Many businesses count on fleet management to keep a fleet of vehicles tailored to suit their specific needs. What is a fleet vehicle, and how can business owners use these essential assets to conduct business?
Let’s examine the concept of fleet vehicles. We’ll give detailed descriptions and helpful advice on how to buy and maintain them. Understanding fleet vehicles can assist you in improving productivity, cutting expenses, and streamlining operations if you manage a small or large service company. Let’s look into ways to maximize your fleet management and advance your company.
What is a Fleet Vehicle?
A fleet vehicle is any motorized asset used by a business or government agency to support everyday operations, carry out commercial duties, or move people or goods. Fleets can include anything from bulldozers, backhoes, and skid-steer loaders to service vans, rental automobiles, and taxis.
Fleet management techniques can help you save money, regardless of the kind or quantity of cars you use regularly. These procedures aid in regulating fuel prices, keeping safety standards, and guaranteeing rule compliance.
What To Do Before Buying a Fleet Vehicle
1) Analyze Business Needs
The fleet vehicle you need depends on the cargo you’re transporting and the distances involved. You can choose the ideal fleet characteristics by evaluating your company’s demands. This includes the vehicle’s kind (car, SUV, pickup truck, passenger van, bus, box truck, etc.), horsepower, payload capacity, and towing capacity in addition to its size (mid-size or full-size cargo van). This analysis also helps you identify budget constraints and other factors that will influence your next vehicle purchase.
2) Choose Between Leasing and Purchasing
Leasing is when your business signs a contract with another company, which owns the vehicles. The company charges a set fee, enabling your business to use the vehicles for a specified duration, often including maintenance and support services.
Leasing your fleet comes with several benefits, including lower initial costs, reduced tax burden, lower labor costs, and maintenance and repairs handled for you. On the other hand, purchasing your fleet involves paying the total cost upfront but offers advantages like no imposed limitations, flexibility in retiring vehicles, pricing leverage, warranty and, tax benefits, and depreciation control. By analyzing your business needs, you can determine if leasing or purchasing is the better option for you.
3) Research Fleet Management Software
If you have two vehicles or twenty, managing a fleet can be difficult, even for seasoned professionals. To make their daily jobs easier, many managers increasingly use vehicle telematics often known as fleet management software.
The software helps with many activities, such as keeping track of vehicle and employee activity, identifying abuse or misuse of company assets, recording work time and hours of service, preventing driver exhaustion, conforming to the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), tracking Driver-Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs or eDVIRs), and keeping an eye on Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) scores. Choose the software that best suits your needs and can improve the effectiveness of your fleet management before investing in fleet cars.
4) Apply For A Fleet Identification Number
Sometimes, vehicle and equipment manufacturers provide discounts and other perks if you get a fleet identification number (FIN), fleet account number (FAN), or join a specific lease program. Manufacturers use this information to identify eligible fleet vehicle customers, process orders, track vehicle production and delivery, and offer other incentives.
For instance, if you decide to buy several Ford Transit vans for your HVAC service and repair fleet, applying for a fleet identification number from Ford might get you a discount and other benefits. These programs aren’t limited to the big auto manufacturers. Companies like John Deere, Caterpillar, and Mack Trucks also offer fleet programs that provide exclusive benefits to registered members and rental companies.
Tips For Managing Your Fleet
1) Track Vehicles With GPS
It shouldn’t be too hard to maintain or track your fleet vehicles if you have a small number of them. Tracking every move of your fleet, however, can easily become disorganized and unpredictable as it reaches five, ten, twenty, or more members. Installing GPS in your fleet vehicles has a significant impact. It makes it easier for you to run your business, it helps your drivers to navigate, and it gives you real-time visibility into every vehicle’s location and activity. This level of visibility gives you better control over routes, activities, mileage, and costs on the job.
While GPS is a powerful vehicle tracking tool, combining it with other services like fleet cards can give you even greater insight and control. Fleet cards let a fleet manager monitor and control driver expenses while on the road. Your business can better maintain its bottom line and guarantee everything runs smoothly and efficiently by using both GPS and expense tracking.
2) Guarantee The Safety Of Your Fleet
Fleet managers and business owners must make sure that the safety of their drivers and cars. Telematics describes a group of onboard communication tools and software that give you the most recent data on the operation, condition, and movements of your fleet. In a service van, you can get essential data about engine load, fuel consumption, braking, acceleration, coolant temperature, and tire pressure.
With this data, you can guarantee the general safety and effectiveness of your fleet, provide drivers with specific advice on how to operate their cars better, and create efficient training programs for novice drivers. Telematics provides valuable data that lets you make informed decisions and help you maintain a safe and efficient fleet.
3) Control Fuel Costs
Protecting your company’s bottom line requires finding strategies to manage fuel expenditures. This will help rank among the largest expenses for the majority of fleets. One effective tool is a fleet-specific fuel card. This card gives managers access to a wealth of data that can be used to implement cost-saving measures, boost productivity, and monitor spending to keep vehicles running efficiently.
A fuel card for a used vehicle for every driver can help cut down on the cost of driving a car from point A to point B and back when paired with other fleet management technologies. Effective fuel management can significantly reduce overall costs and increase fleet efficiency.
4) Maintain Compliance
Maintaining compliance in fleet management involves ensuring vehicles and drivers meet all relevant laws and regulations. This includes regular inspections, proper documentation, and adherence to safety standards set by regulatory bodies such as the DOT and FMCSA to guarantee safe operations.
5) Protect Your Investment With Fleet Vehicle Insurance
Investing in fleet auto insurance is a smart way to protect your car investment. Fleet insurance companies cover cars, vans, SUVs, pickup trucks, semis, forklifts, and big equipment like bulldozers and backhoes. This insurance has the nice feature of not requiring different policies for each car.
Your fleet can be covered by a single policy, which will simplify insurance management and offer complete protection. You might have to purchase a single fleet-wide plan. With just one renewal date, this single policy simplifies insurance management and is frequently less expensive than multiple policies.
6) Incorporate Preventative Maintenance
Regular car inspections and addressing any problems before they worsen are known as preventative maintenance. Maintaining the seamless operation of your fleet depends on this. The first step in any appropriate maintenance program should be to adhere to the instructions supplied by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
Even with the same make and model, no two cars are precisely the same. You’ll probably require more frequent oil changes or brake replacements. You may tailor your maintenance schedule to each vehicle’s unique requirements as you learn more about them in order to keep government vehicles in your fleet safe and effective for many years to come.
7) Implement Pre- And Post-Trip Checklists
Checklists for before and after trips are important for maintaining the condition of your fleet. These guidelines help drivers check important systems both before and after each trip, guaranteeing that their cars are safe and legal.
Legally mandated pre-trip inspections include checks on things like seat belts, mirrors, brakes, and fuel levels. Post-trip inspections concentrate on a smaller number of parts, like the wipers and brakes. These routine checks, which usually take ten to fifteen minutes, are crucial to keeping your fleet safe and effective.
8) Follow The International Fuel Tax Agreement
The 48 contiguous U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces follow the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) to track fuel taxes as fleet vehicles move between states. Fleet drivers must record fuel purchases, locations, and miles driven.
Fleet businesses submit this data quarterly to their local IFTA office, which then distributes sales taxes accordingly. While telematics help with IFTA compliance, they can sometimes fail. A reliable fleet and fuel card program serves as a backup, accurately recording fuel fill-ups and complying with IFTA.
9) Monitor Hours Of Service
One of the main reasons for fleet vehicle accidents in the trucking industry is fatigued drivers. The Department of Transportation (DOT) has imposed driving hour restrictions to remedy this. For your safety, abide by the hours of service (HOS) regulations.
Property drivers are allowed 11 hours after 10 hours off and passenger drivers 10 hours after 8 hours off, according to the FMCSA. Check FMCSA for details and exceptions. Fleet vehicles, often used in interstate commerce, must follow these regulations. The DOT supports compliance with electronic logging devices, telematics, and driver training.
10) Maximize Fleet Vehicle Use
Getting the most out of every vehicle is important for fleet management success. This entails reducing deterioration, averting malfunctions, streamlining routes, and guaranteeing maximum efficiency. If you have 20 vehicles but regularly use only 12, the rest may sit idle, incurring unnecessary costs. Analyzing your fleet can reveal if you can operate with fewer vehicles, saving money and improving efficiency.
Maximizing fleet use also involves assigning the right vehicle to each task. For example, if tools fit in a small car, there’s no need for a pickup truck. Choosing appropriate vehicles reduces upfront, fuel, and maintenance costs, ensuring smoother, more economical operations.
Fleet Vehicle Management For The 21st Century
Efficient fleet vehicle management is important for business success. If you are running a small delivery service or a large transportation operation, knowing your fleet’s locations is key for optimizing operations, enhancing safety, and boosting your bottom line.
Traxxis GPS Solutions’ Geotab fleet management and tracking system offers advanced GPS tracking solutions that transform fleet management. With real-time visibility, improved efficiency, enhanced safety, asset protection, and significant cost savings, Traxxis makes sure that your operations run smoothly and profitably.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of vehicles are included in a fleet?
Fleet vehicles encompass a wide variety of business vehicles, from cars, vans, SUVs, and pickup trucks to larger vehicles like semis, trailers, forklifts, bulldozers, and backhoes, supporting diverse business needs and operations.
What are the benefits of using GPS tracking in your business or in a rental car company?
GPS tracking provides real-time visibility of vehicle locations, optimizes routes, enhances safety, reduces fuel consumption, and prevents theft, significantly improving fleet efficiency.
How can I determine the right type of vehicle for my fleet?
Assess your business needs by considering cargo type, distance, and specific requirements to choose the right vehicle type for your fleet and cargo space. Improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness by evaluating options with a comprehensive vehicle history, which helps in making informed decisions.
Are rental cars considered vehicle fleets?
Yes, rental cars are considered fleet vehicles. Fleet vehicles include any motorized asset used by a business for daily operations, transporting people or goods, or carrying out commercial transport tasks, and rental cars fall into this category.
Final Thoughts
For any business that depends on transportation, it is important to understand fleet vehicles and manage them well. Fleet management contributes to the smooth running of any business, from cost-cutting and safety enhancement to route optimization and compliance assurance. Cutting-edge tools such as the Geotab system from Traxxis GPS Solutions can completely transform your workflow by providing real-time visibility, increasing productivity, and protecting your investments. You may maintain compliance, keep your fleet operating efficiently, and increase your bottom line by putting these best practices into practice. Adopt complete fleet management to advance your company in the cutthroat industry of today.
