Does your company operate a fleet of vehicles?  Maybe you provide cars for your senior employees, or perhaps you operate a fleet of delivery vehicles? Whatever type of vehicle fleet you manage, you will know that taking care of maintenance and fleet repairs can often be a significant headache. Few companies are able to maintain full repair facilities on their own site, which means that they need to establish a partnership with an established repair centre elsewhere. Whether you opt for a local independent garage or a national franchise, the chief problem will always be vehicle downtime. When a vehicle fails, it frequently causes multiple problems across the company, so getting a grip on your fleet repairs is vital.

Why off-road time matters

Not all vehicles in your fleet will be equally valuable. However, every vehicle failure has consequences. Depending on which vehicle is off-road, it could prevent a senior executive reaching a vital meeting. It might affect your ability to make deliveries. It could affect your ability to bring components into your business, causing your entire production timescales to fall behind. Not knowing how long a vehicle is likely to remain unavailable limits your ability to plan for the future and to establish a viable working schedule for your employees.

What causes off-road time?

Vehicles in your fleet can be unavailable for multiple reasons. It could a mechanical breakdown that stops the vehicle being driven; at other times it could be unavailable as a result of an accident caused by driver error. Finally, the vehicle could have been damaged in some other way, perhaps through vandalism, or by another vehicle with a negligent driver. One of the most common mistakes made by fleet managers is not properly monitoring off-road time. Knowing which vehicles are unavailable, why they are unavailable and when they will be available again is the key to successfully managing your fleet. It enables you to plan fleet repairs effectively and to introduce regular preventative maintenance to counter any sources of repeated off-road time as you see patterns of failure start to emerge.

Managing your fleet repairs effectively

To deal with your fleet repairs in the least disruptive manner, it is helpful to have an established management policy in place so that everyone knows exactly what they should do. You will need to have established a strong relationship with the company that undertakes your fleet repairs so that they will be able to minimise their turnaround time and get your vehicle back on the road at the earliest opportunity. Reach out to fleet repair companies to learn more.