Those of you starting an electrician, plumbing, or home service company may realize buying fleet vehicles is out of the question at the moment. Even if you think you could still pull off an investment in your vehicles, don't attempt it if you don't have metrics on potential ROI.
You never really know what you're getting into until you start seeing how much maintenance your trucks need. Rather than take a chance with your money, it's perhaps better to lease your vehicles. Before you do, it's a good idea to use a vehicle lease calculator to find how much you'll save.
Determining Whether Leasing is Better Than Buying
The best way to start is to work with a fleet management service offering not only fleet management, but also vehicle leasing. When you find a quality service, they'll work closely with you to discover whether you should lease or buy.
They may offer either option, though they'll use a lease calculator to determine what you really need. This starts by helping you choose the right vehicle first, sometimes through a "Build a Vehicle" service.
Having help in choosing your vehicle determines what has the best features to suit your electricians and plumbers.
Estimated Miles From Drivers
Many states offer travel cost comparison calculators to determine what your best options are for leasing fleet vehicles. Many of these calculators start with your estimated miles your drivers will probably use.
Is your new electrician or plumbing business going to stay local, or will you offer services to other cities and even across state lines? Determining this helps give you more definitive facts on whether leasing is a better option.
Even if you find out later your drivers are putting in more miles than you want, your fleet management team can provide specific technologies to fix the issue. Using telematics is one way to track vehicle usage and determine better routes.
How Many Days Will You Use the Vehicles?
No doubt your team of electricians, plumbers, or other specialists are going to work full-time. This may mean five days a week. Then again, being plumbers, you may have workers on-call 24/7. In this case, your business may actually be a seven-day-a-week operation.
This could put a lot of wear and tear on your fleet vehicles if you buy them. Leasing, however, gives you the option of having the vehicle providers handle all maintenance. Using tracking devices, fleet managers scope out any problem in your vehicles before it becomes worse.
Since maintenance is so important, leasing is all the more of a better option. When you lease, you'll also get access to mobile apps that enable drivers to track mileage.
Estimating Fuel Price Per Gallon
Cost of fuel can truly eat up profits for service businesses like yours. As the final part of your lease calculation, you'll want to see what your estimated fuel price would be per gallon based on vehicles needed.
Leasing is going to give you a means to save on gas since you'll have experts who know what vehicles give you the most fuel efficiency. Plus, with maintenance tracking, your drivers will always know when they're close to a repair center so they can get a problem fixed.
Of course, the main benefit to leasing is you can continue leasing for as long as you need. You even have options to buy your leased vehicles later at a discount. Other choices include off-lease vehicles.
Here at Wilmar, Inc., we'll help you calculate your leasing options when working with our fleet management team. Contact us to learn more about our comprehensive fleet management services, including equipment leasing.
