Managing a fleet can be a constant battle between watching the bottom line, ensuring your drivers are safe and continuously delivering without vehicle downtime. So what if there were ways to make this easier?
We’ve spoken to fleet managers in the local area to compile this top list of ways to keep your fleet moving. Just some minor changes can make a BIG difference and cause your business to run more efficiently. By following these steps, you can increase the productivity of your engineers and reduce monthly costs based on real-world examples.
Optimise Travel Distance
It sounds really simple and so it should be. The shorter the distance travelled by your employees, the less expensive it is. So why is it so many overlook route planning? By being on top of your fleet and ensuring steps are taken to carry out their drive efficiently, you can reduce the amount of miles travelled and therefore decrease the expenditure.
The importance of tyre pressure can’t be over-stated here for fuel economy! A tyre can suffer more wear and tear if it is under or over inflated, causing more fuel to maintain the same speed, therefore increasing the monthly costs. Educating your fleet to monitor their tyre pressure can help to reduce costs of fuel economy and the amount it costs to repair tyre damages; our 2-in-1 PCL Digital Tyre Pressure Gauge is the perfect tool to help maintain correctly inflated tyres.
Respect within your Fleet
The health of your vehicles can have a massive impact on your fleets efficiency. Maintenance costs can stack up quickly if your fleet are continuing to do unnecessary miles and the vehicles are not treated with care; aggressive driving including sharp manoeuvres, can have a detrimental effect on the wear and tear of the vehicle.
If you find your work vehicles are being abused, either through mileage or excessive wear and tear on the tyres, then you may need to undergo some in housing work to get your vehicles roadworthy again. Check out our commercial tyre changing equipment that can help ensure your fleet’s tyres are in perfect working condition.
Unauthorised Travelling
Although it may not seem like a massive issue at first, popping to the shops in a work vehicle or maybe travelling back home to grab some food before going back out on the road, can soon add up. Every mile counts when you’re managing the petrol expense accounts!
Fines & Speeding Tickets
Do you have many drivers that drive above the speed limit? Software along with trackers can now help you identify those employees that continue to flaunt the laws. Educating your staff to drive safely and be more responsible can cut penalty costs, and create a safer environment for your employees and customers. “I haven’t been caught yet” isn’t an excuse!
Accidents
Another major reason for educating your employees in safety comes from cutting down the amount of accidents that occur. Not only does this keep your fleet on the road and customers happy, but it means your brand reputation remains high and the business is not at risk. Of course some accidents are unavoidable and your fleet should not be scared to report an incident if they are involved in one.
One of the main causes for minor accidents come from undiagnosed worn tyres. Our revolutionary TreadReader can display colour coded readings of the condition of your tyres, helping to track when they need replacing. This beneficial forecast can support you with running the monthly budgets, taking into account when you will need to replace your commercial HGV tyres.
Insurance
By adhering to all the above changes, the amount of dangers and incurred costs are decreased dramatically. This also goes for your fleet insurance, however you shouldn’t settle for your yearly quote! By talking to your insurance supplier and explaining the steps you are taking to manage your fleet more effectively you can work to bring this down. Offering performance reports to drive the discussion, bringing in new tech and monitoring or putting your drivers on regular training courses could all help in lowering your renewal even further.
These simple steps can make the managing of your fleet more efficient. Although consider the steps you can take before your employees are out on the road:
- Making sure your vehicle is up to standard and ready for continuous travelling. What processes do you have in place?
- Your engineers have the equipment they need to complete the job when mobile.
- Your engineers are trained and educated for safety before they leave for a job.
