An optimal fleet management system provides information on how to optimize your business by improving the decision-making process. Then, how is it done? The system takes into account the most important fleet performance indicators of the organization.
What are the basic fleet performance KPIs?
Fleet management is a very complex process; it involves several actions such as planning, coordination, and monitoring of fleet activities and its numerical results. This seeks to fully optimize all the material and human resources of the company aiming to provide a quality fleet service, and at the same time, guarantee the safety of the drivers and the merchandise.
And to achieve this, it is necessary to keep the fleet metrics and KPIs in our sights. We must control the elements that indicate the status and performance of the vehicles in our fleet.
- Distance traveled: it is measured in miles and is the sum of all the movements that a vehicle has made during a journey. All the miles are counted from the vehicle departure with the merchandise until its arrival. This includes all the detours taken for mandatory breaks during the journey.
- Delivery time: the time must be measured from the moment the vehicle is set in motion and until it returns. In this way, it will be possible to control whether the service has been of quality and whether the routes have been adequate. It is about preventing drivers from deviating from the road or, due to external agents, having the merchandise take longer than it should to reach the customer.
- Transported cargo: this is a very valuable indicator. By knowing the weight of the cargo, it is possible to carry out measures to keep the merchandise safe during transport. Cargo loads are usually reflected in tons or physical units. Knowing this data can help decide the type of vehicle that is going to transport it, the route to be taken, etc …
- Time of vehicle off-road (VOR): as we mentioned before, delivery time is important, but so is VOR time. In this way, the impact of the incidents is quantified. During VOR time the vehicle is not available because it awaits a repair or needs other vital services done. The index corresponding to the number of jobs that have been completed during the day must be taken into account.
- Maintenance cost: it is important here to differentiate by vehicle and by the driver. In order to avoid unnecessary expenses, maintenance costs must be controlled per driver; oftentimes users are responsible for vehicle breakdowns and this often tends to be directly related to the time that each of them spends behind the wheel.
In terms of maintenance costs per vehicle and fleet performance, one must never forget to keep records of all the maintenance operations that have been carried out on each vehicle. In this way, it will be possible to analyze and establish relationships between costs and the mileage that each vehicle has recorded. In this way, you will know which vehicles and which models are more profitable and it will help in your decision-making process.
- Driver´s shift: this indicator must be controlled and very well regulated. The maximum driving times per day must be met, both daily and weekly, and therefore; a record of the hours of each driver must be kept.
- Number of incidents: accidents that occur while driving must be recorded. A record must be kept of the number and collateral damage of both vehicles and drivers. In this way, the fleet risk of a company can be controlled.
- Driving style: the way in which vehicles are driven and driving speed should be controlled. The driving style is linked to accidents, fuel consumption, maintenance among others; Therefore, the data obtained must be controlled and analyzed; this will help in making better decisions. This is this is key to the fleet management and understanding related costs.
The bottom line about fleet metrics and KPIs
As you can see, planning, coordinating and monitoring fleet performance is not an easy task if you don’t know what to analyze. If you control the basic indicators and those that are related to your fleet, you will be able to make better decisions and optimize your business.
To control the indicators, it is best to rely on a fleet management system. Decide what your main fleet KPIs will be and once you know it, start analyzing them to implement good practices in the management of your business fleet.
Don´t miss: Essential guidelines to control fuel consumption on vehicle fleets.