When it comes to having a business, one element could be that you decide you need company vehicles. This might be to keep logistics in-house, to make it easier for staff to visit customers, or simply, you want to economically keep all costs under the same business umbrella. However, there can be a lot to think about when it comes to running business vehicles. So whether it is cars or vans, this is what you should be thinking about.
Get the right vehicles for the job
Essentially, you will know what your business needs. So ensure that you seek out the right sort of vehicle for the job. This might be a van with a specific length of load and payload so that it can carry the goods safely and within limits. It might be that the car needs to be economical on fuel because you expect there will be a lot of miles covered in driving. You will likely make similar considerations to what you would do if you were buying a personal car.
Ruthlessly checking drivers
One of the first things you should always do is ensure that you have done extensive checks on any driver that will be getting behind the wheel. This vehicle is your company asset, and therefore has a cost to you, whereas for them, it is a benefit and they are simply just driving it. They don’t have the attachment of costs essentially. You can perform checks on their driving license as well as them personally to ensure that they have received no bans and don’t hold any penalty points. If they do have points, you can then decide whether you want to trust the vehicle to them.
Check over the vehicles
Another thing that you will need to do is check over the vehicles. You may do this every night when they are returned, or randomly spot-check if a vehicle is with an employee full time. You not only should check for bodywork damage but also things internally such as the engine or battery. There are things such as battery abuse testing that can be done to ensure that the vehicle is being run correctly. Last of all, make sure you check over things like mileage.
Get the right insurance
Finally, as a business owner, you will want to ensure that you have the right sort of insurance in place to make sure you are covered for every eventuality. This includes things like theft, damage, vehicle accidents, etc. Whether they are the fault of you or another party. You might also want to add clauses to employee contracts that state that any accident that is the fault of them means that they are responsible for insurance excess. This could help them to be more accountable for their driving behaviour and to ensure that they look after the vehicle they are in possession of.
Let’s hope these suggestions help you when it comes to having a fleet of business vehicles.