As a vehicle fleet manager, are you considering implementing rigorous mileage monitoring in order to limit the increase in fuel and maintenance costs? By carrying out this monitoring, you will notably avoid mileage drift.
Find out everything you need to know about mileage:
- What is mileage?
- Why is it essential to ensure mileage tracking of vehicles in your fleet?
- What solutions exist to implement optimal management?
What do we call mileage?
Certain notions, such as mileage, but also mileage drift, must be considered by vehicle fleet managers.
Definition of vehicle mileage
Also called odometry, it corresponds to the total number of kilometers traveled by a vehicle since it was put into service or the last reset of its odometer. This information is visible on the dashboard.
This data is of capital importance:
- The kilometers weigh on the budget of companies. In fact, the greater the distance traveled by a vehicle, the more fuel and maintenance expenses increase. In addition, as part of an LOA or LLD, the maximum mileage is stipulated in the contract: if exceeded, the costs can be significant, hence the need to monitor this data.
- It influences the value of the automobile: wear and tear is largely linked to the distances traveled.
Definition of mileage drift
Each kilometer traveled has a cost price (kilometer cost price or PRK), a monitoring strategy aimed at avoiding deviations must be put in place.
Indeed, if a company employee uses their company car for unnecessary journeys, the cost price for each kilometer traveled increases, which necessarily has an impact on the management of the automobile fleet.
Why is tracking this data so important?
In companies where vehicles are made available to employees, the person in charge of the automobile fleet must ensure rigorous monitoring of the distances traveled.
Mileage drift for a vehicle on LLD or LOA
In fact, to determine the monthly amount of vehicle rental, a mileage package is set. In the event of excess, the company will have to pay a sum for each additional kilometer when returning the vehicles.
Avoiding these penalties linked to employee over-driving is essential to optimize the management of the automobile fleet.
Conversely, in the event of under-running, the company will be committed to a higher rent than that which corresponds to the actual use of the vehicle.
When a company commits to a maximum kilometer package for a specific period, the vehicle fleet manager therefore has every interest in setting up precise monitoring using a suitable management tool:
- He can thus check that the limit has not yet been exceeded for the different vehicles in his fleet;
- If the excess is unavoidable, he can renegotiate the rental contract: by anticipating, the rent will be increased, but the amount of penalties will be lower.
Mileage drift for a vehicle owned by the company
For companies that own the vehicles in their fleet, the objective is not only to limit costs linked to rising fuel and maintenance.
When a new vehicle enters a car fleet, the manager must set a number of months and kilometers to reach before resale. In fact, the more they increase, the more it loses value. To avoid seeing the resale price decrease, the manager will have to replace the vehicle sooner than expected, which will inevitably have an impact on the finances of his company.
The benefits for a fleet manager
To summarize, optimal mileage tracking must be implemented by vehicle fleet managers to:
- Anticipate the modification of the rental contract (LLD or LOA)
- Organize and anticipate the renewal of your fleet
- Adjust fleet fuel consumption as accurately as possible
- Facilitate strategic decision-making aimed at reducing the TCO or average cost of ownership of the fleet
How to check the mileage of your car fleet?
Although information about kilometers traveled is visible on the dashboard, the car fleet manager cannot control each vehicle. This verification would take a lot of time, cause errors and would therefore have a cost for the company.
Are you looking for an IT solution to better track the mileage of your vehicles? The use of automobile fleet management software allows
managers to obtain valuable data on the distances traveled by drivers.
Automotive fleet software is equipped with features to implement the following strategies:
1. Set up an alert
Thanks to the software, the manager is able to set up an alert: when the meter approaches the set limit, an alert is sent by the software to the manager.
The latter can thus rectify the situation, for example, by offering another vehicle to the driver concerned. In the case of a rental, the manager can also anticipate excess driving by adjusting the duration of the contract as well as the mileage package, in particular, thanks to the “contracts to be optimized” function available in GAC Car Fleet.
2. Track fuel consumption
Automotive fleet management software such as GAC Car Fleet from GAC Technology also makes it possible to track overall fuel usage for each vehicle in the fleet. Here again, measures must be taken by the manager to avoid drivers over-driving (for example, encouraging eco-driving to consume less) or, conversely, under-driving.
3. Set up a monthly mileage report
Finally, setting up a monthly report summarizing the distances traveled as well as the fuel consumption of each vehicle is a strategy that can prove relevant for limiting expenses.
Indeed, making this information available to drivers while giving them expert advice to optimize their journeys as well as their driving, can change their behavior on the road. This data, collected using the automobile fleet management software, is easily usable and can be the subject of complete reporting using the tool.
Are you looking for a solution to optimize TCO through optimal monitoring of mileage data from your car fleet? Contact one of our advisors to find out more about the features of our GAC Car Fleet software!
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