Some businesses are largely dependent on their fleets for survival, but you wouldn’t get that impression by the way they manage it. It’s surprising to see how many businesses still use paper logs or how many people don’t even look at advanced telematics data to inform their decisions. They might assume that they don’t need to go through all this trouble because they manage to make profits, but with the rising costs fleets have to incur these days, many of these companies will have no choice but to start getting serious about fleet management if they want to stay afloat. Let’s take a look at a few ways poor fleet management could hurt your business.
Compliance Issues
Poorly managing your fleet will increase the chances of failing compliance and will complicate the whole process, especially if you end up getting audited.
DOT, FMCSA, and OSHA compliance rules are becoming more and more complex, and you can’t get by with outdated reporting methods anymore. Thankfully, there are many tools like Compliance Safety Manager that can help ensure DOT and OSHA compliance by keeping your DQ files well organized and giving you a clear visual snapshot of how far along the compliance process your drivers are.
Higher Costs
Poor fleet management is also directly correlated with higher costs. And we’re not only talking about fuel only.
Fleets that are poorly managed are more likely to have breakdowns. This results in higher repair costs, and lower productivity. Poorly managed fleets are also more likely to deal with accidents on the road. These can lead to driver and passenger injuries, repairs, higher insurance costs, loss of inventory, and lawsuits.
The chance of these things happening will be greatly lowered if you improve the way your fleet is managed and use the proper set of tools. You’ll be able to tell which of your employers are driving recklessly, for instance. You’ll also be able to tell who is leaving their vehicles idle more often than others, over braking, or handling their vehicles in a way that can cause additional wear on the vehicles.
You can then bring outliers in for an evaluation and possibly additional training so they can drive more responsibly and cost-effectively.
Higher Turnover
Poor fleet management can also lead to higher turnover rates. Drivers feel more secure when a company actually cares for its fleet, and not managing your fleet correctly will reflect negatively on your brand as an employer. Employees will also remember the times they had to do some emergency work or when they were stuck on the road because of a foreseeable breakdown.
If you care about your employees and understand how difficult it is to find, attract, and retain good operators these days, you will need to take fleet management more seriously.
These are all ways that poor fleet management could be disastrous for your business. Take steps every day to become better at it and go beyond the main features your telematics solution offers so you can dig deeper and truly improve your fleet’s efficiency.
