Putting Fleet Management at Your Fingertips
For SMEs like our clients, there’s nothing quite like an app or a fresh software that solves a real problem or makes life simpler and more stressfree. As the sister company to FreeUp—software advisors to the trades—and as a team of virtual assistants constantly working to keep business systems shipshape for our clients, we tend to get excited about this type of thing. Even more so when it comes from the brain of a fellow clever Kiwi.
If your company has vehicles as part of your operations, you’ll want to hear about the latest lifechanging digital tool on the scene: Bonnet! We’re so stoked about this one that we took the time to speak to Stef Kennard, founder and CEO.
With Bonnet, she’s taking the stress out of fleet compliance and management.
The Bonnet origin story
Stef shared with us her lifelong experience and interest in the automotive industry. This started with helping her uncle set up websites for car sales and then later develop software for dealers. Through this work, she learnt digital design principles, to manage data, and to understand the needs of the industry. She moved on to another big automotive company before starting her own agency.
Bonnet itself was originally born from a few ideas: providing vehicle owners with information on compatible aesthetic parts using their number plate, and also helping service centers with customer retention by allowing them to remind customers about their service needs.
Creating the current version of the concept took a while, Stef said, and required a rebuild after the first one was a failure—a testament to the need to stick at it! It took several years (including a pregnancy) to get there, but once the app was launched, it took off. A feature on 1 News expedited the success, with thousands of users and vehicles registered within the first week.
The initial version was targeted towards individual vehicle owners. Businesses soon began to ask Stef for a website version that would work for their fleets which she quickly built, and it’s been a fairly smooth ride from there.
Filling a fleet tracking need in the trades industry
Plenty of Bonnet users are still individuals wanting to stay on top of their WOFs and registration, but Stef says that certain industries have been particularly enamoured by her offering, which now includes:
WOF, COF, and registration reminders
RUC mileage information and purchasing
GPS for fleet tracking
Service centre information
“I’d say that of our paying customers, about 90% are in construction. They like it especially because of the road user charges. Our most common vehicles are Toyota Hiluxes, Nissan Navarras, Ford Rangers… the top five are all utes!”
The app now has 450 fleets registered, demonstrating the need that the app has quickly filled. From a business management perspective, this tool is hugely helpful for liability purposes, ensuring that vehicles are compliant for the road. This can not only minimise legal issues but also prevent insurance claim denials, potentially saving a lot of money and hassle.
Innovative and intuitive fleet management
Bonnet is a first in its field in New Zealand, providing the most comprehensive vehicle compliance and fleet management tool on the market.
Their RUC integration is a NZ first, allowing customers to pay directly through the app—a huge time saver! Stef points out that with RUC for petrol vehicles likely coming in 2027, this ability will become much more widely useful to Kiwis.
The new GPS tracking feature makes Bonnet a one-stop fleet management shop for businesses. It allows them to know where all vehicles are at any given time, with historical records available plus speeding alerts that will encourage your drivers to stay safe on the roads. Geo-Fencing allows you to receive alerts when a vehicle exits or enters a specified zone.
These and other features make Bonnet hugely appealing to a wide variety of businesses, offering a simple, intuitive, and user-friendly interface to replace spreadsheets, whiteboards, and disparate tracking systems or sign-out sheets. The sign-up system is very clear and easy to follow, based primarily around information drawn from number plates.
Stef says that one big client with around 65 cars in their fleet has greatly reduced the time spent on fleet management:
“She went from three full days managing the fleet to just ten minutes a day, logging on and checking what’s red and what’s orange. Then she can go about her day!”
With affordable pricing packages based on the number of vehicles registered (up to two is free!) and downloadable from the App Store and Google Play, Bonnet is easily accessible to any and all individual users and businesses. Take a look and find out how it could make your life easier!
