When carefully planned and implemented, a fuel card program can provide numerous benefits to fleets of all sizes, including reduced costs, streamlined operations, improved efficiencies and a boost in productivity.
But the key to the development process and to an effective program is “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.” Hastily implementing a program with little thought or attention to detail will reap few if any long-term benefits and could even cause problems down the road.
There’s no question about it — fleet managers understand how important safety is to their fleet and overall operations, and, therefore, do everything they can to make safety a top priority.
But, despite fleet managers’ efforts, accidents still occur every day, many of which are caused by unfavorable weather conditions or from drivers behind the wheel of poorly maintained or ill-equipped vehicles.
While nothing can be done to improve the weather, there is plenty fleet managers — highly effective fleet managers — can do to improve their vehicles and make them safer. One is performing routine maintenance and staying on top of repairs. Another is implementing vehicle safety technologies.
The average number of car accidents in the U.S. is 6 million every year. By outfitting current vehicles or purchasing new vehicles equipped with safety technologies, fleet managers can positively impact that number, improve safety and boost their bottom line.
There are numerous strategies that fleet managers implement to conserve fuel. Idle reduction, preventative maintenance, outfitting vehicles with aerodynamic devices and monitoring driver behavior are likely the ones that first come to mind.
The driver shortage is a top challenge and concern among fleet managers, and, unfortunately, it’s a situation with no real end in sight. In fact, it’s growing year-over-year and increasingly shrinking the driver labor pool.
With fuel costs accounting for approximately 30% of a fleet’s total operating costs, finding fuel management strategies that maximize fuel economy and reduce fuel costs should be a top priority for both fleet managers and key players, whether the fleet is comprised of a few or a few hundred vehicles.
If you’re looking to control costs — and what fleet manager isn’t — finding ways to reduce excessive idling should be one of your top priorities. Excessive idling is a huge fuel waster that gives you zero miles per gallon, increases maintenance costs and produces pollutant emissions that are harmful to the environment and to the health of your drivers. Plus, in many jurisdictions, excessive idling is illegal, with hefty fines for a violation.
There are various reasons for drivers allowing an engine to idle, including warming up or cooling down the interior of the vehicle, operating emergency lighting or radios, warming up the engine, powering off-board equipment, processing paperwork, talking on the phone, and loading/unloading.
It’s summertime and while the livin’ may be easy, as for the driving, well, that can be another story entirely. In fact, summertime driving can be downright dangerous.
For starters, with Americans packing up the car and traveling to summer vacation destinations, there’s more traffic than usual on the roadways. More traffic means more congestion and a greater chance of accidents.
And then there’s the weather.
Summer brings an abundance of steamy, sticky days and unsettled weather patterns that can ramp up the potential for torrential afternoon
thunderstorms that strike with little warning, limit visibility, and boost the chances of one of the most common causes of traffic accidents: hydroplaning.
There’s no doubt that managing a fleet is a complex undertaking — one that requires a broad range of skills and experience to keep the numerous areas of operation running efficiently and within budget.
But the fact is, as highly skilled and experienced as the most successful fleet managers are, one thing that’s hard to tackle is predicting exactly what liability issues might crop up — making such predictions is next to impossible.
However, reducing liability exposure with winning strategies and solutions that improve the areas most affected by common liability issue is very possible to achieve.
Being held liable in a claim is no picnic. It can negatively impact a company’s reputation, affect how a fleet is managed and operated, and can mean the difference between operating profitably or operating in the red.
With areas of the Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Maria in 2017, it may seem too early to even be thinking about the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season. But the truth of the matter is, it’s never too early to be thinking about — and preparing for — hurricane season.
With the blizzards, whiteouts and ice-covered roads of winter in the rear-view mirror and the warm, sunny days of summer just around the corner, you might be looking forward to your drivers traveling on roads that are safer and much easier to navigate.
Sorry to disappoint.
Tags: Fleet Management
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