What is a Corporate Fleet Vehicle?

Corporate fleet vehicles are in evidence all over the country because they provide a valuable service to corporations in the conduct of normal business operations. Used for any purpose which might contribute to the natural processes of a corporation, corporate fleet vehicles can be of immense value in helping to ensure consistency and reliability for all transportation functions.

Generally speaking, most large corporations will prefer to lease their corporate fleet vehicles rather than purchase them outright, because it’s much more cost-effective to hire them. Leasing also frees up the corporate user from having to perform regular maintenance and repairs on the vehicle, because those responsibilities remain with the owner, which is typically a fleet management company.

Given the fact that corporate fleet vehicles play such a significant role in the US economy, it makes good sense to implement some tracking or monitoring system to ensure that fleet vehicles are used properly, so they will last longer and require less maintenance.

1. What is a Corporate Fleet Vehicle?

Essentially, a corporate fleet vehicle is one that is owned by the company and has a specific business purpose, which it is used for. An example might be a vehicle that makes deliveries daily or one which provides transportation to corporation employees.

It’s relatively easy to tell the difference between a corporate fleet vehicle and a personal use vehicle because there are several identifying characteristics. There may not be any physical features that would differentiate a corporate fleet vehicle from a personal use vehicle.

However, it’s still straightforward to keep the two distinct only by examining who owns the car and how it is used.
There are several different types of corporate fleet vehicles, ranging anywhere from cars to vans to trucks, as long as all of these vehicles are used for the conduct of business rather than personal use.

Another difference between corporate fleet vehicles and personal use vehicles is that a corporate owner will very often be able to obtain significant savings on the cost of purchasing or leasing a car, especially if the company has a good credit rating.

There are also generally some significant tax advantages and other deductions that may apply to corporate fleet vehicles, which you would not be eligible for on a personal use vehicle. It’s often possible for a corporation to purchase a large number of fleet vehicles at a discount, thereby achieving substantial cost savings.

Providing employees with a corporate fleet vehicle for the conduct of business can be a big morale booster and a source of pride for an employee, not to mention the convenience of it all.

Some corporations even use their fleet vehicles as an additional source of advertising by placing their corporate logo or company name somewhere on the side of the car, where observers can see it. In some cases, after a corporate fleet vehicle has been retired from service to the company, it will be offered for sale as a personal use car.

Anyone who is browsing for a used vehicle and sees that a specific car formerly served as a corporate fleet vehicle, should not be deterred by that designation.

Generally, it only means that the vehicle was leased by a corporation rather than owned by it and that it was still driven with proper attention to ethical behavior and efficient driving practices. Since most corporate fleet vehicles are monitored by tracking systems, you can have some level of confidence that the car was not abused, and that good driving practices were involved.

2. How Are These Vehicles Maintained?

To ensure that fleet vehicles are performing at their best and are not continually costing the owner a ton of money in repairs which would be preventable, a regular program of maintenance must be employed to keep these vehicles on the road and running efficiently. One of the first rules of thumb about fleet vehicle maintenance is to stick closely to the manufacturer’s recommended schedule for maintenance.

This can sometimes be a challenge if you have a considerable number of vehicles in your fleet because simply identifying when each one is due for maintenance can be a hassle. However, if you get into the practice of maintaining a detailed maintenance schedule, you should be able to service each vehicle at its regularly scheduled time without any issues.

At the time of maintenance, service records should be carefully kept, and odometer readings should be jotted down as well. It may be necessary to adjust maintenance schedules for vehicles which see heavy usage, or those which are routinely driven through off-road settings. Anytime a car is subjected to excessive idle times or more stops and starts than usual, that should be cause for more frequent maintenance as well.

A big part of maintaining your fleet vehicles will be encouraging drivers to report anything out of the ordinary since they are the individuals closest to the car and are best positioned to know when something is not right. One of your most significant aids in creating a consistent maintenance schedule is to utilize the technology which is available to you from a sound fleet management system.

This will enable you to build a custom support schedule, to monitor vehicle mileage, to store all maintenance records, and to keep a handle on all costs. The bigger your fleet of vehicles becomes, the more critical it becomes to enlist the aid of technology to manage that fleet and to ensure that maintenance is performed on all vehicles in a timely fashion.

3. Maintain Your Fleet Easily

Maintaining your fleet vehicles properly is the best way to ensure that they are kept in excellent running order, and it can also help to have their useful working lives prolonged to the greatest extent. When vehicles are regularly serviced, it can also help to stave off significant repairs that would otherwise go undetected and could end up costing your company a ton of money.

For this reason, you should contact us at GPS Technologies, so we can discuss some affordable GPS fleet tracking options with you for installing a sound fleet management system that will help you with your maintenance schedules, and ensure that nothing gets overlooked in the effort to keep your vehicles on the road and operating smoothly.