Analysing your true fleet risk is an essential business tool to ensure you are able to optimise all fleet costs and operations so your fleet is able to do its job: support and enable your core business.
Every company that requires fleet vehicles for any purpose, whether it’s specialised construction vehicles or a handful of delivery vehicles, is at risk of unexpected costs or downtime should one of these vehicles fail.
The good news is that many years of data and expertise make it possible for fleet partners such as Eqstra to do a detailed risk assessment of any fleet and help you reduce those risks and dramatically reduce fleet costs.
Every fleet is different, but a detailed risk assessment will quickly highlight pressure points and unnecessary costs that can be solved in a number of different ways.
1. Do you have the correct vehicles?
This may seem like an irrelevant point for companies that don’t require specialised vehicles and run a fleet of general company vehicles. But no two vehicles are exactly the same, and a risk analysis will look at the following:
- Reliability - are these specific vehicles the most reliable choice for the task?
- Fuel efficiency - are your fleet vehicles the most fuel-efficient options for your specific needs?
- Will it benefit your business to change to more appropriate vehicles? In other words, is your fleet at risk of unexpected costs simply because your fleet is not 100% fit for purpose?
- Do your vehicles have the correct tyres, cargo space or even cargo accessories for your fleet requirements?
2. Fleet environment risks
This angle looks at where your fleet vehicles are operated and asks the following questions:
- Are your vehicles operated in a high-risk environment such as construction sites, or even densely populated urban areas with a high risk of accidents?
- Are your vehicles being stored in a safe space when not in use, or are they employee vehicles that are taken home? Do you know whether employee vehicles are parked in a garage, or is on-street parking necessary for some?
- Are any of your vehicles being driven in areas known as hi-jacking hotspots? Is there an option to reroute without affecting productivity?
- Are your vehicles being used on different types of terrain such as gravel or areas with notoriously poor road conditions? This could have a big impact on your maintenance and tyre management needs.
3. Vehicle maintenance process
Your vehicle breakdown risk is directly related to your vehicle maintenance practices. Poorly maintained vehicles will never perform at 100% and place your business at a higher risk for unexpected costs, breakdowns and downtime.
- Are your vehicles going for regular service and maintenance checks as per the OEM requirements?
- Are vehicles regularly booked in late, or even skip some service checks because you simply can’t afford a few days of downtime?
- Are all your vehicles equipped with basics such as spare tyres and a breakdown kit? How often are these checked?
- Are you able to accurately budget for service and maintenance costs, or do you regularly end up with much higher costs than expected? This could be an indication that vehicles are either not fit for purpose, or not being kept in good condition.
- What are your options should one or more of your vehicles become inoperable?
4. Cargo risk
For some companies, the biggest risk is in the type of cargo they’re carrying and this will factor into your overall fleet risk.
- Is your cargo at high risk for hi-jackings? Goods such as alcohol, pharmaceuticals and tech (phones, televisions etc) are always at risk of being hijacked.
- How are you currently managing these risks and can this be improved?
- Are you transporting temperature-sensitive goods such as fresh produce, chemicals or pharmaceuticals? How often do you experience delays or get too close to the cut-off time for these goods to be delivered within their viability window?
- How often do you experience breakdowns, delays or even hi-jacking whilst transporting sensitive goods?
5. Fleet fraud risk
Fleet fraud happens when companies don’t have a means to accurately track all vehicle refuelling, loading, unloading, location, mileage etc.
- How do you track vehicle refuelling to ensure non-fleet vehicles aren’t being fuelled at your expense?
- Do you have an accurate view of what your fuel costs should be per vehicle per month so you can spot inconsistencies?
- Are you able to track how much mileage is being done for work or personal use?
- How do you track cargo loading and unloading? How do you minimise the risk of cargo theft?
6. Fleet tracking
This is an overview of your current fleet tracking systems.
- Do you have any fleet telematics in place to track vehicle movements?
- How do you check vehicle locations and daily, weekly or monthly mileage?
- Are you tracking fuel usage compared to mileage to see if the lineup?
- Are you ensuring that regular vehicle checks are done? This includes tyre conditions and items such as engine oil and water.
- Do you have a means to check driver behaviour in order to note speeding, long idle times, unplanned stops or unscheduled routes?
- How will you be alerted in the event of a vehicle incident?
The above points are a good overview of details that are considered when doing a fleet risk analysis. As mentioned above, each fleet is unique and a risk analysis will take into account your specific fleet operations and evaluate all the potential risks and what is being done to mitigate these.
At the end of the day, your fleet risk has a direct impact on the success of your business. Reduced risk means reduced costs and improved productivity.
If you’re looking to reduce your fleet risk, improve performance, and even outsource a large part of the associated risk, a professional fleet risk assessment is well worth your time.
Every fleet is different, but a detailed risk assessment will quickly highlight pressure points and unnecessary costs that can be solved in a number of different ways. Visit our leasing page for more information or contact our fleet experts.