Do you know the impacts downtime is having on your fleet? We look at the various methods for reducing the amount of time your vehicles spend off-road.
Many vehicle fleets struggle with downtime, and calculating the cost and impact this has on your company may be difficult. There are additional financial issues to consider as well, such as substitute vehicles while the vehicle is off-road, productivity losses if work is postponed or cancelled, and the expense of compensating personnel who are unable to do their duties.
It’s critical to keep downtime to a minimum, and a fleet might use various techniques to accomplish so.
Here are a few strategies:
Check to see if parts are available
One of the difficulties that might prevent putting a car back on the road is not having the proper components in stock if you need to do any service, maintenance, or repair. This might be due to several factors, including a shortage of supply from the manufacturer or the fact that the item you want must be purchased and delivered, which might take time.
Working with a source who can offer you real-time information on part availability is advantageous since you will respond quickly if an issue arises.
Recognise when there are issues
A lack of communication is at the root of many of the problems associated with prolonged downtime. For example, when a fleet is dispersed, it might take a long time for drivers to notify a problem and that the vehicle has gone off-road.
Even a single day missed while this information is gathered and processed may be costly, so make sure you have procedures in place that allow staff to immediately report “vehicle off-road” and the severity of the problem.
Ensure that work is scheduled correctly
When you need to locate a space at the last minute to do work, you may find yourself at the end of the line, which means extra downtime. As a result, scheduling work whenever feasible can save money and time spent off-road.
For example, if you analyse your fleet data and discover that tyres nearly always require changing at a specific mileage, keep a careful check on cars approaching that point (or ensuring drivers perform walkaround checks and reporting back). Then you can book them into a workshop and make an order for replacements.
Know where your vehicles are at all times
Downtime can be increased for particular fleets simply because they have no idea where their cars are. If there was a problem, the driver might have switched to another car and parked the first. Locating the damaged car, collecting it, and transporting it to a repair shop might take some time.
If you know where all of your assets are at all times, you can relocate them to where they’re needed the most. This fills gaps in operating capacity to save downtime and get off-road vehicles back on the road as soon as possible.
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