It’s no secret that field service businesses like lawn care, pool maintenance, plumbing companies, and the like have to care for multiple vehicles, which is a lot of work and no easy feat. Today, we will offer some valuable tips for your business to manage a fleet of vehicles.
The Right Fleet Vehicles for the Job
Your business is unique, and you have your own nuanced needs. The same goes for selecting your fleet. Things like the kind of business, fuel prices, access to electric vehicle charging stations, space and budget constraints, and your service area will dictate the size and specifications of your fleet.
For example, plumbers, pool maintenance, and cleaning companies may invest in some vans. But a maid service or courier may need regular cars. No matter your needs, the first step to properly manage a fleet of vehicles is investing your company’s cash in the right ones and taking good care of the ones you may already have. The vehicles you choose will help streamline company operations and help it grow more profitable in the long run.
Driver Management
Of course, good fleet management goes hand in hand with good fleet drivers. Take initiative by setting goals and expectations for driver performance. Make a clear list of expectations for your drivers to follow. Consider incentivizing drivers for doing a good job – whether for achieving high fuel efficiency, exhibiting high driving performance, performing a fleet inspection regularly, or performing a fleet inspection regularly. This may not work for everyone, so always hold your drivers to your company’s unique performance standard.
Create achievable goals for your drivers to inspire responsible and safer driving habits. Fostering a positive work environment can help you keep the excellent driver you have.
The potential fuel savings for better driving habits and a well-running vehicle can add up across the fleet. With driver behavior monitoring, promoting safe driving habits is even easier.
Most OTR (over-the-road) trucking industries now have GPS systems installed in every truck so that you can keep track of where your vehicle is at any given time. This is for the safety of your drivers and keeping track of your vehicles.
Luckily, there are many software apps out there these days that offer GPS and location-tracking tools; one of these is ServiceWorks. ServiceWorks is a multi-purpose software that can go from the computer and be integrated into a mobile device. ServiceWorks boasts a wide range of attractive features like keeping up on where your employees are at any given moment.
Easy and Accessible Fleet Management
The more accessible, the better with life in general and fleet management. If you want to keep up with routine vehicle servicing and maintenance, you should make inspections, scheduling, and reporting a priority and as effortless as possible.
We’ve seen handwritten notes, dry-erase boards, and even old-fashioned file folders used to keep fleets on schedule with maintenance and servicing. Consider using cloud-based fleet management software with mobile accessibility and automated features like service reminders and electronic driver vehicle inspection reports to reduce clutter confusion and make life easier. Software programs like ServiceWorks offer options to keep track of things like scheduling, mileage, and service on fleet vehicles, plus they can be integrated for mobile devices.
Route Optimization
Relying on manual route mapping is tedious and wastes time, not to mention the fuel it can waste, which is terrible for the environment. Consider investing in software with integrated features like route optimization to save fuel costs and time. ServiceWorks not only features handy features like route optimization to save time and money, but it also has an online storage system for saving info about vehicles and offers employees the option to send client invoices at the job site after each job; how cool is that?!
Stay Up to Date
With advances in technology and vehicles, it’s essential to stay current on new developments that could affect how you manage a fleet of vehicles. It’s helpful to join an industry association, listen to relevant podcasts about the industry or fleet management, attend conferences and trade shows when possible, and keep up with the latest information about fuels and new technology.
Now you have a few ideas to manage a fleet of vehicles with as much ease as waving a magic wand by making your fleet management mobile, automated, and accessible by anyone you want on your team. With great features that support fleet management like route optimization, GPS, service scheduling, and data storage on the cloud, why not give ServiceWorks a chance to be your right hand for managing your fleet. Try ServiceWorks today risk-free with the 14-day free trial.
