The food and beverage fleet industry faces significant challenges with driver retention and adapting to new technology. Introducing and integrating new vehicle management systems into your business can seem daunting, especially with five generations in the workforce. However, you can be proactive about communication and training to help ensure a smooth transition into a new system and secure the best results for your vehicle operations.


Why Vehicle Reimbursement Technology?

The ability to optimize overall budgets is a layered and nuanced practice. With proven and secure vehicle reimbursement technology, food and beverage organizations can ensure accurate mileage reporting and accurate, on-time reimbursements. Advanced, modern reimbursement solutions can help provide workforce insights, support compliance and even help identify cost-saving opportunities. In addition, you can look for tools that include risk mitigation advantages, such as motor vehicle records monitoring to verify employees’ eligibility to drive, insurance monitoring to confirm active coverage, and training solutions to support driver safety. Changing from legacy systems and manual processes to a seamless and scalable technology solution can help companies improve data-driven decision-making.


Make Your Transition Impactful

When working with diverse, multigenerational teams, it may seem daunting to ensure everyone is on the same page and ready to adapt to new technology. A few key best practices can help make your transition to a new vehicle reimbursement technology smooth and efficient:

  1. Be Direct About the Reasons You Use Technology.
    With Motus, you have the most options to introduce technology effectively. Two crucial steps can ensure your message is heard:
    • State your case. Clearly communicate why you are adopting new technology. Consider various forms of communication to accommodate your diverse workforce.
    • Highlight quick wins. Show how the solution will improve working conditions and save effort. Emphasize that it can help your workforce succeed and grow. Avoid threats and be honest about your need for efficiency and compliance.
  2. Train Early to Boost Retention.
    Ongoing training is essential for employee retention. Start new hires off on the right foot by integrating training into the onboarding process to make the use of the technology a priority from their first days on the job.
    • Use interactive training. Incorporate live simulations of crucial tools in an interactive browser session or customized smartphone app. Conduct hands-on demonstrations during onboarding, allowing potential drivers to acclimate to the system before their first official day on the road alone.
    • Assess tech comfort. Pay attention to how candidates use technology during the recruitment process. Heavy use of email and web-based contacts, or inquiries via online job searches, can indicate their comfort level with adopting new technology.
  3. Support a Diverse Workforce.
    Turnover is a broader issue exacerbated by the ongoing labor challenges. Supporting your workforce with optimized technology that helps mitigate risk and streamline reimbursements can aid in employee retention and technology adoption.
    • Listen and adapt. Pay attention to your drivers’ feedback on technology. If drivers feel they spend too much time on log work due to inadequate training, consider revising your program.
    • Ensure trainers are peers. Pair new hires with trainers that are their peers with road experience to foster better acceptance.

By implementing these strategies, you can navigate the challenges of high turnover and a diverse workforce. At Motus, we offer the lowest risk, most options and best results — all backed by our trusted advisors. Our proven and secure solutions will support your personal fleet’s technological advancements.


Brewing Efficiency

Here’s an example of real change that better supported a business’s goals. D.G. Yuengling & Son, the Pennsylvania stalwart that is America’s oldest brewery, had long used a mileage-tracking app to reimburse its sales employees for their travels. But its system was balky and frequently inaccurate, resulting in wasted time as sales reps manually updated their travel records.

Company leaders knew the brewer needed to upgrade its reimbursement platform, but they hesitated to potentially disrupt legacy workflows without being sure a new solution would bring real improvement.

By adopting a more user-friendly, highly accurate platform that was easy to integrate with its expense management software, Yuengling freed its sales team to focus on selling rather than entering mileage manually into a legacy system with ineffective GPS tracking.

After the switch, 92% of the platform users at the brewery said the new tools saved them significant time tracking and reporting mileage or helped them streamline their work and eliminate manual processes.1 


Get Trusted Advisors, Most Options, Best Results, Plus Proven & Secure Solutions With Motus

At Motus, we don’t just provide technology solutions; we act as trusted advisors. We lead the way in assisting companies in designing and managing their Future Fleet™. We understand the importance of trust in overcoming fleet challenges and craft our solutions to optimize spending, mitigate risks and streamline reimbursements to employees driving for work. We also recognize the challenges of introducing driver-facing technology.

We have more than 40 years of experience making vehicle management and reimbursement easier for more than 3,000 companies. Our expert team is here to help you overcome these challenges while building confidence and trust in the driver-facing tech solutions you choose to run your vehicle program.

Ready to start building your customized, comprehensive reimbursement platform? Learn more. 


About the Author

Katie Lange, Director of Sales

Dynamic results driven sales professional with demonstrated experience in sales, marketing and business development. I'm passionate about connecting customers with programs and technology that reduce risk and create efficiencies around vehicle reimbursement programs.

I am highly skilled in analyzing and understanding marketplace dynamics, communicating solid value propositions and developing and executing sales and delivery strategies.


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1 This is Motus content that appears on HBR.org