As a business owner, if you have more than one company vehicle on your books, then you have a fleet. And that fleet needs managing. Of course the bigger the fleet the more management is required, but fleets tend to increase in relation to the size of the business, and hence the relative cost of running these vehicles is always significant. That is why fleet management is a specialist role and why it should be the domain of a dedicated fleet manager.
A fleet manager will oversee all the operations which involve company vehicles, and when you think about it, your vehicles and how they function have a huge influence over many areas of the business; production, sales, warehousing, public relations and customer satisfaction for example, so fleet management is about managing people and vehicles. This can involve recruitment, training and various forms of continual improvement, but before you look to develop the role of fleet management, you need to address the essential elements of it.
Source the right vehicles
You will have a comprehensive understanding of the business needs and so you should be able to find the right vehicles for the right functions. It is no good using a vehicle for attending meetings at the other end of the country and also for product deliveries two miles away. It isn’t going to be suitable for both in terms of practicality and fuel efficiency, so you need to establish whether you need a vehicle suitable for long trips or short trips. Are you carrying people or materials, or both? Of course you can build-up a mix of different types of vehicle to suit each function and each driver; executive cars, vans, trucks etc. This will ensure you are not wasting fuel and time utilising the wrong vehicles, and a good leasing company will be able to offer you a huge range of different vehicles to choose from.
Managing fuel; your biggest cost
It is unavoidable that you will have fuel costs and that they will vary, but if you manage fuel carefully you can start to budget for this and also try to reduce these costs. You can do this through:
- Avoiding wasted journeys – this is not just job planning, but also if you are delivering something, can the empty vehicle pick something up on the way back?
- Monitor driver behaviour – train your drivers to cut out wasteful driving techniques
- Where to fill-up? Plan journeys so drivers can fill-up at cheaper fuel stations
- Electric vehicles – consider changing your fleet to EVs and cheaper fuel
- IT – consider software to help you with journey planning and vehicle tracking
- Fuel cards – these are designed to make filling-up cheaper
Get your insurance right
Insurance protects the business, and is obviously essential, but it can be very costly if you get it wrong, particularly if you have a large fleet of vehicles. You can usually agree a single deal with an insurance company and pay one single premium, which covers all your vehicles. But you need to ensure you have the right level of cover for all the different vehicles you are running, so that it covers all eventualities within your operations. This can become quite complex, so it is recommended to use a professional insurance broker to help you.
Maintenance is key
Your business depends on its vehicles, otherwise you wouldn’t need them. So it is essential that your fleet is operational at all times. This doesn’t just mean available to be used, but running efficiently and reliably too. Breakdowns and repairs lead to downtime. This could lead to missed deliveries, lost orders or warehousing issues. Pretty soon your problems can back-up. Everyone knows that some vehicle breakdowns are inevitable, but you can pre-empt these with a preventive maintenance schedule. This is a programme where you ensure all your vehicles are serviced at regular intervals, so you know when they are not available and can plan accordingly. You can also ask your drivers to carry out their own self-check maintenance on tyres, batteries, oil, lights, wipers etc. The business has a duty of care to ensure the safety of vehicles and preventive maintenance should provide this, but it also safeguards against avoidable breakdowns and costly loss of time.
It will often feel like fleet management is a game of spinning plates, but if you get these fundamental elements in place, then your job should be a lot easier. That is easier said than done, but follow this essential guidance and get things like communicationright, and you can start to develop the fleet management function to become a smooth and efficient part of the business. If you want further advice on fleet management and how a dedicated fleet manager can improve your business, then contact Total Motion today.
