If you have a company owning a fleet of work vehicles, there is high probability that you are now looking ways to cut costs. Running a fleet of cars or vans can be expensive and it can eat into the overall profit of your company. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. There are several simple ways to reduce your fleet costs.
Here, with Lookers Ford, who have a great range of new Ford Transit vans, we look at the top solutions to manage your fleet correctly:
GPS fleet tracking
Any company can significantly reduce its operating costs simply by adding a tracking device to their fleet. It enables you to monitor where any of your fleet are in real time and helps you to review the routes and daily activities your vehicles are taking. Doing this will help you establish how productive your staff members are and where you can tighten any slack work time. By finding the optimum route, you will not only save fuel, but you’ll also be more productive as there won’t be time lost in between jobs.
Vehicle maintenance
It might be quite possible that you may not be the one driving any of your vehicles; however, making sure that you do a proper maintenance of your vehicles can save you a lot of money. By keeping the tyres at the right pressure, you’ll avoid wearing them down quicker than expected; worn tyres can cause fuel consumption to increase by 10%.
Removing clutter from the boot of your car or van can also make slight savings due to lightening the load. However, any saving must be seen as a good thing! The same goes for any roof racks and bars that are attached to your vehicle. Surprisingly, this can increase your fuel consumption by a massive 30%. If they are not necessary, take them off.
Driving style
For drivers who drive about 12,000 miles a year, its quite possible to save upto £250 every year just by improving on their driving habits. Keeping engine revs low when accelerating and changing gears in a ‘block’ – i.e. third gear to fifth – can help improve your fuel consumption. Another way to do this would be to slow down your average speed. By driving 70mph instead of 60mph you can use up to nine per cent more fuel.
You can use an optimization tool to monitor your drivers’ capabilities and ensure that they don’t rapidly accelerate or brake late on.
Maintenance and fuel cards
Having separate maintenance and fuel cards may be a preferred way for some companies. However, worker’s productivity can be increased by having a single fleet card that’s accepted across most petrol stations and maintenance facilities. If they are out on a job and constantly going from site to site, a card that’s accepted in a number of locations can help them to make a quick pit stop in between jobs to refuel without needing to go off track.
Add incentives for your team
A little incentive can motivate the team to work better. It can make them feel like they are part of the team with a little praise from those above them. This motivation can really help boost productivity. Including incentives for your fleet works in exactly the same way. If you introduce a system of rewards that your fleet of drivers acknowledge as being achievable, then this can accelerate their improvement in driving capability, which could lower fuel costs, maintenance costs, accidents and insurance.
Running a productive fleet is crucial to hitting targets and being a profitable business and following the points above will stand you in good stead.
