Is Your Fleet Facing These Common Challenges?

Although it can sometimes seem like a slew of challenges present themselves in the day-to-day of managing your fleet, it may be that the simplest of solutions can be enough to remedy them all, even if problems are arising throughout your business.

Cost and Profitability

Regardless of the other challenges you may face, there are two main challenges that every fleet manager longs to overcome: Keeping within budget whilst effectively managing their fleet.

A fleet’s costs can escalate before you are even aware of them. Often, this is due to lack of management foresight and lack of contingency planning. A common issue is service and maintenance contracts. Suppliers can undergo many changes during the term of a contract, and often with a change to terms and conditions. Alterations to repair and maintenance packages are often the reason for the differences between the cost of fleet management at the beginning and at the end of a contract’s term. A fleet manger needs to establish a cost contingency for each contract, submitting a budget that accounts for possible contract variance.

Data Management

Management of certain information, like the condition of the tyres on fleet vehicles, can significantly affect efficiency and cost, unless placed in the hands of a software system. Information about each vehicle in terms of maintenance schedule and repair history, managed by a software system electronically, can enable fleet managers to generate instant reports providing insight into the health of the entire fleet and, more importantly, upcoming costs for new parts or additional service costs.

Fleet managers with existing route planning software in place can opt to add maintenance and repair modules to their system, as opposed to a high outlay for new software company-wide.

Navigating the Law

The costs of distracted driving are thousand fold. Just one second of diverted attention can result in years of legal wrangling and skyrocketing costs for a company.

The safety of drivers whilst on the road can be assured simply by having some kind of policy in place from the start. All that’s required is to include one or more lines in the company policy for drivers. All that needs to be stated is that the driver agrees not to use their mobile whilst behind the wheel, and then to have them sign the document. This is far less costly than waiting until an accident happens to introduce these measures into the policy.

Management Practice

As a fleet manager, your job already has many facets. Where handling the above becomes too much, it can help to designate another individual in the company to implement and monitor these policies and follow up with them on a regular basis before reporting to you. If there is much data to handle, as is often the case with large fleets, the appointment of an individual with the title of dedicated fleet supervisor is another option which can ensure that the focus remains on the policies mentioned above.