Purchasing vehicles for the fleet is frequently a difficult decision. It is a huge investment and frequently requires significant capital outlay. In bigger firms, fleet vehicle purchasing frequently needs to be approved by senior management, which requires extensive criminal background checks and reports.
So what can help fleet managers get the best decisions with regards to buying fleet vehicles?
Aspects of a great fleet decision include:
Accurate vehicle performance data for fair and true comparisons, in addition to management reporting
Decision data that may be collected rapidly and simply
Vehicle data that’s available to anybody within the organization it doesn’t matter how lengthy they have labored for that firm
Data that covers the entire and total price of car possession (TCO)
Information is truly representative leading to impartial decisions
Buying on emotion?
A large mistake lots of fleet managers (and lots of other car buyers) make when purchasing an automobile is that they upgrade on emotional reasons. Obviously, nobody ever admits to purchasing according to emotion however it happens – a great deal!
Car makers know this and market their vehicles to attract your feelings. Be it attractive to your loyal feeling of duty, your requirement for safety or perhaps a childhood dream, car advertising isn’t about details and figures. It comes down to the fluffy stuff even though that may provide you with the warm fuzzies, it’s a bad grounds for buying fleet vehicles.
Keep the vehicle decision rational – and save!
So how will you steer clear of the mistake of purchasing for emotional reasons and make certain that the purchases are squarely according to notebook computer for that fleet, and also the overall profitability of the organization?
Ultimately it comes down to getting straight answers to base your choice on – or when contriving a business situation report if you do not result in the actual purchase.
Collecting accurate vehicle data starts early, actually the earlier you can begin gathering info on your present fleet, the greater accurate your decisions is going to be, and also the more tailored to the way your company particularly uses their fleet vehicles.
Then only fair and accurate technique is using Gps navigation vehicle tracking to watch and set of your present vehicles. Gps navigation fleet tracking could be used to evaluate lots of different vehicle metrics, not only the amount of miles they cover. But so that it is helpful it must be deployed included in a general fleet management system.
Utilizing a fleet keeper program and Gps navigation tracking devices, fleets can monitor vehicle metrics for example:
Gas mileage (actual versus. expected)
Maintenance downtime
Idle time
Fuel costs
Cost per mile
Productivity percentage
When you initially setup your fleet management system make sure to tag all of your vehicles with specific tags, enabling you to track various kinds of vehicles. For instance, you can compare dual-wheel axles with single wheels. Could they be significantly more costly to function? How about Japanese vehicles in contrast to European? Toyota versus Hyundai? Utilities versus vans? There is no limit to the amount of vehicle tags you may create and fix to some vehicle or number of vehicles, which you’ll then set of at another time for accurate comparisons.
The benefit of calculating a variety of vehicle cost metrics is you consider the total price per mile. Although some vehicles could use less fuel, when they breakdown more frequently and have greater maintenance costs, they are able to finish up being more costly overall.
Making better fleet buying decisions
While you could utilize the manufacturer’s specifications and expected vehicle running costs, they are not acquainted with the pains of the business and also the conditions you use under.
