Setting up your own fleet business? Here are our top tips
Whether you’re setting up your own delivery company or you’re starting your own taxi firm, there are a few things you need to know before starting out. Listed below, we’ve come up with some of the most useful tips for those starting a fleet company, as well as what you’ll need to be best prepared before launching your business. Keep reading if you’d like to learn more about what it takes to launch a fleet business.
Your Business Plan
Before anything else, you need to have a clear business plan in place. For example, what kind of fleet will you be running? And what services will you be providing? Will you be customer-focused or business-to-business? This is important as it will affect other decisions you will make for your business and where any reinvestment will go, such as marketing and business development. If you’re seeking investment for your business, your business plan will need to be particularly detailed. Your plan should have clear sections, including:
- A description of your business and what you’ll be providing
- predicted costs
- predicted revenue
- how you’ll be financing your business and using investment
- how you plan to market your business
- plans for future targets or potential growth/expansion
- consumer and market research
- research and analysis of competitors in your field
Your plan is also a highly useful tool for keeping your business and ambitions on track, planning your next business move and meeting goals and targets. Your plan doesn’t only have to be used for initially setting up your business, it can be updated and adapted as you grow your business. If you do receive investment, you could be expected to be continually updating your business plan anyway, along with reports to show business development and growth.
Marketing Your Business
A strong marketing plan will help you to spread awareness for your business when you start up and will remain important in order for you to keep reaching new customers and meeting targets. The type of marketing strategies you will use for your business will depend on the type of business you are and your target audience. Business-to-business strategies will vary when compared to business-to-customer marketing tactics. If your target audience is fellow businesses, then you could use strategies such as email marketing, PPC marketing, and SEO research. If you’re trying to target the general public, then you could use strategies such as social media marketing, SEO research, and traffic building. Your marketing should make up one of the key areas in which you choose to reinvest money back into your business, especially if you have plans for growth and expansion.
Licensing And Insurance
When you own a fleet company, you need to ensure you have all the correct licensing and insurance in place. For example, your fleet vehicles will need to be insured to follow the law and help with the costs of any damage or written-off vehicles. You also need to make sure your drivers are insured and licensed to be operating the vehicle and within their role. If you are overseeing heavy goods vehicles, your drivers will need to be licensed and trained in operating them. You will also need other forms of insurance for your business. As well as your commercial fleet insurance, make sure you take out professional liability insurance to cover claims made from disgruntled customers or suppliers. You should also take out employer’s liability insurance (you are legally required to have this form of insurance) and contents insurance for any business premises or offices.
Hiring Staff For Your Business
The staff you’ll need for your fleet business will vary depending on the type of business you’re operating, but generally, you’ll need to hire drivers, managers to oversee them, customer service, and HR staff. You may also need to hire a sales team, especially if you’ll be selling to other businesses. In terms of hiring drivers for your fleet, you need to ensure you’re doing your due diligence and carrying out background checks before hiring. For example, it’s essential they have the correct licensing and training for driving their vehicles.
However, they also need to have a clean background when it comes to things such as speeding history, points on their license, and criminal record. It’s especially important to carry out searches for criminal records if you’re operating a taxi firm, as drivers will sometimes be left alone in their vehicles with customers. Therefore, as well as the professional experience and qualifications necessary for the roles you’re for, it’s important to focus on the personal integrity and characteristics of the people you hire to represent your business too.
Training Staff
All the staff involved in your business will need up-to-date and regular training throughout their employment as well as when they initially join the team. You and your management team should make sure staff are receiving regular training specific to their role to help make sure your business follows guidelines, maintains a high standard of quality, and helps your business run smoothly and efficiently. A team that is well trained and supported in their individual roles in the business will be more likely to have high standards of performance, benefitting both them and your business. Holding regular performance reviews with your staff will help you and managers to keep track of any areas for improvement and needs for training. Investing in training also benefits your staff, as it builds their skill and expertise in their role. An employer that’s willing to invest in their staff is more likely to have a good working relationship with their team and earn their respect.
Tachographs And Fleet Tracking
Regardless of the type of fleeting you’ll be putting together, you’ll need to be able to have a system in place that allows you to track all your vehicles and drivers. A tachograph is a device that’s fitted to a vehicle to provide information about its activity of it, such as location, time being driven, and speed. Tachograph analysis software from FleetGO makes it easy for you and your management to track the vehicles in your fleet and monitor their activity, storing it digitally to allow you to access information whenever you need to. You might also have your own policies in place for how you expect drivers to use vehicles. For example, you might ask that they don’t use their vehicle for personal use. Tachographs allow you to keep track of driver activity, such as whether vehicles are being used inappropriately.
Make Sure Your Fleet Follows Regulations
Tracking is essential as you’ll be expected to make sure your fleet is complying with the laws and regulations surrounding fleet management. Drivers should be taking regular breaks from driving and resting when needed. Tachographs can also alert you to potentially dangerous driving and speeding from your drivers. There are strict EU rules and regulations for driver activity and you should ensure your team and drivers are familiar with the regulations they are legally required to follow. Work schedules should be prepared to make sure your drivers have regular opportunities for breaks and rest, so it’s essential your management are highly organised to keep operations running smoothly.
