Supervisors who’ve been tasked with finding the right vehicle fleet for their organization have quite a chore ahead of them. You’ll need to figure out the best way to get the vehicles out to your staffers while simultaneously planning for their maintenance and ultimate retirement. While this might be a lot to unpack at first, you can break this chore down into smaller steps so you won’t feel overwhelmed.
Perhaps the best place to start is by reexamining your organization’s needs and seeing just how many vehicles you’ll have to order.
Consider Your Company’s Needs
Small-to-medium sized businesses seldom need to build massive fleets. In fact, there’s a good chance that you could initially get away with renting or leasing some to get a better idea of what your organization needs. Lease agreements may include the option to buy the vehicle outright at the end of the deal. Once you have a better understanding of your company’s projected fleet operations, you’ll be in a much better place to make some hard decisions for the future.
Consider how big of a physical area your company has to canvas. Those who do HVAC work or offer plumbing services will naturally need larger vehicles than those that simply want to provide their sales representatives with a way to get around. Take a count of the number of people you have and make sure that any vehicles you get come from a commercial automotive supplier that offers durable equipment. These will hold up quite a bit more than something that’s made for the regular consumer market.
Managing The Fleet In the Future
Once you have all the right cars or trucks out in the field, you’ll still need some avenue you could use to track them. Invest in a solid fleet management solution so you can keep tabs on your fleet in the future. Integrated services use a combination of mobile apps and desktop programs all tied into the same central database. When staffers make changes to one entry, the entire database gets updated so everyone is always looking at the latest version of the system map.
List The Features You Need
Even the best tracking system won’t do much if you don’t know what features you need. Take a few moments to draw up a list of everything you’d want in a vehicle. Standard options are usually a good idea even if you don’t think you’d need them in a place of business. Look at the models currently on the market when it comes time to choose your fleet vehicles. Chances are they come with air conditioners and sound systems, but they won’t usually have all of the communications features your staff needs. Consider buying a stripped down model and adding these features on later because doing so can actually help to keep costs down.
As soon as you have everything in place, your fleet should more or less take care of itself so it pays to do all of this research first.