On average, a US vehicle fleet lasts 12.3 years. Couple that with significant market shifts that include supply chain disruptions, high fuel costs, and increased insurance premiums, and it is clear to see that there are some complex fleet management challenges.
Keep reading to find out more about the three most common fleet maintenance challenges and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Operation Costs
Operating costs will always be the biggest challenge you face in fleet management. The cost of running a fleet of vehicles easily outweighs the initial cost of purchasing the vehicles. That is why cost management should be the most important factor when it comes to managing and maintaining your fleet.
Your vehicle fleet requires continuous cost management. If your operational costs are too high, you’ll end up charging more than businesses will be willing to spend.
You should focus on improving:
- driver behavior
- overall operation expenses
- CO2 emissions
In conjunction with these improvements, fleet managers need to monitor and curb unnecessary spending. There are tech solutions specifically made to help lower operational costs. These fleet maintenance software solutions can be used for a variety of things, including:
- scheduling routine maintenance or repairs
- evaluating deteriorating vehicles to help decide when to retire a vehicle
- ordering parts preemptively
- anticipating vehicle failures
You also need to have access to an experienced fleet recovery service!
2. Route Optimization
A crucial aspect of fleet management is ensuring the delivery time is as short as possible. Since time is money, finding a way to alert drivers when the route they are taking isn’t the best one is important.
Construction, traffic congestion, weather, accidents, and phantom traffic will all delay your fleet and, in turn, delay the delivery. The ability to alert the driver of these problems with real-time updates and constant communication is the key to route optimization.
3. Compliance Requirements
Simply managing a fleet and dealing with operational costs isn’t enough; you also need to be aware of any legislation or requirements that pertain to your state or current territory to ensure you remain compliant.
At the moment, government regulations for CO2 emissions will increase in the future. It is important to meticulously track and report your fleet’s carbon footprint to ensure you are meeting compliance requirements. You can also consider fleet maintenance software to help you monitor the emissions and find a way to improve the amount.
Avoid These Fleet Maintenance Challenges
When it comes to fleet maintenance, you need to be able to spot potential challenges before they emerge. Most of these common fleet maintenance challenges boil down to costs; you want to keep your costs as low as possible without sacrificing quality. By using the tools available to help keep costs down, you’ll be well on your way to sidestepping these challenges completely.
If you’re looking for help with fleet vehicle recovery in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, feel free to contact Hollywood Towing today!