How to decrease vehicle downtime costs in your fleet?

Although accidents and maintenance are the most common causes of downtime, others often overlooked can jeopardize your fleet productivity. Discover how to effectively manage your vehicles' downtime and reduce your fleet costs.

Companies always have associated costs when vehicles stop, whether due to weather conditions, recalls, maintenance, accidents, or other events. Some fleet downtime costs can be managed more efficiently because fleet managers anticipate them, as opposed to others, which are unexpected and difficult to predict. However, there are specific measures you can put into practice to reduce your fleet downtime costs.

Although accidents and maintenance are the most common causes of downtime, others often overlooked can jeopardize your fleet productivity, such as weather, congested roads, loading and unloading of goods, booted vehicles, or business licenses.
 
When vehicles cannot operate due to unforeseen circumstances, less obvious costs can negatively affect your fleet. These can include:
 

• Failure to deliver products or provide a service to a customer on time;
• Costs in replacement vehicles to perform tasks;
• Additional demand on other fleet assets that increases wear and tear;
• A negative impact on productivity if drivers are unable to carry out duties;
• Costs for paying drivers for unplanned time off.

How to decrease vehicle downtime and associated costs

While some downtime events within your fleet may be out of control, adopting a proactive rather than a reactive approach to maintenance can lead to cost savings. Making small changes and planning more effectively can make a big difference to the bottom line, whether you are dealing with expected or unanticipated causes of downtime.
 
Consider these practices to reduce downtime costs in your fleet:
 

• Carry out effective maintenance scheduling;
• Implement routine maintenance practices;
• Employ vehicle replacement programs;
• Develop a process to address issues reported by drivers during daily inspections;
• Use technology to improve uptime.

Reduce downtime costs with a fleet management system

Frotcom provides you real-time fleet data and insights with all you need to know about your fleet to improve productivity and reduce costs. Concerning downtime, it offers specific features that help you mitigate the associated costs, like Fleet alarms, which allow you to know if a vehicle is exceeding the planned downtime or alerts you for the preventive maintenance plan. Frotcom’s Route planning and monitoring and Integrated navigation system help you define better routes and avoid traffic. Moreover, with Frotcom's Fleet management reports, you will know which vehicles have more downtime and understand how to reduce it.

If you would like to find more about these and other Frotcom features, contact a member of our team.