The Critical Importance Of Hiring Good Drivers For Your Fleet
Managing a fleet is challenging work. Firstly, you need to find suitable vehicles for your fleet. In most instances, this will involve purchasing vans or trucks.
Most business fleets are created for logistics purposes; you load up goods from clients and deliver them to their next destination. The key to an effective business is an effective fleet. As such, you need to ensure you have the right people behind the steering wheels.
Yes, hiring good drivers for your fleet will be of the utmost importance for your business. Why are they so important? Let’s take a look and find out.
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Faster delivery times
Sure, your vehicles do play a role in how fast deliveries can be made. Also, traffic plays a big role in things. However, good drivers can help you cut delivery times by knowing how to find the best routes to destinations. Sometimes, satellite navigation systems aren’t going to give your drivers the best routes.
Instead, it comes down to the experience of the roads and routes. An experienced driver will know how to get from A to B in as little time as possible.
They’ll understand the best route to take to avoid traffic, and they know how to drive the vehicle to get the most out of it. As a result, you can deliver things a lot faster than if you had inexperienced drivers. It keeps customers happy, but it could also mean you’re able to take on more deliveries per day. This level of efficiency will help your business grow.
Fewer accidents
It goes without saying that commercial fleets are responsible for a lot of auto accidents. Especially if you have a fleet of trucks, which can cause many accidents due to their sheer size and difficulty to drive. If one of your drivers causes an accident, your business could end up being liable for any of the injuries from a truck wreck.
As such, you need to reduce the chances of accidents happening, and this comes from hiring good drivers. Hiring excellent and experienced drivers for your fleet will ensure there are fewer chances of accidents being a frequent occurrence.
This is because they know how to drive large vehicles – like trucks – so they won’t be caught out as badly. Putting someone with no experience behind the wheel of a truck is a recipe for disaster. They might try to drive it like a car, leading to accidents that can cost your business an absolute fortune.
No need for training
Sometimes, you can be tempted to hire people with minimal experience as fleet drivers. In cases where you have a fleet of normal cars, this might work. As long as someone can drive a car, they can be part of your fleet. But, when your fleet encompasses larger vehicles, you need people with experience driving them. Someone that’s never driven a van or truck before will need additional training.
This means you spend more money training the individuals to get up to the desired standard. By contrast, hiring people that are already experienced and good at driving these vehicles eliminates the need for training. Money gets saved – as does time! Your drivers can be hired and hop into a truck right away, rather than spending additional weeks training behind the wheel.
Hiring good drivers: good customer service
Drivers aren’t just there to drive; they represent your brand as well. When they make deliveries, they have to interact with people on the other end. Good drivers know the right etiquette and can be a fantastic representation of your business.
They leave people with smiles on their faces and a good view of your brand in their minds. Part of this comes down to making deliveries on time, which we spoke about earlier. But, another part is all to do with how they speak to people and how they act.
Inexperienced or bad drivers might make your company look bad with a poor attitude. If they seem bored or in a mood, the customer looks at your brand in a negative way. This can lead to bad reviews, making it harder to get more customers – while also meaning you lose some loyal ones.
Good drivers give a great representation of your brand and can encourage the opposite of this. They make people leave positive reviews that encourage more clients to use your business!
Evidently, hiring good drivers is more important than you initially realize. From efficiency to improved branding, making excellent hiring decisions can impact your business right down to the bottom line.
