As a fleet manager minimising your operating costs is one of your key objectives. Operating a fleet is expensive, so any savings you can leverage are important. Whether your fleet has one or one hundred vehicles, proactive maintenance can drastically reduce the amount of time and money you spend on your fleet. Proactive vehicle maintenance will help keep your drivers safer, avoid premature wear of vehicles and components, and help you keep on top of WOF, COF, RUC, and vehicle registration.
Smartrak's Fleet Servicing module offers tools and features that can help you proactively maintain your fleet's vehicles and thereby reduce costs.
Using Smartrak's Fleet Servicing, you can track, schedule, and manage routine maintenance - streamlining the management of your fleet from a single location. No matter the size of your fleet, the Fleet Servicing module allows you to leverage preventative maintenance to maintain your vehicles, save money and ensure the safety of your drivers.
Though you don't have control of the cost of fuel, you can control your vehicles' maintenance and overall efficiency. Quickly fixing any issues, keeping tyres at the proper pressure, and using quality oil along with regular oil changes can improve fuel consumption by up to 40%. In 2016, the average vehicle drove 13,716 kilometres and used an average of $2,366 on fuel annually.
Keeping on top of your vehicle's maintenance can improve fuel consumption by up to 40% - which highlights the potential saving you could achieve with every vehicle in your fleet! Each percentage of improvement in fuel consumption amounts to more than $20 in savings.
Simple maintenance that can easily be scheduled and checked off include:
And what's more, in a survey by Bobit Business Media, 37% of respondents reported improved vehicle maintenance through the use of a telematics system.
Work-related road accidents are twice as likely to result in death or permanent disability as other workplace incidents. Without regular maintenance to check for and fix mechanical issues, you could be placing your drivers in at increased risk. Simple maintenance such as checking and changing tyre wear and pressure, can improve braking efficiency and mean the difference between an accident and a near miss. By using a Fleet Servicing module to schedule and track routine maintenance, you can keep your vehicles operating at their best and safest, ensuring you are undertaking best practices to keep your staff safe.
Stretching the time between oil changes, tyre rotations, and routine tune-ups may save money short term, but it can lead to inflated costs in the long run. For example, regular tyre rotation can extend the life of your tyres by up to 20%.
With regular proactive maintenance, you can also avoid the costs typically associated with reactive maintenance and repairs that result from breakdowns and run-to-failure. Cost such as unscheduled maintenance, equipment downtime and their roll-on effects.
Emergency maintenance can cost between 3 and 9 times the cost of planned maintenance - so it pays to avoid unexpected repairs.
Vehicle maintenance is only one piece of your fleet management responsibilities, so it's easy to let regular care give way to other tasks. Using Fleet Servicing, you can no longer need to manually keep track of your maintenance schedules and needs.
You can also use Fleet Servicing for compliance records and use the NZTA integration for automated servicing of WOF, COF, RUC, and vehicle registration - streamlining the process for your fleet.
Smartrak's Fleet Servicing also integrates with your fleet's virtual odometers and can provide reminders based on distance travelled and time since the last service, enabling you to automate the process and letting you focus on more pressing matters.
