Every fleet is balanced to meet the needs of your business model. The number of vehicles and drivers you support is likely matched with the orders you take or the service appointments that you book. So when a vehicle must go down for unexpected maintenance, the cost is far greater than just the expense of physical repairs.

Today, Wilmar Inc will help you explore the full scope of downtime costs for your fleet and how to mitigate that cost by planning ahead.

The Cost of Vehicle Downtime

What does it cost your fleet when a vehicle is down for maintenance? If the maintenance is planned, you can plan ahead. But if a vehicle breaks down in the middle of your routine, this can be a real problem. The full scope of its cost can impact your entire fleet.

Late Deliveries or Delayed Appointments

First and often most importantly your customer will notice. If you are one vehicle down in a delivery fleet, it is a matter of course that some deliveries will be late. You will lack one fleet vehicle to make those scheduled rounds while others must make longer rounds to cover the route. If you offer service appointments, one vehicle's downtime knocks an entire roster of appointments off your calendar. Customers will need to be contacted and their appointments rescheduled, which can damage your reputation and your relationship with clients who have trusted in your delivery schedule and/or availability.

Repair Costs and Replacement Vehicle

In addition to the repair costs to mend the downed vehicle, you are also looking at costs for vehicle replacement. Depending on how long repairs will take, your fleet may need to invest in a secondary vehicle to take its place. This can mean a last-minute short ter lease on an additional vehicle that you had not budgeted for. If the vehicle is not fitted for your purposes, this can also cause slowdowns with your team when they need to make do with portable supplies or tools that are usually integral.

Uneven Pressure On the Fleet

Picking up the slack for the downed vehicle is also likely to cause uneven pressure on the rest of your fleet. Until a replacement vehicle is sourced you will have one driver without a vehicle while the rest have to do extra routes or extra long routes to pick up the slack.

How to Prevent and Reduce Downtime Costs

Fortunately, there are also methods to reduce the risk of vehicle downtime and reduce the costs if and when downtime occurs.

Preventative Maintenance

First, plan a preventative maintenance routine or hire a maintenance service to ensure that all your vehicles are in top condition. Scheduled maintenance is far easier to manage than unscheduled maintenance and you reduce the risk of critical failure at an inopportune moment.

Superior Logistics

Superior logistics such as GPS tracking. telematics, and advanced HQ fleet management dashboards can help you balance the workload to put the least stress on your fleet should a vehicle go down unexpectedly. 

Vehicle Replacement Plan

You can also arrange for a quick and painless vehicle replacement while one of your fleet vehicles is in the shop. This can be done through a partnership deal with a vehicle leasing service that knows the type of vehicle you need and has access to supply of vehicles that can be available on short notice without exorbitant extra costs.

Managing Downtime Prevention with Wilmar Inc

At Wilmar, we know fleet management. We have made empowering fleets our business for many years and can help you build a plan of preventative maintenance and downtime contingent strategies to reduce both the risk and the cost of unexpected maintenance in your fleet. Contact us today for vehicle maintenance, leasing, or fleet management services.