When buying a personal vehicle, many people rely heavily on emotion to guide their decision. However, when it comes to procuring vehicles for your business, it’s important to think with your head and not your heart. In this article we’ll discuss several key topics that should be taken into consideration to determine the correct vehicles for your business.

Cost

When choosing company vehicles, the elephant in the room is almost always pricing. Often times, we hear clients tell us that they want the cheapest vehicle they can find that meets their needs. Unfortunately, the lowest sticker price doesn’t always translate to lowest cost. For example, if your company leases their vehicles, then things such as resale value come into play. It’s not uncommon to see a vehicle that costs a few thousand dollars more actually translate to a cheaper per month lease rate because of the additional value on the back end. Fuel economy is another factor. One vehicle may be slightly cheaper than another, but if the more expensive vehicle has significantly better fuel economy, then that difference in sticker price may be offset. When tackling the subject of cost, it’s crucial to avoid tunnel vision and take a macro viewpoint.

Utility

At the end of the day, a company vehicle is a tool. Regardless of any other factor, the vehicle needs to be able to do the job at hand. Whether your vehicles will be used for hauling materials, carrying samples, or just getting your driver from point A to point B comfortably, it’s important to make that determination and select vehicles appropriate to the task. Company vehicles are supposed to make life easier, however selecting the wrong vehicle for the job can end up causing a plethora of headaches and frustration.

Image

Another factor to consider when determining which vehicles should be included in your fleet is that of corporate image. You need to determine the message that you want your vehicles to portray to the outside world. When your employees arrive at a client or prospect’s location, what impression do you want to make? Do you want to portray an environmentally conscious image? Maybe you’re in a higher-end market, or perhaps a cost-competitive industry. Regardless of which realm you’re in, it’s vitally important to make sure that the vehicles included in your fleet are aligned with your values.

Safety

One of the most important considerations when selecting company vehicles is that of safety. This is important not only because you want to keep your employees in one piece, but from a corporate liability perspective as well. Accidents are incredibly expensive for a company to deal with, not only in terms of down time and the man hours needed to resolve the situation, and also in potential litigation as well. There’s an abundance of advanced safety features on the market that are worth including in your vehicles, even at a slightly increased cost.