Fleet Maintenance Essentials: Vehicle Repair

As you know, a fleet vehicle that’s in the repair shop, racking up maintenance costs, is a fleet vehicle that’s not generating value for your company.

Controlling or reducing fleet repair costs is a top priority for any business that relies on company vehicles. Despite their differences, fleet managers, owner-operators, and company truck drivers are all motivated to ensure that trips to the repair shop are as cost-effective and infrequent as possible.

So how do you ensure your vehicles stay in peak condition and truck repairs don’t bust your budget?

Fuel cards can help you regain control of your fleet maintenance expenses. Fuel cards offer tools and options that enable you to track fleet vehicle repairs and help control maintenance costs.

Fleet fuel cards allow you to control where and how much your drivers spend any time they stop for repairs. Cards allow drivers to pay for fuel, truck repairs, or even per diem purchases at a network of authorized merchants.

Let’s look at a few ways fuel cards help keep your company’s fleet out of the repair shop and on the road, delivering great service while driving company growth.

But first, let’s clear up a common misconception about fuel cards:

“I thought fuel cards were just for fuel.”

Just going by the trade and brand names of many fuel cards (Fuelman®, ARCO®, BP®, Speedway®, etc.) you could be forgiven for thinking that fuel cards only create savings at the pump. But did you know the benefits also include…

Savings up to 15% on fuel expenses and more.¹
It’s the “and more” portion of that statement we’ll be exploring today.

Choose the fuel card with the fleet maintenance options that best suits your needs. FleetCardsUSA® offers three kinds of fleet card programs for businesses.
1) Limited acceptance network programs, such as Fuelman and Comdata
2) Universal acceptance programs, such as Fuelman Mastercard®
3) Private label programs, such as BP, ARCO, Speedway, and others

Save up to 20% on repairs*
Bottom line for your bottom line: cost savings on fleet vehicle repairs are just the beginning. Fleets that use fuel cards can also:

• Get centralized repair tracking and payments
• Enjoy benefits of regular preventative maintenance
• Identify underperforming vehicles
• Help mitigate risks associated with fleet regulations

As noted above, the fleet vehicle maintenance programs offered by fuel cards can also help provide long term savings that add up over the working life of your trucks and other fleet vehicles.

Monitor vehicle repairs and payments in real time
With centralized maintenance tracking and payments, fleet managers can know what’s happening with their trucks. These features allow your company to:

• Keep tabs on individual vehicle performance
• Track the number of repairs associated with an individual driver
• Receive alerts about questionable purchases

Help keep your trucks on the road and out of the repair shop
When a vehicle breaks down, it’s too late. With better access to repair networks, you can use fleet maintenance reports to take proactive, cost-saving measures. You can:

• Extend the life of your fleet vehicles
• Make better use of regular, preventative maintenance
• Figure out the average lifespan of your fleet vehicles
• Identify underperforming trucks

Track repairs to stay compliant with fleet regulations
Fleet maintenance features can simplify compliance with Department of Transportation regulations. Using a fuel card, your fleet can:

• Track vehicle maintenance for more transparent DOT inspections*
• Simplify fuel tax reporting as required by IFTA
• Enjoy easier access to preventative maintenance to help boost CSA scores*

Boost efficiency to help grow your business
Fuel cards save time and money across an entire fleet. In addition to saving on vehicle repairs, fleet cards enable you to:

• Enjoy greater access to savings and rebates
• Spend less time searching for cheaper maintenance providers
• Enjoy improved access to preferred maintenance providers
• Outsource fraud protection and devote more time to core job functions
• Streamline reimbursements on repairs
• Identify underperforming vehicles with ease

Improve overall fleet performance with a fuel card
If your company operates on the open road, every trip to the repair shop is lost revenue. Fuel cards can help keep your fleet vehicles running, delivering better service to your customers, and creating revenue for your business.

*Varies by card-selected cards and packages only. See Feature Package Benefits and Rules for complete details at www.fleetcor.com/fuelman-saver.

1. Brown, Chris. “Fuel Cards Can Save You Money.” Business Fleet, 1 Nov. 2007, https://www.businessfleet.com/145802/fuel-cards-can-save-you-money. Accessed 15 Jan 2022.