Following on from last week’s article, below we discuss Productivity Challenge number three and provide suitable solutions to help LCV fleets improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Challenge 3

Maintenance

Managing the maintenance of fleet vehicles successfully is crucial to controlling costs, keeping drivers mobile and ensuring the smooth and efficient running of a company’s fleet.

Ensuring your fleet vehicles are fit for purpose is often a very time-consuming responsibility. Your fleet of vehicles needs to keep running smoothly to prevent unexpected breakdowns, which can be expensive. Even something as minor as not checking tyre pressures can result in knock-on costs – loss of tyre pressure can cost 3% of your mileage, for example.

Skipping on regular check-ups for reasons of time and money often end up costing more, either in time or money, or both. Nevertheless, taking vehicles off the road for service and maintenance is also costly.

How can fleet managers balance this out while ensuring regular maintenance is carried out routinely and still juggle all the other priorities on their lists?

Solutions:

Regular vehicle checks

Most vehicle faults are maintenance related and can be prevented through simple and regular vehicle checks.   Some of the common faults include braking defects, damaged wheels and tyres, faulty lights, leakages as well as visible suspension and chassis defects.

The majority of these faults can be fixed if drivers conduct a vehicle pre-check before use.  It is important to make sure that obvious vehicle defects that could affect vehicle safety and the safety of others are identified.

Daily vehicle checks make sure that a reliable service can be delivered to your customers and that workers can complete journeys safely and on time.

Take a look at our Daily Checks factsheet, to ensure your commercial vehicles are checked correctly.

Predictive maintenance

With unplanned Vehicle Off Road (VOR) time averaging five or six days per vehicle per year, predictive maintenance can help you minimise downtime, save costs and increase productivity.

Outsourcing to a professional fleet management provider will provide you with access to maintenance management experts who will help optimise the servicing and maintenance requirements of your fleet by determining the ideal moment for repairs, replacements and maintenance, at minimal loss of time, and therefore at minimal cost.

Many businesses that manage their own maintenance find themselves paying bills with little idea as to whether they are correct or fair. As a result, they see rising costs, over-running budgets, and are overwhelmed by the administration of handling so many bills.

A professional fleet management provider will focus on driving down your repair bills, keeping your drivers mobile and ensuring you benefit from discounts on parts and labour as well as enhanced service levels via their network of preferred garages.

Stay tuned for next week’s article where we will be discussing Productivity Challenge number 4