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A company car inspection reminder works when the date is recorded against the vehicle and the notification goes to a specific person in good time. Dates tracked in a spreadsheet only work as long as someone looks at it, and people usually look when it is already too late. An expired roadworthiness test comes to light at a roadside check or when an insurance claim is being settled, and then it costs many times more than the test itself. In TraxSystem dates and reminders are handled by the Fleet module.
Which dates to track for a fleet
| Date | Note |
|---|---|
| Roadworthiness test | the most common cause of trouble at a roadside check |
| Third-party liability (OC) and own-damage (AC) insurance | two different dates, often with two insurers |
| Service | usually based on mileage, not on a date |
| Tyre change | seasonal; easy to miss with a larger fleet |
| Lease or rental agreement | the end of the agreement needs a decision well in advance |
| Fire extinguisher, first aid kit | a small thing that comes up at a roadside check |
The service differs from the other dates because it is set by mileage. A reminder based only on a date won’t work for a vehicle that has covered five times its usual mileage this year.
In TraxSystem dates and reminders belong to the Fleet module, which is priced by the number of vehicles, with a limit that grows with the size of the base package. Prices for fleets of up to ten, thirty and a hundred vehicles are on the pricing page.
How to set up reminders that people act on
The lead time has to suit the date. For a roadworthiness test two weeks is enough; for the end of a lease you need two months, because a decision has to be made. A single global “remind me 7 days before” works badly.
A reminder should have a named recipient. Sent “to admin”, it has no owner; sent to a specific person, it does. If nothing has changed after it, it needs repeating, because a single reminder gets lost in the inbox.
The whole thing rests on one rule: alerts only about what needs action. An inbox flooded with notifications stops being read within two weeks, and then expired tests come back even though the system is working.
Test date visible when a vehicle is handed out
Dates recorded against the vehicle are most useful at the moment it is handed out: the person issuing it sees that the test expires in three days before handing over the keys for a week-long trip.
TraxSystem won’t block the issue of a vehicle with an expired test. It shows the information and the decision is left to a person, as in the rest of the system: an automatic block would stop a trip because of a typo in a date.
What inspection reminders will not do
TraxSystem won’t book an appointment at the testing station or the garage: it reminds, and a person makes the call. Nor will it pull dates from external databases. Dates are entered against the vehicle once, at implementation, and then updated after each inspection.
The system won’t read the mileage automatically. The odometer reading is entered at issue and return, because the system doesn’t connect to the vehicle.
Nor does it guarantee that a notification is delivered. It records that the email or text message was sent, not that it was received, so for a critical date it is good to have a second channel.
Questions and answers
Are reminders sent by text message or by email?
Both. Sending text messages needs a configured SMS gateway, and the cost of the messages is on your side and isn’t included in the licence price.
Can you see all upcoming dates in one place?
Yes, in a summary of dates for the whole fleet with a period filter.
Does it cover forklifts and other equipment?
The module is designed for vehicles. Whether it can cover other equipment depends on whether the available fields meet your needs, which is checked in the pre-implementation analysis.