6 Fleet Management Tips to Save Time & Money!

When your business depends on vehicles, you will find that your costs seem to be rising all of the time. They need to be on the road at all times and performing to their best but achieving this is not always easy. The need to save money and time wherever possible has never been more important, especially with the recent hike in fuel prices meaning that most fleet managers are now feeling the pinch.

However, there are still a number of things that you can do to continue to cut costs and avoid any sudden and unexpected bills. That is why we have put together some of the very best tips and tricks to help your fleet save both time and money.

To explain further, Andrea Easton, Head of Finance and Operations at Walker Movements shares her six fleet management tips to help you save time and money.

1. Keep your vehicles maintained

They say that prevention is better than cure, and this is certainly true when it comes to your fleet. If your business is centred around your vehicles, then you need to make sure that they are shown as much love as possible. They need to be carefully maintained on a regular basis to ensure that they are safe and that they stay on the road. Keep a list of inspections and a vehicle maintenance schedule so that you know what needs to be done and when. This also means that anyone else can pick this up and continue with the maintenance schedule at any time.

Simply checking your vehicles is not enough, they also need a written record of everything that has been done to them so that there is a clear and visible timeline should you need it. You will then be able to keep on top of what has been completed and what hasn’t so that you can make sure that repairs are done and your vehicles are always safe. By keeping a regular check on things, you can help to avoid those more costly breakdowns and repairs by nipping anything in the bud as soon as it starts to appear.

2. Keep an eye on your metrics

In order to save money, you need to make sure that your vehicles are always performing at their best, so keep an eye on the metrics that they are producing. You should be on top of the operating costs of each vehicle, the cost per mile and the time spent on journeys. Any change in these can be the first indicators of a problem and will allow you to spot trends or patterns where things can be improved.

Tachographs can record the time a driver has been working, and you must ensure that drivers stick to the legal working hours and rest times. The tachograph can also capture a great amount of data that you can analyse to see where savings can be made.

3. Look at your policies

In any business, it is vital that you have some clear policies in place so that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them. It can help you to run the business more efficiently and prevents any confusion. This can apply to the way in which you purchase a vehicle, buying fuel, cost tracking and vehicle maintenances. It can also apply to your drivers by looking at how they should perform and behave and considering their own satisfaction. These policies will then help you to better plan for what your costs are likely to be and ensures that everyone in the business knows what is happening and what they need to be doing.

4. Fuel efficiency

One of the best ways to save money in a fleet is to be fuel efficient, but this can be difficult to achieve in real world situations on the road. However, you can make sure that the new vehicles that you buy are as fuel efficient as possible. There are now many different eco-friendly options on the market that can help to conserve your fuel consumption, including electric and hybrid vehicles, so it can pay for you to shop around and invest in these in order to be able to enjoy longer term savings.

You should also be ensuring that your drivers are educated in the most fuel efficient ways to drive. They need to ensure that they avoid harsh accelerations and hard stops both for the purposes of safety and to reduce the amount that you are spending on fuel.

5. Reduce mileage

It might sound obvious, but less miles will cost you less money. Try and make sure that every driver is planning their route with care. Each one needs to be as direct as possible and should avoid a heavy build up of traffic where the engine may be left idling for long periods as this alone can cost a business around £720 per vehicle, per year. Make sure that your drivers are using sat navs and journey planners to decide on a route before they leave, and work with them to help them determine what will be most practical.

6. Be fuel aware

Planning your journeys is one thing, but your drivers also need to be conscious of what else can waste fuel. Vehicle heaters or air conditioning can be overused, especially when it comes to demisting a screen or clearing ice and frost. It can be too easy to leave these running while the driver watches, and the fuel simply burns away. Encouraging a manual approach to this can save a lot of money. Drivers should also be aware of when to turn a vehicle off instead of leaving it running, as this will reduce both fuel use and pollution.

Keeping a fleet of any type of vehicle on the road is not easy in the current climate, and so planning and monitoring everything is more important than ever. By making sure that your business continues to develop its policies and educate your drivers, you can ensure that you keep costs as low as possible whilst not compromising on what you offer. These tips can help you to become more efficient and avoid the difficult times getting out of control.