Fleet Management and Optimizing Your Lift Truck Fleet

To efficiently manage your forklift fleet, it is essential to follow these steps:

1. Measure your usage
2. Perform a fleet audit
3. Gather recommendations
4. Implement changes

 

Measure Your Usage

How many lift trucks do you actually use? The initial step in fleet management is determining your actual lift truck usage. Assess how many lift trucks are in operations and whether they are the appropriate types for your tasks. You might notice that you don’t have enough physical space for your equipment, leaving your workspace disorganized and possibly overcrowded. An excess of lift trucks, or the wrong types of lift trucks can lead to financial strain and inefficient operations.

A systematic approach to tracking lift truck usage is critical. You should collect data on:

• How many trucks are you using per day?
• What are your average hourly requirements per equipment?
• What are the incidents of service you have had to perform on each piece of machinery (and what is the frequency of service events)?

By tracking this, you will begin to see patterns that may help you streamline what the optimal number of lift trucks may be for your organization.

According to Logistics Management, as you collect data, these are some additional questions you may need to ask yourself:

• Are your maintenance practices proactive or reactive?
• What are your battery charging procedures?
• How are you watering your batteries?
• Is there damage to lift trucks, product or racking?
• Is additional operator training needed?

Perform a Fleet Audit

Regular audits of your lift truck fleet are vital for understanding the extent or usage and repairs. Often, daily operations overshadow the accumulation of unaccounted maintenance costs. For instance, few fleet owners track annual tire usage, which can result in overlooked expenses (read more about the dangers and cost of excessive tire wear).

If you have too many lift trucks for your operations size, you may end up in an unsustainable cycle of maintenance and upkeep. Identifying the optimal number of trucks will help conserve maintenance recourses for in-use equipment. Consider how much money you’re spending keeping your machines functional. For some older machines, it may be more economical to replace it with a newer machine that requires less repairs.

Gather Recommendations

After collecting and anlayzing data, seek recommendations to determine which machines are going to serve your operational purpose the best. A great resource is to consult with your local Morrison branch, where you can geta. Recommendation on what kinds of machines to invest in to optimize your lift truck fleet and avoid over-spending on lift trucks that may not fulfill the requirements of the job you need them to do.

Reducing operating costs and increasing efficiencies are ongoing challenges for any company. Our Fleet Management Team consistently works with our customers to navigate through best-practices specific to acquisition strategies, aftermarket support, and technology integration.

Our goal is simple: To best understand our customer's objectives, explore options, and provide the most effective and strategic fleet solution.

Implement Changes

The final step is to implement changes based on the data and the recommendations you have gathered. One of the biggest advantages to streamlining your lift truck fleet is having the ability to pinpoint what your fleet costs will be over time, which allows you to gain a greater perspective into your operating costs. Collecting this data and creating a proactive plan is an excellent way to reduce costs, manage productivity, and keep a closer eye on your business’ day to day operations.

If you’d like assistance in gathering your data or utilizing an online resource to help record and organize your data, please reach out to your local material handling sales professional at Morrison Industrial Equipment. With over 67 years of experience and wide range of equipment options, we’re confident that we can help you achieve your business goals.