How you plan and implement your commercial fleet maintenance strategy is perhaps the most important step to ensure that your company vehicles are consistently operational for the long haul. This includes everything from how you organize your maintenance routine to how sustainable your best practices are, all of which can play a big role in how much you spend, as well as the lifespan of your commercial vehicles.

With that in mind, here are five of our best fleet management ideas, with helpful tips that any business can implement for better maintained vehicles.

5 Tips for an Improved Vehicle Fleet Management Strategy

Building a fleet can prove expensive, and the amount of resources and capital required to maintain them can drain your reserves quickly. When you’re managing any business, it’s crucial that you look for ways to keep your costs down, which, when it comes to your fleet, includes preventative maintenance strategies that are guaranteed to save you money—as well as time and effort—as the years go by.

Not sure where to start? Follow these five tips to get the ball rolling:

Put together a dedicated fleet maintenance plan

Don’t just service your trucks when the need arises. Instead, schedule regular fleet maintenance checks as part of your bigger management strategy. This can help ensure that your vehicles won’t experience avoidable problems that may keep them off the road. Regular maintenance will also help reduce your emissions and fuel costs, as well as maintain—and even improve—the performance of your trucks.

Invest in fleet sustainability

All businesses have a responsibility to manage their environmental impact when operating their fleet, so if it’s in the budget, consider making the upgrade to newer and more efficient vehicle models. Look into subsidies and tax credits as well, which can off-set the upfront costs of investing in more sustainable vehicles. While this can help reduce harmful emissions, you’ll simultaneously save big on fuel—which sounds like a major win-win to us.

Streamline your protocols—and monitor progress

Set out clear and achievable expectations for how you want your drivers to operate your vehicles. It’s a lot more effective to clarify what you expect rather than assuming that drivers, experienced or not, instinctively know what you want. Setting these sorts of standards can help when it comes to upholding safety, maintenance, and management best practices. You should also consider installing telematics and monitoring software in your vehicles to ensure compliance and to identify small problems before they turn into something bigger.

Offer driver incentives

Just as important as making sure that drivers know what’s expected of them is rewarding them when they achieve success. So, just as you would call out unwelcome behaviors, be sure to recognize when your drives meet your expectations—and when they go above and beyond. This could be as simple as sending out a company-wide email calling out certain drivers for their exceptional performance, or you could also consider an occasional bonus as an added incentive.

Consolidate fleet trips

Fewer trips mean fewer chances for things to go wrong. It’s also a great way to reduce mileage and boost the fuel efficiency of your fleet. When possible, consolidate trips through things like carpools and bulk errand runs, and set travel reduction benchmarks that your drivers can aim for. Make a point too of digging into your mileage data to try and pinpoint wasteful fleet use so that you can take targeted steps toward impactful solutions.

Just as crucial: have a reliable roadside assistance plan so that when you do hit a bump in the road you can have the problem resolved quickly and affordably. Get in touch to learn about our plans and how Best Roadside Service can help ensure that your fleet always runs at its best.