If you are trying to grow a small business, you’ve got a lot of plates to spin and tasks to juggle. One of your many responsibilities is, very possibly, fleet management. It doesn’t take away from the importance of fleet management if it’s just one in a list of many. Truth be told, where the potential for additional profit is concerned, one of the business owner’s more crucial responsibilities is the management of their vehicles and drivers. That applies whether the business is small, large, or something in between.
Here we’re going to examine the responsibilities of a fleet manager and list a few tips of advice. To impact the bottom line of your business less, but help manage your vehicles and drivers more, the following should be helpful.
Good Management Provides Benefits
Yes, you can protect yourself from legal worries, lessen stress, and help keep costs down through good management. But there’s more to it than that. When work-related road risks are managed well, it can do the following:
- Create more productive drivers
- Make for happier drivers through a good company culture
- Improve employee morale
Incentives such as telematics systems and “Driver of the Month” competitions can be useful here.
Keep Costs Down with Compliance
High costs can be one result of poor vehicle and employee management. Without full control over your fleets, unexpected costs can pop up, such as the following:
- Lost time as a result of unexpected repair and management.
- Heavy fines resulting from a failure to comply with Duty of Care obligations.
- Costs relating to off time of certain staff members resulting from an accident or incident.
Big Problems Can Be Caused By “Duty of Care” Nonfulfillment
To ensure that drivers are safe on the roads, “Duty of Care” obligations must be complied with by companies and company owners. Failure to do so could lead to prosecution and fines if an accident is caused by a driver and, if certain policies had been enforced, the situation could’ve been avoided. Major, financially devastating lawsuits have been decided against companies because of a failure to fulfill Duty of Care obligations.
Roadworthiness Is Essential For All Vehicles
As the business owner, it is your responsibility to make sure that every single vehicle used in your company is roadworthy and safe. That applies whether you are leasing the vehicles or own them.
Including service dates, maintenance checks, and MOT compliance, keep an up-to-date record of each as well as creating schedules. Working with today’s telematics solutions assists in alerting you to routine maintenance checks that are upcoming, the usage and mileage of each vehicle, and checks and maintenance regularly executed.
Driver Safety Means Being Proactive
To keep your drivers as safe as possible, it is your responsibility to see to it that there are systems, procedures, and policies in place. Do accidents happen? Of course they do. But when that happens, you will need to be able to show that you kept accurate records and took reasonable steps to prevent the accident from happening. Reasonable steps can include something as seemingly obvious as seeing to it that a current, legal driver’s license is held by each and every one of your drivers. Appropriate insurance is another must.
Mickey Genuine Parts has service centers situated all over the United States for the convenient care and maintenance of the vehicles in your fleet. If you’d like to schedule service at one of these centers, order a part to be used by your own maintenance personnel, or would simply like to speak to one of our representatives, contact us at Mickey Genuine Parts today. Experience the Mickey difference and find out why more and more fleet managers are turning to us for their needs.