The most important tool in your toolbox
As a pest management professional, what is the most important tool in your toolbox?
If you guessed your pest control service vehicle, then congratulations!
Pest Control service vehicles are used for so many things. They serve as our offices, break room, transportation to jobs, advertising for our company, and more. Pest management professionals can't do much without our service vehicle.
A fleet of vehicles represents a significant day-to-day liability and is one of the biggest assets for a company. A functioning vehicle makes money, and non-functioning vehicles cost money. Minor accidents or repairs can keep a vehicle out of service for weeks, thus having the potential for you to lose money, especially if you are a smaller company with no spare vehicles.
How do you keep your vehicle on the road? By performing regular inspections & maintenance. It is that simple.
One of the most significant issues with having a vehicle that is not maintained correctly is that it may cause an accident, leading to many potential consequences.
An example of a vehicle accident could be a spill of not just pesticides or fertilizers but also the fuel from the vehicle. These spills can cost a company a lot of money to clean up, as well as possible undesirable media attention, potential lawsuits, increased insurance rates, and damage to your business reputation. Also, don't forget about the financial losses of having to repair a vehicle, having the vehicle out of commission, and the potential route production loss. These days lost route production can be well over $1000 a day, and the cost of a used vehicle can start at $20,000 to $30,000, and new vehicles can run up to over $100,000 depending on the setup, not to mention the time it may take to receive the vehicle once you've purchased it.
Vehicles that receive regular inspections and maintenance last longer and are less likely to require unexpected maintenance and repairs. One of the worst things to happen during your workday is having the equipment or vehicle break down. Everything stops, especially your route production. You can budget for preventative maintenance, but breakdowns cannot.
Then there's the whole aspect of how unhappy we make our customers when we cancel appointments and reschedule to another day.
All these things will cost your company money from the payout for repairs or loss of production, which means less cash flow for your business.
To prevent these costly mistakes and downtime, perform regular truck inspections and planned maintenance. Don't put off tomorrow what should be done today.
Perform monthly truck inspections no matter the size of your fleet of vehicles, especially if you are a single truck operation because downtime of a damaged vehicle could just kill your business quickly.
Learn more about ways to keep your vehicles on the road for as long as possible by signing up for Pest Posse Academy, the pest control industry's only continuous training solution. Signing up will provide you access to an excellent course on Maintaining Your Most Important Tool, your service vehicle, and over 120 additional courses on the fundamentals and principles that help you make more money and succeed in the pest control industry.