During the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have expanded your business’s fleet to accommodate growing demands for shipping and delivery services. But now that we are entering the pandemic recovery period, you might be wondering what you can do to guarantee that your fleet delivers a significant return on your initial investment. You’ll be able to market to new customers and make the most of your fleet.
Hire a Bookkeeper
Managing and maintaining a fleet can drive up costs, so you want to ensure that you’re staying on top of your budget. A bookkeeper can track your finances to create accurate, organized reports and check for any mistakes or discrepancies. If you’re searching for a bookkeeper, you can ask other business owners for referrals, or you can peruse online job boards to find freelance bookkeepers and see their qualifications.
Vehicle Maintenance
When you have a fleet, you need to take care of necessary repairs and maintenance efficiently. If one of your vehicles breaks down in the middle of a route, you will lose revenue. Fleet Complete recommends asking for regular reports from your drivers so that you can learn about any potential issues right away and training your drivers to handle minor cleaning and maintenance tasks. Fleet management software can also help you keep track of scheduled maintenance and repairs.
Fuel Management
As your fleet grows, you’ll inevitably end up spending more on fuel, so you’ll have to take steps to ensure that you are getting the best price possible. You’ll also want to make sure that your drivers are not wasting fuel. You may need to monitor driver behavior to educate your drivers on fuel-saving habits. For instance, speeding, hard braking, and unexpected gear changes can all waste fuel. Simply instructing your drivers to reduce their speed can actually cut down on fuel costs, and purchasing fuel in bulk from a wholesale provider can also help you secure lower prices.
Route Optimization
Route optimization can help you make more deliveries faster—and when you’re managing a bigger fleet, you don’t want your drivers wasting miles. You may generally rely on forecasting optimal routes with static routing, but now, you may want to look into real-time dynamic routing if your company typically provides consecutive daily orders. This generally involves determining routes on a day-to-day basis and making strategic changes in real time. Even if real-time dynamic routing is not right for your business, this could be a good time to revise your routes to save on fuel.
Work With a Fleet Manager
If you just don’t have the time to handle every aspect of fleet management on your own, you may want to hire a fleet manager. By delegating time-consuming responsibilities to a fleet manager, you can free up time in your own schedule for more important projects. Fleet Cards USA states that a good fleet manager can monitor your fleet’s performance, take charge of fuel purchasing, interface with your drivers and train new team members, and plan for regular maintenance.
A fleet manager can be critical to your business’s success. Their ability to take on the load of keeping your fleet operational can leave you to pursue more important tasks, such as launching a product or service you’ve had in mind. As a team you can bring your business to bigger and better things.
Managing a fleet can be challenging. But you can also utilize this fleet in order to boost your company’s revenue. If you have recently acquired a fleet, these tips will help you make smart decisions when it comes to fleet management.
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