Working for a small business, it might seem possible to handle all the administrative tasks that comes with an in-house fleet. The work seems relatively uncomplicated as there are just a few drivers and vehicles to keep tabs on.
However, even when managing a smaller fleet, you still bear all the responsibilities as a PCBU for ensuring your workers’ health and safety. That's why, it’s important to have a working fleet management solution in place to ensure your drivers are protected, and overall risk is minimised.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss why a fleet risk management programme is crucial as ever, even for smaller companies.
To learn more about managing fleet health and safety risk for a mobile workforce, download our free guide today.
Important benefits of a fleet risk management plan
Any business that operates a fleet has some built-in level of risk, no matter its size.
To protect your employees, safeguard your company’s financial assets and reduce the chances of expensive and damaging legal troubles, you need to have a structured plan for lowering your fleet risk.
As a PCBU, any time you ask your employees to drive for a work-related purpose - even after normal work hours, or using their own personal vehicles - you are liable should the employee get into an accident.
Having a fleet management plan means you’re always prepared to deal with road incidents, and that you’re meeting your legal obligation to protect your fleet drivers.
Learn all you need to know about Fleet Risk Management here.
The downside to managing a fleet in a smaller company
It may seem easier to stay on top of a smaller fleet, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
Do you know all of the risks your fleet faces? Without comprehensive fleet risk management, it's easy to miss important areas you need to watch out for, such as at-risk drivers or vehicles, or the lack of insurance, regular maintenance, and legal procedures.
Secondly, smaller companies might not differentiate between important roles. It’s common for upper-level employees at smaller businesses to have multiple ‘jobs’ even if they're from different departments. If communication about the fleet is limited, it’s easy for important data about the fleet to be spread too thin and for areas of risk to stay unaddressed.
The problem of shared responsibility
At first, it might seem helpful to have a collaborative business culture in which fleet management responsibilities are shared among several people. However, the company can suffer huge losses of money, time, or even paying customers if one or more people neglect to keep track of important fleet metrics and risk factors.
If fleet obligations are loosely assigned to several people, your organisation might be unprepared to respond to accidents. The business as a whole can then suffer in terms of fleet downtime, lost profit and possible insurance or legal fees.
How SurePlan can help
By working with SurePlan’s experts in fleet management, your business is protected from the problems that arise with vehicle downtime or accidents. We can step in and help smaller and medium-sized businesses in two important ways:
- Saving time and money. Rather than spreading fleet responsibilities among several people in your company at the cost of focused risk reduction, SurePlan will implement a complete fleet management plan for your business.
You’ll save the time it takes to oversee your fleet operations and guard against risk on your own. You’ll also save money on vehicle maintenance rates and various accident-related fees.
- Protecting your employees and your vehicles. With SurePlan’s fleet risk management services, you won’t have to lose sleep over your responsibility to protect your fleet drivers every moment they’re behind the wheel.
With our driver training programme and detailed, transparent reporting that pinpoints hidden hazards, you get complete visibility of the fleet at all times. And, any fleet risks that threaten your company’s property and employee safety are brought to a minimum helping to secure your bottom line.
Even if your business and fleet are small, you can never completely ignore risk. And with a mobile workforce, the need to protect your employees and profitability will always remain. Let SurePlan handle your fleet management to protect your people and property, so you can focus on delivering excellent customer service and building a thriving business.
To learn more about managing fleet health and safety risk for a mobile workforce, download our free guide today.
Topics: Fleet Risk Management
