Business vehicles are typically one of your important assets, regardless of your business size or how many employees you have.
After all, they facilitate transportation, shipping and can add to your brand value as well.
While your employees might be expected to handle the basic maintenance of the vehicles assigned to them, fleet management is a lot more complicated than simply passing on a set of keys.
It needs skilful administration along with the incorporation of technology and knowledge to maintain the safety and maintenance of your commercial vehicles.
An efficient fleet management process will help you increase efficiency, boosting productivity and ensuring compliance with the law.
Based on this, here are some important tips to manage your business fleet like a pro.
Small truck insurance can financially protect your vehicles from damage and theft as well as any third-party liability damage or injury caused by your fleet.
Table of Contents
Creating Responsibilities For Drivers:
Prudent business owners have clear rules and responsibilities to ensure the proper care and maintenance of vehicles in their fleet. For example, rules and responsibilities for drivers can typically relate to:
- Training
- Road safety
- Refuelling
- Basic maintenance tasks
Tapping Into Fleet Management Technology:
Modern fleet management software has simplified vehicle fleet management for many businesses. It lets you track the performance, condition, and mileage of every vehicle from a single dashboard.
This way, you sit on top of fleet management. Fleet management software helps you get relevant information on the performance of vehicles at your fingertips. Cutting edge software technology is available that facilitates recording and reporting of the key attributes improving efficiencies and minimizing costs.
The best new fleet management technology should also be flexible enough to meet your specific business requirements. Efficient fleet management software is scalable and allows you to easily increase or decrease the number of drivers and vehicles at any given time. This is important during peak times but is also an important factor in how quickly you can launch new services or explore new regions for your services.
Educating Your People:
Whether you are promoting safe driving practices or vehicle maintenance policies for your drivers, you need to have a strong education programme in place to make it easy for your employees to do the right thing.
Inform your drivers how vehicle maintenance is associated with safety, branding and above all, their job security. Driver training should be a top priority, as you need skilled and fit people behind the wheel. One more thing—make sure to re-train your veteran drivers from time to time to ensure their safety and well-being.
Opting For The Fleet Insurance:
Your business vehicles are vulnerable to damage and theft. Losing your vehicles for an extended period can lead to a significant financial loss for your organization. Therefore, it goes without saying that you should have a suitable fleet insurance policy. It can offer financial protection against the risk of damage and theft.
Fleet insurance is generally meant for businesses with two or more vehicles. A key benefit of fleet insurance is that several business vehicles are covered under one single policy.
Therefore, you don’t need to worry about managing a different policy for each different vehicle. It can also be more affordable than purchasing a single policy for each vehicle. Another benefit is that different drivers can drive multiple vehicles.
Rewards And Recognition For Safe Driving:
Smart employers, have been known to use reward systems, allowing drivers to earn rewards and recognition for their work, safe driving and compliance with the regulations.
It can improve the efficiency of your fleet operations and help you gain satisfied, loyal team members.
Membership Of A Fleet Association Or Visit Annual Event:
While you may not be a professional fleet manager, getting in the touch with the professional and industry organization may benefit you.
Many fleet management companies arrange events where you can learn a lot and become familiar with the existing and potential issues and trends. These platforms are great to share ideas and gain support from your peers.
So, these are some tips to manage your business fleet. The responsibility of commercial fleet management and maintenance is not only on your shoulders, as your drivers play an important role in keeping the vehicles in top shape. With that in mind, use these steps to manage your business vehicle fleet efficiently.
What do you think? Let us know by commenting below!
Disclaimer:
*Important: Cover may be available subject to meeting insurers underwriting criteria. Some of the covers listed may or may not be available or may have limitations or exclusions. Cover inclusions vary significantly from insurer to insurer. DO NOT rely upon the above. Check your policy schedule carefully for inclusions and exclusions and limitations. Talk to a business insurance broker for more information.
Author Bio:
Romit Malhotra is the brand representative of Smart Business Insurance, a leading Australian insurance broker. A big foodie, he loves to travel the world. Also, a diligent businessman, Romit likes to pen down his thoughts on related topics whenever he finds some free time.