What to Add to Your Fleet Management Processes to Prevent Stagnation
Doing things the way they have always been done might not be a bad thing, but it could be holding you back. As a small business owner, it is likely that drive, ambition, and the capacity for hard work are all things that brought you to the start of your journey, so don’t let them fall by the wayside once the initial adrenaline wears off. Fleet management is a dynamic field of work and people that have this job move at a fast pace and must be willing to embrace change both expected and unexpected. But if you are beginning to feel like you are hitting a plateau, consider the following suggestions as a way to mitigate that problem before it even begins.
Improved Safety Measures
Safety and productivity go hand in hand. When you have equipment, employees, or both, who are not up to safety standards, that can result in costly repairs for the equipment, loss of wages for employees, and ultimately loss of profit for the business. Consider installing truck cams as a way to have eyes on all the moving parts of your operations.
Dash cams are pieces of technology that can be easily installed into every vehicle in your fleet. They work to increase visibility, help reduce accidents, and act as eyewitness to any mishaps that take place involving your vehicles and/or your drivers. Installing these cameras gives you as the manager access to real-time data that you otherwise would have to rely on your road team for and even if you have a trusted team that provides accurate reports, requiring that of them while they are meant to be focused on the road takes away from their safety. You will have more control over your fleet and be able to avoid stagnation and complacency as a result.
Employee Incentives
When you are managing a team of people whose daily tasks are quite routine and vary little from day to day, that can be a breeding ground for disengagement. Even the most loyal and motivated employees need to be assured that their management team is invested in them, sees the good work they do, and that they are available to them as needed. Employee incentives are a fantastic way to not only show appreciation but to also remind the team as a whole that even though they work independently, nobody is just a number so to speak. Extra paid time off, financial bonuses, and gift cards are great examples of ways to incentivize your employees so that you can avoid professional plateau.
Updated Branding
Even companies that have been passed down through generations know the value of rebranding from time to time. It is important that you are not changing your image so often that it feels chaotic to employees and clients, but often enough that it makes sense for keeping your business relevant and of the times. Do some research on innovative companies to learn from and take from that what you think may or may not work for you. When you rebrand, even slightly, it can infuse a burst of energy into every part of your operations and give everyone the nudge they might need to break past status quo.