VIN Basics Blog

Fleet managers recognize that vehicle downtime, whether scheduled or unplanned, is one of the most persistent challenges to manage. This can directly affect productivity, delivery schedules, and profitability. On average, a single day of downtime in 2015 would cost a fleet between $448 and $760 per vehicle. Today, a company could see upwards of $1036 per day, per vehicle. This number could even be higher after factoring in the cost of parts and labor. While downtime is inevitable, with the right strategy in place, fleets can minimize their financial impact and even use it to strengthen their day-to-day operations.

It turns out that consumers are not the only ones holding onto their vehicles longer. 30 percent of fleet managers also plan to extend the lifecycle of their vehicles, according to an EVAI survey referenced in this Digital Dealer article. The survey attributes this to the potential cost increases from import tariffs, however, vehicle prices and interest rates have been climbing for a while (pre-tariffs), dating back to the COVID pandemic where the supply chain became a major issue for acquisition. According to this Automotive Fleet article, fleet managers have been extending the use of their fleet vehicles for a few years now.

In a time where budgets are tight, rather than stretching fleet budgets thin by replacing vehicles at a certain fixed mileage or age milestone (regardless of vehicle condition), fleet managers can better maximize the value of each asset by implementing a “fleet preservation” strategy coupled with advanced fleet management tools and telematics data. 

Fleet managers commonly struggle with unpredictable maintenance costs, vehicle downtime, and optimizing resale value. These challenges, compounded by a lack of real-time data, create inefficiencies that impact profitability. Effective fleet management, regardless of fleet size, requires taking advantage of many solutions and tools, where the optimization is only as good as the accuracy of the data that is being measured. This article explores a few common areas that can be challenging, specifically – fleet vehicle: acquisition, management, and resale.

This post has been republished with fully updated content since its original publish date in Nov 2015

Managing a fleet, big or small, is not an easy task. There are several items to account for and challenges to overcome in order to run a successful fleet. Some of these include saving money on fuel, ensuring the safety and job satisfaction of your drivers, keeping up with vehicle maintenance and repairs, etc. 

In a previous article, we discussed how businesses can leverage a commercial VIN decoding solution to identify vehicle specs by VIN, as well as which specs are often included. In this article, we are going to dive into which businesses benefit from this functionality. The short answer is just about any industry that has anything to do with vehicles, their maintenance, financing, insurance, or transportation. Here’s a deeper dive into some of the most popular use cases for vehicle specs identification by VIN:

Vehicle subscription services started to surface in 2017 and are now available through a few manufacturers, some dealers, and several third parties including startups and vehicle rental companies. Given the diversity of businesses and level of variability in their business models, understanding how vehicle subscription services work requires a good deal of research.

We are living in a strange time right with a pandemic (COVID-19) that has greatly affected people worldwide and shuttered economies. Millions of people in the United States are out of work (hundreds of millions worldwide) and many businesses have had no choice but to furlough or lay off their employees, or even worse, close their doors permanently.

In a previous blog article, we highlighted a few ways in which a VIN decoder can add value to fleet management software. So, we thought it'd be helpful to have a fleet management software provider offer further insight on the subject. 

In this guest post, Lori Higdon from Fleetio has taken a deeper dive into how VIN decoding can increase the efficiency of fleet management. Without further ado:

You've built a solution that helps many companies better manage their fleet. Your customers can easily keep up with their vehicle maintenance, title renewals, and insurance policies -- among other tasks. They are even finding ways to increase fuel efficiency with your telematics reporting feature. So what else does your software need?