Vehicles are an expensive commodity. When you run a business that deals with its own logistics, you have to get used to the idea that they’re always going to be a considerable cost. But running your own deliveries means you get a lot more control over those vehicles. So, making your fleet more efficient and cost-effective is a lot more possible than if you were outsourcing that part of the business.

Going green

Fuel efficiency is one of the big changes you can make to how cost-effective your fleet is. The next time you’re looking to expand the fleet with a new vehicle, you should look at some of the electric vans that are on the markets today. The demand for electric vehicles is going up, so we’re seeing a greater diversity of them nowadays. But you also have to look at the time they have to spend charging. This is where you find a balance between the money lost from being off the road compared the money saved from fuel costs.

Have the parts you need when you need them

Of course, time spent off the road should be kept as low as it can be. To that end, you have to take a much closer look at the maintenance of vehicles than you normally would, especially since you have multiples of them. For one, instead of regular mechanics and dealerships, you need to go directly to the manufacturers and suppliers they would rely on. Otherwise, you might be waiting for quite some time as your mechanic sources hose adapters when you could get them quicker from the source, yourself. They can also ensure that you’re provided with the replacements so you don’t have to wait at all next time.

Fill them right up

We’re not talking about fuel but about cargo. The truth is that companies spend billions of pounds by letting trucks run empty. Of course, that should be a rarity, but you shouldn’t be wasting fuel on trucks that are half-full at all. One of the reasons this problem is so common is that businesses don’t use a diverse range of vehicle sizes that could make sure they’re spending only the fuel they need to move the size of cargo they need to take.

Know your routes

The cost-effectiveness of a journey both in terms of time spent and fuel guzzled is going to rely, in big part, on the routes taken and driving habits as well. Routes that involve too many stoppages or take them on the least efficient routes are going to cost you more. For that reason, you should be using GPS tracking and telemetric devices to provide feedback to drivers so that they can pick better routes the next time they’re on the road.

Remember that the drivers are as important as the vehicle, so think about incentivizing the kind of efficient behaviour you’re looking to save money from. Once there’s something in it for the employees, it’s a lot easier to implement just about any strategy you want implemented.