Business Fleet, January/February 2018

WWW BUSINESSFLEET COM 11 BUSINESS FLEET January February 2018 are not By getting involved and supervising you will shorten the downtime and reduce or eliminate rental costs associated with this breakdown This will have a positive effect on your bottom line u UNIT DAMAGE REPORT This report will identify the type of damage your fleet is experiencing the associated costs and the drivers who are at fault because they were careless or distracted Monitoring and correcting bad driver behavior should be a top priority On a recent visit to a small fleet I was informed that one of their units was down because the driver had driven into tree limbs and damaged the front corner cap The operations manager immediately sent this driver and a helper to a local rental company they were back with a replacement truck in less than an hour Problem solved for the moment right Wrong The driver drove the replacement truck into the same trees in the same spot Taking the time to correct bad driver behavior can be less expensive than the costs associated with the above example not to mention having two units down due to carelessness and having to pay to repair a truck you dont own u REPAIR WORK ORDER REPORT Do you have a summary of monthly repair orders Once again these repairs can have a direct negative impact on your bottom line When viewed over a period of time such as one year this report can give you a strong indication of your weakest units and those that need to be replaced Remember downtime costs money in many ways u LABOR HOURS AND OVERTIME REPORT Its not just the mechanical aspect of trucks and equipment that need to be closely monitored If youre spending overtime regularly and youre not in your peak season then perhaps you need an additional unit If one particular driver is taking too long to complete his or her route you need to investigate the reason goofing off or is there simply too much work for that driver and unit Does the driver use his or her time efficiently Are your routes sized to your customers orders Do you have to deliver your goods and services the same day or the next day Can you take your incoming orders and batch them by route spreading the deliveries out by time and day needed at a destination u RENTAL REPORT This is vital in tracking the length and frequency of your rentals and their associated costs Closely monitor these costs and review them with your staff While I understand the need for rentals have you considered buying or leasing a new unit instead Then your oldest unit that is still within its operational lifecycle can be used as a spare Sometimes this solution is more economical than calling a local rental company each time you have something as common as a no start in the morning u EFFICIENCY REPORT This report entails scheduling dispatching and route management and should capture your deliveries miles driven and number of stops There is more data that should be included in this report however these basic metrics should help identify your best delivery vehicle driver combination A deeper dive into these stats will identify which routes need to be amended You will also be able to take an initial or embryonic look at which chassis specs perform best in each location and on which routes u FUEL CONSUMPTION REPORT This one can be easily compiled and identifies those unit numbers that are consuming too much fuel If you are doing wet onsite fueling your provider can give you this report on a weekly basis By paying attention here you can easily find those fuel losses that you are experiencing Then the question becomes why I once found a driver who was filling up with a fuel card and having his wife in her personal vehicle with a diesel engine park close enough to have her tank fueled at the same time This was discovered after noticing a high average consumption at this operational location You may think that wet fueling is foolproof for theft Beware of fuel tanks being filled on your property that are not fleet units This can and will happen A fuel consumption report can identify something that is not right even if you are using wet fueling u TIRE REPLACEMENT AND RETREAD REPORT Tires are a significant cost and a large percentage of your overall fleet expenses You can save money by identifying replacement tires by unit number size type new or retread tread mileage interval since last replacement vendor cost per tire and other data and reviewing on a regular basis Are there chronic offenders among your drivers for tire damage If you use a fleet tire provider what percentage of invoicing to your fleet is for tire failures termed curbed meaning caused by the driver By paying attention to tire metrics you will learn a number of things such as the best tread designs for each of your regions and operational terrains You can also learn which of your drivers are the most careless and aggressive Choosing the appropriate tire for that unit can also save you money This includes choosing tires with a cut resistant sidewall to prevent some of the curbing damage Each one of these metrics can impact your fleets bottom line in significant ways Pay attention to the data it will tell you what you need to know for cost saving coaching and discipline purposes BF ABOUT THE AUTHOR Les Smart is president of Smart Fleet Management a small and medium fleet consulting company He can be reached at smart5010@ atlasok com I ONCE REVIEWED A DOWNTIME REPORT AND ASCERTAINED THAT A TRUCK WAS NOT SCHEDULED TO COME BACK INTO SERVICE AFTER A FIVE DAY PERIOD OF DOWNTIME WHEN I CALLED THE SHOP THE MANAGER TOLD ME THAT THE UNIT WAS 54TH IN LINE TO BE REPAIRED