Business fleet management

It isn’t only large corporations or multinational companies that have fleets of working vehicles. Being a business that employs even a handful of mobile operatives can mean that you have to deal with running a number of vehicles to service off-site operations on a day-to-day basis.

Managing a fleet of any size might not mean that you personally need to have any mechanical knowledge or experience as it can simply come down to making the right choices in purchasing vehicles. This is a decision that can rest on far more than simply balancing a budget with the right number of vehicles.

The potential costs involved in keeping everything on the road and the logistical problems that come with running more than one company vehicle mean that there are certain priorities to be taken into consideration.

Function

The most basic thing to address is exactly what type of work and what functions will be required of the vehicles in your fleet. This might mean having a range of different vehicles with various specialised features or one based on a single model that is multi-purpose.

Most manufacturers have a range of models, such as the Sprinter from Mercedes, that can be adapted to different work patterns and usages.

Reliability

In the case of fleet vehicles used for work or business it is essential that they are reliable as time spent off the road means potential lost income, downtime and the possibility of unhappy clients or customers.

Some fleets get around this problem by having a surplus of vehicles so that a certain number can be factored in as being off road at any one time without having a negative impact.

However, for a smaller business this might not be a practical solution.

Maintenance

All vehicles need to be in road worthy condition in order to be used safely and with confidence but when it comes to commercial ones this is even more important because of the impact it can have on operational capacity.

Keeping to a manufacturer’s servicing schedule is important and simple DIY maintenance tasks can be undertaken in-house without the need for specialist mechanics.

Checking tyre pressures, oil levels and coolant top-ups are all small but important measures that can be done by employee drivers, and will not only help make sure your vehicles operate safely but can also have a positive effect on cost-cutting by helping to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Peter Rivers .