The management of commercialised vehicles, such as those from Uber, have become an integrated part of our community.
These services have become a viable alternative to simply getting a taxi, for needs ranging from getting us to work and getting us home conveniently at night, to bringing us to the airport on time on our way to business meetings or for a holiday. This new trend brought on new employment opportunities and created a new job – Fleet Manager.
Becoming a Fleet Manager would therefore put you in charge of a valuable service in your area. However, it does come with its risks. Here are some issues that fleet managers may have to overcome in 2019.
The Hidden Problems
As the fleet business is extremely fast-paced and requires a lot of different vehicles to be in different places at once, smaller problems that occur may go unnoticed by a manager for a very long time. This includes technical issues with individual cars that could cause problems for both: the driver and the rider.
These problems can become bigger if they remain unnoticed and they can eventually become the reason behind a full-blown accident. This could have a serious ramification for the company, as well as result in substantial financial losses or bankruptcy and legal prosecution.
Make sure that you always keep your cars and employees in check by having constant checks of the vehicles and drivers.
You can also look into upgrading your business insurance, and find the best prices for fleet insurance online, in order to avoid any liability costs from employees and clients.
For smaller problems within the vehicle, you can even look into investing in InSight alerts that uses GPS to alert managers to problems with different vehicles. This means that smaller problems can be solved immediately without any fuss.
Risks and Crime
It can be a traumatising experience for both the driver and the company should they experience any sort of robbery in their vehicle.
Not only could your driver be placed out of action, and also need to be compensated for this, but the thieves could cause a lot more damage by taking contents or vandalising or stealing the vehicles themselves.
This is another reason to make sure that your vehicles and employees are insured, to make sure that the company can cover the cost of the damagers, but to also ensure your employees’ safety.
Loss of Time
Perhaps you have noticed that your drivers are not reaching their destinations at the appointed times.
They may be straying off their assigned routes or perhaps are hitting areas that are prone to more traffic, meaning that they are stuck and cannot move. This can be a headache for any fleet manager.
Keep an eye on your driver’s route optimisation through the fleet management system to ensure that they are keeping to schedule and are not wasting the company and client’s time.
Green Driving
Globally, transport emissions count for around 14% of all greenhouse gasses, thus it is imperative for Fleet managers to play their part in reducing these for any vehicle they have been placed in charge of.
Whilst you do not need to replace your entire company’s vehicles with new updated models, be sure to look into the amount of fuel that is used each journey and calculate how these can be reduced. This is known as “Smart Driving.”
