Your fleet is not just a collection of vehicles but a valuable asset to your business. Whether you’re running a car fleet for business managers to get to clients or meetings or you’re running a local delivery service, taxi company, or haulage business, your fleet is an integral part of the business. It’s a source of pride and responsibility, and you need to keep it that way.
But what if your fleet management costs are spiraling out of control? Is it still viable to retain your fleet as it currently is, or do you need to consider making cutbacks or downsizing?
Before you make a huge decision like this, why not try these cost-cutting tips and suggestions to help you identify the reason behind higher-than-expected costs and get things back under control so you’re not throwing away your hard-earned revenue?
Implementing these strategies could lead to improved efficiency and significant cost savings, giving you hope for the future.
Track Expenses
It can be a valuable experience to take some time to really analyze your costs and projected spending and budgets against your actual day-to-day running costs. What should you or do you expect to pay, and what are you paying? This simple process can help you understand what might be the cause of the issue and enable you to take the right measures to bring expenses back under control, putting you in the driver’s seat of your fleet’s financial health.
Prioritise Maintenance
Do you have a maintenance schedule in place for your fleet, or do you wing it and send each vehicle out without proper checks and upkeep? If the latter, then you need to have the former carried out effectively for reduced costs and less unexpected downtime.
The benefits of preventative, scheduled maintenance are that you know each vehicle’s condition, can preempt any major repairs or problems, and can rearrange schedules to accommodate this. If a vehicle breaks down on the road, not only will you need to pay for repairs, but you could also incur fines, depending on how or where you break down, recovery fees, and emergency call-outs for experienced mechanics to assist you in getting back up and running. That’s not to mention the risk of accidents and harm to your drivers, your cargo, and other road users alongside missing delivery windows and disappointing clients. A preventative maintenance schedule allows you to identify issues and fix them before a vehicle is declared fit for use, rearrange schedules to account for anything off the road for any period of time, and keep costs lower by not requiring emergency repairs.
Use Data
Unlocking the data you hold concerning your fleet can be invaluable. We mentioned tracking in the above point and this one goes hand in hand with that point. By tracking your data along with habits and operations you can discover trends or patterns that can help you overhaul and hope you operate to become more efficient and cost effective. Data can help you identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing routes, reducing fuel consumption, and improving driver behavior, leading to significant cost savings and improved efficiency.
The type of data you should be looking for and using includes that on
- Driver behaviour
- Customer patterns
- Popular routes
- Repairs and maintenance
- Local traffic condition
- Roadworks
- Unexpected and planned downtime
- Shifts and staffing
The more you know about how you operate and what your typical fleet behavior looks like, the better you can organize things to work to your advantage and cut waste from the budget.
Effective fleet analytics can be invaluable in helping you streamline and become more cost-efficient, saving you money in the long run.
Driver Training
What type of training program do you have for your drivers? Are you simply onboarding them and sending them out onto the road? Are you investing in updating their skills and knowledge to ensure they are working the best they can be and know your company values, ethics, and rules regarding being on the road?
Your drivers can be one of the biggest reasons your fleet costs are higher than expected. Effective training monitoring and rule enforcement are vital to helping you bring things back under control.
Typical ways drivers can cost you more money include
- Idling
- Using the wrong routes
- Aggressive driving tactics
- Not planning rest or refueling stops
- Mishandling goods
- Causing accidents
- Falsifying time sheets
- Incorrect gear shifting
- Speeding
- Harsh braking
Implementing an effective training program means you can reduce or eliminate any poor driver habits to cut on-the-road costs and costs associated with things like increased wear and tear on vehicles, emergency repairs due to accidents, speeding tickets, parking fines, and more.
Route Optimization
Route optimization software lets you plan your routes before departure, enabling real-time on-the-road analytics for faster and more enjoyable delivery times and experiences.
With route optimization software, you not only identify the issues your fleet might face but also gain control over them. You can adjust your schedule to more appropriate timings, ensuring your drivers are not delayed on the road. The software allows you to instantly see factors such as accidents, extreme weather, road closures, and more, so you can pre-plan the most optimal route, providing a sense of security and preparedness.
This means you can factor in things like the nearest appropriate stops for long distances for drivers to rest and have breaks, you can track the nearest fuel station so drivers aren’t going out of their way to fuel vehicles, and you can avoid congestion and other road issues instead of coming up pn theme unexpectedly.
There are many ways you can easily reduce your fleet management costs. These are just 5 tips that can help you get started and yield the best results for you and your drivers. From route optimization to training, preventative maintenance, and more, these tips can assist you in a more cost-effective fleet operation that runs on time and on budget and is once again a department you can be proud of.