9 Secrets Series: You could be letting your vehicles down

As a fleet owner, your day-to-day costs can quickly add up. Particularly when hidden and unnecessary costs are hurting your bottom line.

The amount of fuel wasted, how efficiently your staff drive, overpaying wages and how you keep track of it all, can make a huge difference when it comes to your ongoing expenses.

When you’re incredibly busy with on-site jobs and managing other areas of your business, it can be hard to identify what things aren’t as cost effective as they could be.

This series of blogs will look at how you can get a grip on such expenses and highlights nine surprising ways to lower your operating costs that you may not have even considered.

Secret 5: You could be letting your vehicles down

Depreciating vehicle values and everyday wear and tear can weigh heavily on your bottom line. While vehicles are expensive to maintain, unexpected mechanical issues and premature replacement costs can be much, much greater long term. 

The more you look after your fleet, the less it will cost you in the long run, which means you need regular maintenance and servicing. However, staying up-to-date with your fleet’s maintenance and service requirements can be a time consuming and potentially costly exercise.

Think about this… Your vehicles are often one of your most costly business assets. Are you giving them the proper care and attention they need? Do you know when your vehicles are due for maintenance and servicing checks? How much do you rely on your drivers to tell you when something is wrong with the vehicle and how often is that too late?

If you don’t have comprehensive fleet management software in place, you could be letting the situation worsen without even knowing and vehicles that need minor attention could eventually need major work.

Solutions such as Verizon Connect Reveal offer the benefit of regular service and maintenance reminders (in accordance with the date, mileage or even hours of use), the ability to use engine data to monitor fuel efficiency and usage by vehicle, and the functionality to track odometer readings.

You can report on unproductive engine idling and when the engine is on or off. Also, with engine diagnostic tools you can even be alerted of diagnostic trouble codes to stay one step ahead of your vehicle maintenance, catching the problem out before it catches you.

You can read the rest of our 9 Secrets in our eBook.