New vehicle shortages and supply pressures are forcing many businesses to hold onto ageing vehicles for longer, leading to the increased risk of vehicle off-road (VOR) time. Vehicle downtime is a costly and frustrating aspect of fleet management and delaying vehicle maintenance and servicing can be a high price to pay.
While business owners can budget for regular maintenance, unplanned repairs can be expensive and VOR time can cost businesses lost productivity every day. This also extends to grey fleet vehicles, where employees use their own vehicles for business purposes, as the business is still responsible for ensuring these vehicles are safe and adequately maintained.
10 tips to reduce off-road time for business fleet vehicles
Adopting these measures can help reduce vehicle off-road time and contain rising service, maintenance and repair costs.
1. Regular servicing
Keep up regular servicing and maintenance to ensure vehicle health and safety. Older or high use vehicles may require more frequent safety inspections. Checking a vehicle before going out on the road can identify potential issues before they become critical.
2. Prescheduled downtime
Take a proactive approach to regular servicing and obtaining safety certificates by using forward-booking facilities offered by many service centres. This can also help avoid extended wait times.
3. Vehicle leasing
Lease vehicles on a regular renewal basis if possible to keep vehicles within the warranty period.
4. Simpler repair options
When purchasing new vehicles, consider models that are easier to repair and service, and bear current supply chain issues/parts shortages in mind. Some manufacturers offer longer service intervals compared to similar models in the market (some vehicles require every 10,000kms while others allow up to 15,000kms intervals).
5. Audit trails
Robust fleet management and maintenance records help ensure vehicle safety and establishes evidence if you need to make an insurance claim.
6. Courtesy vehicle indemnity periods
It's a good idea to insure your fleet vehicles with a courtesy vehicle included in the policy, ensuring that indemnity periods provided reflect realistic downtimes. Repair delays in regional areas can run into longer periods than metro areas due to shortage of suitable repair services and parts.
7. Temporary rentals
Consider temporarily increasing your fleet at peak business times by using rental vehicles rather than spending on new vehicles that don't provide yearlong return on investment.
8. Support and safety to reduce human error
Defensive driving training and the use of telematics can help reduce the human error in road risks and accidents ‒ and wear and tear on the vehicle. Other common technologies to consider when replacing fleets could include vehicles fitted with a forward collision warning system which use a radar or camera to monitor road conditions and alert the driver if it detects a critical situation ahead.
9. Downtime analysis
Taking a data driven approach to analysing VOR time and any common causes can help improve your business vehicle fleet management. Likewise, a general review of repair and maintenance records to identify if there's a driver or vehicle that generates higher demand for servicing and repairs can help.
10. Grey fleet management
Don't overlook the importance of regular servicing, maintenance and repair of employee-owned vehicles used in your business and apply the same considerations for reducing costs as for business-owned fleets.
Get help from a business fleet insurance specialist
Gallagher offers businesses of all sizes end-to-end fleet risk management services, including gap analysis, incident and claims analysis, and tailored fleet insurance. We support a large volume of transport sector clients with insurance and risk services and can offer expertise and insight to any business needs in this area.
