Managing a fleet is quite tricky whether you’re running fleet management or a trucking company. Only a fleet manager would know that fleet management is no child’s play. To improve fleet efficiency, there’s a lot that needs to be done.
As there is no room for error, fleet managers have to work hard to make their fleet more efficient by staying on budget and rolling their operations smoothly.
If you are a trucking company operating 5000+ trucks, your fleet manager needs some kind of fleet management system to help them perform their fleet operations with ease, take control of the entire lifecycle of commercial vehicles alongside reducing associated costs, risks, ensure compliance with legislation and improve productivity. If this sounds of value to you, continue reading to control your fleet chaos
Why Improve Fleet Efficiency?
Improve fleet efficiency and make your fleet operations run smoothly. Improving your fleet’s efficiency is highly vital for your fleet management company. There are many reasons why it is essential to improve fleet efficiency for your business.
The first and foremost reason is that fleet management companies can instantly begin saving costs and increase their profit margins by paying attention to the minute details.
Optimizing every aspect of your fleet, whether vehicles, trucks, trailers, containers, drivers, and even office employees, is the key to improve fleet efficiency and increase profitability.
The second reason is sustainability. Governments are pushing fleet management companies to increase their sustainability and environmental performance. Trucking, transport, and logistics companies are considered the prime businesses in this regard. The only way to become a ‘greener’ company is to improve fleet efficiency.
Last but not least, improving fleet efficiency for your company will help your staff workers experience reduced stress and improve driver retention to a great extent. We hope these reasons were sufficient to encourage you to improve fleet efficiency for your business.
How to Improve Fleet Efficiency?
Below, we have discussed five effective ways to improve fleet efficiency. Adopting fleet management best practices and fleet management tips can improve fleet efficiency for your transport or logistics business.
1. Use Technology (Smart TMS)
Technology plays an essential part in improving fleet efficiency. If you’re looking to improve fleet efficiency for your business, you need to get your hands on the best and most effective transportation management software.
Smart TMS such as LoadStop helps trucking companies improve fleet efficiency by letting them track the shipment and unlock real-time visibility and automation for the fleet. The TMS’s advanced yet incredible features give fleet managers more insight into the exact whereabouts of their vehicles and driver and vehicle performance.
What’s more, fleet managers can also detect poor driving such as overspeeding, idling, sudden braking, etc. On the other hand, they can also stay updated on weather or road conditions and inform the drivers to change their routes. This can help them improve driver safety and also reduce fuel costs.
2. Get Real-Time Visibility
When you integrate technology with your fleet business, you can gain real-time visibility into your fleet right from the beginning. To put it into simpler words, you can instantly find out the exact location of your vehicles and drivers at any time.
With LoadStop, the smart TMS at your disposal, you can also set up alerts to get informed whenever there is a change in the status and condition of a certain vehicle. At the same time, you can also get set up alerts with the drivers and instantly get information about the driver’s activity. By using smart technology, you can resolve issues immediately and avoid unnecessary costs.
3. Manage Fuel Consumption
Managing and controlling fuel costs is one of the most important aspects of any transportation or logistics company. We cannot stress that fuel is a significant expense for any fleet operation. If fleet managers are unable to manage and control fuel costs, it wouldn’t take much time for the business to go down the drain.
To control and manage fuel consumption in the fleet, it is important that every fleet manager knows exactly how much fuel is being consumed by each vehicle in every trip. With effective transportation management software, fleet managers can obtain valuable insights into fuel theft, fuel fraud, idling, and aggressive driving behavior which are likely to strain the budget.
Therefore, it is recommended to resolve the issues mentioned above as soon as possible to reduce fuel costs. When fuel costs are reduced, you can not only stride in the direction of improving fleet efficiency but also increasing profitability for your fleet business.
4. Keep Check on the Driver Behavior
Keeping a constant check on the driver’s behavior is another effective way to know how to improve fleet efficiency. No truck owner or fleet manager would hire a reckless driver that can lead the business to a major disaster. With professional and mindful drivers on board, you can improve fleet efficiency, boost productivity, and increase profitability.
Driving on the roads is not easy—especially when the road or weather conditions are not favorable. Even the smallest mistake made by the driver behind the wheel can lead to severe road accidents, injuries, expensive vehicle repairs, liability insurance costs, legal problems, and sometimes even loss of business.
To prevent major breakdowns, costly vehicle repairs, and severe road accidents, it is vital to check on the driver's behavior at all times. Monitoring driver behavior becomes stress-free when you deploy transportation management or driver monitoring software in your business.
This advanced software provides insights into driver behavior, helping you know which driver drives aggressively or recklessly, at what time, and how often. You can also analyze your driver’s inefficiencies and offer them training to improve their driving skills. By doing so, you can keep your drivers safe, improve driver performance, and increase fleet efficiency.
5. Adopt Preventative Maintenance Plan
Another best fleet management tip that helps improve fleet efficiency is adopting a preventative maintenance plan. Following this plan, every truck owner or fleet manager should make it a point to perform frequent vehicle inspections.
You can fix minor issues before they turn into bigger problems and keep your vehicles running smoothly on the road by performing preventative maintenance. A little help from an effective and reliable transportation management software can help you set an active goal to keep your vehicles effective, healthy, and robust.
A good preventative maintenance plan can help you reduce repair costs, vehicle downtime, and road accidents. You would know when a certain vehicle needs to be repaired. Furthermore, the plan can also help improve your vehicle’s lifespan and increase its resale value. We can bet this can definitely help you improve fleet efficiency.
