Vehicle fleets are employed by almost every kind of business these days. But a number of vehicles go off the road each year causing huge financial losses to the organization that have employed them. Despite the best efforts put in by the fleet managers, keeping all the vehicles in running condition remains impossible. This highly reduces the dependability on the fleet.
However with the implementation of the right methods of fleet management with the help of technological advancements such as Fleet Preventive Maintenance Software much can be changed.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) of Vehicle
The foremost reason for the lack of dependability is that there is a lack of preventive maintenance amongst the fleet managers. Preventive Maintenance or PM consists of all those measures that are taken to schedule periodic servicing, timely inspections and vehicle repair. The aim of these measures is to maximize the availability of the vehicle and prevent any kind of potential problems that might put the vehicles off road.
Every kind of maintenance activity including vehicle inspection, lubrication, and testing, cleaning, replacement of parts due to wear and tear all come under Preventive Maintenance. With the correct and timely implementation of preventive maintenance vehicle performances can be improved a great deal as it minimises the chances of untimely breakdowns and also increases the efficiency of the vehicles.
Why Should Preventive Maintenance be the priority of Fleet Managers?
There are a number of reasons why Preventive Maintenance should top the list of priorities for Fleet Managers. The simplest and the most essential reason for this of course is that without timely preventive measures companies go through heavy losses only because vehicles fail to perform as estimated. This is because either some of the vehicles are totally unavailable due to breakdown or are not performing up to the mark due to lack of maintenance.
This reduces both the size and the efficiency of the vehicle fleet. With proper fleet management that includes preventive Maintenance as one of its parts, this problem can be evaded. The effects become visible both on the availability and performance of the fleet along with the company’s profit margin.
Vehicles are counted among the assets of the organisation. However, it is often seen that huge amount of money is lost by the company only because there is a lack of timely maintenance which effectively reduces the value of the vehicles as an asset. This becomes another reason that makes preventive maintenance demand a fair share of attention by the fleet managers. If the maintenance work is ignored for a long time there may also arise a time when the vehicle goes beyond repair. Such vehicles also lose their resale value and turn into a liability for the company.
Preventive Maintenance is also very important to avoid any kind of litigation for negligence. If a vehicle is not repaired for a long time it may even become unsafe. This puts both the life of the driver along with your asset at a great risk. In case of accidents, it is often seen that companies are pressed with charges of negligence. They not just lose huge amount of money in fighting these cases and paying the compensations but it also affects the reputation of the organization.
Sometimes these accidents also occur due to negligence on the part of the driver but companies turn helpless when they lack a proper maintenance record. All these problems can be effectively handled when there is a proper and timely implementation of preventive maintenance for vehicle fleets.
Methods Available For fleet Maintenance
There are two methods of vehicle repair and fleet maintenance:
- Proactive method
- Reactive Method
Proactive maintenance refers to the measures of scheduled maintenance that are taken in periodic manner to ensure that all parts of the vehicle are in a running condition. If any of the parts are found to be showing any kinds of anomaly, they are immediately replaced so as to prevent unforeseen breakdowns.
Reactive methods refer to the measures that are taken as a result of the vehicles suffering a break down. It occurs due to the lack of preventive measures and often turn out be very costly. They shoot up the cost involved in maintenance of vehicle and affect productivity ultimately resulting in low profit.
Proactive Over Reactive Method
It must always be amongst the concerns of the fleet manager to reduce reactive method of maintenance with the proactive methods. This brings down the cost of maintenance substantially. Further as the proactive measures are scheduled beforehand, they do not interfere with the work schedule of the vehicle, and has no effect on the productivity of the vehicle.
Beware Of Rising Fuel Costs:
A major concern amongst companies that run a fleet is the fuel prices. Fuels are very expensive resource and even a few drops of wastage can result in massive losses. The amount of fuel consumed by a vehicle largely depends upon how a vehicle is maintained. With the proactive measures in place, the fuel inefficiency or leakages can be easily detected as well as rectified before incurring any losses due to them.
Use Of technology In Maintenance
Though Preventive Measures reap a large number of benefits, implementing them in a timely fashion is not a very easy task. The foremost reason for this is that the fleet sizes are usually too largely to be manually accessed from time to time.
Different vehicles suffer different amounts of wear and tear based on their amount of usage along with the difference in design. While some may require maintenance every three months, others may require it in every six months. There may also be variations within the same vehicle at times.
For these reasons, a Fleet Preventive Maintenance software provided by Chevin Fleet Solutions becomes very effective as it keeps you updated with all types of maintenance needs of your vehicles. Further since they are mechanised in their working, there is hundred per cent precision which prevents any chances of missing out on the timely maintenance of any vehicle.
Introduce this software in your Fleet Maintenance Routine and feel the change today!
