Pinning down the reasons for the success of one company to a single factor is not truly possible. But, we can all agree that, even if some business manages to cover all these bases and push the best possible product on the market, its prospects will suffer if that organization is not capable to deliver those products to end-users in the fastest, most streamlined and economic way possible.
That puts quite a heavy pressure on your fleet management team to deliver the results that will meet these high standards and keep your company competitive. Let us see if we can help with these couple of suggestions.
Set clear purchasing requirements
When filling in their business fleet ranks most business owners take very little time to consider how these vehicles will behave in business scenarios. Therefore, even the decent vehicles that are otherwise great daily drivers and excellent picks for, let’s say family cars, end up being slogs incapable of successfully dealing with fleet tasks. So, before you add some new car to your fleet, consider these couple of critical requirements:
- Maintenance costs
- Total cost of ownership (TCO)
- Fuel efficiency
- Availability and price of replacement parts
- Load carrying capacity
- Features specific to your company and industry
This level of standardization will make far easier a whole slew of tasks ranging from budgeting to making maintenance schedules.
Reduce mileage any way you can
To put it simply, ramping up mileage produces needless fuel costs, wears down the vehicles, and makes staying on schedule a living nightmare. In some bigger countries like Australia, failing to handle this issue in an effective manner can cause detours that can last hours upon hours. So, try to reduce mileage and plan delivery routes more carefully. You can even try getting some of the latest-gen fleet management software platforms that allow you to completely automate such processes and deliver your goods in a far more optimal manner.
Set up a thorough inspection and maintenance schedule
Once again, your goal should be to introduce the highest possible level of standardization and leave nothing to chance. So, be sure to make your inspection and maintenance plans in consultation plans with workers that are interacting with the vehicles on a daily basis. Even better, you can even bring in a third party for a professional opinion. If we once again take Australia as an example, you can find, let’s say, perform a professional car inspection in Sydney and ask an experienced mechanic to crate schedule based on the type and condition of your vehicles.
Keep track of absolutely everything
Efficient fleet management is near impossible if you don’t do a good job at keeping the track of data concerning drivers, vehicles, mechanics, expenses, etc. Granted, keeping in mind the sheer magnitude of items you need to deal with, this can be a very challenging task. But, you need to approach this duty with due diligence nevertheless. Here is a shortlist of some of the most important mentions you should always keep on your radar:
- Driver performance (accidents, scores, delivery times, etc.)
- Purchasing and leasing data
- Inspection and maintenance schedules
- Fuel usage and other daily expenses
- Utilization of the vehicles
- Driver licenses and certifications
- Driver checklists
Provide drivers with sufficient training
Experienced professionals know quite a few things about how to get the goods from point A to point B. Be that as it may, even the best drivers in the world don’t know everything and you can make your fleet far more efficient if you fill in these knowledge gaps by providing your staff with training and seminars about responsible and economic driving techniques as well as the more corporate aspect of their daily tasks. Also, be sure to establish a clear reward and penalty system that will ensure that the insights the drivers will get at these sessions will be implemented in real-life.
So, these were the top five tips that should help you to bring your corporate fleet in order and allow you to run your company with optimal speed and efficiency. When all is said and done, the success of one business depends on its ability to reach out to the customers first. Even if you nail down all other facets of your organization, you will never be able to truly take off if you create bottlenecks at this critical point. The strategies we presented above will definitely push you one step closer to the solution of this problem.