How to Reduce Fleet Maintenance Costs

Smart business owners are increasingly employing the services of fleet management companies, like MH Equipment, in an effort to monitor electric forklift utilization, equipment repair, fleet distribution across multiple locations, and of course, fleet maintenance costs. Using a fleet management company allows businesses to focus on their customers and products, while leaving the diagnostics and data analysis to industry experts. If you’re interested in maximizing your ROI and reducing waste, keep reading to learn how our fleet management solution can help your business.

Many businesses are woefully unaware of the monthly operating costs of their fleet, including related expenses like replacing tires and repairing leaks. This lack of information is detrimental to a successful business, and can lead to issues like downtime, avoidable repairs, and underutilized equipment. Our goal is to keep our customers informed and better prepared through our work.

Our Process

The first step is to analyze your entire fleet and create a customized fleet management solution that will help you avoid common pitfalls.

Our MH fleet maintenance software is a flexible and affordable solution that enables us to track the utilization of your fleet, the hours used per machine, repair history, scheduling, and more for maximum operation efficiency. This web-based program has an intuitive design and interface that allows you to easily see the data we have collected and the reports we have compiled so you can make smart decisions for your business.

Analyze Utilization

Analyzing the utilization of each machine is one of the most important aspects of fleet management, as it allows us to determine whether you are using each machine to its fullest capacity, or if you could benefit from modifying the size of your fleet. We help you determine your optimal fleet size based on your actual usage, instead of outdated planning models that your competitors are likely using. A secondary benefit of optimizing your fleet is that when you know which electric forklifts and boom lifts you’re working the hardest, you can schedule planned maintenance (our fleet maintenance software allows you to schedule repairs with our certified technicians, right from your wireless device) based on usage and aging, and more accurately anticipate repairs and projected repair costs.

Reduce Downtime

Downtime is costly, and can affect a business’ ability to deliver merchandise and meet production demands. Our fleet maintenance software enables us to analyze your usage and determine the reason for your downtime, whether it’s due to repairs you could have avoided with planned maintenance, unexpected damage, uncharged batteries causing forklift delays, or operator inefficiency. Shift overlap can also result in downtime, as too many machines necessary for a short period of time (say 2-6 hours of overlap per day) go unused during the remaining hours of operation. This underutilization is ineffective and cost-prohibitive.

Ongoing Monitoring

An added benefit of working with fleet management companies like MH Equipment is the continuous monitoring of the age and condition of equipment. This process allows business owners to instantly know the age of problematic machines, so they can determine whether repair or replacement is the most cost-effective. Additionally, this monitoring enables our customers to plan and budget for equipment retirement, which further helps in increasing uptime. When a customer decides to replace an electric forklift we help them determine whether it’s best to buy new or used, and advise them about the best technology suited to their specific needs.

Working with a fleet management company and using their fleet maintenance software is a smart business decision and a great way to reduce costs. Highly trained professionals, like ours, can help you configure, maintain, and manage your machines for the toughest everyday tasks.

If you’re in the market for fleet management software, contact MH Equipment today to discuss the best solutions for your individual needs.