The Fuel Fix: Maintenance

One of the best ways to maximize fuel economy, however, one of the most frequently overlooked, is to ensure that your vehicle is in good condition. Routine maintenance is there for a reason: to help continue to operate their vehicles in top form. This is true for all vehicles, including passenger cars, but is especially true for fleet vehicles, which are much more wear than the average personal vehicle.

There are a number of things that are often repaired or replaced during scheduled maintenance, such as:

• Oil and oil filter
• Antifreeze
• transmission oil (or oil and filters)
• Air Filter
• Spark plugs
• plug wires
• distributor cap and rotor
• PCV
• Oxygen sensors
• Belts and Hoses
• Batteries
• Wheels

Replacing all these things on time helps to keep your fleet running smoothly. Omission of any of these can cost you money that leads to a decrease in fuel economy, or by leaving a driver trapped in the side of the road - resulting in delays in deliveries and driver for several hours care not to nothing but wait for a tow truck.

Keep up maintenance on your vehicle does not have to be difficult. There are some things that are so quick and easy for drivers can. For example, the regular monitoring of proper tire inflation, and fix any low-pressure tires can carry as much as 3 or 4 percent increase in fuel economy. Drivers have to change your air filters can also cause anywhere from 2 to 6 percent increase, depending on how dirty the old filter was.

As the largest scheduled maintenance such as oil changes and tune-ups, you can easily keep track of what their vehicles have been - and therefore, what will the next - giving each vehicle their own credit card with fuel. These cards usually can be used to pay for maintenance as well, and since most cards have detailed fleet information systems to help fleet managers in the maintenance of records and other tasks, you can use cards to track the history of each vehicle maintenance.

However you decide to keep your vehicle maintenance needs, do not make the mistake of trying to save money by skipping scheduled repairs. In the long run, will never work. By not taking care of your vehicle, actually tend to spend more money in the long run, because you start to have to put more fuel in the truck, not to mention the risk of tire failure and blowouts. On the other hand, when it comes to repairs on time, you will actually see a return on their money, their trucks will continue to function reliably and get as good fuel economy as the first day you got them.