In a highly competitive operation, nothing beats a good fleet maintenance program!

With the advent of high fuel cost and increase cost of fleet operations, a good fleet maintenance program is required by every fleet operators. This can be done in house or contracted outside depending on your operation.

The best fleet maintenance management is the one that you can manage your self because it gives more control on how it is done. But there are a lot of fleet maintenance companies right now who can do it for you at a comparable cost. When showing you the difference between the two above, hopefully you can judge properly what is a better program is for you.

In-house Fleet Maintenance Management

This involves doing your own fleet maintenance by having your own building and facilities so it can be done by your people. This can be used starting from a single vehicle but could be applied also when you have a fleet. The main concept here is control and economy which can be used on the following concepts:

How the maintenance is done with regards to labor, location and time involved. Here, you can hire your own people to do it for you while you manage it. You can also set it up on a location convenient for you and at any time available for you.

Maintenance program can also be set up so that you have a choice what is affordable in your budget. Example: certain repair practices can be delayed or done economically whereas if an outside contractor will do what is necessary to protect their warranty regardless of the costs.

Maintenance execution can also be modified, improved and executed at a moments notice which takes time if the fleet is manage by an outside contractor.

Contacted Fleet Maintenance Management

Initial cost is attractive since you avoid setting up the building and locations to do it including whatever taxes to be paid for the maintenance facility.

Convenience especially if the contractor is widely organized nation-wide so that if emergency service is required, the vehicle can be done right away. This is a sure advantage if your fleet is only serviced in 2 locations which are far apart in which there are no coverage if the vehicle breaks down in between those 2 locations.

More time for yourself which will enable you to chase more business for your fleet.

Whether you run your own fleet maintenance management program or you have it contracted, only you can decide which is best for you. As in the case of the in house maintenance program, you can also buy maintenance fleet software that big contractors are using and implement it yourself. You can then set up some training program so that your technicians can do it for you. But at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, where will your company make more money? By saving on fleet maintenance or selling more services for your fleet? This is the ultimate decision that only you can make. There is a saying that goes: there are people who are good salesmen. At the same token, there are people who are good technicians or innovators. Where do you belong?

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