How Truck Maintenance Software Can Lower the Costs of Fleet Management

Fleet managers always find themselves in a sticky situation, struggling to strike the perfect balance between cost and productivity. Cash savings are usually at the cost of lowered productivity or by cutting back on important resources.  

Adopting a truck maintenance software to manage your fleet can save you a lot of money. It digitizes and automates data collection and processing. This reduces wasteful spending, improves efficiency, increases productivity and raises profitability. But to understand how a truck maintenance software can bring down fleet operational costs, you must first understand the range of costs that impact your businesses’ bottom line.  

Key Fleet Management Costs 

The following is a list of key factors that have a direct impact on your business. The good thing is that most of these costs can be kept under control with the right decisions.  

1. Vehicle breakdown: It is normal for a vehicle to buckle under the pressure of daily operation. Braking, acceleration, and cornering can cause the parts of a vehicle to wear out. If the vehicles are not maintained regularly, they may become major issues. Putting a vehicle off-road, due to a breakdown affects profitability. It means loss of business and so reduced revenue.  
2. Accidents: Accidents put a big dent in your fleet management budget. The extra expenditure includes vehicle repairs, settlements in case of fatalities, and insurance premiums. Accidents may happen to the safest driver. 
3. Poor driver behavior: While accidents are unpredictable, bad driving habits can increase their likelihood. This includes sudden braking, speeding or sudden acceleration. Rash driving habits also increase the wear and tear on your vehicle, increasing your maintenance and repair bill. 
4. Fuel consumption: Fuel spend is the largest expense in fleet operation. It accounts for almost 20% of the cost of owning a fleet. Thousands of dollars are spent each month on fuel. 
5. Insurance: If your business records a high rate of accidents, severe vehicle damage, or evidence of rash driving, you could end up paying a higher insurance premium to cover your business. 

How does truck maintenance software save you money? 

1. A fleet management system schedules pre-emptive maintenance based on time-intervals or usage. Technicians change oil, replace components, check fluids and check tire pressure and tread. Vehicle diagnostics information help schedule preventative maintenance and repair the detected damages before they become major. It doesn’t let vehicles reach the reactive maintenance stage. 
2. Route optimization is yet another feature of a modern truck maintenance software solution. Traffic congestion usually delays the delivery of orders, not to forget adding to the fuel spend. Using GPS, they map out the perfect routes to ensure fuel and time-saving deliveries. 
3. Real-time tracking of vehicles helps monitor and check fuel wasting habits such as vehicle idling and fuel theft. 
4. Fleet maintenance software also gives managers and drivers insights into fuel usage (miles per gallon per vehicle), fuel prices and taxes and refueling which can help them achieve fuel efficiency.  
5. Using a fleet tracking software enables you to keep tabs on erring drivers. Fleet managers can set speed limit alerts so as to provide on-road feedback to drivers. This helps increase road safety.
6. Each year thousands of dollars are lost because warranties expire before they are claimed. A truck maintenance software assists with warranty tracking. By tracking warranty dates, they prompt you to inspect parts before a warranty expires. This can save a lot of money, that would have otherwise been spent on expensive replacements. 

Thus, to conclude, a truck maintenance software equips fleet managers with the right data and tools that cut costs when it comes to fleet management.