As the heart of your fleet, you need to maintain trucks and trailers properly to effectively complete projects and keep your business profitable. Discover different fleet utilization metrics to acquire specific insights that help improve productivity and revenue.
Managing fleet performance leverages comprehensive data-driven insights rather than cursory assessments. Use KPIs for better fleet management and decision-making.
What is the utilization value of your vehicle? In simpler terms, how close is your fleet to meeting its working capacity? Take full command of your fleet and increase profit by determining its vehicle utilization rate. This metric follows the formula:
(Hours billed / available billable hours) x 100 = Vehicle utilization rate
The maximum billable hours vary based on company processes and policies. Key factors that affect this number include working hours (billable), non-working hours (idle), break hours, and travel hours. Deduct the non-working hours from the total hours for the billable hours.
Increase the utilization of equipment by repurposing underutilized trailers and trucks. You can also sell high-downtime vehicles to reduce maintenance costs. Improving routes and setting practical maintenance schedules is another way to help limit non-billable hours.
Use fleet capacity to identify the amount of work your fleet can handle in a certain period.
To calculate the fleet capacity in a given week, use this formula:
(Total number of trucks or trailers x total billable hours available) / days of the work week = Fleet capacity
Since the work week is highly dependent on several factors, like personnel availability and seasonality, you need to set the number based on your operations. Continuous review of your workweek is essential to accurately determine the work your fleet can tackle.
Massive downtime impacts your overall productivity and profit, making it an important KPI for better fleet management. Learn how you can manage downtime per vehicle and make necessary adjustments to increase billable hours. Following a rotational maintenance schedule allows you to accommodate unexpected repairs and continue operations even with downtime.
You can determine downtime in hours with this formula:
Time downtime ended – time downtime began = Downtime
Tracking labor is essential for optimized operational efficiency and reduced costs. Determine the work your crew can achieve and efficiently track labor with this formula:
Total number of operators x total billable hours available = Crew capacity
Fuel takes up a significant portion of fleet expenses. Monitor and manage fuel consumption to cut costs. Track fuel usage with miles per gallon measurements, following this formula:
Miles driven / gallons of gas used = Miles per gallon
If you see an increase in fuel consumption, consider:
Keep your trucks and trailers productive and maximize revenue. At Thompson Truck Source, we partner with fleet managers, offering tailored solutions to keep all vehicles running on time at peak efficiency. Count on us for unmatched fleet management support. Contact us today so you can make the most out of your trailers and trucks.