Fleet owners rarely have only one thing on their minds. They’re toggling between how to conserve fuel, make sure drivers are behaving, keep up with maintenance schedules, and make sure clients are happy. That’s a lot of balls to balance; and it only takes one issue to snowball into a larger problem if it is not handled correctly. Fleet owners are realizing the biggest problems facing their transport and service businesses often require a more holistic view of the systems, tools, and partnerships they’re using (some of which are likely from companies such as Radius, which provides support for connected operations across different business areas).
If you’re in charge of delivery trucks, service vehicles, or semis, your business will soon tell you that efficiency — in this day and age — is important for a number of reasons. Time is money, and there are implications for the bottom line when you’re running inefficient operations. Not to mention, efficiency touches customer service impressions and your business’s ability to scale.
The good news is that many businesses are starting to see that, to scale effectively, you need to take a closer look at areas such as waste minimization, route optimization, and gaining more insight into what’s really happening throughout your fleet.
Instead of using misguided operating practices, humans, and spreadsheets to figure out what’s going on, fleet managers can pinpoint issues such as drivers who are idling too often, know when their vehicles are due for more frequent actions (like oil changes), and notice if there are any trip routes that might be consistently leading to a snarl. At the same time, drivers can cut down on bad behaviors and get on the same page with their bosses about everything that’s going on. Through it all, there are added upticks in efficiency too: less downtime and accountability that spans across the business.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also offers information about safety management and how businesses are most successful in monitoring their fleets at all times.
At this point, businesses are also realizing that they want fewer independent vendors and more integrated connections. Life’s simpler when a single person takes care of everything (think fuel management, vehicle tracking, etc.), and this mix tends to lend itself to higher vehicle uptime in many cases.
That doesn’t mean you need to transform your entire business overnight. More often than not, a slow and measured approach reaps the best rewards. Just start taking a closer look at what you’re paying for, where run-of-the-mill irritations have been popping up, and which tools can best alleviate the things likely to stand in your way. Instead of taking a sledgehammer to the walls, you can usually make huge impacts simply by buying tools that clean up the messes gunking everything up.
Without a doubt, one of the best ways businesses and fleet executives can navigate the complexity of running a vehicle fleet comes back around to mastering foundational concepts: supporting drivers, implementing a robust maintenance program, getting fuel under control, and making better use of information. They can also benefit from using some of the materials available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to reinforce safe fleet planning and the importance of staying informed on the part of drivers.
