Fleet management savings – 3 strategies

Many company managers are increasingly under pressure to reduce costs and deliver savings. For companies operating large fleets of vehicles even fairly minor fleet management savings can make a huge difference to the bottom line over many years. In  this article we’ll cover some of the biggest fleet management savings that you can make. Implementing just one of these strategies could make a huge difference to your annual fleet spend and reduce the cost of your company doing business. Who knows? The savings might even pay for a nicer car the next time yours is up for renewal!

Use a fuel card

Fuel cards can make a huge difference to the efficiency of your fleet. Not only will you avoid the hassle of processing dozens of receipts every week. Many fuel cards offer savings on the at pump prices or a fixed national fuel price which can make it affordable for your fleet drivers to refuel at service stations. Fuelcards.co.uk offers a Money Supermarket style comparison service between the various options that is a great starting point if you’ve never used a fuel card before.

Take your time when you’re considering the various options. There’s a wealth of price structures out there. It’s probably also worth asking your drivers which brands of fuel they use most often. Most fuel cards will limit drivers to one or two networks of filling stations so consider this carefully before you sign a contract!

Use a tracking system

Do your drivers always take the most efficient routes? Do they always obey the speed limit? Without a fleet tracking system there’s no way of knowing for sure! A good telematics system will tell you how many miles your vehicles are driving and what routes they are taking. If your drivers aren’t taking the most efficient routes they’ll probably be delighted to find out there’s a better way. What’s more, you can also check that no one is using fuel billed to the company for their personal journeys – another potential source of fleet management savings.

Keep maintenance costs down

If you’re paying to have your cars repaired and serviced on an ad-hoc basis then chance are you’re paying too much. You can reduce these costs by using a fleet management service that has pre-negotiated deals with car mechanics, tyre providers, breakdown services and others. This also makes it easier to predict and manage your costs since you won’t be stung for unexpected bills at the worst possible time!

As with fuel cards it’s important to compare a range of potential providers to make sure that they’re right for your business, your fleet and your drivers. Its well worth investing the time however as reduced maintenance costs are one of the biggest sources of fleet management savings.

These tips are a great starting point when you’re looking to save money on fleet management, but they’re only the beginning. If you’d like to know more about how to identify savings in your business car fleet then get in touch with our fleet experts. They’d be delighted to hear from you and help you save money on your fleet management costs.