Fleet costs per driver continue to increase five per cent year over year. You can afford to run a high-performance fleet now, but how much longer will that be the case?
The good news is that, with just a few changes to your fleet management practices, you can see measurable improvements in productivity and cost-efficiency. We have tips to help you manage fleets no matter how large they are.
1. Set Purchasing Requirements
Purchasing your vehicles or parts through a distributor doesn’t have to be this complicated. You can have a purchasing department handle that work, or if you don’t have one, you can get quotes from multiple distributors and dealerships to compare costs, quality, and other factors.
Consolidating purchases to a single distributor can save you tremendous time, especially when working with more than one fleet. You alone are responsible for all fleet purchases if you’re the fleet manager, so managing this area from scratch is essential.
You could face penalties, fines, or even criminal charges if you don’t since your fleet is your company’s tangible property.
2. Use Driver Checklists
Collect a large amount of data, so think about ways to delegate or automate that data collection for your sanity. If you track every vehicle coming and going from your lot, you may track some unnecessary data. Instead, you could focus on critical transactions, such as signing out keys and signing them back in.
Keep track of those transactions and present the checklists to drivers when they sign out and return keys. You can require drivers to complete an inspection checklist before giving them the keys. That way, you can improve both your tracking and your accountability.
When drivers turn in the keys at the end of the day, they are responsible for paying attention to whether or not any damage was done and logging the mileage.
3. Optimise Fleet Usage
Large fleets are more likely than small fleets to develop inefficiencies. For example, drivers will often make unnecessary trips, or they might try to sneak personal travel into the workday.
Performing periodic audits of trip records looking for unnecessary travel will help keep inefficiencies in check. Communicating concerns about inefficiency to the team will help them avoid these issues. Make sure that no needless trips to fix or service the vehicles are happening.
For example, see what can happen when two different departments need to send someone for the same job. They should verify that the correct person is assigned to each task before signing out a key.
4. Use the Right Logistics Software
Every large fleet needs professional logistics software, even if it’s just a few drivers. Many logistics software systems are available, but you may not have the time to learn any of them if you’re a new business. Fortunately, six different vendors have simplified their systems, making them quick and easy to learn.
Once you’ve decided on logistics software, you can work on actual fleet management, like managing driver productivity and efficiency, reducing fleet expenses, and increasing business profitability.
Conclusion
It’s challenging to manage a large fleet, but at the same time, you must do it because that’s your responsibility as the fleet manager. Make sure you have a good process in place and communicate with your team.
Let your drivers know that you expect them to use the correct fuel and mixture for the right conditions. Whatever you do, do it right, or you may end up causing safety risks to your drivers or damaging your vehicles and yourself.
At SolBox, you can grow and scale your logistics business efficiently and effectively with our route optimisation, digital delivery and driver safety check solutions. Improve workflow, remove inefficiencies, and intelligently allocate resources to reduce your cost to serve with our fast and flexible technology solutions. If you’re looking for route optimisation software in Australia, we’ve got you covered! Get in touch with us today and let us know how we can help!
