Businesses have grown over the years and transformed into something big by using the newest technology of today. Different approaches such as e-commerce have started to change the classic style of promoting and growing the business. It is now easy to inquire, order, and purchase our needs online.
Good fleet management plays a big role in delivering products of this newest type of business. Fleet managers need to adopt new strategies in order to deliver efficient service. It’s not just the efficiency that needs to be looked after but also the safety of the drivers and also the fleet vehicles. Here are the top 5 rated tips we recommend to fleet managers for their fleet vehicle and driver safety and improvement.
1. Equip Fleet Monitoring Using Technology
To improve the service of your fleet, you must ensure that you are updated with your fleet’s performance on the road. This will help improve the efficiency you’d want to impose on your business and your drivers. Monitoring them would give you insights into what is happening while they are on travel. This way, you would know if the deliveries reach their destination on time or if they came safe as well as the drivers.
Adapting the newest technology makes a big difference when it comes to monitoring all the details of the fleet’s operation for the day. Installing GPS and telematics works by giving you details that will report the day’s routine. It reduces operating costs by giving you access to let your drivers know about some changes. It may be some requests from customers or changes in the schedule and direction of deliveries.
It lowers workload as it reduces the delays and effort to convey the information or updates to your drivers. By simply connecting them to your gadgets, you would have a glimpse of what’s going on with your fleets. It also lessens the high maintenance of your fleet as you can see the operation in real-time. You would then be alerted to fix the problem right away. Using fleet management software puts everything in order as all the data comes in a central location.
2. Boost Your Drivers’ Productivity
Drivers’ productivity and safety are part of good fleet management. After all, the success of your business depends on your employees that perform efficiently. They are the ones that confirm the safe delivery of the products to your customers. How would you then improve their productivity?
Set the rules to be followed and explain what you expect from them during work. Open communication is a must as it will genuinely engage them to the goals of the company to succeed. Keep your drivers monitored to ensure the safety of your fleet as well as the delivery by using a platform. This platform would be your means of communication as it will give you real-time information and track vehicle maintenance and inspections and also the status of the tasks given.
After giving your rules to the drivers, it’s time to give them something that will reward their good performance. This is another means of recognizing their efforts to serve the company and your customers by being efficient. It will inspire and motivate them to work harder if it would be reciprocated by the company through recognition and rewards. Happy employees reflect the good management of the company.
3. Sustain Preventive Maintenance For Safety
Fleets are always on the go especially if there’s a big demand in your business. It would most likely experience the inability to go a long way if it has been used for so long. In order to maintain the good standing of your fleet, you must follow the schedules of preventive maintenance. You wouldn’t want to experience downtime as it would put your business at stake, right?
It’s very important to plan out scheduling your fleets to go through preventive maintenance. This way, you can see future problems with your assets and have them repaired instantly. It would result in lesser downtime and avoid expensive repairs. Having scheduled preventive maintenance keeps your fleet safe to use because it undergoes proper checkups.
It would be much easier to remember the preventive maintenance schedule by using fleet management software. This would remind you of the scheduled checkup of your vehicles. Using the old style of recording through papers is long gone. The software would help you in adjusting the time frame for each scheduled vehicle that will work best for your business. It will avoid delays in the delivery process if you’d choose the time before or after the shift that won’t conflict with booked deliveries.
4. Manage Costs of Operations
Every mile your fleet takes while driving consumes fuel that increases as the mileage goes up. Fuel consumption is hard to track as it depends on the time spent per transaction and the idle times on the road. It is hard to manage as its price increases every year.
There’s software that can track your fuel consumption by connecting fuel cards. The metrics seen through the software would give you the information you need to know. It includes the location of the fleet, fuel grade consumption, and the cost per mile with the units indicated (gallon/liter). Fuel data helps in improving fleet strategies in lowering expenses.
Reducing expenses could be easier if you track the overall costs of your fleet. It drives a long way as it is the most utilized part of the business. Using spreadsheets to calculate data is not any more accurate and might lead to wrong computations. Every purchase you made should be decided accordingly as it might affect the company’s budget. Any expense spent would be tracked by using management software. This would help you allot money on important future expenses.
5. Always Comply With Changing Rules and Regulations
There are specific rules or state laws that every fleet must follow. These policies include monitoring of drivers, compliance to emissions, license and fuel consumption, and other laws that state proper use of fleet vehicles. Participating actively in fleet management organizations will keep you up to date about these changes.
Laws and other regulations change often. Managing the fleet system requires being updated to all these changes as this will be your guide in adopting new strategies to improve. There is also software like EOBR (Electronic On-Board Recorders) that can monitor hours of driving. It can also report the overspeeding and hard braking of your drivers.
You never know what happens behind the wheel when the vehicle stops. This software automatically informs you of their behavior and performance while driving. EOBR will lessen the risk of accidents on the road as you can act on the problem right away upon checking reports from this software. Thus, it helps you to improve ways of complying with state laws.
Being the manager requires you to be a good leader. It’s not just for the advantage of the company but also for the welfare of the drivers. As the fleet travels a long way, it is in your best interest to adopt new ways that will improve your business. It would result in a better relationship with your employees, effective cost reduction, and the overall performance of your fleet vehicles. Following these tips ensures an efficient fleet management system.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or need help, please do contact us. We’re here for you.