Establishing and maintaining a fleet budget is crucial for the success of a company and for good fleet management performance. Often, a budget is considered successful if the decisions behind it are solid and allow the company to control costs or even decrease expenses.

How is it possible to reduce costs with fleet management?

Fleet management can reduce overall costs by monitoring and measuring the performance of the drivers and vehicles. In order to decrease costs, the following strategies can be implemented:
? Analyzing the company expenses
? Creating schedules for truck maintenance
? Avoiding risks related to saving money on insurance
? Keeping track of fuel consumption and truck idling
? Managing disposal and new units acquisition

When the company has control over their existing cost patterns, it enables the fleet owner to visualize where the money will be spent in the future and where it will be possible to cut needless costs. The fleet can also track costs that weren`t expected and focus on areas that are needed to enhance efficiency.

How to create a fleet budget?

The fleet manager should create a detailed and comprehensive plan in order to avoid problems and maximize significant findings. To help fleet managers and entrepreneurs looking to join the trucking industry, we offer a four-step strategy based on the recommendations regarding a fleet`s budget:

Define goals for the year that are properly aligned with your company`s budget to help achieve those purposes. There are different methods to determine a fleet company`s purposes, including the SWOT analysis, which identifies a company`s weaknesses, threats, opportunities and strengths. These results will determine programs to reduce costs in relation to a specific criterion for the next year.

Check the cost data from the previous year to help define possible future expenses that need to be included in the budget for the next year. This will help identify areas for improvement and will make it possible to set changes and gain great insights.

Forecast for the next year by using the most appropriate budgeting techniques for the fleet, keeping in mind essential items, such as fuel, license and taxes, maintenance, safety, leasing and fleet management, insurance and collisions, vehicle depreciation, interest expenses, disposal adjustment, personal use chargebacks, and more.

Monitor the fleet`s results as compared to the budget by frequently tracking the fleet`s actual metrics against the goals set to get a parameter in relation to the previous year.

Using telematics, such as Geotab, to help create and monitor your fleet management budget can have a significant impact on your company`s financial results. Please visit Geotab`s official website to learn more and optimize your fleet operations: https://www.geotab.com/blog/fleet-costs/