Fleet costs are high in the top 5 of operational costs for many companies. Through damage prevention – one of our specialisms – and the quick wins below, you can start to prevent fleet damage in the short term and reduce costs.
No less than 30% of the total fleet costs are influenced by the driving behaviour of drivers. Unsafe traffic behaviour also creates a negative company image and (too) high insurance premiums. That’s why it’s wise as a fleet manager to invest in damage prevention.
10 quick wins for reduced fleet costs
Where to start with damage prevention
#1 | Make sure your drivers’ driving behaviour is transparent
Around 30% of fleet costs are influenced by behaviour, so the first step is to improve the driving behaviour within your fleet to a safer and more sustainable behaviour. This can be achieved through training, coaching and education. However, this is only possible if the driving behaviour is transparent. That is why we advise you to obtain insight into driving behaviour through telematics. At gribb we enrich this data with relevant weather and traffic data and give you insight in driving behaviour. Behaviour is reflected by eg: the right speed, insightful deceleration, safe acceleration, going through corners without extra wear and an eco score. This allows you to see the driving data in the right context and made actionable. Eg: 42% of your drivers is exceeding the speed in urban residential area’s more than 50% of their driving time. Based on this, you can then determine which drivers need training, coaching and education to coach them towards a safe and more sustainable driving behaviour.
#2 | Create visibility on driving behaviour
Drivers aren’t always aware their driving behaviour isn’t safe or sustainable. By making their behaviour visible, you can make real changes to their driving. You can do this through the data you gather yourself as mentioned before, but it’s much more powerful to have the data visible for the drivers themselves. With the gribb driver app, drivers get this visibility on their driving behaviour, see exactly where they can improve and are offered e-learnings to improve their road safety.
#3 | Reward damage-free driving
Many companies and organizations are inclined to punish drivers for damages to their vehicle or traffic violations. However, psychological research has shown that this has the opposite effect. Rewarding accident and violation free driving is more effective than punishment and results in better driving behaviour. Imagine this: you get a ticket for a minor speeding, you pay the fine and If you do not commit a speeding violation for a year, your company will refund the amount you paid. Would that be an incentive for you to pay extra attention to your speed?
#4 | Make sure road safety is embedded within your company
You can have everything about road safety arranged down to the last detail, but if it is not embedded within your company, all the effort is for nothing. Make sure that road safety is a hot topic in the workplace. Internal marketing is the right tool to bring the road safety policy of your company or organization to life and make it top of mind for all your employees. We call it Road Safety Marketing.
#5 | Provide training, coaching and education
Provide your drivers with training, coaching and education on a regular basis – not just once – in the on driving behaviour and road safety, to keep their knowledge and driving skills up to date. This does not always have to be physical, but can of course also be done digitally. This is the only way to ensure that your drivers do not drive temporarily, but always drive safely and responsibly, resulting in fewer claims – and therefore cost savings. We often help companies with professional drivers by training and educating their own mentor coaches or induction coaches so that you largely control the damage prevention policy yourself.
#6 | Integrate safe driving into the onboarding process
By making safe and sustainable driving an important part of the onboarding process, you prevent drivers from taking their old driving habits with them to their new job. In fact, you can teach them new, good habits. Driving safely is not only a skill, but also a mindset.
#7 | Set yourself a goal
“A goal without a plan is just a wish”. Everyone would like to save on fleet costs, but without a saving target and plan, both the route and the destination are unclear – with all the consequences that entails. Start by establishing a saving target and establishing a saving plan. We can help you with this. What impact does 30% less damage in the next 2 years have on your insurance premiums?
#8 | Train employees on parking and mirror adjustment
Many damages occur during parking and manoeuvring in and out a parking space. A solution for this is to digitally train your employees on finding the right parking space without poles or other obstacles. Tip: park in reverse as much as possible, scan the parking space for any obstacles, look not only down, but also at low hanging branches or gutters. When parking your vehicle, use parking sensors or the camera. Driving forward out of a parking space is always safer because you have more visibility!
At many companies, more than half of the damages are so-called manoeuvre damage. And these are often the result of incorrectly adjusted mirrors, but many drivers are not aware that their mirrors are incorrectly adjusted. To prevent this, offer your employees the opportunity to properly adjust the mirrors of their company car at a mirror adjustment location and give them tips and/or instructions.
#9 | Order safe vehicles
Yes, a vehicle with automatic transmission and driver assistance systems such as a reversing camera, parking sensors, adaptive cruise control and head-up display are more expensive to purchase. However, if you teach your drivers how to use these systems to drive more safely, you will see that the damage costs decreases and the residual value of your vehicles increases. Our advice: combine people and technology with the aim of reducing your claims costs.
#10 | Road safety is not a one-time action
Last but not least: road safety is not a one-off action, but a continuous process. It’s like losing weight or building more muscle mass. With the right resources, a goal, a plan and data, you get a little closer to the intended goal every day. You will have to do things differently and let go of old habits. The moment you stop, you fall back into these old habits. If you do what you did, you get what you had. All open doors, but they often work best.
We help you reduce fleet costs
And to make safe driving a business case. Because what amount of liability insurance do you now pay per vehicle per month? What amount of deductible do you pay per year? And what are your repair costs? As a specialist in the field of damage prevention, we can help you and your company or organization like no other in implementing these quick wins and reducing fleet costs.
Would you like to know more about how we do that and what we can do for you and your company/organization? Schedule a no-obligation online consultation with one of our consultants at a time that suits you best.
