If we look at the use of fleet vehicles and resources, it’s immediately apparent that fleets are always striving for the best performance—a 100% target isn’t uncommon—even if that aim might look excessively optimistic.
But if that cannot necessarily be completely reachable due to the unpredictable elements that often affect global fleet resources utilization, we definitely have to admit that revenue is generated by maximising assets for business tasks such as picking up and delivering goods, for example, where companies are working in deliveries and logistics.
According to that reasoning, asset utilization is the key to becoming profitable—the more you can get out of your assets, the more profitable your fleet and business will likely to be. But how is it possible to miss the target—in other words, which factors can impede the maximisation of fleet resources utilization?
#1 - Vehicle availability - it seems that this aspect is often cited as the only one responsible for an unsatisfactory fleet utilization rate. Vehicle availability mostly refers to the fact that vehicles are not available due to pending maintenance, which in turn might be attributed to missing parts (especially if we are talking about fleets with in-house maintenance) or even an unreliable maintenance provider or schedule. Which brings us to number 2…
#2 - Inefficient maintenance - this might refer to an inefficient maintenance regime which can depend on many reasons: if maintenance is not scheduled in the appropriate intervals of time, delayed, if regular maintenance is not carried out, if there is nothing in place to guarantee daily inspections, vehicles are more likely to incur downtime. As such you would then have to consider not only the cost of the unutilized vehicle but also the lost business and the added maintenance expense, plus the cost of a replacement vehicle…
#3 - Personnel downtime - if among your staff there are inactive workers due to illness or other reasons, chances are that some of your vehicles, hopefully not many, are underutilized. If the downtime has been unplanned, this can be especially true. If some of your vehicles sit idle, and it might be the case for very specific ones that can be driven only by specialised staff, you might reconsider rental or other options which might be more advantageous than having an underutilized vehicle.
#4 - Unclear fleet workflow - if you do not have the global fleet situation presented clearly, chances are that you are underusing your vehicles. If you do not have a system able to check out the situation of your vehicles at any time, you are most certainly not fully benefitting from your vehicles—and not having the situation presented clearly can also result in more inefficiencies and money wasted.
