With new vehicles being in shortage fleets have held on to their old assets longer than they normally do. To ensure that their old vehicles remain functional and efficient there has never been a time more crucial for fleets to remain up-to-date with their maintenance tasks.
While many aspects of daily life have been restored to pre-pandemic norms at this point, vehicle procurement remains an issue for of fleet managers all over the world. The constant disruptions to supply chains have led to prices soaring and availability to decrease, causing cancellations of orders to become a common occurrence. Without any relief some fleets have decided to keep their vehicles for longer than they normally could (or would prefer to).
However, for older vehicles to stay in condition, it's essential to ensure that they're maintained properly throughout their lifespan. Let's take a look at the steps fleets need to adopt to ensure that their vehicles remain functional (and cost-effective) over the long term.
Keep an eye on DVIRs
Inspection reports for driver vehicles (DVIRs) are an initial line of defense to safeguard the fleet against costly breakdowns. Yet, the majority of defects that are recorded in DVIRs remain unresolved because they're not considered to be a problem that requires immediate attention. Since even minor defects can result in major equipment failures in the future, fleets are wise to steer clear of throwing the can further down the road.
Instead fleets (especially ones with older vehicles) must closely monitor the status of their DVIRs to ensure that any failed items are dealt with promptly. Fleet managers can utilize tools to monitor the performance of their fleets to monitor their DVIRs and track the trends.
Make sure you follow OEM guidelines for intervals of high mileage maintenance
As we get older, doctors recommend their patients to see them on a frequent regularly. Similar to this the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) suggest that their vehicles be maintained more frequently when a certain reading of the odometer is reached. These OEM guidelines usually recommend that specific maintenance procedures be carried out based on the frequency of miles (e.g. oil changes every three miles) or on time (brake inspections at the end of each year).
Following these tips fleets can avoid little scratches from turning into major breakdowns, making sure their vehicles stay in service for longer.
Fleet management software makes keeping track of maintenance intervals with high mileage easy by automating reminders for you whenever maintenance is due. The user can set the reminders to be according to time or meters reading-based intervals (or the two).
Follow TCO to find cost that aren't in line with the norm.
While almost every business keeps track of the costs of buying new vehicles, very few are able to track the money they've invested on maintaining the vehicles throughout the years. In the end, these fleets are often not able to tell the time when they've spent a lot of money on a car that would be better off replaced. The inability to see the overall cost of ownership (TCO) awareness is particularly challenging when dealing with old vehicles because of their more frequent maintenance requirements.
It is a good thing that fleets of any size can easily monitor TCO by using the FMS, or fleet management (FMS). One of the biggest advantages of software for managing fleets is their capacity to track each expense that comes with the vehicle (e.g. fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc.) and then report TCO at a real time. This information allows operators of fleets to make informed decisions about the use of vehicles and replacement policy.
Assign the assets according to their CPM
While there are numerous factors that fleet managers must be aware of, cost-per-mile (CPM) is among the ones that are most important. Based on dividing a vehicle's TCO by the amount of miles it has driven by the car's CPM can assist fleet managers know the expenses involved in doing a specific job using that particular vehicle. Based on this knowledge fleet managers can boost the profitability of their fleet by allocating assets according to their CPM.
In the case of the job requires a lot of transportation, using an automobile that has less CPM is more affordable as compared to a vehicle with an increased CPM. Since older vehicles tend to be equipped with an increased CPM so fleet managers can employ this method to assign them jobs nearer to where they are parked.
The best software will help make managing fleet assets easy by consolidating everything associated with your assets into one data source. From logging assignments to storing and surfacing documents, as well as crucial fleet utilization statistics by making your asset management process more efficient will dramatically improve the efficiency of your business.