Tips for Improving Your Fleet Management

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Whether you run a fleet management company or fleet management is simply one element of your business, you probably feel like you have a lot of irons in the fire. You have to make sure that your drivers get where they are going safely, on time and with minimal costs. You also have to make sure that if they have contact with clients or customers, they are offering good service. Beyond that, you must manage your drivers effectively and perform a lot of administrative tasks to ensure that you remain within budget and are billing correctly. There are a number of things you can do to make juggling all these tasks less difficult and to get better results.

Telematics

Telematics is an excellent way to help you cut costs, track the performance of your drivers, and provide better service for your customers. With vehicle telematics, you can solve common problems like inefficient routing. You can get best-in-class visibility from GPS tracking and smart geofencing, give your customers accurate information about delivery times, and get more granular information about driver performance.

Rewarding Drivers

Making sure your employees drive safely is critical, but you'll get a better overall performance from them if morale is high. Respond to performance issues in a spirit of constructive criticism, working with your employees to improve problem areas. Reward those who are safer and more efficient. You could even set this up as a weekly or monthly competition.

Clear Policies

Your policies and ways of doing things should be clear, easily understood, and organized. This can reduce confusion and resentment and can help ensure that everyone is fully aware of regulations. Not managing expectations is one of many things to avoid when running a small business. These policies should be easily accessible at all times, and there should be a system notifying drivers of any updates to them. Examples of areas that need to be addressed include systems for vehicle maintenance and fuel purchase, expense tracking and a process for procuring vehicles

Communication

The lines of communication should always be open between drivers and managers, and managers need to be approachable. Managers should be clear about their expectations, and they should encourage employees to come to them about any safety concerns or any questions or ideas that they have. They should respect the experience these drivers have and make an effort to incorporate strong suggestions for improvement. Communication between employees should be encouraged as well, with an eye to promoting the idea of teamwork.

Keep Adapting

Staying on top of what is happening in the industry, what is new and innovative and what is no longer working, will be critical for your long-term success. Feedback from customers and employees on what is and isn't working is valuable as well. You should cultivate the ability to be flexible and adapt as the industry, your business and other circumstances change. You should be constantly on the lookout for ways to improve. You might want to consider periodic brainstorming sessions with your entire fleet so that everyone can offer their insight and feel as though they have a voice in the company.