Tips for your fleet’s maintenance
What options do I have to acquire vehicles? What are the points that I should consider before requesting a fleet? These are some of the questions we ask the Chief of Operations, Manuel Ortiz, so that he can make a better decision for his business.
You should not only consider the prices that they offer you, but also present and future use that vehicles will have, and if it will help the expansion of your business. Vehicle fleets need a series of tools to monitor their performance and services that guarantee safety in their operations and facilitate access to technology.
To select a fleet, you must take into account the following factors:
- Purpose of fleet
- Vehicle type and equipment
- Engine and Maintenance
- Vehicle Insurance
- Training and permits for drivers
- Monitoring software
In the market, there are several options to acquire a vehicle fleet such as Leasing or Operative Renting, Financial Leasing and financing for direct purchase of vehicles with loans or company funds. However, not all options offer comprehensive services.
In this case, Renting or Operative Leasing services also offer complementary services such as SOAT, vehicle insurance, maintenance, documentation and taxes, grouping your variable costs and fixed costs in a single installment.
In order to achieve a correct operational and logistic management of fleets, you must take into account the importance of vehicle with preventive maintenance and other activities such as:
Adequate and planned maintenance: this reduces unscheduled repairs (due to unforeseen problems) and ensures operability of largest number of units. Preventive maintenance includes oil change, tire rotation and inspection, and vehicle safety checks. At this point, it’s key to monitor maintenance costs and when they begin to increase depending on the age of units.
Maintenance frequency: preferably it should be scheduled every 5,000 km or depending on the brand’s recommendation. This is a very important factor because, if not done properly, vehicles can lose the manufacturers’ warranties. We know that it is important that vehicles receive proper care, that is why we work with workshops and technicians trained by brands with which we work.
Monitoring: Thanks to technology we can monitor performance of our fleets through management software, which will help us automate and systematize manual tasks such as issuing detailed reports to make more accurate decisions. The suppliers of fleet have become a strategic partner to accompany and advise you throughout this process to solve and manage opportunities for improvement.
To achieve good management of your business fleet and ensure performance, all processes and components must be properly designed and optimized based on periodic evaluations in following aspects:
- Maintenance management
- GPS Vehicle Tracking
- Driving Behavior Analysis
- Alarms in fleets (for breakdowns, resumes, parameters, etc.)
- Route planning and tracking
Before starting to drive, it is important to carry out pertinent checks on vehicle, such as tire pressure, water and oil level, and safety elements for any repair. This will ensure that a problem is not triggered in vehicle.
Among main recommendations our chief of operations details the following:
- Compliance with planning in preventive and corrective maintenance of fleet.
- Defensive driving on routes according to areas to be traveled.
- Vehicle washing is important for asset care.
- Daily inspection of vehicles with the MB Renting check list application.
- Coordinate rest for drivers to control fatigue and drowsiness.
- Comply with transport plan, considering indications.
