Businesses involved in transportation and logistics services need many vehicles for their daily operations. But, owning a fleet isn’t workable for every business. Even though there are various advantages of having your own fleet, there are many disadvantages that not every company can afford to have.
For example, acquiring a large fleet means a considerable amount is spent on purchasing the vehicles. This can lead to a liquidity crunch that can prove disadvantageous for small businesses. Similarly, the vehicles can become a liability instead of an asset if the business can derive a good return on investment.
Thus, for such businesses, fleet management as a service is the best option. Fleet management companies own a huge set of vehicles like cars, vans, and trucks. They lease their vehicles as and when needed.
Here is a look at some of the major benefits of using fleet management as a service:
1. Increases Cash Flow
As mentioned earlier, buying a huge fleet of vehicles can mean expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This doesn’t prove workable for many companies as they need cash for their daily operations.
By engaging with a fleet management company in your transportation strategy, you can save yourself from a huge expense. You can use the saved amount to ensure the smooth functioning of your business or enhance and expand your operations.
For example, a company that delivers bottled milk needs a huge fleet of trucks for transportation and logistics strategies. If the company decides to buy many vehicles at once, it will cost them a fortune.
Thus, it is better for the company to lease vehicles as and when needed as they can keep more cash on hand. They can use it for other business activities, as mentioned earlier.
2. Enhances Fleet Management
Using a 3PL logistics company can help provide better monitoring and control over your fleet operation. An experienced and established fleet management service provider will provide you access to various tools that can help with fleet management and fleet optimization.
Some of the tools are:
- Vehicle tracking through a mobile app
- Fuel expense records
- Mileage tracking
- Notifications and reminders
- Timely updates
- Insurance assistance
These tools can help streamline your operations and enhance productivity while ensuring the vehicles are operating at optimum levels.
3. Gives More Time to Focus on Your Business
The fleet management company handles fleet risk management, repairs, maintenance, and other aspects of the trucking industry. They also look after driver hiring and allocation, driver and vehicle insurance, and safety.
Thus, you have additional time to focus on important business operations. Everything related to the fleet is taken care of by the fleet service provider.
4. Increases Flexibility
Hiring a fleet management provider gives you greater flexibility over vehicles as compared to owning the vehicles. This provides enhanced efficiency, reduced operational costs, and better fleet optimization.
For example, depending on the need, you can hire a pickup truck, van, or commercial trailer truck for transportation purposes. This helps provide greater flexibility about the type of vehicle needed. It also helps reduce your operational costs.
Similarly, you are only charged for vehicles as per your usage. This provides enhanced flexibility and a reduction in expenses.
5. Reduces Administration Tasks
Managing a huge fleet can engulf you with cumbersome administrator tasks. For example, you will need to keep a tab on vehicle insurance, driver’s licenses, the paperwork involved with vehicle repair and management, and other tasks.
Employing a fleet management company frees you of the burden of such processes. You can transfer the responsibility of the administration tasks to the fleet management company. Since the fleet company owns the vehicles, they are the ones responsible for all the administration work involved with them.
6. Decreases Overhead Costs
If you own a fleet, you will have to bear overhead costs for vehicle maintenance and repair costs, vehicle insurance, labor, thefts, waste, accidents, and others. These expenses can have a significant impact on your operations and profits.
By leasing a fleet from a fleet company, all the costs mentioned above are minimized significantly. The costs are borne by the fleet management company. The costs might be taken into consideration at the time of leasing the vehicle. However, still, the costs will be less compared to bearing them on your own.
7. Lowers Fleet Operational Costs
Hiring a fleet management company will help reduce your fleet operational costs significantly. The company provides access to various tools that can help optimize and bring down costs.
For example, established fleet management companies have GPS trackers that can ensure that the vehicle reaches the destination with the shortest route possible. Moreover, they can also alert drivers to drive at optimum speeds, which can help reduce fuel consumption.
You also have better control and visibility over your vehicles with a fleet management company. This helps optimize their usage according to your business needs and reduces the associated costs.
8. Improves Customer Satisfaction
Experienced and reputed fleet management companies can ensure that the goods are delivered without any damage or loss as per schedule. They ensure that there are least idling times, the shortest routes are followed, and even provide quick help if something goes awry. This helps enhance customer service and satisfaction rates.
For example, if there is a vehicle breakdown, the fleet management company can arrange for repairs immediately. They can also send another vehicle in the vicinity to ensure that the goods are transported on time.
So, no matter what, you are guaranteed that customers will always get their deliveries on time. Thus, they will only have positive things to say about your business.
Conclusion
We can see that using a fleet management company provides significant benefits. It can help reduce your fleet operational and other associated costs and remove the stress associated. You also get more time to focus on your business operations.
Thus, if you haven’t employed a fleet management company already, we recommend you do it at the earliest. It will, indeed, turn out to be one of the best business decisions.
We hope you found this blog post on How Does Fleet Management as a Service Benefit Your Fleet? useful. Be sure to check out our post on Car Accidents vs. Truck Accidents for more great tips!
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