Key Performance Indicators to manage your Construction Equipment Fleet

It is important to track the key performance indicators because it will help you to understand the health of the business and its performance. In trucking or construction industries specifically, it is essential to select the correct KPIs that will help to track the performance of the fleet and it will make your business better because you will be making cost-effective decisions to improve your fleet operations. But while reporting and consistent tracking are important, it is sometimes difficult to have an idea that which KPIs must be focused on and which will give you the best results and the highest profits.

This blog will provide you the best and effective KPIs for the fleet management of your construction equipment business. Through this, the manager of your company can track the financial performance, productivity, safety and efficiency, and other areas of your business that requires improvement. To identify which KPIs are perfect for your construction management you must identify first the primary objectives of your business that will save the cost, promote the safety of the driver and maintain vehicles better. 

Unexpected downtime:

When the heavy equipment suffers unscheduled downtime or breakdowns then this will give big damage to the profit of the company. According to a past study, 82% of the machine manufacturers have faced unexpected downtime in the past years and with only a single hour of downtime, the companies have faced a loss of around $100,000. In the construction industry, it has been reported that the unscheduled downtime of the machines is around 25-30%. Most of the companies are now trying their best to reduce their ratio to 5% or lower. With such efforts, the machines will use this factor as a KPI that will help them to determine the root cause of these issues and they will try to solve them to increase the productivity of the fleet.

Cost of maintenance as a percentage of revenue:

The expenses of maintenance of the machines are increasing day by day in the construction industry. But there are fleet managers that are trying to manage their fleet by balancing the cost of maintenance with the revenue. This will help these businesses to understand that how effective this factor will be to enhance the performance and generate more revenue. The companies have to schedule a regular maintenance program if they are offering heavy equipment for sale that will help them to measure and maintain the quality and performance of the equipment. The maintenance schedule is a bit costly part but it surely helps the companies to get their machines to work properly in different job sites and also it helps them to sell them in the market by getting good profit.

Utilization of finance:

Proper maintenance and utilization of finance is also a key indicator that will help the fleet manager to understand and get an idea about the profit on each machine and they can also make sure about the impact of the dollar on each vehicle. If there is a company that is constantly using articulated trucks over tractors then it is obvious that the financial utilization of articulated trucks will be higher than the tractors. This will give a clear answer to the managers that in which vehicles they should do more investment and which should get retired. 

Utilization of vehicle:

It is very simple if the machines are not in use and they are not making any money for the company. It is then important for the fleet managers to understand the utilization rate of machines which will help them to optimize the fleet so that they can get a high return on investment. It should be kept in mind that the utilization of each vehicle is different from another. For example, the utilization of a dump truck will be measured as per the number of loads hauled or the number of work orders completed. On the other hand, the utilization of a semi-truck will be measured as per the miles traveled. It is nearly impossible to achieve a 100% rate of utilization that is why fleet managers must try to achieve almost 100% utilization which is possible. If there are machines that are not being used for work then companies should offer them in the open market just like cat articulated dump trucks.

Fuel economy:

As per the American Transport Research Institute, the fuel consumption of vehicles is around 24% of the operational cost of the total trucking fleet. That is why it is important to understand the fuel efficiency of the fleet’s equipment because it will help to reduce the cost as it will give an idea that which specific machine is negatively affecting the total revenue of the company. There are multiple factors that are the main contributors to decreasing the fuel economy that mainly includes the vehicle type, its user behavior, and condition. With the help of these factors, a fleet manager can easily identify which machines need replacement or maintenance. 

The behavior of driver:

KPIs for heavy equipment fleet management does not only apply to vehicles because it also includes the measuring of the behavior of the driver and also keeping complete records of their performance so the fleet managers can analyze their statistics by evaluating the competency, productivity, and safety assurance of the driver. There are different types of driver management software that are easily available in the business market that can help the company to get information about the vehicle locations, cycle times, and driver whereabouts to understand which operators are performing well and which needs improvement.