Efficiently Managing a Commercial Fleet

Tackling fleet efficiency is no easy task for a fleet manager. Between juggling responsibilities like invoicing, ordering, reimbursing driver expenses, and tracking your fleet’s fuel expenses, you can get stuck in the day-to-day operations and forget the big picture. So take a step back and see how you can optimize your fleet’s efficiency.

What factors contribute to successful fleet operations? 

Successful fleets maximize efficiency. By focusing on a few key fleet management factors, you can assess your fleet’s performance and pinpoint areas of improvement. 

Real-time visibility 

Knowing where your fleet vehicles are is a hallmark of efficient fleets. With telematics and fleet management software, you get precise GPS location and efficiency data. Real-time visibility also syncs with on-demand traffic and weather data to optimize truck routings, prevent excessive idling, and decrease fuel consumption. Telematics solutions can also detect and send diagnostic notifications, giving you further insight into your fleet. 

Fleet maintenance programs 

A preventive vehicle maintenance program is also crucial to an efficient fleet. Preventive maintenance helps you find minor issues before they snowball into larger ones. In addition, regular maintenance schedules prevent unexpected downtime and keep your rigs on the road without breakdowns. 

Safe driving behaviors 

Your fleet drivers play an integral role in creating an efficient fleet; their driving habits can make or break your fleet’s efficiency. For example, aggressive driving, excessive braking, and prolonged idle time are poor driver behaviors that lead to increased fuel usage, higher maintenance costs, and decreased vehicle performance and lifespan. 

Fuel costs

The most efficient fleets focus on reducing fuel costs. They do this in a few ways: 

• Monitoring fleet route efficiency and improving the routes their drivers take  
• Educating drivers to improve their driving performance
• Implementing a fleet fuel card to manage fuel spending for the entire fleet 

How fleet managers can improve productivity and efficiency 

Improving your fleet’s efficiency comes down to having a plan for all aspects of your fleet. Here are some steps to build a comprehensive fleet management plan that improves your productivity and efficiency. 

Implement a fleet management system 

Fleet management starts with having a way to monitor each vehicle in your fleet. By implementing a fleet management system, you’ll be able to keep tabs on vehicles and drivers, positioning you to make changes to routes, provide more driver safety education, forecast possible maintenance issues, and more. 

Establish preventive maintenance schedules

Take stock of each vehicle in your fleet and develop a timely maintenance schedule. As you build your maintenance plan, remember to incorporate vehicle inspections and teach your drivers to keep an eye on common issues. 

Determine when you will replace fleet vehicles 

As vehicles near the end of their lifespan, they become increasingly inefficient. The wear and tear on these vehicles can also mean more unexpected maintenance and higher operating costs. Therefore, monitoring each vehicle’s lifecycle and having a plan to replace these vehicles is critical to managing an efficient fleet. 

Educate fleet drivers 

Driver education is essential to manage your fleet effectively. No matter if your drivers have a few years of experience or have been hauling for decades, training can improve driver performance. Use current driver behavior insights from your telemetrics data to help tailor driver training programs to your fleet. Good driving habits can reduce fuel consumption and emissions while getting your trucks to their destinations faster. That’s good for the environment and your bottom line.

Monitor fuel spending 

Fuel consumption costs are already a top priority for many fleets, but keeping track of spending can be cumbersome, especially if your fleet doesn’t have a way to streamline fuel cost tracking. Collecting fuel receipts from drivers, reimbursing expenses, and cross-checking these expenses can take a lot of time. The solution? A fleet fuel card. Implementing a fleet card program will give you visibility into fuel spending across the entire fleet, all in one place. Fuel card programs can also integrate into your fleet management system for increased cost savings. 

Implementing your new fleet management plan 

Once you develop your fleet management plan, it’s time to implement it. While some team members may be hesitant to embrace change, doing so can streamline your business. Therefore, making gradual changes over time can be an effective way to address the concern. And while the change may take some adjusting to, it will save you and your fleet a lot of headaches in the long run.