Free Trial The beginning of a New Year is a great time to make changes for the better! Evaluating your current fleet operation practices to determine what changes need to be made to improve the health of your fleet is a good start.
A healthy fleet will result in:
- lower costs in operation
- a safer fleet with less emergency repairs
- better customer service with minimal fleet downtime
The bottom line with ensuring a healthy fleet is lower costs and increased revenue. So why not make the changes necessary to boost your fleet's health?
The first steps to take in improving the health of your fleet is too establish a system where:
- Tire Pressure
- Oil Changes
- Engine Tune-ups
- Vehicle Inspections
- Preventive Maintenance
The Tire Pressure and Vehicle Inspections should be performed at least once a day prior to beginning the scheduled trips. Inspections at the end of the day by the drivers or technicians would not hurt either. By monitoring the tire pressure and inspecting the vehicles, you are ensuring they are safe to operate, decreasing the possibility of emergency repairs, downtime, interrupted service to customers and liability claims.
Engine Tune-Ups, Oil Changes and Preventive Maintenance should be scheduled on a routine basis suggested by the Manufacturer. Implementing a software system, such as Truck Tracker, where schedules are built for routine maintenance, automatic notifications of maintenance due is reported and a history of maintenance performed are all valuable tools in managing and staying on top of the maintenance schedule. Performing routine maintenance keeps your fleet up and running efficiently. Any potential problems can be caught beforehand decreasing the downtime and emergency road repairs. These actions result in a smoother running fleet, less outside repair costs at a higher rate and limited disruption in servicing your customers.
Recording routine services performed, emergency repairs, labor costs and parts usage provides enough data to pull Analytical Reports related to:
- Cost Per Mile of each Vehicle
- Total Cost of Fleet
- Repetitive Service Problems
- Excessive Replacements of Specific Parts
All of this information can be pulled to determine:
- Which makes and models are more costly to operate?
- What are common repetitive repairs for certain vehicle makes and/or models?
- What parts have lower live expectancy?
- Which vehicles have a higher cost per mile?
- Which vehicles need to be replaced?
- How much is being spent in outside repairs and emergency repairs?
There are more useful information that can be gathered to help you make decisions and take action to improve the health of your fleet lowering costs, improving customer service and fleet safety.
All of the above suggestions are easy changes that can be made in order to have a healthier fleet in the New Year!