Oftentimes, employees will view rental trucks as disposable. They think it’s just a rental so it doesn’t matter if the truck gets dented or scratched. This kind of attitude and the hard labor that fleet trucks go through every day, add up to a lot of wear and tear on the vehicle.
Not all of your fleet drivers will have this attitude about how they should treat a work vehicle. However, clarification and correction can help remind employees of the importance of caring for company vehicles. This will help minimize damage to your fleet truck rentals. We have created a list of tips and ideas fleet managers can provide to their drivers to avoid damage to their work truck rentals:
1. Have A Clear and Written Version of Your Driver Safety Policy
You set yourself and your employees up for miscommunication and problems when you don’t have written rules for your fleet vehicles. When you sit down with your team and discuss goals and expectations and turn what you created into an official document you keep your team and the vehicles in your fleet safe. Some ideas for rules you can include are the driver’s responsibilities, correct procedures for reporting issues or accidents, who can be a passenger, and who is authorized to drive.
2. Enforce Driving Policies
Once you have created and written out your fleet driving policies you need to enforce them. Make sure each of your drivers has a copy that they go over and keep in their vehicles. As well, as hold meetings to go over all the details and discuss with supervisors how to enforce the roles. You can even create incentives for your drivers so that they have the continual motivation to stick to the rules.
3. Make Safety and Responsibility Part of Your Culture
If you want your driver to be safer with your vehicles, you should make sure that safety and responsibility are an integral part of your work culture. A lot can happen during work hours when your drivers are unsupervised. To keep your equipment in top shape, an atmosphere of adherence to safety and the rules is key. You can make these attributes a part of your culture if you live by them and ask your supervisors to do the same.
As you create this kind of atmosphere, employees will begin to feel comfortable about coming forward with questions and concerns. They will become more transparent and report any problems they have seen out on the road.
4. Inspect and Maintain Vehicles Regularly
Regular maintenance services are crucial to keep your fleet of vehicles running and in proper shape. It is best practice to perform regulative maintenance services that will save you money over the long run compared to damages caused by a driving accident. Stay ahead of issues because it is more expensive to replace a blown-out tire than it is to top it off with air. During your routine inspections, you should also look for any damage to the vehicles that went unreported.
Long-Term Truck Rentals with Barco Rent-A-Truck
Barco Rent-A-Truck has a lineup of up-to-date vehicles that are ready to go to work. We have 4×4 pickup truck rentals in half-ton and ¾-ton options. Get a free quote from us today and start expanding your fleet.