlines, processing claims, tracking vehicles via GPS and more, all contributing to a smoother, more efficient fleet management experience.
Our SER Gold Partner HK Consulting, for example, offers this kind of software. They bring together a variety of processes in an end-to-end, digital solution based on Doxis.
How digital fleet document management works in 7 steps
Hey Doxi, what would a workflow for vehicle fleet management look like?
The example is an insurance certificate that your broker emails to the fleet team.
Step 1: The document arrives
The certificate lands in a shared inbox, or a driver photographs a document at the yard. Either way it goes straight into the system, and nobody has to forward it or retype anything.
Step 2: The software recognizes it
AI reads the file and works out that it's an insurance certificate. That replaces the person who used to open each attachment and sort it by hand.
Step 3: OCR and AI read the data
OCR turns the image into text, and AI picks out the fields that matter, such as the plate number, the policy number and the expiry date. Once the date is a data field, the system can track it.
Step 4: The data is checked
The software compares what it read with what you already hold, such as the vehicle in your fleet system, and flags duplicates and mismatches. Anything it's unsure about goes to a person for review.
Step 5: The owner is notified
The document goes to whoever owns insurance, in this case risk, who gets a notification, checks the data and approves it. Predefined delegation and backup rules send it to the backup when the owner is away.
Step 6: It's filed and archived
The certificate is filed in the record for that vehicle, next to the lease and everything else about it. Because it's filed by type, the right retention period applies automatically. Under 49 CFR §391.51, for instance, a driver qualification file stays on hand for the length of employment plus three years. The document is then archived, ready for an audit.
Step 7: The system watches the next deadline
The system now knows when the policy expires. It sends reminders at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days, and if the owner hasn't acted by day 60, the backup gets it. At 30 days, their manager does.
Vehicle fleet management with Doxis: a 360-degree view
In Doxis, you can seamlessly handle every document-related task for your vehicle fleet—from creation and editing to management and archiving, throughout the entire document lifecycle. But Doxis is more than just a document management system (DMS). It features robust integration capabilities, connecting effortlessly with third-party systems through a user-friendly interface.
And it goes beyond simplifying process steps; it automates them, offering a comprehensive 360-degree view of all your vehicle management activities. This complete oversight streamlines operations, making fleet management more efficient and less time-consuming.
Check out the benefits for yourself:
- Collect all vehicle data in one place.
- Ensure maximum road safety with the stored car policy.
- View dates and deadlines in Doxis.
- Let Doxis automatically remind you of upcoming dates and deadlines.
- Start fleet management workflows directly from Doxis.
- Handle every vehicle-related task digitally.
- File documents automatically in the correct digital file.
- Automate routine tasks such as document acquisition.
- Manage the kilometers directly on the platform.
As a result, Doxis provides a clear overview of your documents and promotes process transparency.
Ready to see Doxis in action? Get in touch. Our experts are happy to help.
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FAQs about vehicle fleet management
What is the objective of vehicle fleet management?
Vehicle fleet management aims to enable an organization to manage its vehicle fleet so that processes are efficient in terms of costs and benefits, and resources are used as effectively as possible.
Why is vehicle fleet management important?
For many companies, fleet management is a means to an end. But it is also more than that: It’s the basis for follow-up investments in the fleet. It also ensures that legal requirements and safety standards are met at all times.
What does digital vehicle fleet management look like?
Companies manage their fleets using software as part of a digital solution. Ideally, the software application covers all the processes related to the vehicle fleet.
Can OCR and AI read fleet documents accurately?
Software can read most registrations, certificates and leases, and anything it's unsure about goes to a person for review. That review step is how you get close to 100% accuracy on documents that matter.
Who should own fleet documents in a large company?
Each document type needs a named role and a backup. Fleet operations own some types, while purchasing and risk own others.
How do you digitize existing paper fleet records?
Load the backlog in bulk through the same intake as new documents, starting with whatever expires soonest. OCR and AI read the fields, and your team reviews only the exceptions.
How can we help you?
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