Fleet maintenance management has a direct impact on your company's bottom line, as it can lead to increased driver efficiency, well-maintained vehicles, improved security, increased productivity, better budget planning, and more, all of which affect earnings.
However, before you can make use of these advantages, you and your fleet manager will have to overcome some traditional fleet obstacles.
Fuel waste
Fuel is one of the most expensive expenses for a small business. It's crucial to evaluate the money that could be lost due to mismanagement of fuel. Poor driver behavior, such as speeding, aggressive braking or idling, unapproved stops, or even driving business cars home for personal use, can all result in higher fleet fuel expenses. There's no way to account for this cost and hold those responsible accountable without a robust fleet management system in place.
The cost of vehicle maintenance
Effective fleet management requires asset reliability to be maintained. Repairing a fleet car not only costs money but can also have a negative impact on your company's income. Vehicle maintenance and the resulting downtime have an influence on delivery schedules, and fleet productivity, and can result in strained client relationships, lost business, and, at worst, a tarnished reputation.
Route optimization
This is a significant task for small enterprises to solve, particularly those that use manual routing. While some drivers' routes will remain the same for a long time, in today's business climate, stops and delivery sizes are more likely to vary, necessitating rerouting and re-optimization.
Management of accidents and fleet safety
According to Stanford Law School research, driver error is responsible for almost 90% of all motor vehicle crashes. Driver safety is an issue that firms may face while managing a fleet, whether it's due to irresponsible driving practices, distracted driving, or honest human error—especially if they don't have monitoring tools or driver training in place as part of their fleet operations program.
Overburdening administrative tasks
Although many small firms still use Excel to manage their fleets, make sure that manual administration does not take over your job. When you spend the majority of your day trudging through paperwork, planning routes, manually inputting fuel prices, and the like, it's time to look into techniques to improve your fleet management skills.
In essence, a fleet maintenance management software is in charge of adhering to corporate standards, logging and record-keeping, managing fleet staff, scheduling, routing, fleet vehicle maintenance, and improving the overall effectiveness of your fleet.