Going about fleet management on your own might sound workable until you realize how much is involved in maintaining your company vehicles. You're maybe at a point where you need to buy or lease new vehicles, though don't know the right approach without risking serious mistakes.
As a thriving electrician, plumbing, or home services company, you shouldn't take on fleet management by yourself unless you know what you're doing.
Outsourcing is the best bet. These companies typically cover three main areas you should consider first to make your management exemplary.
Managing Your Licenses and Titles
When you outsource your fleet management duties to someone, you'll want them to take care of everything for you, including providing lease options. Not all services like this offer a complete package of leasing, off-lease vehicles, or comprehensive management.
Another essential part of their management should focus on managing all your vehicle licenses and titles. Some leasing organizations leave it up to you to take care of these things, leaving open the possibility of licenses lapsing by mistake.
With government fleet vehicles, you have a lot of requirements to avoid fines. It's no different with any type of commercial fleet vehicle registration.
Having an outsourced team do this for you ensures you'll never face unexpected fines, late fees, or duplication errors.
Offering Fuel Service Cards
No doubt you've heard plenty about how fuel service cards provide efficient ways to save on gas for fleet vehicles. You're maybe still new to the idea, but it's never too late to start using them now.
You're perhaps looking for ways to revamp your fleet management this year after years of constantly losing money on inefficient gas mileage. Through driver reward programs, fuel cards are a good way to start things on the right foot (or wheel).
Of course, the immediate benefit to your drivers using fuel service cards is they don't have to worry about keeping receipts on gas spend. You can easily monitor how much was spent for gas with these cards.
What's most important is if your fleet management service offers these cards, they should also connect them to vehicle maintenance. The card they give you should become usable at thousands of repair centers across the country.
With your drivers likely having to drive outside state lines to visit new customers, you don't want them stranded in a place where they can't get immediate repair done.
Disposing of Your Vehicles
The predicament you're in now is maybe deciding what to do with your old fleet vehicles. If you purchased them, it could pose a bigger problem on how you're going to get rid of them and find a viable replacement.
An outsourced fleet management service helps you find solutions to these problems. You'll find it beneficial leasing or buying directly through them so future vehicle disposal is easier.
Recent reports show global fleet vehicles will top 2.5 billion by 2050, proving how important proper disposal of them is today and in coming decades. Efficiently disposing of them so you completely remove your logos and other identifying trademarks can become a major task if you don't know how to do it right.
The point is to find maximum resale value once vehicle disposal takes place. Even then, you should have professionals find ways to make this happen so you don't lose money.
Finding the Right Fleet Management Provider
At Wilmar, Inc., we have years of combined experience to bring you the best outsourced fleet management services you'll find. Our initial focus is on the three management areas above, but it goes far beyond that. We'll help with everything from the leasing process to maintenance.
Contact us to learn more about the many services we offer to help take a load off your own fleet managers.
