Managing your vehicles the easy way

Regardless of the type or size of your business, it is important to control any costs incurred and this logic is applicable not only to the day-to-day running of your business, but also to any company vehicles. However, it is often a more difficult task ensuring costs are controlled when it comes to company vehicles and for many small businesses, the full impact of the costs involved in running a vehicle fleet are easily overlooked.

With ever-rising fuel costs experienced in recent times, the performance and costs incurred by vehicle fleets have come under increased scrutiny as businesses seek to trim unnecessary costs from their fleet management strategies, but as the number of employees in a business expands, so too do those costs incurred and it can become something of an administrative nightmare keeping track.

The Internet has had an impact in such circumstances, with online software available that can do the hard work for you, by analysing the performance of your vehicles. Such software can prove particularly beneficial when attempting to monitor the life cycle of a vehicle, as understanding this and taking action at an early stage can often prove to be an all-important factor in reducing costs for a business. For example, it may be better to sell or offload an ageing vehicle at an early stage rather than having to continuously incur higher maintenance costs, which has the end result of potentially improving cash flow, whilst also improving the understanding of your vehicle life cycles and identifying potential pitfalls before they happen.

It can also be beneficial to analyse all the vehicles within the organisation to help understand any problematic vehicles — perhaps those vehicles which are incurring the most maintenance costs or fuel costs, for example. Such analysis can often help to understand which model of vehicle may be worth avoiding for the future, particularly if this vehicle is proving to be a cost burden for your business in terms of fuel consumption or repair costs.

GPS systems can also be a viable aid to helping curtail rising fleet management costs in the future. By installing GPS systems into business fleet vehicles, you are better able to understand your vehicle locations, which is useful for performing risk assessments and costing factors such as fuel costs based on mileage travelled. This can help to ensure that your drivers make only those required journeys and that the job at hand is being carried out effectively.

Whether you have one business vehicle or one hundred, through the help of fleet management software you could have a beneficial impact on the management of your vehicles and your business costs, whether they are cars, trucks or vans. Whichever, with a little help and guidance, managing your vehicles doesn’t have to be as stressful as it might appear, whilst at the same time fleet management costs can be better monitored and potentially driven down.

Paul McIndoe writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.