6 Tips For Effective Fleet Maintenance

Effective fleet maintenance is a productive practice for keeping enterprises on a roll. Though it is a mundane task demanding day-to-day attention it cannot be neglected. Keeping the fleets ready for the trips helps the enterprises to optimize time as well as productivity pretty efficiently.

Surprisingly, today we have a lot of technological options to figure out the issues evolving in the fleet operation in advance. Thus, the major cause that hinders the seamless working cycles can be mitigated via these advances in fleet management technologies.

Read Also: What is fleet management – All you need to know

However, let see a few tips for effective fleet maintenance here.

1. Appropriate Vehicle Selection

Sadly, an unhealthy practice that is prevailing among most of the small and medium enterprises is the inappropriate selection of vehicles. Instead of procuring pertinent runabouts they prefer multipurpose vehicles that cater to all sort of purpose.

In fact, in the long run, enterprises have to splash a huge amount to maintaining these vehicles. Also, procuring relevant vehicles help a lot to save time and money. Further, it helps to upkeep a healthy fleet management cycle as well.

Moreover, having a clear understanding of the purpose of vehicles and its demand in the business will enable the business owners to optimize the fleet selection.

2. Preventive Maintenance

Around 50 % of issues arising over the vehicles can be eliminated by periodic inspection and timely service. Checking the wheels and its alignments, applying lubricants at the proper intervals and checking fluids and transmission systems reduce the maintenance frequencies as well as increase the efficiency of vehicles.

In fact, the lack of regular inspection costs a lot and ends in unexpected downtimes to business.

Making inspection a habit is a productive exercise that helps to maintain the fleets industriously. Figuring out the issues and fixing it quickly helps to run an uninterrupted fleet operation regularly.

Further, leveraging fleet management software for finding the issues at an early age and replacing the weak parts and repairing the issues will help the fleet owners to prevent unnecessary money loss. 

3. Regular Monitoring

Monitoring the day-to-day activities of fleet allow us to optimize its operation. Including the work cycle, fleet routes, fuel efficiency, maintenance frequency, productivity and all sorts of activities relating to the fleet operations has to be monitored more often.

Recording all these data will help the fleet owners to gather the most efficient practice and subsequently formulate an optimized fleet maintenance frequency to exercise.

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Though driver behavior is a noticeable factor in fleet efficiency, by monitoring the driving style and behavior of drivers the fleet owners can assume the most cost-effective plan fleet maintenance cycle to practices.

4. Stringent Fleet Compliance

Formulating a strict fleet policy to follow would help enterprises to bring almost everything in the beeline. Educate the company policies of fleet operation to the drivers enable them to comply with the rules and road laws.

The vision of organizations and the requirements that they are striving to achieve can be conveyed through a healthy policy. Thereby, fleet employees can follow up with the policies and work accordingly.

Encouraging practicing a good fleet management policy helps to grow a responsible work culture among the vehicle staff and inspire to report relevant matters in the meantime as well.

5. Clear Communication and Training                                                      

Training is an essential factor to mitigate fleet maintenance. There may be drivers of unlike driving styles and skills. However, giving proper training to handle the particular vehicle and the technologies attached with it mitigates a large sum of troubles at once.

Today, as the fleet technologies are booming in helping the fleet managers to optimize the operations, training the drivers to use those technologies always add productive inputs into the whole system especially in keeping the working momentum.

Timely communication is a big helping tool in the fleet industry. Through the proper exchange of communication fleet owners can eliminate unnecessary quarrels and contradiction with the employees. Specifically, drivers can immediately inform about the maintenance requirements to the managers. Also, if they are getting trained they can resolve minor issues on the trip itself.

Informing the changes of routes, additional emergency tasks and listening to the drivers would help to schedule the works at the convenience of both the parties.

6. Employ Fleet Technologies

The fleet industry is no short of technologies today. There are plenty of diversified technologies such as fleet management software and fleet management systems for optimize out the fleet operations.

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Therefore, employing appropriate technology supports in the vehicle enables to manage the vehicles more efficiently. The fleet management software that is able to monitor and scan out the entire vehicles helps further to figure out the issues that are hidden from our eyes as well. Thus, it opens a gate for an efficient fleet maintenance operation.

Conclusion:

Fleet management can be done today in many ways. However, to keep it efficient we have to follow up some fruitful tips as mentioned above. Hence, practicing it will help you out to upkeep an efficient fleet operation all around. 

5 Essential Safety Tips For Fleet Drivers

Every dutiful driver is an asset for enterprises and amazingly they can cut down the mind-numbing tasks of fleet managers to half. Hence, driver Safety is a key factor to look over in fleet operation. Moreover, for nothing can offset a life, every fleet driver life is a matter for care.

Every day the number of road accidents is growing even worse. Despite the stringent traffic policies and technologies, the rate of human errors in causing accidents is also growing in number day after day.

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Technologies in the fleet industry today are trying restlessly to mitigate road accidents. Further, to ensure no life ends on the roads they are working to make safe- autonomous vehicles as well. despite all these efforts, the number of fatal accidents is not reducing on a larger scale.

However, there are few follow-worth tips that help for a secure drive.

 Let look at some of the good practices for a safe drive.

1. Preventive Maintenance

Unexpected breakdowns are always a haunting pain for fleet drivers. In addition, it may cause severe life-threatening incidents on the trips. But, most of it can be prevented by periodic inspection and services. Keeping an eye on the tires, engine lubricants, transmission, brakes, and lights would enable the fleet to keep rolling uninterruptedly.

Timely service is another must-follow process in fleet operation to prevent unnecessary maintenance. Replacing the rubbed off and burned out parts at the right time will allow a seamless machine operation. Thereby we can maintain a safe journey.

2. Defensive Driving

Driving on the busy roads are more like a matter of luck today. Though we take much caution on every tweak and turn, the proneness for a hit is high. So acquiring some defensive driving skills will enable us to avoid the chances of unintentional collisions. also, these skills help to skip mischevious drivers across the trip.

Hazardous drivers are growing in number on the roads and multitasking while driving rising the accident rate as well.

So some quick quirks such as keeping focus, maintaining a proper distance, adhering to the lane discipline and never underestimating other drivers help us to maintain a defensive driving practice.

3. Prepare for the Weather

Weather is an open-ended companion for fleet drivers. Sometimes it soothes the drivers and other times its rage is unbearable. However, drivers have to be prepared to encounter any sort of weather condition across their way.

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In addition, maintaining the tire condition, brake, and transmission alignments, lights and signals enable the fleets to confront the odd weather conditions quite effectively.

Taking proper decisions according to the poor driving conditions such as speed limit, lane disciplines and gaps between vehicles will help to keep the vehicle from unintended collisions. Further, in foggy times, appropriate light signals can help us out for a safe drive.

4. Adhere to Lane Discipline

Sticking close with the lane discipline can save our fleet as well as our time, indeed. However, it works only if all of the drivers would think so…

Distractive driving is the major cause that always disorders the lane discipline. Also, the rush to reach the destination may force the drivers to breach the rules often. So, try to avoid the last minute rush and distractive driving trends while behind the wheels.

Nevertheless, obeying the signals, following the rules and helping other vehicles to toe the line enables every vehicle to have a tense-free drive across the roads.

5. Avoid Fatigue Driving

Lack of rest is one of the scary challenges that put the drivers’ life at risk while driving. The mundane long- hauling trips tire out the body of drivers and it weighs down their energy level as well. So, taking proper rest is important to prevent fatigue driving.

Further, the risks coupling with sleepless work schedule is not only the proneness to accidents but also serious health problems such as hypertension, stress, risk of heart diseases and stroke, aches, obesity, etc.       

Taking proper sleep and food at the right time and at the right amount is the solution for avoiding fatigue driving. Unfortunately, the work-life balance of fleet drivers cannot be fixed as other jobs for it takes a lot of factors to coincide.

Hence, take appropriate breaks from continues work hours and try to work on a shift based system to avoid unfavorable incidents across the trips.

Conclusion

Since safety is the main concern in fleet operation, we have to adhere to several factors across the roads. By keeping all the possible road rules allow us to create a safe traffic environment not only for us but also for others.

Read Also: What Are The Benefits of Fleet Management Software?

Thus, getting technology supports that can give predictive insights such as Fleet management software could help largely to avoid the possible odd causes. Therefore, always try to obey the rules of roads and the recommended measures to ensure a safe and secure journey.