Just like the rest of New Zealand, fleet companies are having a tough time keeping up with soaring inflation, which might rise again to 7.5% in early 2023.
With operating costs growing across the board, it’s time for fleet businesses to be smarter than ever with their finances. One of the most effective ways to get genuine value from your fleet is finding intelligent solutions to keep vehicles running reliably and safely.
Fleet managers need to carefully monitor and predict all costs, including maintenance, to keep assets operational and keep the business running profitably. As supply chain constraints persist, it is challenging to source replacement vehicles and parts, some of which have skyrocketed in price. Combined with a lack of skilled technicians and service crews, it can lead to extended repair time creating a serious headache, especially for those running an aging fleet. Uncertainty around future costs, including fuel adds further complication when pricing and budgeting. Closely monitoring and managing vehicle functions, maintenance and safety features makes it easier to stay profitable.
The good news is as your fleet grows, the money you spend putting in place a preventive maintenance plan can save you from unplanned vehicle repairs. This prevents shortened vehicle lifespan, significant down time and also the risk of compromising your employees’ safety. And you can reinvest the dollars saved to leverage sophisticated technologies such as telematics as a key component in a successful fleet maintenance strategy.
How can telematics help with reducing overall repair costs and impact your business both in the short and long term?
First of all, it keeps you aware. As a solution, it helps you to digitally manage maintenance schedules and automatically track metrics like mileage, fuel use and engine hours. Knowing when each vehicle is due for repairs allows you to make smarter decisions with your asset use, budget and staffing. As the saying goes, the more you know about issues that arise, the more likely you are to do something about it.
Second, a fleet management solution keeps your operation running with enhanced visibility. With detailed analytics outlining information on the status and condition of each and every vehicle across your fleet, you get a bird’s eye view of any potential problems. When procedures are followed by your drivers and operational staff, it means issues can be caught and fixed in minutes rather than days, often before a vehicle leaves the depot. Drivers can have access to digital checklists that are completed before starting their journey – the moment it’s submitted you have a complete picture of their vehicle’s status so maintenance staff can get into action if something is highlighted by the driver. This information, paired with vehicle performance analytics helps greatly in avoiding prolonged or unexpected downtime, and costly breakdowns, which can easily have a significant impact on profitability.
Last but not least, you probably already know that fleet tracking keeps tabs on your assets – whether its vehicles, equipment or machinery, but it’s not just about tracking them. It can also monitor driver and operator habits, reveal speed events and poor behaviours, excessive braking, excessive idling and a myriad of other metrics to do with driver and vehicle performance. All these behaviours can burn up excess fuel and cause wear and tear. With a fleet management solution and telematics, you get all these metrics delivered in analytics in real-time so you can track performance over time to better understand operational benchmark that you can then improve behaviour and safety.
In fact vehicle and fleet technologies give drivers a bigger, more proactive role in fleet maintenance. As they interact with your vehicles most, it makes sense to provide them with thorough training to ensure you all understand how to use the system and incorporate it in daily procedures to get the most out of it. At the end of the day, the less stress a driver endures in their work day, the better and happier they are – retaining drivers is important now more than ever.
Developing an effective fleet maintenance programme doesn’t have to be difficult and expensive. There is a great range of tools and technologies out there – they can be surprisingly cost-effective, and the results rewarding. Today, no matter the fleet size, investing in technology has become easier than ever before to save time, frustration and money, especially when it comes to vehicle maintenance. When margins are tight and the future uncertain, making good use of technology can be the difference between running at a profit or making a loss.
*Michael Barnard is a transport solutions specialist at Teletrac Navman. This article appeared in the January edition of TransportTalk.
