One of the company’s most valuable resources is its fleet of vehicles, those being all the cars and trucks needed to carry out transportation needs for the business. When you consider fuel costs, maintenance costs, and acquisitions of the vehicles themselves, it’s easy to see how there’s a considerable investment in the company fleet.
Since you have this tremendous group of vehicles comprising a major part of your corporate assets, it makes good sense that such assets should be managed in the most efficient manner possible, to eliminate waste and emphasize efficiency. Many companies turn to fleet management as a way of providing the most effective usage of all vehicles in the fleet, whether that be an outsourced function or an internal one.
Fleet management includes all the organization and oversight of a company’s group of vehicles. Constant supervision is a hallmark of fleet management, as is the consideration of current resources, and all those factors which might have an impact on fleet operations. There are a great many benefits derived from fleet management, and this article will consider some of the most obvious and most beneficial to a company.
Who can Benefit from Commercial Fleet Services?
There are a great many different types of companies that would derive tremendous benefit by having a solid fleet management strategy in place. One of the most obvious types of companies would be a trucking company because the transportation services they provide are generally carried out by an entire fleet of vehicles which require constant maintenance and oversight. Some of these trucking companies transport general freight, while others move household goods and petroleum products, but there is any number of different kinds of goods and merchandise that need to be delivered to a final destination. Trucking companies can especially benefit from having a good fleet management service in place because it acts as a powerful tool for employee retention.
Utility companies provide several products and services such as water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone service, and in order to do so, they typically use their own fleet of vehicles. One of the main reasons why it’s so beneficial to utility companies to have their fleet management service is that it allows them to respond quickly to customer calls for service. Without a good fleet management service, there would be no way to coordinate responses to customer calls, and to ensure that prompt service was delivered.
Commercial fleets are often used by food product companies such as SYSCO, Tyson, and PepsiCo, to provide delivery service all over the country in a timely fashion. Rather than employ outside trucking companies to make the deliveries for them, it is much more advantageous for food product companies to assemble their own fleet of vehicles and to incorporate a solid fleet management system so that deliveries can be made promptly.
Transportation companies such as taxi services, limo services, and tours and sightseeing services are obliged to maintain a well-kept fleet of vehicles in order to deliver adequate services to their clientele. These fleets often are comprised of many different types of vehicles such as vans, buses, sedans, and SUVs, but all of these need to be maintained in great working order, and ready to go at a moment’s notice. The business of transporting people from place to place is a very responsible kind of action, and it requires that a fleet of vehicles be kept in tip-top shape. This is where fleet management can serve a vital role, providing regular updates on scheduled maintenance, and making timely repairs so they don’t develop into major problems.
Rental companies such as Hertz, Enterprise, and U-Haul also rely on fleets of vehicles to carry out their businesses. There are millions of rental vehicles currently in use at any given time in the US, and that means that a reliable fleet management system is necessary to keep them in good working order. In some cases, this type of management is carried out by in-house employees, but more often than not, a third party is used to manage the fleet, so that the company itself can focus more on its core business.
Another major user of commercial fleet services would be sanitation providers since these companies are obliged to maintain a large fleet of vehicles to accomplish their business tasks. Waste management companies, garbage removal services, and landfill trucking operations are some of the biggest types of companies in the sanitation business. It is essential that with all these vehicles in operation, a uniform policy of management is carried out in order to achieve maximum efficiency.
Benefits of Fleet Management
With no fleet management strategy, a company may overspend significantly on the total cost of operating all vehicles associated with the company. On the other hand, with a coordinated strategy that is designed to achieve maximum efficiency with all fleet operations, it can become a very smooth and efficient operation to manage all vehicles used by company employees.
Many companies choose to outsource fleet management, because it allows them time to focus more on the core principles and core actions of the business, rather than devoting time to overseeing vehicles and their movements. When you have a unified and coordinated policy for dealing with all fleet vehicles, you will invariably spend less money on repairs and maintenance, as well as operating costs and fuel acquisition.
You’ll also be able to achieve efficiencies in the areas of supporting your drivers and managing their activities, and you should have a built-in method for resolving accidents when they occur. When you have established a firm fleet management policy, this can be a powerful appeal to employees coming into the company, and it can serve as a good employee retention tool.
When there is a solid routine for servicing vehicles, it can go a long way toward making drivers much happier, and it will provide a reason for employees to stay on with your company. There’s also a considerable benefit associated with commercial fleet services concerning your clients. When you demonstrate improved efficiency with your fleet management, it will be much more appealing to clients because of the reliability of delivery times, and the improved behaviors of drivers.
