How to Improve Fleet Management: Tips for Home Service Pros

1. Track your vehicles

When you know where your vehicles and crews are, you can: 

• Let customers know when a team is on the way
• Easily calculate time spent at a job site
• Respond to accidents or breakdowns if they happen
• Dispatch the closest team members to last-minute or emergency jobs
• Optimize routes and cut down on unnecessary travel time
• Meet them on the road with a forgotten tool or extra supplies

That way, you can oversee your fleet at all times, pivoting and making adjustments to your crews, schedules, and jobs as needed, removing any guesswork.

2. Analyze vehicle data

Fleet management involves tracking, collecting, and analyzing a lot of fleet data, such as: 

• Vehicle locations and real-time GPS tracking
• Fuel consumption and efficiency
• Driver behavior (speeding, idling, etc.)
• Route performance
• When jobs are finished
• How much time is spent on job sites
• Vehicle repair costs
• Vehicle-related costs, like insurance, licensing, overhead, leases, purchases, and inspections
• Who is using a work vehicle and when
• Regulatory compliance requirements like driver’s licenses, and safety certifications

This information will help you see where you can make changes to improve your fleet efficiency and productivity. 

For example, optimizing routes to make more room in your schedule, addressing poor driving behaviors before an accident happens, and monitoring costs to ensure they don’t eat into profit.

Gathering and collecting fleet data can be time-consuming and complicated without the right tools. Depending on what you want to track, you may need fleet management software, GPS tracking devices, and reporting tools to automate the process and provide insights like fuel reports and usage overviews.

3. Update your insurance

When you use commercial vehicles in your service business, you’ll need to update your insurance whenever you: 

• Add or remove a vehicle from your fleet
• Change a vehicle’s usage, like from personal to commercial use
• Make changes that could impact your coverage, like expanding to new service areas
• Hire or let go of drivers 
• Are impacted by regulatory updates

You’ll also want to review your insurance coverage and costs after filing a claim or reporting an incident to see how it will affect you.

4. Buy the right vehicles

Before you add any vehicles to your fleet, make sure you’re purchasing or leasing the right one by considering: 

• Fuel efficiency
• Towing capacity
• The affordability and availability of parts
• Whether it’s easy to replace
• What you need it for

It’s good practice to create and follow vehicle purchasing guidelines that cover your price range, usage purposes, and requirements. That way, when you head to the dealership, you know exactly what to look for.

5. Rotate vehicle usage

If you have a fleet of vehicles, make sure your staff uses them equally to reduce wear and tear and extend the lifespan of each one. 

By rotating vehicles so they all get driven equally, you spread mileage and maintenance across your entire fleet, preventing single vehicles from being overused. Like if your employees all want to drive the newest truck even though your older pickups still have life in them. 

It can also help to identify small repairs before they become major problems as vehicle rotation means your team will be using each vehicle in different conditions. 

For example, you may not notice a vehicle with an overheating engine on a short trip or that your tires need to be replaced on bare roads. When you use your vehicles equally, it’ll be easier to spot when they need repairs or maintenance.

6. Make a driver checklist

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) keep your team on the same page when it comes to processes and best practices. 

Having one for your drivers helps to prioritize safety and provides guidance when they aren’t sure what to do. For example, a driver checklist should cover: 

• Pre-trip inspection instructions, like checking tires, mileage, and noting the fuel level
• Confirming the route and job address
• Securing all tools and equipment
• Reporting vehicle issues or damage 
• Following safety protocols and traffic laws, like wearing a seatbelt and adhering to speed limits
• Post-trip vehicle inspections, like checking for damage and noting relevant information such as updated mileage numbers and fuel 

Instead of just providing crews with a booklet covering your procedures, train them on the processes they should follow. For example, when you bring on a new hire who’ll be driving one of your vehicles, take time to communicate your expectations to them by giving them a driver training session before handing over the keys. 

It’s one of the most effective ways to reduce accidents, prevent costly repairs, and feel confident you and your drivers are on the same page when you send them out on the road.

7. Adopt route optimization

Route optimization plans the most efficient routes based on booked jobs. It saves you money in fuel and vehicle wear and reduces driving time so you can add more jobs to your schedule. 

For example, if you have three mowing jobs in the same neighborhood, route optimization will help you assign them to the same crew so you don’t have employees wasting time crisscrossing your service area.  

Route optimization software like Jobber generates maps based on job addresses and crew locations, taking the hassle out of getting your team from point A to B. Plus, its scheduling software can send notifications to crews when job details change or appointments get canceled while they’re on the road.

8. Conduct preventative maintenance

If you wait until a vehicle breaks down to repair it, you could end up losing money through missed appointments, unexpected costs like repairs or replacements, and even increased insurance premiums due to increased risks or claims. 

Preventative maintenance, like oil changes, brake checks, tire rotations, and fluid inspections identify small repairs before they become major issues. Not only will this save you money, but it will also extend the life of your fleet, keeping them on the road for longer. 

Note: Some states require annual vehicle inspections while in others they’re only necessary when you first register a vehicle or it changes ownership. Remember to check your state’s laws surrounding vehicle inspections and maintenance to stay up to date and catch potential problems early.

9. Create policies

Like driver checklists, policies give employees guidelines about how to handle specific situations. But instead of focusing on step-by-step instructions for everyday tasks, they’re best used for outlining: 

• What work vehicles can and can’t be used for 
• What to do in the event of a motor vehicle accident
• What to do if a vehicle breaks down
• How to report damage
• Driver safety expectations and consequences for not following them
• Where to get fuel from and how to purchase it
• Requirements for keeping vehicles clean
• Guidelines for who is allowed to drive company vehicles
• Whose responsibility it is to maintain the vehicle
• Licensing rules and regulations

These policies protect your business by reducing liability and communicating important information to your team. Review them with staff members and update them regularly to keep them relevant and correct.

10. Keep records

An effective fleet management strategy means keeping records of important information, like: 

• Vehicle purchase or lease agreements
• Maintenance and repair work
• Driver details, like licenses, certifications, and training
• Fuel usage
• Insurance policies and claims
• Accident reports and incident logs
• Warranty information
• Driver complaints or tickets

They can be useful in the event of disputes, insurance claims, audits, and at tax time. For example, if a vehicle is involved in an accident, maintenance records and repair history can demonstrate it was properly maintained, potentially helping with an insurance claim or supporting a legal defense.

11. Make a schedule

If you’ve been trying to manage your fleet by letting employees check out vehicles as needed, it’s probably been challenging. Instead, make a comprehensive schedule that includes: 

• Which vehicles are assigned to which jobs
• Who the authorized drivers are
• The expected start and end times of each job
• Breaks, rest periods, and driving time limits as legally required

A long-term schedule can also note scheduled maintenance, inspection reminders, lease and insurance renewals, and other fleet management tasks.

Scheduling software like Jobber gives you the tools you need to oversee fleet management schedules so you can have more control with less admin work. You can use it to create events and reminders, drag and drop rescheduled appointments, assign team members to different jobs, and optimize routes with automated maps.

12. Use fleet management software

You already know that effective and efficient fleet management means juggling a lot of moving parts, from driver behavior and vehicle locations to scheduling maintenance and monitoring fuel usage. 

Trying to oversee one of these tasks alone can be a struggle, but put them all together and it’s nearly impossible while you’re taking on all the other tasks of running a business. 

Fleet management software is the best way to take this work off your plate while still tracking, analyzing, and filing the data you need to keep your fleet on the road and running smoothly. 

Some popular fleet management platforms for home service providers include: 

• Jobber: Best for service businesses who need an all-in-one fleet management platform that includes scheduling, dispatching, and fleet tracking as well as a CRM and invoicing. 
• Fleetio: Best for large vehicle fleets with detailed reporting requirements. 
• Geotab: Best for large fleets that need compliance tracking, advanced telematics, and AI-driven data insights. 
• FleetSharp: Best for service businesses that only require GPS tracking and real-time monitoring. 
• Mojio: Best for independent contractors and small service businesses that only need simple GPS hardware to track vehicles and monitor fleet safety.

How to choose the best fleet management software

If you’re ready to take your fleet management strategy to the next level with fleet management software, consider the following before making a decision: