The practice of fleet management isn’t just tracking vehicles and ensuring their tanks stay full
When you think of fleet management, you probably picture businesses with massive amounts of vehicles or companies that focus strictly on deliveries. When it comes down to it, any company — including manufacturers — that owns cars can benefit from fleet management. Here’s how it can make a difference in your company and even boost employee morale.
You May Have a Fleet, Whether You Realize It or Not
You might not have a great number of individual vehicles out making deliveries across the country, but whether you realize it or not, you may already have a fleet. A few company cars, half a dozen forklifts and other heavy equipment that you use in manufacturing are all part of your fleet and should be treated accordingly. Don’t assume that you don’t need fleet management just because you don’t have a collection of delivery trucks filling up your parking lot.
Take a look at your assets and see what you have on hand and what you plan to obtain in the near future. Your vehicles may be desperately in need of more pointed management.
Fleet Management Protects Your Investment
The practice of fleet management isn’t just tracking vehicles and ensuring their tanks stay full. It also includes things like preventive maintenance, which helps to protect your investment. Investing in a fleet maintenance program makes it easier to develop a plan so you can keep your equipment running smoothly, catching small problems before they become big ones and force you into costly downtime. Monitoring something as simple as fuel consumption can let you know when there’s an issue with one of your vehicles.
Fleet Management Helps Reduce Costs
You may think of setting up fleet management as an investment, but it actually reduces overall costs in the long run. Monitoring fuel usage helps prevent waste and keeps you from spending too much money at the gas pump. Monitoring your drivers and operators also tends to make them drive more safely on the road, which can reduce insurance premiums over time. This is especially effective when it comes to watching speed and braking. Doing so can help discourage the sort of aggressive driving that can lead to accidents.
Collecting information about various routes also allows you to optimize deliveries, reducing the amount of fuel and time wasted behind the wheel. This is essential in crowded cities and other spaces where getting caught in a traffic jam or stuck behind an accident is a daily occurrence.
Fleet Management Protects Your Employees
Fleet management isn’t just about saving money and protecting your investments. It’s also an essential tool to help protect your employees. When it comes down to it, your workers are your most valuable asset. Monitoring your drivers and operators might feel invasive, but discouraging them from driving aggressively and punishing unsafe behavior like using a phone behind the wheel can help ensure safety.
While you can’t do anything about other drivers’ behaviors on the road, you can control your fleet to a certain degree. Use these tools to keep your team safe while they’re out on the job. They’ll likely appreciate you caring for their well-being and looking out for their safety.
Managing Your Fleet
Fleet management is about more than just monitoring fuel usage and changing the oil filters on time. It’s also a valuable tool for protecting your vehicles and the drivers or operators behind the wheel. Take the time to implement a fleet management program, even if you think you don’t need one. It can make a world of difference to your company, your employees and other drivers on the road.