The vehicles in your company’s fleet likely undergo a substantial amount of stress on a daily basis. If they start to crack under the pressure and experience wear and tear overtime, such damage won’t just make your business look bad, it can also reduce the efficiency of your processes, hurt customer relationships, threaten the safety of your employees, and lose your company a considerable amount of money. To avoid such consequences, it’s imperative to keep all of the work trucks in your fleet in good operating condition. To learn about how to maintain your company fleet and keep your work trucks in tip-top shape, consult this guide.
Invest in Protective Products
An effective way to keep your fleet in good condition is to invest in protective products. Below, we have listed some advantageous accessories that you can purchase to prevent damage from occurring.
Custom Seat Covers
One of the easiest ways to protect the interior of your company fleet is to purchase custom seat covers for trucks. Such coverings will prevent the seats inside your truck from getting damaged or stained from dirt, food, or other potentially harmful factors. In addition to debris, seat coverings can also provide protection from UV-rays which are particularly damaging to leather seats and may lead them to crack or dry out overtime.
Aside from protecting your seats, seat covers can also enhance the comfort and aesthetic appearance of your work trucks. When considering such advantages, it is clear that seat coverings are a worthwhile investment for your fleet.
Winter Fronts
If your company fleet drives in cold weather environments, winter fronts will also prove beneficial. Winter fronts essentially refer to coverings that go over the grill of a truck to reduce and redirect cold air from the grill while still facilitating ample airflow to the cooling system. This product proves highly advantageous for combating the negative effects that cold weather can have on your truck such as interior heat issues, slow engine warmup times, and lower fuel economy.
Bug Screens
Another protective product to consider investing in to maintain the condition of your fleet is bug screens. When bugs enter the grill of your vehicle, they can be extremely hard to remove or even leave permanent marks, significantly decrease the appearance of your fleet, and incur damage to your radiator. Fortunately, a bug screen can prevent such negative impacts by blocking bugs and other debris from entering your grill. If you drive your work truck on highways or open roads during the spring and summer season when bugs are the most active, a bug screen is a true necessity.
Create a Preventative Maintenance Schedule
In addition to investing in protective products, another effective way to impede damage from occurring to your fleet is creating a preventative maintenance schedule. In implementing preventative maintenance measures, you can reduce your risk of unscheduled repairs, excess downtime, and other negative repercussions. Some essential preventative maintenance tasks that you should pencil into your schedule include:
- Adjusting tire pressure to prevent uneven wear and decreased fuel efficiency.
- Cleaning the truck regularly in accordance with the recommended steps and schedule laid out in the owner’s manual.
- Replacing dirty air filters which could cause damage to the internal components of the vehicle.
- Changing oils and fluids as necessary to make sure all components run smoothly.
- Rotating the tires to ensure more even tread wear.
- Performing regular tune-ups to the truck’s components.
Conduct Regular Inspections
Another crucial tip on how to maintain your company fleet is to conduct thorough inspections on a regular basis. Ideally, such inspections should take place each time a fleet vehicle is checked out as well as when they are returned. In doing so, any maintenance problems can be identified as soon as possible, preventing any issues from becoming worse or creating safety risks.
To ensure that all necessary areas of the truck get inspected, it is often beneficial to create an inspection checklist that all employees can adhere to. Doing so will help speed up the process and prevent any important steps in the inspection procedure from getting skipped.
Don’t Let Any Issues Go Unresolved
When it comes to keeping your fleet in good condition, identifying issues during an inspection is not enough. You must also make a proactive effort to resolve any potential problems that you come across as quickly as possible. Often, fleet owners will put minor repairs off as long as possible because they do not want to deal with the hassle or costs involved. However, delaying repairs can cause even minor issues to turn into large, highly expensive problems if they go unresolved for a substantial amount of time.
For example, a few drops of leaking transmission fluid may not seem like a big deal. However, it can ultimately result in total transmission failure over time. Plus, failing to address maintenance issues could pose a safety risk for drivers which should be avoided at all costs. As such, it’s essential to immediately address and resolve all issues that your work truck may have.
Keep Track Of All Repairs and Services
Keeping track of all repairs and services is another effective way to keep your company fleet in the best possible condition. For one, keeping track of repairs and services will prevent you from waiting too long between maintenance tasks. On the other hand, keeping detailed records of services will prevent you from conducting maintenance tasks too often which can waste both time and money. Thus, fleet managers should strive to keep track of all vehicle services or repairs that take place in an organized, easy-to-access space.
At Fia Inc., we are committed to helping fleet owners increase the lifespan, comfort, and appearance of their work trucks. For this reason, we offer a wide range of high-quality protective truck accessories such as custom seat coverings, winter fronts, and bug screens. To learn more about our innovative interior and exterior custom accessories and how they can help enhance your fleet, contact us today.
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