Developing a Fleet Management Plan for the New Year (2023) Rastrac Team | Jan 17, 2023 7:14:55 AM

A new year means it’s time to think about strategy, and maximizing your fleet’s utility to save time, money, and most importantly lives. Fleet management solutions should focus on control, compliance, safety, and vehicle maintenance, no matter what types of assets your fleet is made up of. 

Why should I create a fleet management plan?

Managing fleets is an expensive endeavor! In 2023, a fleet management system will cost about $35 a month, on average, per vehicle, or around $3500-$6500 per year for a fleet of 10 vehicles. For-hire fleets are expensive, and company-owned fleets are even more so due to additional operating expenses. With a fleet management strategy or plan, you can reduce your operational costs for every vehicle to scale.

Fleet management means dedicating resources to fleet operations for efficiency and minimizing costs while maintaining fleet performance and client relationships.  The goal of your fleet management should be to optimize your fleet’s lifecycle, including financing and leasing, maintenance, compliance, tracking, and managing couriers. You’ll use the massive amounts of data available to your business through state-of-the-art technology to ensure you buy and sell commercial vehicles at the optimal time, reduce accidents and maintenance costs, and more.

I’m sold on fleet management, so how do I start?

You’re going to need to invest in a fleet management system. We know investing in new technology can sound daunting to any accounting division, but when it comes to fleet management software, the returns are impossible to deny.  Fleet management systems track assets and track asset data for vehicle fleets. They can also help when it comes to monitoring driver behavior, safety, and legal compliance issues.

GPS tracking helps to monitor how vehicles are driven and can report location, fuel levels, speeds, braking, and engine faults.  Start by giving your fleet a pulse check, then decide what kind of data your team needs to understand to maximize safety and efficiency. What kind of data is available to you now? What would be on your wishlist? The answers to those questions will help guide your search for the right tool set to accurately measure your fleet’s efficiency and ultimately improve it. 

Vehicle Life Cycle

Developing your fleet management system starts with financing and purchasing your vehicles. Then, you need a plan for maintenance, compliance tracking, and driver performance tracking. Finally, you’ll want to know when is the right time to remarket or resell. 

First, fleet managers will need to purchase vehicles at the right price point, and ensure that all the necessary vehicles the fleet will require are available. Purchases may require financing depending on your organization’s budget. A careful cost-benefit analysis before purchasing any vehicle should involve close discussions with the vehicle’s current owner. Any and all data available regarding previous maintenance should be carefully weighed. 

Develop a Maintenance Plan

Fleet managers should have a maintenance plan for vehicles once they are purchased. That plan should help to ensure that there is minimal downtime and that accidents are avoided through proactive preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance helps to avoid vehicle breakdowns, ultimately saving your team time and money. Your fleet maintenance plan should involve a checklist of all activities that must be performed and scheduled. Those activities may differ depending on the class of vehicle, so be sure your list is comprehensive and reflective of your fleet.

You should determine your service intervals, and provide a clear process for drivers to submit reports when inspections have taken place.  You may want to consider teaming up with a local automotive facility to develop your comprehensive vehicle maintenance program to lock in on a good rate at the beginning of the year. Be sure to ask for references and keep meticulous records of interactions!

Invest in Fleet Preventative Maintenance Software

As a part of your annual plan, we strongly suggest that you invest in updated software. Rastrac’s fleet telematics solutions are a great way to get your fleet started out right. We can help you to monitor your fleet’s health year-round, and provide you with valuable data points so that your planning next year will be even more effective.