8 Fleet Management Tips for Effective Fleet Management
June 17, 2021

Effective fleet management can make or break a business. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned expert in the field, properly managing your business matters. Read on for fleet management tips that will make your life easier and your business better.

Set Performance Standards

Much like any business, the employees that work for us are the bread and butter of what we do. Effective fleet management requires managers to realize that the success of your business has a lot more to do with the day-to-day success of your individual employees than you might realize. Setting goals, expectations, and rewards for your drivers can go a long way. From fuel efficiency to vehicle inspections, you can incentivize drivers to make smart, safe decisions that add up across an entire fleet.

Reduce Downtime with Proactive Maintenance

Scheduled, proactive maintenance is one of the most effective fleet management tips there is. In addition to helping you comply with required regulations, proactive maintenance also saves money in the long run, and that’s why it should be one of your priorities (link to Commercial Vehicle Maintenance Checklist: 3 Priorities That Will Save You Money). Minor downtime to rotate tires, check fluids, and inspect other parts is better than prolonged downtime due to a larger problem. Likewise, it reduces potential crashes or roadside emergencies, again saving time.

Source Female Candidates

Though the majority of drivers are men, another of the best fleet management tips is to expand your hiring pool to proactively include women. Doing so requires that you create an environment that is safe and friendly for female drivers (link to How to Attract & Retain Women Truck Drivers to Your Business), but inclusivity is a better business practice, and with a shortage of skilled workers, we can’t afford to cut down on our already limited talent pool.

Screen Your Employees

A thorough, recurring background screening program is a great use of time and money. While the DOT mandates certain screening requirements (link to Your Guide to DOT Background Check Requirements for Drivers), effective fleet management sometimes requires going a step beyond these rules. Continuous monitoring programs are particularly useful, as they alert managers to any criminal activity or driving-related incidents the moment they occur, rather than months down the line.

Use Technology to Your Advantage

In the modern workforce, technology reigns supreme, and that’s no different in the trucking industry. A robust fleet management tool will help you standardize, digitize, and simplify many of the tasks associated with effective fleet management, including proactive maintenance, background screening, and scheduling. While paper copies are a fine redundancy, all paperwork—from invoices to receipts to employee records and maintenance logs—should really be digital. This drastically reduces the likelihood of misplacing or losing important documentation, and it makes it easy to search for and locate paperwork when necessary. Plus, technology will notify you of upcoming expirations or tasks.

Stay Ahead of Industry Advances

With that technology in mind, one of the best fleet management tips you can abide by is staying informed about what is changing and advancing in the industry. From compliance updates to new truck technology and beyond, staying abreast of these shifts empowers managers to make the right decisions for the betterment of the company.

Provide Ongoing Training to Drivers

Once you’ve learned of an important advancement in the industry, or if you’re seeing trends that suggest change is coming, it’s important that you pass that knowledge down to your drivers. To circle back to our original point, your drivers are the day-to-day of your business, and their success is your success. Many industry experts are thinking about the automation of the trucking industry (link to “Will Truck Driving Be Automated?”), but rather than worrying about it, we can prepare for it. Train your drivers and equip them with the skills they’ll need to operate in our changing industry so that you don’t get left behind.

Work With an Expert

But the best piece of advice we can offer for effective fleet management? Don’t try to do it all yourself! Gold Star has been helping trucking businesses for years with back office packages, mentoring, and dispatching. Now that we’ve clued you in to a few effective fleet management tips, let’s see how we can help you succeed!

Your Guide to the Amazon Delivery Service Partner Program

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It’s impossible to think of the trucking industry without considering Amazon. In 2019, the company delivered 4.5 billion packages in the United States . Their Amazon Delivery Service Partner Program enables anyone with some startup capital the opportunity to get involved in their massively successful business venture. There are pros and cons to becoming an Amazon DSP, but the steady stream of work is certainly eye-catching to start-up trucking companies. Amazon lays out some of the most important information , but let’s take a look at some frequently asked questions.

Your Guide to DOT Background Check Requirements for Drivers

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A thorough, compliant background screening program for your drivers should be the backbone of your hiring strategy. Background checks ensure that your new drivers have all of the qualifications necessary to do the job well and to best represent your company out on the road. Background checks also, of course, weed out any drivers with disqualifying criminal histories, a history of driving violations, and substance abuse problems. That’s why they should be a standard part of your fleet safety program anyway (link to “Fleet Safety Program: 4 Important Things to Remember”). In our regulated industry, a DOT background check is required. Here’s how DOT background check requirements differ from standard employment screening.

Will Truck Driving Be Automated?

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It’s the question on the minds of truck drivers, owners, and delivery companies everywhere: will truck driving be automated? Automated trucks have been a conversation point for years now, with many worrying that technology advances will put millions of people out of work. Despite these concerns, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 5% growth for trucking employment in the coming years. While other industries struggle to adapt to new technology, the trucking industry is greatly benefiting from it. There are a range of opinions when it comes to this question, though most truck drivers seem confident that their jobs can’t (or at least won’t) be done by machines any time soon. Before getting into the trucking industry, it’s important that you take a look at the landscape and make an educated decision about it—but remember there will always be a need to move goods from one place to another, and the explosion in online ordering suggests that need is only going to expand. Let’s take a look at the current state of automated trucks as we dive into the question: will truck driving be automated?

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What Do I Need to Start a Trucking Company?

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The trucking industry landscape is largely made up of small businesses—with over 90% of companies operating fewer than seven trucks—so there is room for you if you’re considering starting a small trucking business. Whether you’re a professional truck driver already or you’re just a prospective business owner looking to cash in on the projected growth in the industry, you can get on the road toward a successful business with our help. What do you need to start your own trucking business? Just a little bit of insight from Gold Star’s experts.

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