How to Draft an RFP for Selecting Fleet Management Software (Features and Requirements)

Comprehensive guide: features and criteria for your RFP in corporate fleet management.

Before launching an RFP, companies need to compare several fleet management solutions in order to identify the platform best suited to their vehicle fleet and operational needs.

Define your needs clearly and speak the same language as solution vendors.

How do you write an effective fleet management software RFP?

Using the right vocabulary helps you not just to be understood, but most importantly to find a pool of vendors to send your RFP to. These technical terms serve as key searchwords to identify suppliers.

Know what you’re looking for, to find it more efficiently.

What is fleet management software?

Fleet management software (or fleet management software) is a platform that enables you to control the entirety of a company’s vehicle fleet: vehicle tracking, maintenance, costs, drivers, and reporting.

Why use corporate fleet management software?

Fleet management software allows companies to optimize their vehicle fleet, cut mobility costs, and improve vehicle administration.

Simplify your corporate fleet management: Thanks to digital fleet management, managers can monitor costs, anticipate maintenance, and improve vehicle utilization.

What’s the difference between fleet management software and a dedicated fleet management service?

Before specifying the technical requirements for the fleet tool you’re seeking, clarify whether you actually need fleet management software or a dedicated fleet outsourcing service, what’s known as “dedicated management.”

A tool to assist your fleet manager.

How can you digitize your fleet management?

Fleet management software is a SaaS platform that gives the manager a comprehensive view of the fleet, and also enables them to handle each vehicle (maintenance reminders, costs, availability, incidents, violations, etc.). Digitizing your management enables you to automate as many tasks as possible. Fleet management software is an essential tool for fleet managers, whether the fleet is small or large.

Some solutions also provide drivers with an application that involves them in managing their vehicle.

(Discover the benefits and features of various corporate fleet management software solutions.)

Outsourced fleet management or dedicated fleet management service

Hire experts to manage your fleet for you.

You can outsource the management of your vehicle fleet. Expert managers become your drivers' primary contacts. Managers handle fleet cost tracking, scheduling, and day-to-day tasks.

Some solutions, such as OOVOOM, go further by supporting claims management, negotiating with insurers and rental companies, and letting you benefit from partnerships.

Criteria for choosing fleet management software

When drafting an RFP for fleet management software, several criteria should be assessed:

• Fleet management functionalities
• Integration with your information system
• Compatibility with embedded telematics
• Ease of software deployment
• Total cost of ownership (TCO)

What are the essential features of fleet management software?

To select fleet management software, you first need to understand your needs and the core features of fleet management software.

Your fleet has specific requirements, and you’re unsure whether providers can meet them? In this article, we’ll help you identify which services you can easily include in your RFP.

What are the criteria for choosing SaaS fleet management software? Fleet management platforms (whether outsourced or as a tool supporting your internal manager) vary in completeness according to vendor. How do you choose fleet management software? Here are industry standards for fleet management platforms:

1. Fleet dashboard and reporting

The platform organizes information so that you can get an instant overview of your entire fleet.

A dashboard can summarize the most important information and provide a global view of your fleet: cost tracking, available vehicles, and upcoming actions. The aim is to give you a macro perspective of your fleet as a whole.

Some software, like OOVOOM, analyzes this data to present it to you as charts. Understand your fleet’s current state and how it evolves.

Moreover, beyond a macro overview, the dashboard offers a site-by-site view. Managing a fleet distributed across different geographic locations or operational posts, called “sites,” is an additional challenge for the manager. Including site-by-site data handling—which distinctly separates information and vehicles while still offering a unified, total view of your fleet—greatly simplifies multi-site fleet management.

2. Automated alerts and action tracking

Some vendors highlight important information, abnormal data, and required actions with alerts. You no longer need to search through all the data for what really requires your attention.

This functionality is not a standard feature. If you think it would save significant time, make sure to include it in your RFP.

OOVOOM turns alerts into actionable tasks. In this way, your fleet management software becomes a true management tool. The task is assigned to a driver or manager and is automatically tracked and followed up. Avoid disputes between fleet managers and field teams with this IT tool that automates the relationship.

3. KPI tracking and automatic reporting

Fleet management platforms can monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs). Some allow you to customize tracking of specific data points relevant to your operations. Some tools, such as OOVOOM, present reporting and KPI tracking in a dynamic and visual format, with clear, color-coded dashboards to illustrate your fleet status.

Fleet status is a key aspect of vehicle fleet management. A SaaS platform with automatic KPI tracking lets you process this information. The bigger your fleet, the harder it is to make sense of it with just a list. We recommend including automated KPI tracking and evolution in your RFP.

4. Ticket management with ANTAI

The government provides a fine management service, specifically designed for fleets. However, not all fleet management tools integrate it. (Until early 2026, fleet management tools had to build their own API for getting ANTAI data.) Yet, this integration would enable you to receive tickets in less than a day (instead of 35 days), helping you avoid late penalty increases.

Some tools, such as OOVOOM, go further and help automate the process of naming the driver responsible.

5. TCO, TCU, TCM: fleet cost calculation

TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is the overall cost of owning a vehicle, including purchase or leasing, maintenance, fuel, and related expenses.

TCU (Total Cost of Usage) is the actual operating cost, including incidents, tickets, downtime, and normalized by kilometers driven.

Both calculations are industry standard.

Finally, TCM (Total Cost of Mobility) evaluates the full mobility cost, adding expenses related to other transportation modes: public transport, carpooling, or soft mobility. This calculation is rarely included in management tools, even though it reflects the true cost of mobility. For example, a sales rep with a company car who also charges train tickets and requests bus reimbursements could go unnoticed without this calculation. We recommend large enterprises, with complex, distributed management, include this feature in their RFP.

6. Vehicle file and fleet management

Your vehicle file includes all the relevant items for its administration and maintenance, such as:

- Vehicle driver

- License plate number

- Date of last inspection

and other standard information

Some tools go further, including key elements fleet managers need for choosing a garage or understanding each vehicle’s particular challenges. OOVOOM, for example, offers an optimized user journey: managers can enter a license plate in the search bar to quickly find the vehicle record and instantly see:

- Maintenance due with associated alerts

- Key technical details such as:

• fuel type,
• tire size,
• odometer (vehicle mileage)
• equipment and accessories
• CO2-g/km, allowing you to monitor your fleet’s ecological impact.

- Related contracts for leasing and insurance.

7. Fleet costs tracking and financial management

Receive quotes, approve them, and archive invoices right from your management platform. In this way, every accounting item is automatically organized—attached to each vehicle. Automated invoice reconciliation happens by automatically sorting and archiving your fleet’s administrative documents.

This feature is not an industry standard. However, OOVOOM continues to upgrade their fleet management software to offer a truly complete, tailored tool for managers.

8. Compliance and calculation of tax benefits

- LOM Law calculation,

- Company car fringe benefit calculations,

- Deductible VAT,

- Reduce risks of over-mileage…

Fringe benefits, their calculation, and justification are a real fleet management challenge. Optimize your fleet for tax purposes with specialized tools and expert advice.

OOVOOM includes tax optimization for your fleet.

What additional fleet management services could your supplier include?

Among these value-added services, carsharing solutions and telematics devices are standard tools. Their tracking and management are generally built into fleet management platforms.

Be aware that some carsharing tools have their own management system, but often these are limited to managing the carsharing process or monitoring the telematics device. They rarely include all the standard features listed earlier. So, clearly specify every needed feature in your RFP, especially for tenders including carsharing and telematics requirements.

Note: Fleet and carsharing management RFPs—or those including telematics—will often receive responses in the form of joint or subcontractor offers.

1. What’s the difference between telematics and other carsharing solutions?

Telematics

Telematics enables you to track vehicle use in real time, analyze trips, fuel consumption, and driving behavior, in order to optimize costs, safety, and fleet performance. It involves installing a telematics box or using a factory-installed chip, also known as a “tracking device.”

Among other benefits, tracking vehicles with an embedded telematics system lets you monitor GPS location, mechanical data, dashboard warning lights, trip histories, driving patterns, and much more.

Carsharing

Carsharing lets you reduce underutilized vehicles and increase fleet usage rates. It is a vehicle sharing system: schedule management, vehicle unlocking*, and some providers offer entry and exit inspections at handover.

Check how the provider enables vehicle unlocking for carsharing:

• No integrated unlocking solution,
• Key box system: requires a manager

Carsharing can technically be handled via the telematics solution.

• Unlocking via app with internet: may be limited by data signal,
• Unlocking via app with Bluetooth: enables opening even underground, right from your app. This is the direction companies like OOVOOM have chosen.

Thus, carsharing is an operational fleet need—the need to enable and manage vehicle sharing. Telematics is a tool for vehicle tracking. You may need one without the other, but the two solutions can be combined.

2. Booking a garage appointment from within your fleet management platform

Some software lets you make appointments with a nearby garage that matches your needs.

OOVOOM even lets you select a garage that partners with your insurer. However, this service is rare, possibly unique.

Beyond simply booking a slot, the platform lets you manage maintenance right in your fleet management software: Receive quotes, approvals, and invoices directly in your OOVOOM interface

In fact, OOVOOM Garage is also your vendor’s management tool. Your garage issues invoices, using OOVOOM Garage’s integrated e-billing tool, directly into the fleet management system.

• See quotes,
• Approve quotes,
• Receive invoices,
• Automated invoice reconciliation: invoice, vehicle, and related documentation are all linked on your OOVOOM fleet management platform.

3. Integrated fuel card in your fleet management software: track all your fleet costs

Some cards and payment services (like electronic toll tags) let your drivers pay expenses related to your company fleet. These solutions mean your drivers don’t need to advance expenses, and you don’t need to process expense claims.

Few fleet management providers include this as part of their offering. You may need to make a separate lot or a different RFP to address this requirement.

The OOVOOM Mobility solution lets you integrate fuel cards within your fleet management.

OOVOOM, in partnership with WeShake, is the only solution that fully integrates your fuel, carwash, toll, parking, etc. payment card with your fleet management. Management rules are applied automatically with no double entry. All invoices and payments are linked to an employee and the license plate of the vehicle used.

The OOVOOM Mobility card payment solution:

• Accepted at all gas stations in France and the Eurozone

No matter what the energy type: gas, electric, even hydrogen

No matter what station brand

No matter where you are (town, highway…)

• All essential fleet services accessible on one card: Parking, Tolls, Car Wash, and more.
• Refuel with no markup

Concrete savings : up to 15% instant discount on fuel costs, thanks to an extensive, optimized network.

• Plug and charge: the electric vehicle connects itself to the charging station.
• A flexible, configurable card

Set budgets and maintain control of your funds!

Limit by area, hours, or workdays.

Configure allowable purchase types (fuel stations, tolls, etc.).

Get alerts in case of anomalies.

• The security of an official payment agent

In conclusion: how to define your fleet management RFP

Drafting an RFP for fleet management software lets you clearly identify your company’s needs and more effectively compare different solutions.

By stating your essential features, technical criteria, and associated services (telematics, carsharing, reporting, cost control), you’re far more likely to pick a solution that truly matches your fleet requirements.

Checklist: features to include in your RFP

Check that RFP responses include the needs you’ve identified using the points above.

• vehicle geolocation
• maintenance management
• fuel tracking
• fleet KPI reporting
• ticket management
• TCO tracking
• driver management
• embedded telematics
• carsharing