Are You Doing All You Can for Fleet Maintenance?

You know maintenance is critical for anything on four wheels, and it’s especially important for businesses that rely on those wheels to get the job done – but are you really doing all you can for your fleet?

Maintenance schedules can be hard to keep track of (most of us can hardly remember to get the oil changed in our personal vehicle), and when you’re dealing with multiple vehicles, it gets even more difficult. But here’s what you face by not taking care of your fleet: 

Maintenance becomes costlier

We’ve all done it — ignoring a little rattle here, going a thousand miles past an oil change there. But mismanaged maintenance costs drivers billions of dollar a year — that’s billion with a B. When small issues multiply and escalate, you’re faced with bigger repair bills, just because you ignored that knocking sound.

Productivity plummets

You don’t know what you don’t know, so when you don’t perform routine maintenance, you have no idea what’s going on inside your vehicles. If there’s a problem that goes unchecked for too long, well, that’s when breakdowns occur and work comes to a screeching halt. Regular maintenance, however, lets you plan downtime so you can service vehicles when it works for your business — not during the height of the busy season.

Risk increases exponentially

Excessive wear and tear that leads to more expensive repairs is one thing. But letting some maintenance lag too long can become downright dangerous. Worn-out brakes, decaying tie rods and failing engines can have devastating consequences – for your drivers as well as other people on the road. Some accidents can be avoided with routine maintenance, which keeps your drivers and the roads safer, and also keeps your insurance premiums lower.

Vehicle lifespan shrinks

A little routine maintenance goes a long way toward helping ensure your vehicles are on the road and bringing in more cash for the business for a long time in the future.

So now that we’ve scared you into making sure your vehicles stay on an airtight maintenance schedule, how are you going to keep track of this?

Easy: GPS vehicle tracking software does it all for you.

The software lets you set up automatic alerts based on a calendar, engine ‘on’ time or miles driven and pings you when vehicles are due for maintenance. The system sends real-time notifications any time the engine throws a code, so you can immediately address any issues. 

It also keeps track of past services, so you can see what’s been done on each vehicle. Every vehicle gets its own service plan and calendar – it’s “set it and forget it” after the initial setup. 

Be good to your fleet of vehicles by making sure they stay up and running – and you’ll keep the business up and running as well.