Tips to Help Reduce Your Fleet Costs

Operating a fleet is quite expensive and staying within budget without doing a proper fleet management cost analysis is very difficult. If you can identify where you need to work more to stay within budget, you will have an easier time cutting costs. If you do not know where to start, the following are a few tips to help improve your fleet’s efficiency without costing you too much.

Retreading Tires

Tires make up a huge portion of fleet costs. If the tires on your fleet trucks are old and worn out, instead of purchasing new ones, you could try retreading the radial ply casings on the old ones. If you retread your tires, you will also increase the mileage without comprising the safety of your fleet. Retreading tires is quite cost efficient as it will only cost you one third of what you would have paid for new tires. 

Get Rid of Unnecessary Vehicles

If you are smart about dropping unnecessary vehicles, you will end up saving thousands. Simply by cutting your fleet size and removing trucks that are not in use much, you can reduce your fleet spending by five to eight thousand per vehicle each year. If you get rid of a few vehicles, other trucks in your fleet will have to take up more work. If the mileage of these trucks increases so will their operating costs, but this increase in costs will still not amount to what you would save from eliminating unnecessary vehicles from your fleet. Before you start looking for more CAT heavy equipment for your fleet, make sure to get rid of any unnecessary vehicles. By cutting your fleet size, you can expect at least a five percent decrease in total ownership costs. 

Reduce Mileage

You should try to combine trips and improve the efficiency of your multi-stop vehicles. By doing this, you will be able to cut mileage on your fleet vehicles. Improve the driver’s routes so they do not have to spend hours waiting at stop lights. It is a waste of fuel and time, and you can reduce emissions and save gallons of fuel by simply planning a better route.

Vehicle Tracking System

If you were to add a vehicle tracking system to all your fleet vehicles, you would be able to monitor your driver’s speed. If you can control the vehicle’s speed, you will be able to reduce its fuel usage. Speeding burns more fuel, and driving at 70 mph burns 15 percent more fuel than driving at 50 mph. Driving at 80 mph burns 25 percent more fuel than what it would at 70 mph. With the help of a vehicle tracking system, you will be alerted immediately if a driver speeds up, and you can quickly send them a message that they are speeding. 

Vehicle Alignment 

If vehicles are not aligned properly, it can result in uneven wear on tires. There are few different ways alignment of a vehicle can shift, and it could happen during towing or in an accident. Make sure to regularly check the alignment of all your fleet vehicles, and if you find that repairs are needed, make them immediately. If you do not make repairs on time, you will have to deal with frequent tire replacements. Improperly aligned vehicles also have reduced fuel efficiency.