Construction Fleet Manager: Roles and Responsibility

The construction equipment companies or dealers often have to keep the fleet of commercial vehicles. The fleet needs to be managed well to keep the equipment working and free from deteriorating. For this purpose, companies hire a fleet manager to manage them accordingly. The overuse and mismanagement of the vehicle fleet are ignored often which might have a huge impact on the company’s finance.

Fleet management is, actually the management of commercial vehicles including proper maintenance and supervision. The fleet managers normally make sure the construction equipment is working well or not. He is responsible for timely maintaining them.

Further, the fleet manager has a lot of tasks to do. He ensures the availability of equipment for different purposes, licensing and registering them. All the construction vehicles such as used backhoes for sale need registration and maintenance by the buyers and companies are responsible to provide them with all the legal documents.

In this article, we are going to discuss some important responsibilities and duties of fleet managers.

• Choosing Right Equipment to Purchase

It is the major responsibility of a fleet manager to keep an eye on the demand and supply of the company and decide which equipment needs to buy for inventory. The manager has to find the seller and properly research the prices and models of the equipment. He is responsible to negotiate with the seller to land the best deal. He decides if the company budget allows to purchase or lease the equipment.

A fleet manager has to make the decision based on the company’s interest. The budget and the profitability of the company rely on the hand of the fleet manager. His loyalty and decision can make the company achieve its target revenue.

• Replacing the Used Equipment

When the usage limit and running hours of the equipment meet the maximum, manager should replace it with the new one. The construction equipment fleet manager has to keep in the notice the vehicle usage limit and the correct time to replace with the new one. Fleet managers are responsible for properly auctioning the vehicle without going into loss. 

After leasing or renting the equipment for a certain time, the vehicle generally reaches the maximum limit of its usage. An overused vehicle may cause trouble for the construction managers or workers.

• Systematically Generate Performance Reports

A lot of equipment stands in inventory and keeps going on leased and rent. It is the responsibility of a fleet manager to keep tracking the data of every equipment. To make the task easier, the fleet manager must produce the reports regularly, so that he may not face a burden. The manager has to keep the fleet up to date. This regular performance report helps the manager to keep an eye on the condition of the fleet so that he can early detect any pitfall. clearly note down all the maintenance and fuel consumption cost in the report, so that you can easily manage the finance.

To generate the progress report of the fleet, managers can use several software. The software is, really helpful in managing the tasks. He does not need to keep the heavy files and burden rather he can save all the information digitally. Another benefit of using the software is that the manager can easily access and find the required information in a few minutes or even seconds.

• Hiring Skilled Drivers for Vehicle

Another important responsibility of a fleet manager is to hire efficient drivers for equipment operation. After hiring, provide a proper training to the drivers so that they know all dos and don’ts about the vehicle and avoid any serious accidents. Training of the drivers is also necessary to provide the best customer service to the clients so that he returns to the company and leaves positive feedback.

The fleet manager is required to make a policy for the vehicle operations and allows the drivers to strictly follow them. It includes how and when the equipment can be operated during the idle. The policies also bring professionalism that ultimately increases the company’s reputation. However, managers should provide all the necessary digital equipment to the drivers so that they are fully equipped and do not miss any communication.

• Ensuring Drivers and Equipment Safety

Equipment safety is key to keeping it working for long and avoiding any accidents. The regular maintenance of the equipment makes it sure to keep the fleet in good condition for long. Whereas, a manager should provide all the safety gadgets to the driver such as the personal protection equipment (PPE) along with the proper training. Multiple latest devices inform the driver about the risks. The device can easily track the harsh usage of vehicle that will help the fleet manager to know about it. Whereas the GPS tracker installed in the vehicle can provide complete detail about the location covered.

• Fleet supervision

Every project has a different requirement. The fleet manager is responsible to deal with them accordingly. He has to choose the right equipment for the right project. For example, if a project requires digging the ground, the fleet manager should choose which equipment to assign, an excavator, bulldozer, or a used backhoe for sale. A fleet manager is also responsible to deliver and ship the equipment to the site of construction. The delivery also needs a lot of safety precautions.

Conclusion

A fleet manager has a lot of responsibilities to handle. As the construction equipment inventory is very huge and needs attentive supervision so the highly attentive fleet managers are required for the job. A fleet manager is mainly responsible for managing the construction equipment fleet. He has to supervise the overall inventory of equipment. His responsibility includes the management and maintenance of the equipment. When equipment reached its maximum limit of usage, the manager has to replace it timely. Whereas, the necessary decision that a fleet manager takes about the equipment purchase can bring a profit or loss to the company. Hiring a skilled driver and ensuring safety is also a manager’s duty.  In this article, we have discussed some other important yet necessary responsibilities of a fleet manager.