How Digital Keys Reduce Costs, Increase Security for Your Fleet

A hidden time thief in your commercial fleet operations might be something you don’t consider on a daily basis: managing your fleet’s physical keys. Whether your drivers are stuck standing in line waiting for a key hand-off, or your maintenance or yard teams are trying to track down a specific key to move a truck, valuable time is wasted and can add up over time. 

Additionally, anytime a physical key is misplaced, the cost and headache of replacing it – combined with the security issue of having a lost key circulating out in the world somewhere – can cause real problems for your business. Finally, keeping up with a physical truck key is one more item to add to the long list of your driver’s tasks and adds to the mental load. With multiple keys to manage on any given vehicle and route, it’s one more stressor that makes a driver’s job more difficult.

Removing the small but important task of keeping up with a physical truck key can save your fleet time and money. Thanks to new digital tool technologies enabled by low-power Bluetooth connectivity, vehicle keys can now be digitized and downloaded to a mobile device, delivering automatic and secure access to the right vehicle. 

As a part of the Platform Science Virtual Vehicle add-on app ecosystem, we are proud to partner with Keystone by Irdeto, a revolutionary digital key solution that eradicates the need for physical keys, significantly reducing total operational costs and creating efficiencies for yard functions, drivers’ daily tasks, and more.

For example, digital keys can be easily distributed remotely to anyone who needs them. Drivers can download the digital key to their mobile device, then use the key as needed throughout their job, even when a network is not available. Fleet management can set unique privileges on the keys, including expiration time, geo-fence vehicle access limitations, and more, allowing for specific access, usage, and tracking. 

For maintenance and yard moves, there’s no more waiting around or tracking down keys for a specific vehicle; instead, the key can be instantly and securely sent to the correct team member. Additionally, temporary vehicle sharing is simplified since you can easily choose which driver is assigned to which vehicle and for how long simply by creating a specific digital key.

The integration of these digital keys is noninvasive and takes approximately 30 minutes. Because of the app’s local-first approach, no network connection is required to use the digital key, helping ensure your digital keys are always functional when and where they are needed. Keystone by Irdeto is vehicle brand agnostic and can be used across vehicles in a diverse fleet. Using your smartphone or laptop, you can easily manage all of your keys and driver access instantly.

‍Learn more about the Keystone by Irdeto app that integrates seamlessly into the Platform Science solution for commercial fleets, or see our full library of verified add-on apps.