Businesses lose money every time a vehicle is facing sudden downtime,telematics can help fleet managers/ owners proactively plan fleet maintenance and reduce vehicle downtime, and avoid unwanted sudden breakdowns. Keeping your drivers and vehicle safe while they are on the road is vital, however, none of that is possible if your fleet isn’t well maintained. You can prevent this by keeping an eye on maintenance costs and taking action before they pile up and escalate. Being proactive will not only save businesses thousands of dollars but also make it more efficient. A well-maintained vehicle burns less fuel, breaks down less often, and helps lower your operating cost. Taking a proactive approach also means you can stop problems in their tracks before they snowball into safety hazards.  Fleet management can be done today in many ways to keep fleets efficient and upkeep an efficient fleet operation all around. 

Here are tips that will help you manage your fleet maintenance more effectively. 

• Regular Driver Reports

Think of maintenance as a rotating job, rather than something confined to set dates. Alongside regular inspections, you should be communicating as often as possible with your drivers. After all, they spend more time with the vehicles than anyone else does. Drivers can develop a set of best practices and form productive working relationships with you and the maintenance team or contractor.

• Invest in Fleet Telematics 

Investing in telematics tools and tech can help you gain a competitive edge. In fact, according to one report, fleet management data can increase productivity by up to 15%. Financial savings also increase, with about 55% of survey respondents reporting reduced fuel expenditure of up to 10%. It notifies fleet managers of things like vehicle-damaging driving and issues warnings to individual drivers automatically. Telematics allows you to stay on top of all maintenance needs and makes scheduling and keeping track of maintenance tasks much easier. Plus, when you go digital you can get automatic alerts informing you of needed maintenance for your fleet.

• Preventive Maintenance

Properly maintained vehicles reduce unscheduled repairs and downtime. Preventive maintenance may include oil changes, tire rotation/inspection and general safety vehicle inspections. Preventative inspection and maintenance is vital to cut down on impromptu repairs and downtime for your vehicles. A great way to make the vehicle inspection process efficient is to have a maintenance checklist that your drivers or head of maintenance complete at the chosen times.

• Regular Vehicle Inspections

Monitoring the day-to-day activities of the fleet allows us to optimize its operation, this includes the work cycle, fleet routes, fuel efficiency, maintenance frequency, productivity and all sorts of activities relating to  fleet operation. Regularly checking tire pressure is especially important, as it affects just about every aspect of a vehicle fleet’s operations, from driver safety to fuel mileage. Fleet managers should keep a tab on how temperature changes can cause fluctuations in tire pressure, and regularly check the tread depth on tires for signs of excessive wear and tear. 

Final Words

Effective fleet maintenance is a productive practice for keeping enterprises on a roll. Though it is a mundane task demanding day-to-day attention it cannot be neglected. Keeping fleets ready for trips, helps enterprises optimize time as well as productivity. The time you spend now to develop your fleet’s preventive maintenance plan could save your company a considerable amount of lost time in the future. In addition, the money you spend on implementing a preventive maintenance plan will be small in comparison to maintenance costs associated with unscheduled, preventable repairs.