Owning fleet vehicles comes with four major costs, and keeping on top of them is essential in order to balance your books and improve your bottom line effectively. Although a Mississippi fuel card will help with your fuel expenses, that alone won’t reduce all the costs you’re up against. Read on to learn the top four ways to cut fleet vehicle costs and how to save money down the line.
Before doing anything else, develop a fleet plan and put a rotating maintenance program in place. You shouldn’t treat your trucks like you would a personal vehicle, fixing issues as they arise. Instead, schedule maintenance appointments, and consider acquiring new fleet vehicles on a regular basis. This helps you take advantage of savings offered for bulk purchases of new fleet vehicle.
Do you put controls in place for your maintenance costs? It’s important to keep an eagle-eye view over your repair expenses, as these could be crippling you if you’re not paying attention to them. For example, repairing commercial vehicles is often rubber stamped and not given much thought, meaning that subpar vehicles continue to be used (and expensively maintained) when they should have been replaced.
If you plan to replace your fleet vehicles, which is recommended, then you need to find out the optimal cycling point for each vehicle in order to reduce expenses associated with depreciation. You don’t want to use a vehicle too little or too long, as both can have negative effects on your depreciation and overall bottom line. Plus, if you want to reduce your depreciation expenses even further, you should carefully select a fleet of vehicles that have a strong residual performance and fit your unique business needs.
Newer and lesser-used fleet vehicles will undoubtedly be cheaper to run, usually being equipped with engines which are much more fuel efficient. In addition to using vehicles that are cheap to run in the first place, how are you allowing your drivers to purchase fuel? Are you using a fuel card system? A Mississippi fuel card, for example, is a great way to track how much your drivers spend on fuel. In addition, you can set daily limits and restrictions, which means they cannot go wild with unnecessary purchases.
Are you looking to save money on your fleet expenses? Consider getting a fleet fuel card in order to save money and track the expenses of your drivers. If you’re interested in learning more ways to protect your bottom line, contact Fuelz today to speak to a specialist!