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101 Inspiring Quotes to Help You Spring Forward – ReadWrite
Published
11 months agoon
By
Drew Simpson
I don’t know about you, but it’s been a struggle for me to get things done this week. Why? Is it because the weather is warming up and I want to be outside and not at my desk? But, thanks to daylight saving time, the days are longer.
However, the scientist tell us our circadian rhythms are thrown off and there is less light in the morning when waking and this will cause a few days of morning-drag.
How has that impacted my productivity? All I want to do is be outside.
But, obviously, I’m not the only one in this predicament.
As we begin to crawl out of winter, it’s common for productivity to drop. The reason? We may be sitting at our desks daydreaming about spending the day outdoors. Whether it’s getting off work early (especially Friday), taking a long lunch, going for a walk, or just making plans for outdoor activities — each of these things takes our minds off targeted work.
But I can’t help but think the lengthy, we’re sick of it, COVID has made this years’ Spring a difficult hurdle.
When you think about it, it makes sense. It’s hard to resist being outside on a bright day after enduring a brutal winter. It actually feels almost like a right to be outside on a sunny day.
Despite this, soaking up the sun can also be beneficial to productivity. With increased sunshine comes Vitamin D. If you didn’t know, low levels of Vitamin D are linked to lowered productivity in the workplace.
What’s more, sunshine improves mental well-being and quality sleep. And, warmer weather has been found to boost your mood, as well as broaden your mind.
Ultimately, spring is a time of refocusing, fresh perspective, and appreciating the little things, which are, in fact, important. So, let these 101 spring quotes keep you looking forward as we prepare to step into this new season of rejuvenation.
1. “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.” — Anne Bradstreet
2. “Spring is the time of plans and projects.” — Leo Tolstoy
3. “Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” — John Muir
4. “Nothing ever seems impossible in spring, you know.” — L.M. Montgomery
5. “Once there was a thing called spring when the world was writing verses like yours and mine.” — Ella Fitgerald
6. “Blossom by blossom the spring begins.” — Algernon Charles Swinburne
7. “Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.” — Ellis Peters
8. “I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather that God has to offer.” — Dodie Smith
9. “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” — Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” — Pablo Neruda
11. “Spring is when life’s alive in everything.” — Christina Rosetti
12. “There’s always been a rainbow hangin’ over your head.” — Kacey Musgraves
13. “Oh, Spring! I want to go out and feel you and get inspiration. My old things seem dead. I want fresh contacts, more vital searching.” — Emily Carr
14. “No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” — English Proverb
15. “Spring flowers are nature’s most fragrant charms.” — Angie Weiland-Crosby
16. “Seasons change, and so do we.” — NikkiChe
17. “What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” — Kobayashi Issa
18. “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s Party!’” — Robin Williams
19. “When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.” — Ernest Hemingway
20. “What a lonely place it would be to have a world without a wildflower!” — Roland R. Kemler
21. “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” — Margaret Atwood
22. Spring is when you feel like whistling, even with a shoe full of slush.” — Doug Larson
23. “If people did not love one another, I really don’t see what use there would be in having any spring.” — Victor Hugo
24. “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and a man cannot live without love.” — Max Muller
25. “Spring adds new life and new beauty to all that is.” — Jessica Harrelson
26. “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” — William Shakespeare
27. “I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.” — Virginia Wolf
28. “I can turn the gray sky blue.” — The Temptations
29. “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
30. “Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.” — Bishop Reginald Heber
31. “The first blooms of spring always make my heart sing.” — S. Brown
32. “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” — Henry David Thoreau
33. “Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.” — Virgil A. Kraft
34. “It’s spring again. I can hear the birds sing again. See the flowers start to bud. See young people fall in love.” — Lou Rawls
35. “Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring.” — Vladimir Nabokov
36. “Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.” — Anonymous
37. “Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.” — Gustav Mahler
38. “In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” — Mark Twain
39. “Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.” — Geoffrey B. Charlesworth
40. “Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.” — Jim Carey
41. “Early spring is the time for a vigorous change, a preparation for the heat-driven oppression that is to come.” — Henry Rollins
42. “Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.” — Lilly Pulitzer
43. “Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder
44. “A little flower that blooms in May. A lovely sunset at the end of a day. Someone helping a stranger along the way. That’s heaven to me.” — Sam Cooke
45.“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size.” — Gertrude S. Wister
46. “Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.” — Luther Burbank
47. “The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” — Marty Rubin
48. “Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?” — Neltje Blanchan
49. “I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.” — Millard Kaufman
50. “Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer.” — Anita Krizzan
51 “Always it’s spring and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves.” — E.E. Cummings
52. “Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.” — John Harrington
53. “Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.” — Charlotte Brontë
54. “Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day.” — W. Earl Hall
55. “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” — Oscar Wilde
56. “The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” — Harriet Ann Jacobs
57. “The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter!” — Jen Selinsky
58. “I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” — Ruth Stout
59. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” — Percy Bysshe Shelley
60. “The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all.” — Josiyah Martin
61. “Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” — Lewis Grizzard
62. “It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heartache, you want it so!” — Mark Twain
63. “Spring’s greatest joy beyond a doubt is when it brings the children out.” — Edgar Guest
64. “Sometimes we can only find our true direction when we let the wind of change carry us.” — Mimi Novic
65. “My favorite weather is bird chirping weather.” — Terri Guillemets
66. “If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.” — Audra Foveo
67. “No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.” — Sheryl Crow
68. “The earth laughs in flowers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
69. “Deep in their roots, all flowers keep their light.” — Theodore Roethke
70. “It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.” — John Galsworthy
71. “An optimist is the human personification of spring.” — Susan J. Bissonette
72. “Where flowers bloom so does hope.” — Lady Bird Johnson
73. “April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks: Go.” — Christopher Morley
74. “When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” — William Wordsworth
75. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu
76. “The spring wakes us, nurtures us and revitalizes us. How often does your spring come? If you are a prisoner of the calendar, it comes once a year. If you are creating authentic power, it comes frequently, or very frequently.” — Gary Zukav
77. “Spring is the fountain of love for thirsty winter.” — Munia Khan
78. “Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!” — Sitting Bull
79. “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” — Hal Borland
80. “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” — Roger Hornsby
81. “Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom.” — Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
82. “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” — Audrey Hepburn
83. “Spring is a time to find out where you are, who you are, and move toward where you are going.” — Penelope Trunk
84. “The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full of flowers.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
85. “All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.” — Anonymous
86. “Here comes the sun, And I say, It’s all right.” — The Beatles
87. “The sun was warm but the wind was chill / You know how it is with an April day.” — Robert Frost
88. “I had always planned to make a large painting of the early spring, when the first leaves are at the bottom of the trees, and they seem to float in space in a wonderful way. But the arrival of spring can’t be done in one picture.” — David Hockney
89. “I believe in process. I believe in four seasons. I believe that winter’s tough, but spring’s coming. I believe that there’s a growing season. And I think that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better.” — Steve Southerland
90. “Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
91. “Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.” — Yoko Ono
92. “Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.” — Robert H. Schuller
93. “From the end spring new beginnings.” — Pliny The Elder
94. “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
95. “But only a person in the depths of despair neglected to look beyond winter to the spring that inevitably followed, bringing back color and life and hope.” — Mary Balogh
96. “Spring is far more than just a changing of seasons; it’s a rebirth of the spirit.” — Toni Sorenson
97. “Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.” —
98. “The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.” — Henry Van Dyke
99. “No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead.” — Pearl Jam
100. “Oh, Spring! I want to go out and feel you and get inspiration. My old things seem dead. I want fresh contacts, more vital searching.” — Emily Carr
101. “Sunshine is the best medicine.” — Anonymous
Image Credit: Pixabay; Pexels, Thank you
This post was originally published here.
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Politics
How Emerging Technology Is Helping Teams Save on Development Costs
Published
6 hours agoon
03/30/2023By
Drew Simpson
Software developer pay spans a notoriously wide range, but few would argue that U.S.-based development costs are “cheap.”
According to a U.S. News & World Report analysis, the median U.S. software developer earned $120,730 in 2021. Experienced devs can easily command $200,000 per year in cash compensation alone, with incentive pay and company benefits adding significantly to that total.
You most likely know this already. You also most likely know that complex software development projects take months and involve multiple developers and engineers. “Cost spiral” doesn’t begin to describe the situation.
You don’t need to be reminded how important it is to cut DevOps costs wherever possible. Your bosses and shareholders (perhaps one and the same) remind you enough.
Fortunately, emerging technologies and tools are making it easier than ever to reduce software development expenses without compromising output, efficiency, or quality. It’s no exaggeration to say that these new capabilities are revolutionizing software development and helping DevOps teams save money across the board.
Let’s take a closer look at four types of emerging capabilities: next-generation project management tools, cloud computing services, task automation tools, and ephemeral development environments. Each offers potentially game-changing opportunities for teams looking to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
Using next-generation project management tools to drive software development efficiency and collaboration
Signs of bad project management include missed deadlines, poor quality control, and infighting within teams that need to collaborate closely. These and other direct results of poor project management are harmful to the broader organization (and to the careers of those responsible for them).
Yet poor project management has a direct financial cost as well. This goes back to what we’ve already discussed: the high cost of labor in a product development environment and, specifically, the very high cost of labor in a software development context. Every day that passes without an anticipated deliverable is a day that brings unanticipated costs. And while every project budget has some built-in wiggle room, said costs eventually become unacceptable.
The good news is that software development teams can turn to an already-existing library of scalable, easy-to-use project management tools that easily map to DevOps use cases. Your team may already use some basic project management tools to manage workflows and keep track of deliverables, timeframes, and responsibilities. Still, if you haven’t surveyed the landscape and assessed individual tools’ capabilities relative to your team’s needs, you’re likely not maximizing their potential.
Look for project management tools with the following capabilities:
- Use cases specifically designed for your specific development framework. For example, Jira’s project management tool is specifically tailored to Agile development teams.
- Relevant integrations with third-party apps, from general-purpose tools like Google Docs (where your spreadsheets likely live already) to DevOps, cloud storage, and even CRM software.
- Sophisticated calendar views that enable visual-oriented team members to “see” their project responsibilities at a glance.
- Powerful developer APIs that allow you to customize the project management interface to your needs and produce efficiency-oriented outputs.
Ideally, your team relies on one core project management tool to manage everything it’s working on together, with individual developers free to use additional tools to manage their personal workflows.
That may require you to cut out a less optimal tool (or several) and disrupt legacy use cases, but it’s better to rip off the Band-Aid now before a bona fide productivity crisis hits. Further down the road, untangling competing and deeply entrenched workflows will surely prove more costly and more disruptive.
Leveraging cloud computing services for projects with multiple stakeholders
Like project management software, cloud computing services no longer count as revolutionary. If your team is small, it might use GSuite for cloud-based storage and collaboration. If it’s larger, it might use Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (whose incomprehensible value only underscores the critical importance of cloud computing).
And so you’re already aware that cloud computing services make development more efficient by enhancing collaboration, reducing duplication of effort, and sharply cutting reliance on onsite database hosting, file storage, and data processing.
Your team can and should use cloud computing services in additional ways that even more directly improve DevOps efficiency and cost control:
- Containerization: Containerization enables software deployment on any computing infrastructure. Bundling app code and file libraries in a self-contained, platform-agnostic unit eliminate the need to match platform-specific software packages (i.e., Windows-compatible) with the correct machines. Containerized deployment is more portable, more scalable, and more resilient — and it’s only possible in the cloud.
- Microservices (vs. monolithic architecture): Microservices break up the development architecture into many small, agile units that communicate via API. Rather than an inflexible “monolith” that needs to be reworked as it scales, microservices can be scaled internally (or new ones created) as needs arise. Like containerization, it’s a much more flexible, agile, and ultimately low-cost way to manage complex DevOps workflows.
Automating repetitive tasks throughout the development lifecycle
Task and workflow automation tools are improving at an incredible clip, and the advantages of next-generation automation are particularly impressive for DevOps teams. As just one example, telecom giant Ericsson drove significant cost savings by automating key aspects of their software development pipeline and transitioning to a continuous deployment model, according to a study published in Empirical Software Engineering.
Transitioning to continuous deployment is a time- and cost-intensive process that may not be practical for smaller teams, at least not in the near term. But your team can leverage task automation in many other ways.
Testing automation deserves special mention here. Automated testing and QA solutions like Robot Framework and Zephyr (respectively) reduce the need for repetitive, labor-intensive poking and prodding by human devs whose efforts are better spent elsewhere. By finding bugs and quality issues earlier in the development workflow, they also reduce the need for costly and time-consuming fixes further along in the process.
Increasingly, code generation itself is automated, thanks to tools like Eclipse. These generative tools will only improve as processing power increases and training sets expand. Consequently, this sets the stage for a near-future scenario where devs will need to manually write far less code. That, in turn, will allow DevOps teams to stretch dev resources further. Additionally, it will free up person-hours for more creative or problem-focused work.
Utilizing ephemeral environments to improve development speed and quality
Finally, software development teams can achieve efficiency and cost improvements at virtually any scale by utilizing ephemeral environments. These are temporary staging environments that can be created at will, generally for a single-purpose feature test or bug fix, and then eliminated when no longer needed to keep costs low.
Ephemeral environments offer clear advantages for development teams. They reduce pull request backlogs, a notorious sticking point (and cost driver) for larger teams. They’re isolated, which reduces the risk of bug-inducing branch conflicts. They’re fully automated, which frees up engineers to deal with more important matters. And because they enable more targeted, granular testing, they speed up the development process overall. They also reduce the risk of an unacceptable issue breaching the main code branch. Repairs on the main code branch are much more time-consuming and costly.
The result is a faster, more efficient workflow that scales with your team in response to demand. For example, Uffizzi’s on-demand ephemeral environment tool helped Spotify add 20% more features to every release of its popular Backstage developer portal platform. Backstage grew rapidly after initial open-sourcing in 2020 and now averages some 400 active pull requests per month. The transition to ephemeral environments slashed average pull request completion times across the platform.
Ephemeral environments can also help smaller development teams achieve the same economies of scale as larger teams. For example, moving to a continuous deployment model might seem out of reach for small teams under the old “bottlenecked” shared environment framework. Start by streamlining this process and freeing up department resources for longer-term strategic work. Ephemeral environments (and other process automation tools) make such shifts possible.
It’s no accident that Uffizzi’s out-of-the-box ephemeral environment solution supercharges the continuous integration/delivery process.
Opportunities abound now, with more to come
Change is already here for software teams accustomed to the old way of doing things. These four emerging or expanding technologies and tools —
- Next-generation project management software
- Expansive and flexible cloud computing services
- Increasingly intelligent and capable task automation tools
- Scalable, on-demand ephemeral environments for better testing and QA
— are making life easier and development faster for DevOps departments around the world. Their capabilities and use cases will only expand as time goes on.
These four technologies aren’t the only emerging opportunities for software developers and the companies that employ them, however. Around-the-bend and over-the-horizon capabilities could change the tech industry in even more fundamental ways:
- AI-driven platforms for developers, like TensorFlow, that promise to dramatically speed up development timeframes and allow teams to do much more with much less
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) capabilities that break down silos between DevOps teams and the rest of an organization and create trusted, reliable code frameworks that ultimately reduce developer and maintainer workloads
- Low- and no-code application development, which — while possibly overhyped in the short term — could further break down barriers and enable faster, more collaborative action
- Augmented reality tools and apps, whose potential impact remains speculative but which will likely play an increasingly important role in software and product development over the next decade
Final Thoughts
In the coming years, odds are you’ll integrate all four of these capabilities into your DevOps workflows by then. You’ll most likely take advantage of other emerging technologies and tools in the near future too. These may even include some we don’t yet know about. As the pace of innovation accelerates, staying one step ahead of the competition — and doing right by your firm’s stakeholders, financially and otherwise — means watching closely for new tech that can speed up your development timelines and reduce overall DevOps costs.
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Politics
Eco-Friendly Fleet Maintenance Trends and Strategies
Published
18 hours agoon
03/29/2023By
Drew Simpson
As the world becomes increasingly aware of the impact of climate change, many businesses are seeking ways to mitigate their carbon footprint and embrace more sustainable practices. In the transportation industry, fleet maintenance is a key area where businesses can make significant strides in reducing their environmental impact.
The Big Issues With Today’s Fleet Maintenance
There are several environmental issues associated with today’s fleet maintenance practices. Here are some of the biggest:
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Fleet vehicles are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. The emissions from fuel combustion and the use of heavy-duty vehicles can have negative impacts on air quality, water quality, and human health.
Hazardous Waste Disposal
Many fleet maintenance activities generate hazardous waste, such as used oil, solvents, and other chemicals. If not disposed of properly, these can contaminate soil and water, posing a risk to human health and the environment.
Resource Consumption
Fleet maintenance requires significant resources, including energy, water, and raw materials. The extraction and processing of these resources can have negative impacts on the environment, including habitat destruction, deforestation, and water pollution.
Noise Pollution
Fleet maintenance activities can be noisy, especially in urban areas. This can have negative impacts on wildlife and human health, contributing to stress and hearing damage.
Land Use and Habitat Destruction
The construction and maintenance of fleet facilities, such as maintenance yards and parking lots, can require significant amounts of land. This can lead to habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity.
Overall, fleet maintenance has significant environmental impacts, and addressing these issues will require a comprehensive approach that includes the adoption of sustainable practices, the use of alternative fuels and technologies, and the implementation of environmentally responsible waste management practices.
7 Eco-Friendly Fleet Maintenance Tips
Aligning a company’s fleet maintenance approach with larger green initiatives and eco-friendly mission statements has never been more practical. Here are several helpful tips and strategies to get you started:
1. Switch to Alternative Fuels
One of the most effective ways to make fleet maintenance more eco-friendly is to switch to alternative fuels. Traditional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles produce a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative fuels, like electricity, biofuels, and even hydrogen, produce fewer emissions and can help reduce a company’s carbon footprint.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular as a sustainable transportation option. EVs produce zero emissions and are typically much cheaper to maintain than traditional vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are also an option, producing only water as a byproduct. Biofuels, which are made from renewable sources like corn and soybeans, can also be used in some vehicles.
2. Use Sustainable Products and Materials
In addition to alternative fuels, businesses can also make fleet maintenance more eco-friendly by using sustainable products and materials. Here are some examples:
Biodegradable cleaning products: Traditional cleaning products can contain chemicals that can be harmful to the environment. Biodegradable cleaning products are a more sustainable alternative as they are made from natural, non-toxic ingredients that break down quickly and safely.
Recycled materials: Using recycled materials, such as oil and tires, can help reduce waste and conserve natural resources. Recycled oil can be re-refined and used again, while recycled tires can be turned into rubberized asphalt, which can be used to pave roads.
Eco-friendly lubricants and fluids: Using eco-friendly lubricants and fluids, such as biodegradable hydraulic fluids and biodegradable grease, can help reduce pollution and protect the environment.
Sustainable packaging: When purchasing products and materials for your fleet maintenance, look for sustainable packaging options, such as products that are shipped in recyclable or biodegradable packaging.
By using sustainable products and materials in fleet maintenance, you can help reduce your environmental footprint and promote sustainability.
3. Conduct Regular Preventive Maintenance
Fleet maintenance software can be a powerful tool for managing preventive maintenance as part of a green fleet management strategy. Here are some steps to help you use fleet maintenance software to perform preventative maintenance:
Set up a preventative maintenance schedule: The first step is to set up a maintenance schedule in your fleet maintenance software. This schedule should include regular maintenance tasks such as oil changes, tire rotations, and other routine maintenance tasks that will help keep your vehicles running efficiently and reduce emissions.
Track vehicle usage: Your fleet maintenance software should be able to track vehicle usage, including mileage, hours of operation, and other relevant data. This information can help you schedule maintenance tasks based on actual use rather than just time intervals, which can help reduce unnecessary maintenance and waste.
Use eco-friendly parts and materials: When performing preventive maintenance, make sure to use eco-friendly parts and materials whenever possible. This can include using recycled oil, eco-friendly tires, and other environmentally friendly products.
Monitor fuel consumption: Your fleet maintenance software should also be able to track fuel consumption for each vehicle in your fleet. By monitoring fuel consumption, you can identify inefficiencies and make adjustments to improve fuel economy, which can help reduce emissions.
Analyze data and adjust your strategy: Finally, use the data collected by your fleet maintenance software to analyze your fleet’s performance and adjust your strategy as needed. For example, if certain vehicles are consistently underperforming or require more frequent maintenance, consider replacing them with more fuel-efficient models.
The good news is that implementing fleet management software into your company’s strategy isn’t nearly as challenging or intensive as you might think. Thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, the upfront setup is much faster and more efficient than you may realize. This allows you to get up and running quickly.
4. Implement More Efficient Routing
Efficient routing is another strategy for making fleet maintenance more sustainable. By optimizing routes, businesses can reduce the amount of fuel their vehicles consume and the emissions they produce. This not only helps the environment but can also save the company money on fuel costs.
GPS and fleet management software can help companies optimize their routes and reduce fuel consumption. These tools can provide real-time data on traffic patterns, road closures, and weather conditions, allowing businesses to make informed decisions about their routes.
5. Promote Better Driver Education
Another important aspect of eco-friendly fleet maintenance is promoting driver education. Drivers who are trained in eco-friendly driving techniques can help reduce fuel consumption and emissions. This includes techniques such as reducing idling time, avoiding sudden accelerations and braking, and maintaining a steady speed.
In addition to driver education, businesses can also encourage their drivers to adopt sustainable habits, such as carpooling and using public transportation when possible. This not only reduces the company’s carbon footprint but can also save employees money on commuting costs.
6. Use Telematics Technology
Telematics technology refers to the use of wireless communication systems and GPS technology to transmit data from vehicles to a remote location. This technology allows businesses to track and monitor the performance of their fleet vehicles, including fuel consumption, emissions, speed, and location.
By collecting this data, telematics technology can help businesses optimize their fleet operations to make them more energy-efficient and green. Here are some of the ways that telematics technology can be used to improve fleet sustainability:
Route Optimization: Telematics systems can provide real-time traffic updates, road closures, and weather conditions to help businesses optimize their vehicle routes. By choosing the most efficient route, fleet managers can reduce fuel consumption and emissions while ensuring on-time deliveries.
Fuel Efficiency Monitoring: Telematics technology can track fuel consumption in real-time, giving fleet managers insights into how their vehicles are performing. By identifying patterns of inefficient driving or idling, businesses can take steps to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
Maintenance Alerts: Telematics technology can also alert businesses when a vehicle is due for maintenance or repairs. By staying on top of maintenance, businesses can ensure that their vehicles are running at peak efficiency.
Driver Behavior Monitoring: Telematics technology can monitor driver behavior, including acceleration, braking, and speed. By identifying patterns of inefficient driving, businesses can provide coaching and training to drivers to help them improve their driving habits.
7. Reduce Vehicle Weight
Reducing the weight of fleet vehicles can also make maintenance more eco-friendly. The heavier a vehicle is, the more fuel it requires to move, which means it will produce more emissions. By reducing the weight of their vehicles, companies can reduce the amount of fuel they consume and the emissions they produce.
This can be achieved by removing unnecessary equipment and cargo from the vehicles, as well as using lightweight materials for vehicle maintenance. For example, aluminum wheels and carbon fiber parts can be used to reduce the weight of the vehicle.
Turn Your Fleet Green
Implementing eco-friendly fleet maintenance practices not only benefits the environment. It can also help businesses save money in the long run. By reducing fuel consumption and emissions, companies can lower their operating costs and improve their reputation as a sustainable business.
Use the tips highlighted above to reorient the way your business approaches fleet maintenance in 2023 and beyond.
Image Credit: by Lê Minh; Pexels; Thanks!
Deanna Ritchie
Managing Editor at ReadWrite
Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.
Politics
5 Essential Benefits of Choosing an Efficient ERP System
Published
24 hours agoon
03/29/2023By
Drew Simpson
The corporate world is changing at a fast pace, and advanced technologies such as ERP system is at the epicenter of the ongoing digital revolution. Businesses are more dependent on technological tools and enterprise software than ever before. In fact, these tools and software are enabling businesses to drive greater success by enhancing business processes. Are you ensuring that you have the right software and tools to help your business advance swiftly?
There is a plethora of software and solutions to choose from, and each of them comes with its own merits. But what is making a real difference is the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that can streamline processes across various verticals in an enterprise.
The use of ERP systems defines a new trend altogether in the modern workplace.
Gone are the days when only multinational companies subscribed to ERP solutions for managing processes at the entire enterprise level. Nowadays even small businesses are bridging ERP systems onboard to facilitate business advancement. To validate, as per statistics, the global market size for ERP software is expected to reach USD 96.7 billion by 2024. Finances Online further explains that more than 52 percent of organizations are highly satisfied with the decision of integrating ERP systems.
Probing further, vertical ERP, small business ERP, generalist ERP, and Open Source ERP is among the most common types of ERP software that businesses are integrating. Moreover, it is also notable that most organizations are showing a keen interest in Cloud-Based SasS ERP systems, given the edge they have over traditional ERP.
All in all, the integration of ERP systems has become one of the most sought-after change management activities in the corporate world. The question is, what are the advantages of ERP software that businesses are subscribing to ERP solutions? Let us find out in this blog.
Key benefits of ERP Systems for businesses
1. Massive optimization of productivity
The ultimate objective of every enterprise is to drive the highest productivity across every vertical. However, when your employees work on recurring and repetitive tasks, not only their individual productivity takes a hit, but the efficiency of the entire organization takes a setback. This explains why businesses increasingly spend on automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks like invoicing. Even marketing automation is one of the thriving corporate trends.
All in all, the greater the automation in an enterprise the higher will be the productivity. Having said that, this is where we must look at one of the greatest benefits of integrating ERP systems. To substantiate, ERP systems come with incredible and reliable automation capabilities that can help your organization achieve its business objectives at a greater pace.
Moreover, with AI integrations as per the latest developments, the automation capabilities of ERP systems are much higher than ever before. To substantiate, as per Netsuite, employers are now happily investing in advanced ERP solutions that come with intelligent AI or machine learning capabilities.
Needless to say, artificial intelligence is the way forward for enterprises, and the blend of ERP and AI is worth embracing. This combination will certainly give your business an unparalleled competitive advantage.
2. Real-time analytics
Having timely access to analytics that can help you constantly enhance processes is nothing short of having a competitive advantage. In fact, everything in the modern enterprise world revolves around analytics. From analytics on customer engagement to analytics on inventory management gaps, you need analytics at almost every step.
This is where ERP comes up with another great feature that you should definitely not ignore. An efficient ERP system can generate real-time quantitative analytics that can lead to better planning, execution, and monitoring. Besides, the best part is that with an ERP, you can create data analytics capabilities in your businesses without even having to hire a dedicated team for data analytics.
Moreover, real-time analytics will also ensure that there is a smoother workflow management and will also aid in effective collaboration between teams. Especially if your project teams work remotely, it is essential that there is real-time sharing of data analytics for project success. ERP does not only automate data generation but also data reporting in a presentable and lucid form. However, in the ultimate sense, the positive impact of ERP is subject to the efficiency of your change management process.
3. Greater cost-efficiency in operations
Irrespective of whether you are a budding startup or an established business, operational costs will always be a top concern for you. The correlation is quite simple, the lower the operational costs the higher will be the profitability. Now, the question is, can ERP help you in bringing down operational costs? Well, the answer is a big yes and it is time you acknowledge that.
To validate, as per Datix, ERP solutions can help organizations reduce operational costs by 23 percent. This clearly indicates that you can save a major chunk of operational costs by investing in the best-in-class ERP solution. The sooner you bring ERP onboard, the greater the savings.
4. Magnification of data security
It is a well-known fact that the contemporary corporate world has a massive dependence on big data. Every business process in the modern corporate world has data engineering and analytics at the forefront of things. Data security has become a top concern, especially when cyber-attacks and data breaches are more advanced than ever before.
One of the most compelling reasons why your business needs ERP is the set of advanced data security features. When an ERP is integrated into business processes, you can set controls for accessibility to confidential data. To explain, you can control who can access sensitive information and who cannot.
Otherwise, in the absence of an ERP system, you will have to spend fortunes on cyber security and data security solutions. ERP gives you multidimensional benefits of optimized business processes along with credible data security measures.
5. Enhanced flexibility
Does your organization have a traditional on-site working style or a hybrid working style? Are you planning to move your employees to permanent work from home? ERP gives you great flexibility irrespective of your organization’s working style. Simply put, ERP can be easily integrated even in remote working cultures or hybrid cultures and will also help you to avoid employee burnout (seodiggerz dotcom “help employees avoid burnout). You can implement an ERP system with great ease and put it to work from the word go.
Besides, ERP systems also offer great flexibility in terms of future scalability. If your business is expanding and you want to add more users in the future, ERP systems offer the room to do so. Room to expand has to be the most important feature you should be looking for when you choose an ERP system. Not every ERP system may come with an effective scope of future scalability. Still, you will find a lot of ERP systems that do offer scalability features and you must choose from them.
Conclusion
ERP systems are changing the way businesses approach their operations and key objectives. Besides, ERP is much more than a planning resource and offers immense value in terms of optimizing business processes.
Integrating ERP for your business can be a real game changer. The sooner you subscribe to it, the more advantageous it will prove to be for your business. Make sure you choose an ERP software that is best suited for your enterprise.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Erik Mclean; Pexels; Thank you!
Kiara Miller
“Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.” Wayne Dyer’s thoughts are well suited to Kiara Miller.
Miller has been working as a content marketing professional at “The Speakingnerd.” Her passion for writing is also visible in the innovative joys of material she provides to her readers.