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If you want to manage your vehicle fleet effectively, you need to be able to control costs. Otherwise, your fleet will quickly become too expensive to manage, and your profitability will tank.

But what are the best strategies for controlling costs and saving money in fleet vehicle management?

Cost Savings for Fleet Vehicle Management

These are some of the best ideas for controlling and reducing costs in the course of fleet vehicle management:

1. Invest in your tracking software. Fleet vehicle management software can help you with a wide variety of tasks related to fleet management, including managing warranty reimbursements and tracking maintenance patterns. If you choose the right platform, it should also be highly intuitive, with abundant features to streamline your use of the app. This can help you save money in several ways. For starters, you’ll be able to perform much more consistently – and make sure the other strategies on this list are being properly utilized. Maximizing warranty reimbursements, ensuring adequate maintenance, and other activities can all decrease your bottom-line costs. On top of that, you should save money on labor, as your employees will have to spend less time tracking and managing these items.
2. Buy used. When you need to add additional vehicles to your fleet, consider buying used. Used vehicles are often as good as, or even better than, new vehicles, depending on how much wear and tear they’ve suffered and how they’ve been maintained. However, they tend to be much lower priced than their new counterparts, due to the depreciation of new vehicles. As long as you’re willing to inspect and maintain these vehicles, used is often the better option. Of course, another alternative is to lease instead of buying, which is especially valuable if your business is just starting up or is limited in terms of capital.
3. Practice proactive maintenance. Proactive maintenance is the heart of cost reduction in fleet vehicle management, because it can help you reduce costs in many regards. Proactively maintaining your vehicles reduces the chances of a major, catastrophic failure, ultimately allowing you to keep your vehicles in better condition for less time and money. Additionally, this can greatly reduce the risk of an accident, which can be devastatingly expensive to your business.
4. Consider retreading tires. Retreading is a method of remanufacturing tires when they’ve been worn excessively. Obviously, there comes a time when you need to replace your tires because the tread has worn down. But if you commit to retreading, instead of buying new, you can practice environmental responsibility while simultaneously saving some money.
5. Install dashcams and telematics. Dashcams and telematics are both technologies designed to help you track and monitor driving patterns. These will be an investment, but in most cases, that investment pays off. Some insurance companies incentivize you to install these devices, subsidizing their costs from the outset. On top of that, they serve as an excellent way to encourage more responsible behavior from your drivers. And if you’re ever in an accident, you can use the data collected by these devices to prove what actually happened, potentially reducing liability costs in the process.
6. Provide better driver education and training. Good drivers can help your business save money in several ways. They’ll keep your vehicles in better shape, optimize for fuel efficiency, and greatly reduce the rate of accidents. Hiring good drivers is a great place to start, but it’s also imperative that you provide thorough driver training and education. Make sure your drivers have all the instructions and data necessary to operate vehicles responsibly.
7. Pay attention to fuel efficiency. If you play around with a fuel efficiency calculator, you’ll quickly figure out that even minor changes to fuel efficiency can have a massive impact on your bottom line. Accordingly, you should pay close attention to the fuel efficiency of your vehicles and optimize routes, practice maintenance, and make modifications to keep it high.
8. Don’t lose track of warranties. Warranties are an important consideration that can save your business a lot of money, so keep track of them consistently. The right fleet management software platform can aid you considerably here.
9. Negotiate with insurance companies. Consider negotiating more aggressively with your insurance companies in pursuit of better rates. Be sure to ask about discounts as well.
10. Keep updating and adapting. There’s no such thing as a perfect approach to fleet vehicle management, so keep updating and adapting your approach.

The Path to Greater Profitability

With your fleet vehicle management costs in check, you’ll have a clear path to greater profitability. It’s probably not going to happen overnight, but if you follow all the strategies in this guide and more, you can keep these crucial costs reasonably low.