Do you need to save money while managing your fleets, but don’t know how to do this?
Don’t worry this blog caters to your confusion! Here you will read about some tips to help fleets save money.
As you know, maintaining smooth operations for your vehicles on the roads requires adept management skills to safeguard your commercial enterprise. Handling a fleet of trucks can pose significant challenges, as effective fleet management can be financially burdensome for businesses.
Fleet cost monitoring can be difficult as the purchasing cost of the fleet is fixed but the maintenance cost is not. Fleet operating costs can even make or break a business if the vehicle’s maintenance is overlooked.
That’s why you should know about some basic tips to save some bucks while operating fleets. Let’s have a look further to know!
How can you help fleets save money: best tips!
Keep monitoring the KPIs
The performance metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of fleet management planning are KPIs (key performance indicators). It will help you to take good decisions for your fleet so that you can improve further. Some of the most common fleet performance metrics are:
- Driver performance
- Operational efficiency
- Maintenance, etc.
These three are considered basic parameters to manage fleet performance for your commercial business. After measuring these, you can easily know which areas need improvement. You can easily cut down repair expenses if the repair doesn’t need to be done.
Tracking every aspect of fleet management can be challenging without using any comprehensive tool. Many companies are using software solutions to monitor KPIs and to get a complete picture of fleet performance. With such software, you can easily monitor and discuss real-time metrics with the team. You might get to spend some upfront money on such software, but you will save some bucks in the future.
Try to lower the fuel cost
Fuel is a significant aspect of fleet management as you know fuel prices are skyrocketing. It takes up a notable amount of the budget of any transportation business. But luckily some important and easy-to-follow tips can help you to lower the fuel operating cost of the fleet. Some of the considerations are:
- You should encourage smart driving habits. Some of them are smooth braking, accelerating less frequently, reducing idling, following the speed limit, etc.
- You should always use the right oil. If you want to optimize fuel efficiency and need to protect the vehicle from extra wear, always use the manufacturer-suggested oil.
- You can ask the driver to reduce drag.
- Regular upkeep of the vehicles in your fleet is important as it helps your fleet to perform at its peak.
- Ask your driver to plan the route to avoid covering unnecessary miles.
- You can also use a fuel card as it is one of the easiest ways to save money on fuel.
- Save time by ordering bulk diesel fuel delivery and limit the amount of orders you need to make.
Choose the right drivers to operate the fleets
As you know the driver is the main operator of any commercial vehicle, especially trucks being heavy vehicles. So it’s important to choose them wisely to get the right insurance rates to help fleets save money.
In the insurance field, low risks are equal to lower premiums. You can check for the given points before hiring a suitable driver for your trucks:
- He should follow all the traffic rules.
- He should have good driving habits like avoiding overspeeding.
- He should take care of things like fatigue, restlessness, etc.
These are some of the basic reasons behind accidents, especially truck accidents. So if you choose the driver with these points in mind, you can avoid accidents that have a direct impact on commercial truck insurance rates.
You should find a driver that can deliver maximum output while keeping all the safety measures in mind. Simply, you have to take a speed test of the driver before appointing him. You should also verify his background details and past driving records. Always go for a driver with a clean driving record. This is one of the important factors that may have a good impact on the premium. It’s always suggestible to hire a driver who can handle all the conditions like bad weather, any road rage, etc. So, without a doubt, hiring a good and reliable driver can save you money on insurance premiums.
Knowledge about your fleet insurance coverage
If you don’t know the best insurance deal for your fleet, chances are you will pay a hefty amount to buy insurance. To fetch the best deal, you should compare the different insurance plans online as per add-ons and premiums. You should select a policy with a minimum insurance premium with maximum coverage.
Also, you should go for higher voluntary deductibles. This will help you to decrease your insurance premium. You should not get claims for little damages as it may affect your non-claim bonus (NCB).
Go for Telematics
The initial expenditure for telematics might be disheartening for you, but it will surely be a lifesaver in the long term for your transportation company. The combination of telematics with GPS with real-time diagnostics gives a good performance overview of all the vehicles in a fleet.
You can easily monitor and record where a vehicle is present, and at what speed it is going.
Monitoring fleets with such an advanced system can help to reduce operational costs as well. But how?
Here are some answers to it:
- You can identify the best routes while mentoring the vehicles.
- You can be aware of where to refuel the vehicle in advance.
- You can monitor the driver’s behaviour and point out any poor driving habits. By improving driving standards, one can improve vehicle performance too.
- The constant good behaviour of drivers can help you reduce the insurance cost too.
Optimize the fleet size
Cutting down on the size of your fleet can save you thousands of dollars as you have fewer vehicles to manage now. If you have large numbers of vehicles in your fleet, but don’t require all, you can manage the fleet size.
Try to get a thorough assessment of when you last needed all vehicles in your fleet. With this, you can find out the vehicles to cut down from the fleet. This way you can remove all the costs associated with those commercial vehicles. You can also optimize the vehicles you have left, such as bulk buying Bumgarner Propane for delivery.
However, you should monitor the operational cost of the remaining vehicles due to the increased workload. After this, still, the overall cost of operating and maintaining the fleet is less than the fleet with a large number of vehicles. And remember to eliminate the vehicles with poor performance and less utilization.
Consider retreading tires
Tires, especially for fleet vehicles amount to a significant portion of the fleet maintenance budget. Try not to purchase new ones when old tires wear out. Instead of spending to buy new ones, you can retread the radical-ply casings.
When you opt for retreading, you can enhance the mileage approximately by 1,20,000 miles. And the important thing to know is, the cost of retreading tire is one-third of the cost of purchasing a new one. Considering retreading tires is one of the best tips to help fleets save money without compromising safety.
Upgrade existing vehicles of the fleet
You can upgrade the existing vehicles instead of spending on the new ones. You can customize the bodies of vehicles, especially trucks to transform them into highly productive conveyances for the workers.
You should timely update your fleet of trucks to smoothly run your transportation business. Even if upgrading an existing vehicle isn’t feasible, it can still save you money in the long run to purchase a new or used vehicle from a reputable dealer. All vehicles have a fixed period to give an efficient performance. And when this comes to an end, you should start upgrading the vehicles to avoid extra repair charges. Also, your workers can perform better with better vehicles.
Summing Up
That’s all for this blog!
Managing a fleet can be expensive if you don’t follow these given tips and tricks. Always keep in mind, safety is the key to avoiding accidents and having a clean performance record This way you can easily help fleets to save money.
Apart from the given tips, there are some other considerations too. Let’s have a look at them:
- You can try to reduce the load. Carrying an excessive load can lower the efficiency of the vehicle.
- You should invest in driver’s training being a great way to lower the fleet operating costs.
- You should try to keep the emissions low. It will not only save the environment but also save the burden from your pocket.
- You should maintain the windscreens of the vehicles as these are a vital part of any vehicle.
- You should replace fleet vehicles at the right time to save unnecessary repair costs.
If you own a fleet having any type of vehicle, managing and operating it at the right cost can make or break your business. So, it’s totally upto you, which direction you want to take!
Still, if you have queries in mind, feel free to contact us. We will assist you happily!