In What Ways Can Fleet Management Software’s Service and Maintenance Help Businesses?

Maintaining a fleet’s health is a high-priority task for managers. But manually keeping track of each vehicle’s status can not only consume unnecessary time but can also be the cause of many errors. This is the reason many businesses are investing in a fleet management system.

But before we look into ways in which this system optimises fleet maintenance, it is essential to understand the effects of poor fleet health. Let us learn all there is to know about servicing and maintenance features through this article.

Does Lack of Vehicle Maintenance Affect a Fleet?

A poorly maintained fleet can be very hazardous on the roads. It can jeopardise both the driver’s and the vehicle’s safety. Let us see a few issues that arise with ignorance towards a vehicle’s maintenance procedures:

• Lower Vehicle Life: Fleet’s longevity is an essential part of its profitability. When an automobile incurs damage over time, it reaches the point of no return way faster than normal. Regularly buying new vehicles can be huge to a fleet’s budget.
• High Downtime: If a vehicle is out of order, it cannot carry out tasks for the business. This means a loss of productivity. Low maintenance rates can result in longer downtime for vehicles that work on roads for extended periods of time.
• Increased Fuel Consumption: Engine operation is the major reason for any vehicle’s fuel consumption. If the engine is well maintained, the fleet’s fuel consumption will also be low. This is why a poorly maintained fleet can guzzle up fleet budgets due to the ever-rising fuel price and high rate of consumption.
• Excessive Accidents: Vehicle components like brakes and tyres need to be in pristine shape for the smooth running of vehicles. Ignorance in their maintenance can be the reason for major road accidents.

What Are the Steps Involved In Fleet Maintenance?

There is a lot of work that goes behind ensuring that a fleet is running in optimal condition. This is a step-by-step guide to maintaining fleets:

• Scheduling Check-ups: A manager needs to ensure that all their vehicles undergo regular check-ups. This process makes sure that any defect in the vehicle is recognised at an early stage. Thus, saving the fleet from spending extra on repairs.
• Working on Preventive Maintenance: If any issue comes up at the previous stage, then measures are taken to restore the vehicle’s health. Thus, they ensure that these issues do not interfere with the vehicle’s tasks.
• Analysing Damaged Vehicles: In case of spontaneous damage such as accidents, managers need to send their vehicles for repair. This process also plays an important role in running a profitable fleet with a low breakdown rate. Thus, they need to thoroughly check and tally what damages the vehicle has suffered.
• Implementing Corrective Maintenance: After collecting data on the vehicle’s damages, it is time to send it for repairs. Running damaged fleet vehicles can deteriorate their health even further. This fastens the pace of vehicle replacement.

How Can Fleet Management Systems Help?

A good fleet management system is equipped with all the features fleet businesses require to smoothly operate their fleets. This includes the servicing and maintenance features as well. So what does this feature do exactly?

The servicing and maintenance feature allows managers to schedule check-up procedures for their vehicles in advance. Thus, every time such a check-up date is approaching, the software drops in a reminder for them a few days prior. Through this process, the chance of managers forgetting about any servicing is highly unlikely.

In case a vehicle meets with an accident on the road, managers can also use this feature to schedule their repair. If they continue to run their vehicle even when it is damaged, it can be very harmful. It not only deteriorates the fleet’s health even further but can also be the cause of even more accidents.

Through such a useful feature, fleets can gain several benefits from using fleet management systems. The next section will discuss these benefits in detail.

What are the Benefits Of Fleet Management System’s Servicing and Maintenance Feature?

There are so many benefits a fleet business experiences by using the servicing and maintenance feature of fleet management software. A few of them include:

Higher Safety

Running optimised vehicles on road means that the chance of them encountering any accident due to vehicle failure is low. Servicing check-ups for vehicles often include brake and tyre replacements.

Accidents can be the cause of losses for any fleet. They can damage vehicles beyond the point of repair and extreme cases might raise the need for replacement altogether. Thus, this function stops such situations at an early age.

Time Efficiency

A lot of time is spent manually tracking vehicles’ conditions. This process can also lead to unnecessary and harmful human errors. Automating this process means that managers do not have to worry about spending long periods of time updating lists and reports. When we consider this scenario for large fleets, a lot of time can be saved out of managers’ working hours.

Having a pre-scheduled system can also work as a way for managers to know when a vehicle will be unavailable for tasks. This way they can reassign their tasks to another vehicle beforehand, not wasting any time last minute.

Boosted Productivity

As we mentioned above, managers are able to save a lot of time via automation. This means this time can instead be invested in other tasks. Thus managers are able to complete more work in the same time frame as before.

Even vehicles being out of order affects fleets negatively. If the vehicle is not working, drivers will be unable to perform tasks. Thus, healthy fleets mean time spent on the road.

Diminished Expenditure

Fleets tend to lose money in various ways. Rising fuel costs are also something fleet businesses cannot control. This is why a fleet management system helps them maintain their vehicles in a state that does not require much money.

Servicing and maintenance feature of the fleet ensures that the vehicles run in their optimal condition. This means reduced fuel consumption for the entire fleet. Also, the lower the accident rate of the vehicles, the lower will be its repair cost. Thus, a large fleet can ultimately save a lot of money.

Lower CO2 Emission

High costs are not the only concern related to fuel consumption. With climate change looming over the world, most governments are implementing rules and regulations for fleet’s CO2 emissions. The higher the fuel usage of a fleet the more will be pollution. Thus managers are able to ensure that their fleets do not harm the environment, saving them from spending on fines as well.

In the End

Maintaining a vehicle in good condition can be hard. If ignored extensively, the vehicles’ damages can gravely impact the fleet’s budget. This is why a good fleet management system is essential for seamless maintenance scheduling.

TrackoBit is the leading vehicle tracking software in the market. With its service and maintenance feature, managers have to put no effort into manually setting reminders for their vehicle maintenance check-ups. With the flexibility to customise, the system can mould itself into what your system requires the most. Request a demo and watch it transform your fleet today!