fixing up an ugly, beat up car

Your company's fleet of vehicles was likely a major investment for your company to make. As a result, it is essential for you to understand the steps that you can take to help get the most out of this part of your company. In particular, there are three tips that you can use to help ensure that your vehicle fleet avoids some common problems.

Keep The Exterior Maintained

It can be easy for individuals to overlook the need to properly maintain the exterior of their commercial vehicles. While this may not seem like an important aspect, it can save you from having to pay for costly body repairs.

To protect your vehicles from developing rust, you will need to make sure that the exteriors are properly washed and waxed on a regular basis. During the summer months, you should have this done at least once every month or two. However, you may need to do this more frequently during the winter as deicing chemicals can be extremely harsh on the exterior of your vehicles, which can result in severe corrosion. For these months, you may want to wash the vehicles every couple of weeks.

Digitize Your Maintenance Records

If your company employs a large commercial fleet, it can be difficult for you to keep track of the maintenance records for each vehicle. As a result, it is possible for some maintenance tasks to be accidentally skipped. To avoid making these errors, you should consider digitizing your maintenance management. There are companies that provide software that is specifically designed for fleet maintenance records. These programs will allow you to quickly research the maintenance history of your vehicles, schedule alerts for when maintenance tasks need to be done and they can help with keeping track of lifetime maintenance expenses. Additionally, it may be possible to incorporate GPS tracking systems into the vehicles, which will allow you to ensure that mileage specific maintenance tasks are always completed on schedule.

Utilize Fuel Programs

The cost of fueling your vehicle fleet can be a major expense, but if you are relatively new to commercial fleet management, you may not be aware of the benefits of opting to use fuel programs. These programs will allow you to accurately control fuel expenses by having a central expense account that all your vehicles will use for fuel. Also, it is possible to assign each vehicle an identification number so that you can monitor the fuel expenses of each driver. While these benefits can be extremely valuable, many of these programs also offer discounts on fuel, which can quickly add up when you have a large fleet. Contact a company like Florida TRUCK & Trailer CO for more info.