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All companies’ fleets are a little different but there are some universal best practices for managing fleets of any size and in any industry. Being an IT nerd means that I love looking at and collecting data and one of the biggest mistakes I see fleets of all sizes making is not collecting relevant data on their vehicles. Many questions about your fleet can only be answered by looking at trends in data. Some good examples are what brand or model of vehicle has the best uptime or performance for a particular task, what drivers may need additional training or guidance, and even when is the ideal time for you to replace vehicles in your organization.
Let’s start with what data we recommend you track for all of the vehicles in your fleet regularly.
These pieces of information will allow you to see trends and plan and budget for the future. The best way to start collecting data is to make a spreadsheet for each type of vehicle in your fleet. You will not only want to compare each vehicle to itself month after month but you will also want to compare each vehicle to other vehicles like it in your fleet. I will provide you with a spreadsheet template that you can use with some simple calculations and graphs to visualize this data and make it easy to process. I recommend using one sheet per vehicle type or job types, like for example if you have 10 vehicles used for local deliveries, putting all of these vehicles on the same sheet will allow you to compare the performance of different makes and models for that task as well as drivers.
As a fleet manager, there are a couple of things you really need to pay attention to. The first thing is safety. That is why I recommend that you measure the tire tread every month. I have noticed that a lot of drivers do not properly inspect their vehicle tires and other safety equipment. This can lead to the worst thing that a fleet manager will have to deal with, a wreck or accident that ends up injuring or even killing someone. I believe you should make a company policy about tread depth minimums and maintenance schedules.
The next most important thing to most fleet managers is cost savings and analysis. If you track the metrics stated it will be much easier to get in front of issues like excessive costs per mile and lack of maintenance or unnecessarily high maintenance cost (usually this is a service advisor at a shop upselling your employees with unneeded services). Vehicles today are mostly well built and keeping fluids fresh and tires rotated greatly increases the life, productivity, and safety of your fleet.
The last point I want to make is about the resale of your fleet vehicles. I have found many companies hold on to vehicles much too long. In my experience, there is a sweet spot of getting rid of vehicles and maximizing the value of your assets. There are a couple of times in a vehicle’s life span that a large chunk of value is lost. If you understand these better you can avoid taking a big hit when selling these vehicles. Most vehicles come with 2 warranties, a bumper to bumper warranty that covers just about everything with the vehicle and a powertrain warranty that covers the engine transmission and drive axles. When you exceed the terms of these warranties most vehicles take a large hit to their values. The other time in a vehicle’s life when it loses a large chunk of value is at the 100,000-mile mark. Most vehicles can last long after 100,000 miles but the market of potential buyers dwindles greatly after this milestone.
Of course every vehicle and business is different and these are just some goods baseline rules to help you with your specific fleet management plan. If you have questions or need help with your fleet, please reach out to us. We are always ready to help.
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