It seems businesses are in an era where cost cuttings and savings are generally considered the keys to success, and this surely applies no less to fleets. Terms like downsizing and rightsizing are constantly at the forefront of the fleet owner’s mind in an attempt to remain competitive by minimising costs. But what exactly does downsizing refer to?
Downsizing literally refers to a process whereby the size of a workforce is reduced by terminating contractual relationships with employees. This translates in terms of fleet operations as literally reducing the number of vehicles so as to improve efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. Now, if downsizing has the express purpose of helping to decrease costs and improve operations, is downsizing a fleet just a matter of reducing vehicle numbers?
Reducing the number of vehicles operating in a fleet might seem simple enough, which may be the overall objective of the downsizing process or merely one of the consequences, but, looking at the bigger picture, what is really needed is optimisation. The idea is rather that a fleet operation should be able to detect not only what is the optimal number of vehicles required to satisfy customer demands, but also the correct type of vehicle for that purpose, with the appropriate specifications.
Here are three tips that might help you make the best decisions for your fleet without necessarily cutting vehicle numbers:
#1 Keep in mind vehicle application. This is what often happens in fleets: the choice of vehicles to be used is extremely important and can be a game changer when it comes to minising the fleet budget. If you choose an extremely large vehicle that might not be strictly necessarily needed for completing your tasks, it might hit your pockets in terms of expensive maintenance and initial insurance costs due to the category it falls under. Chances are that, if you do not have specific needs, you might eventually find out that a similar spec and lighter vehicle can perform just as effectively and at a lower cost. And the opposite holds true: do not save money by investing in a smaller vehicle with technical inadequacies which isn’t up to the job, when what you really need is a larger vehicle with the correct spec for the tasks it is expected to perform.
#2 Carefully check the overall vehicle inventory. If you have an effective system able to track vehicle journeys and performance, you can do a fleet utilisation audit on a regular basis. The idea is that you check, for example, the kilometres/miles travelled by a certain vehicle on a monthly basis, think about the expected miles for it on average and see if any of your vehicles is falling within those numbers or has a lower mileage. Those falling shorter are probably underutilised. If that happens, you can investigate the causes and whether anything can be done within your fleet before looking at other resources or giving it up—is the vehicle an asset that can be reallocated within your fleet or your company locations in order to get the most out of it?
#3 One vehicle equates to one driver? If you have ten workers, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have ten vehicles. You might look into all the areas travelled and have drivers cover different areas and routes, or recheck the shifts and make vehicles available according to a sort of “hot seating” policy if it’s doable. The idea is that you find the solution that best suits your business and customer requirements—for some it makes perfect sense that vehicles can only be used by one driver, for others not.