Why Benchmarking is Essential to Fleet Management

Vehicles that aren’t properly maintained, are underutilized, or are used inefficiently cost your business a lot of money.

If you rely on vehicles to  generate income for your company, effective fleet management is a requirement.  Successful fleet management programs use benchmarks to compare, manage, and improve your fleet operations.  Benchmarking is just as important if you have one vehicle, as it is if you have hundreds of vehicles.  Additional cost savings can be found by taking a closer look at expenses and working towards a goal.

Why Benchmarking Matters for Effective Fleet Management

Vehicles are critical assets for many businesses, but they can also be a significant expense. To ensure your fleet is operating at peak fleet efficiency and cost-effectiveness, fleet benchmarking is essential. This process, a key component of fleet management best practices, allows you to compare your fleet’s performance against industry standards and identify areas for fleet optimization.

Here’s why benchmarking is so crucial:

• Cost Control: Benchmarking helps you identify areas where you might be overspending on vehicle acquisition, fuel, maintenance, or depreciation.
• Performance Improvement: By comparing your fleet’s performance to industry benchmarks, you can pinpoint areas for improvement and optimize efficiency.
• Informed Decision Making: Benchmarking provides data-driven insights to guide decisions about vehicle replacement, alternative fuel options, and maintenance strategies.
• Increased Profitability: Optimizing your fleet through benchmarking can lead to significant cost savings, directly impacting your bottom line.

Businesses use benchmarks to evaluate and monitor numerous aspects of their vehicles.  If you are not managing the cost areas associated with your vehicles,  you may be overspending on your vehicles.  Tracking costs is essential to benchmarking.  Capturing accurate costs  and comparing them to industry standards  will assist in determining if your costs are in line. If your expenses are above the  benchmark, it may be time to replace that vehicle, or to consider an alternate vehicle that may fit your needs more appropriately.

Benchmarking For Fleet Optimization

Another important factor to take into consideration during benchmarking is to select metrics that are relevant to how your company uses the vehicles to generate revenue.  The benchmark should provide information that helps to improve profitability and control costs.  Possible areas to investigate include acquisition costs, fuel costs, maintenance costs, and depreciation costs, all of which are included in a vehicle’s cost per mile.  To have a handle on all of these costs, you have to have a plan in place to track the spending associated with your fleet, and have the ability to look at reporting based on the costs.

Benchmarking your fleet costs may seem like a complicated process, but with the assistance of Ewald Fleet Solutions, you can be confident in knowing that cost savings is frequently achieved.  Ewald Fleet Solutions has all the tools and experience necessary for you to monitor your vehicles more closely, and ensure effective use and cost containment; all while having a team of fleet professionals working hand in hand with you. You  also benefit from the time and cost savings of outsourcing your vehicle needs to a partner that will tailor a program that specifically aligns with your goals and objectives.

Ready to optimize your fleet and boost your bottom line? Contact Ewald Fleet Solutions today for a free consultation and discover how our benchmarking expertise can help you achieve significant cost savings.