8 mins to read
6 safe winter driving tips for truck drivers
Explore winter driving tips to help truck drivers navigate harsh weather, and keep fleet drivers and vehicles protected...
Read moreWinter is tough on fleets and even tougher on budgets. Increased idling, higher fuel use and added wear from cold, icy conditions can quickly snowball into costly problems.
What’s even harder to contend with? Predicting just how much costs will climb or why they’re rising in the first place. Fleet managers might just see higher invoices, not knowing the story behind them. This often makes planning for winter feel like guesswork at best.
The solution for fleets that contend with harsh winter climates is having the visibility to see trends and root causes, then shifting from reactive vehicle repairs to proactive prevention. A connected fleet maintenance program supported by telematics data can make a huge difference.
Knowing how to winterize your vehicle and implementing a strong fleet preventative maintenance program can help keep operations running smoothly.
Managers must make proper vehicle maintenance for fleets a high priority in winter for three big reasons:
- Safety: Vehicles should be in good working condition to be used by the team.
- Fuel consumption: Poor vehicle maintenance can have a direct impact on fuel consumption.
- Mechanical breakdowns: A proactive or preventive fleet maintenance approach can help prevent costly repairs.
The right telematics platform helps take your fleet maintenance program from reactive chaos to proactive management by leveraging data trends with customizable reports.
Want more tips on preventive fleet maintenance? Download this free ebook.
Why do fleet costs go up in winter?
Many fleets know that the chill of winter has an impact on their operations — but it’s not just one big failure that drives up maintenance costs. Smaller, seasonal issues add up, making a comprehensive fleet maintenance checklist important for winter planning. Look for issues like:
- Component Degradation: Low temperatures affect tires, brakes and batteries. Battery capacity can drop by 20% at 32°F and 50% at -22°F. As temperatures fall, so does tire pressure, losing one PSI per 10-degree drop — impacting your fuel efficiency and ability to brake quickly.1
- Corrosion: Damage from road salt and de-icing chemicals really adds up. It accelerates rust and eats away at cables and electrical systems.
- Increased wear and tear: Accelerated damage from harsh driving on slick roads means tires and brakes take an extra beating. Suspension and steering can also be affected by icy roads and potholes.
- Excessive idling and lost fuel economy: To keep cabs warm, drivers often let vehicles idle longer in cold weather. But that burns even more fuel. Cold weather effects can vary by vehicle model, but you can expect conventional gasoline vehicles to suffer a 10% to 20% fuel economy loss in city driving and a 15% to 33% loss on short trips.2
These factors chip away at your budget until the invoices pile up. The good news? With a connected fleet maintenance program, you can pinpoint exactly where those costs are coming from and plan the right fleet preventive maintenance schedule to mitigate them.
Prepare your fleet maintenance program for winter
With all the extra strain winter puts on batteries, fluids, tires and engines, an important way to control costs is to strengthen your fleet preventive maintenance program before winter arrives. Telematics tools can help you spot issues early, keep vehicles road-ready and avoid preventable breakdowns.
Telematics features that support a winter-ready fleet include:
- Preventive maintenance reminders: Stay ahead of winter stress with automatic prompts for scheduled maintenance needs.
- DVIR: Native, customizable digital DVIR forms make pre- and post-trip inspections easier, faster and more shareable.
- Weather alerts: Warn drivers of snow, ice or sudden changes in road conditions so they can adjust.
- Remote diagnostics: Monitor battery voltage, coolant temperature and other cold-sensitive components.
- Dashcams: Make sure dashcams are in good working order and any exterior cameras are kept clean of salt residue during the winter so they can capture footage that helps protect drivers, support claims and clarify events.
These tools all help with winterizing your vehicles and preparing proactively for cold weather. But to get the bigger picture of what really happens to your fleet during winter, you need to dig into the robust reporting functionality of telematics.
Three telematics reports that can help you master your winter budget
Telematics can give you the visibility you need into maintenance, fuel usage and costs to plan for the winter. Here’s how three key reports can help strengthen your fleet maintenance program so you stay ahead of cold-weather challenges.
1. Seasonal Maintenance Spend Comparison Report
Winter maintenance always costs more — but exactly how much more? By running a Maintenance Report filtered by date range (December to March vs. June to September) you can compare seasonal trends to get a better understanding of your fleet maintenance program needs adjusting. What costs are spiking at what times? What issues arise at different times of the year?
This data can help get vehicles into service before a major repair is needed or a breakdown occurs. It also allows you to build a more effective fleet preventive maintenance program to maintain productivity and help extend the life of your fleet vehicles.
Top Tip: Use the spend data to identify spikes in specific vehicle parts (e.g., batteries, fluids) or labor types (reactive vs. planned fleet maintenance). Then, you can figure out where costs are climbing and how to get ahead.
2. DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) Trend Analysis Report
Want to always monitor the health of your vehicles and see any active DTC alerts? This information can include engine functions like battery voltage, coolant temperature, powertrain malfunctions, intake-valve issues, oxygen-sensor problems and more.
Using this report, you can catch minor cold-weather engine issues before they cause catastrophic failure and require expensive towing.
Top Tip: Focus on specific cold-sensitive DTCs (like low battery voltage or coolant temp issues). Schedule vehicle maintenance immediately when non-critical alerts are thrown to prevent a "no-start" situation.
3. Utilization Report
Mileage on its own does not provide a complete picture of actual wear and tear on a vehicle’s engine and components. Extra data points from a fleet management system, such as engine hours, can give you a clearer picture of a vehicle’s condition and its actual maintenance needs.
This also means getting a better look at maintenance intervals for hardworking winter equipment. For example, fleet managers can determine a more accurate, seasonal oil change schedule by combining engine hour and mileage data for vehicles that idle more in the winter.
Top Tip: Adjust schedules for winter equipment to be based on engine hours rather than just mileage. This accurately reflects the stress on the engine caused by idling and low-speed, high-load work.
Together, these reports create a complete picture of how winter affects your fleet, and how to adapt your fleet maintenance program to protect your budget. Instead of reacting to surprises, you’ll have the tools and data to predict, plan and protect your bottom line.
Transforming data into winter preparation
By analyzing these trends, fleets can move from reacting to winter failures to planning for winter success. The result can be less downtime, longer vehicle lifespan and a controlled budget.
And you won’t be alone in reaping results. The 2025 Fleet Technology Trends Report reveals that 72% of GPS tracking solution users felt that the technology is very or extremely beneficial when it comes to managing their fleets.
- 46% saw improved routing
- 36% reduced fuel consumption
- 62% improved efficiency
With the right fleet preventive maintenance software, you can turn unpredictable costs into predictable outcomes. Verizon Connect’s reporting features make it simple to see what’s driving fleet maintenance spikes, understand long-term trends and plan with confidence.
Learn how Verizon Connect can help you predict and prevent your next cold-weather cost spike. Get a demo today.
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