Made in the USA

MANUFACTURED IN THE USA

(800) 752-0706

Chat With Our Team

Search
Made in the USA

MANUFACTURED IN THE USA

Upfitting Can Save Your Company a Lot of Money

July 26, 2021

Upfitting Can Save Your Company a Lot of Money

Upfitting Can Save Your Company a Lot of Money

It may seem like a large upfront expense, but upfitting can save your company a lot of money. It costs you resources and money every time someone takes out a vehicle, even if they need to. That’s why you want to ensure that your vehicles minimize these costs by enabling your workers the best they can. That’s what the upfit process is all about, enabling workers to lower costs and wasted resources.

Storage

One of the biggest benefits of upfitting your vehicles is the improvements you can make to your vehicle’s storage capabilities. Upfitting will give you the option to add more storage options for your vehicles and carry more equipment, thus enabling your workers.

Organization

Upfitting will also give you the ability to increase your organization inside the vehicle. You can get storage space organizers like vehicle slide-out trays, which allow you to maximize the storage capacity of your vehicle. One tip, give everything a dedicated place to keep your vehicle neat.

Loading and Unloading Efficiency

Increasing your organization is a great way to also increase the efficiency of your workers. Loading and unloading equipment is one of the biggest time wastes, and proper storage and organization will help to lower this time waste.

Productivity

Along with increase to efficiency, your workers will handle more tasks or complete more service calls with the time they save due to proper organization. Standardizing your vehicle organization and dedicating items to certain spots will lead to less confusion on the job and faster work.

Safety

A good upfit will aim to increase your vehicle’s safety for your workers. Loading heavy equipment is a common cause for injury, but a good slide-out storage organizer will help workers load and unload equipment safely and lowers the chance of injury.

These are just some of the ways that upfitting can save your company a lot of money. Although there is a bit of an upfront cost, it’s a safe investment into your workers and your business.

Sticky

How To Find More Storage Space in Your Trunk

July 26, 2021

How To Find More Storage Space in Your Trunk

How To Find More Storage Space in Your Trunk

It can often feel like you never have enough space for everything you need to carry in your trunk. You get to loading the trunk, and there’s just too little room, or you need to stack things weirdly to get it to all fit. This is why it’s nice to know how to find more storage space in your trunk.

Stack Heavy To Light

The first thing you need to do is know how to properly organize your items to efficiently use your storage space. The first thing you should do is store any heavy things on the bottom and stack lighter things on top. This will help limit sliding, ensuring fewer objects suffer damage as you stack them and giving you more options for organization.

Get Boxes and Containers

The next thing you can do is invest in containers to help store your items. Placing loose items in bags or boxes helps keep them contained, limiting how much room they take up by preventing them from spreading out. It’s a good idea to get a small box or two to hold the smaller objects and a big one to hold larger items.

Create Dedicated Spaces

You should try to dedicate spaces to different tools and items. This will speed up your loading and unloading processes, as you’ll know exactly where everything goes. It’ll also keep your storage area consistent, helping you manage your space.

Use Trunk Bed Extenders

Another thing you can consider investing in is a trunk bed extender or storage organizer. These aftermarket modifications help extend your trunk storage, letting you better organize and store items. They work perfectly with the organization tips listed above as well. A good storage extender, like a large aluminum storage trunk, can extend well past your bed and can come with a variety of extra shelving and drawers to help with storage.

These organization tips and tricks can really help you find more storage space in your trunk. This knowledge can help speed up loading and unloading processes and organize your storage space.

Sticky

How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

July 19, 2021

How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

When storing things in your truck, you might feel that you need more room. But getting a whole new truck just for a bit of extra storage isn’t worth it. The real trick is to learn how to get the most out of your truck bed to maximize the space you already have. There are several ways to accomplish this. Many people add on additional storage or adjust their organization methods. Here are some of the exact ways you can better utilize your truck bed for storage.

You Can Stack

One simple change you can try is to stack the things you’re storing. When you are placing objects in the truck, there’s often lots of air space left over. Don’t be afraid to stack your things to use up that space, as long as you’re smart about it and don’t stack things that can break easily without proper protection.

Heavy To Light

When it comes to stacking things, you want to be sure you’re doing it correctly. One of the biggest risks to stacking is falling or sliding objects as you drive. This possibility is something you must take into account. The best strategy to limit this problem is to stack heavy things on the bottom and lighter objects on top. This should help limit the damage of sliding objects.

Dedicate Spots

When looking into your truck bed’s storage, you should try to keep everything in the same place. Tools or things you commonly carry should have a spot they always stay in. This will help you plan your space better and keep things orderly.

Lighting

Numerous truck beds don’t have enough lights to provide good sight for loading and unloading items. This fact can cause many problems, as it’s hard to navigate a space you can’t see. Invest in lighting that can reveal the whole truck bed and provide you with a clear field of vision no matter the conditions.

Think of Unloading

You can solve lots of problems with truck bed storage by planning around the unloading process. Items should be easy to unload and safe to carry. Proper organization isn’t just about filling up your truck bed; it’s also about having the ability to take things out quickly. Once you have a system that’s easy to unload, you’ll find that it’s also easy to store items efficiently as well.

Frequently Used Things

When planning where items should go, look for anything you use often. You should dedicate a convenient place for these tools that’s easy to reach even when the truck bed is full. This way, you won’t need to unload things just to take out something you use often. Many people use door storage for items like this.

Cargo Ties

Items will move during transportation, and this can lead to many injuries or damaged products or the vehicle itself. One way to prevent this is to invest in cargo ties. These ropes or straps will hold down your items and prevent them from sliding. The best way to use them is to tie down any item with two different ropes.

Cargo Nets

Cargo nets have the same purpose as cargo ties, but they’re better for holding many items at once and are useful in conjunction with cargo ties. You usually only need one cargo net, as they’re wide and can cover lots of space.

Boxes

Adding boxes is a great way to help organize your space usage. Smaller items take up a lot of space when loose in a truck bed. They spread out, and you can’t stack objects on top of them as easily as you can with big items. Boxes help hold these smaller items together and limit the amount of room they can take up.

Drawers

Drawers are very similar to boxes because their purpose is also to hold smaller items. However, they don’t take up nearly as much room as stray boxes. They’re also much easier to load and unload because they slide out and give great access to the items they hold.

Sidewall Racks

Another aftermarket modification that many people add to their vehicle is a wall rack. These are basically racks or boards that can hold tools and equipment. As they sit off the floor, they help you maximize the space you use to carry these tools.

Additional Racks

Just like wall racks, you can add various kinds of additional racks to hold whatever you need. Many people already have ceiling racks in their vehicles. These are ideal for securing anything that can hang or tie with cords that you wrap around the racks. Using them also frees up plenty of room for all your other goods and things you need to carry.

Storage Organizer

A storage organizer is a larger investment for your storage space. But it’s well worth it if you need to utilize your truck bed better. These organizers take up most of your truck space but add various storage options. You’ll get things like extra drawers or specific places to hold your specialized tools. They can slide out from your truck bed, giving you easy access to all your storage space. A storage organizer also aids in speeding up the loading and unloading process while increasing the safety of anyone who uses the truck bed, as you no longer need to climb in to load items.

Slide Out Trays

Slide out trays are similar to storage organizers, but they’re flat platforms instead of full organizers. They’re valuable for storing lots of large equipment. A good truck bed slide out tray will enable your workers to carry massive loads—up to 3000 pounds—without worrying about weight distribution. They should also extend past the taillights (at least 110 percent ), giving you the best access to the storage area without needing to twist or climb to handle the equipment.

These tips on how to get the most out of your truck bed will help raise the speed at which you can load and unload your truck bed, promote safety, and increase the amount you can carry in your truck bed. All it takes is a bit of planning and proper organization of your truck bed to get some great results.

How To Get the Most Out of Your Truck Bed

Sticky

How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

June 28, 2021

How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

Picking the right pickup truck is a careful balancing act between functionality and expense, among other things. A large factor in getting a truck for many people is the truck’s bed. This one piece of the vehicle adds so much utility that it’s a major function. A lot of people base their vehicle choice on the truck’s bed. However, even the biggest beds aren’t enough to carry some of the loads that people and workplaces need. That is why there are truck bed slide-outs, to add on the needed space. But there are a variety of different truck bed slides that do different things. So, you need to know how to choose the best truck bed slide for your pickup if you want the right one for you.

Load

Just as with a regular truck bed, a truck bed slide-out platform does have a limit to how much weight it can carry. This is very important to note, as going over this weight limit can damage the slide-out and even the truck itself. That is why you want to account for the weight of anything you are looking to move when buying a slide-out tray. If you are carrying only light equipment, you might get away with a lower limit, but most people load heavy equipment onto their trucks. If you do load heavy equipment, look for slide-outs that can carry 2000+ pounds for your truck.

Weight Distribution

Another common limitation of slide-out platforms is the distribution of weight of any equipment on the slide-outs. Typically, you must carefully place any equipment on the truck bed and slide out to evenly space out the weight of what you are carrying. This is very inconvenient for many people as it slows down the loading process and means that there is a limit on what you can actually carry, even if you don’t hit the weight limit. This is because it’s basically impossible to perfectly balance several thousand pounds of equipment unless you are transferring a load that is just the same item. Even just one piece of heavy equipment might throw off your weight distribution and limit your load. However, there are some slide-outs that don’t have this weight distribution limitation. So, unless you plan on only having light loads, get yourself a platform that doesn’t require weight distribution.

Length

The length of a slide-out is another factor you need to consider when purchasing the modification. Typically, you measure the slide-out of a truck bed by how much it extends the truck bed in percentage. This means that a 50% slide-out will extend your truck bed by about half of its current length, whereas a 100% slide-out would double your truck bed’s length. The length of a slide-out platform measures the extra space the modification gives you to load more items and how much the slide-out comes out of the truck. For most people, the higher the length, the better it’ll be for storage and carrying purposes.

Accessibility

Another thing to consider in terms of the length is how it affects the accessibility of the loaded equipment. One of the bigger benefits to a slide-out tray is how it makes loading easier. When you are pulling out the platform, it gives you easier access to the area and lets you load more without requiring you to climb over the vehicle. Once you start getting to higher lengths, you can load and unload a lot of larger equipment with easy access. Extendobed is the only one that extends over 110% – past the taillights, giving you complete access to any equipment you have without needing to step into the truck at all. You get to use those last few inches of your truck bed without struggle.

Risk Reduction

Along with this ease of access comes a variety of risk and injury reductions that can save you problems and even lower worker’s injuries. By having a tray that can load equipment without worrying about weight distribution, you can load for safety and efficiency rather than weight distribution. The extra extension of the platforms can be very useful for increasing safety as well. A lot of injuries occur during the loading and unloading process. This is because individuals must use improper techniques to move any loads from a normal truck bed. Climbing into a vehicle to get to a heavy item can cause a lot of injuries and generally isn’t safe. A long slide-out platform makes it easy to load and unload equipment and loads without needing to climb inside a truck bed by pulling out the load to you. This will greatly lower potential risks and injuries during the loading process. The 110% extension that the Extendobed platforms provide even allows the slide out deck to be loaded directly by forklift, making it even safer than other slide-outs.

Customization

Another benefit to many of the slide-out trays is the range of customization you can get on them. Many slide-outs are just simple platforms that hold simple loads, but some slide-outs can contain a variety of extra storage options. From drawers to specialty shelving, there are plenty of additions to slide-out trays. Not only that, but Extendobeds even offers fully customizable slide-out platforms and storage organization that can carry anything you need. This way, you can tailor the trays to fit your exact needs, no matter what business you are in or what you need to carry. This customization can increase every aspect of your truck’s bed, from space optimization to efficiency in loading and unloading. It can even promote worker safety—all it requires is some careful planning on your part, and you could have a custom slide-out tray for yourself in no time.

Now, by factoring all these different things to consider, you should be able to find a truck bed slide that works for you. All it requires is some careful planning and some knowledge about how to choose the best truck bed slide for your pickup, and you’ll be able to find yourself the perfect slide-out for your needs.

How To Choose the Best Truck Bed Slide for Your Pickup

Sticky

Traffic Enforcement Equipment Storage

June 16, 2021

Traffic Enforcement Equipment Storage

Extendobed-fitted vehicle


Carrying all the necessary equipment for traffic enforcement while still keeping track of your other items is a difficult challenge. There are just too many items for convenient storage in a normal police vehicle. Even when you do manage to get everything into one vehicle, it can be a pain to get it all out again. Oftentimes, you cannot organize all the equipment into the vehicle in a reasonable manner. That is why you should invest in some traffic enforcement equipment storage. One of the best ways to increase your storage is to use aftermarket modifications; something like a police car trunk organizer will maximize your space efficiency greatly.

Types of Trunk Organizers

At Extendobed, we offer many different high-quality organizers that provide amazing storage control and options. These organizers all provide over 100 percent slide-outs to give you easy access to all your storage. Plus, they can carry up to 3,000 pounds of equipment.

The St. Charles Organizer

This organizer is meant to carry all the forms of traffic enforcement equipment that you might need on the job. For example, scale racks carry weight scales while giving you easy access to the heavy equipment. The design also keeps in mind the proper lifting height of the equipment to best prevent back injury from carrying heavy equipment. There is also a creeper shelf to give you plenty of space to hold traffic cones and the like.

The DC Metro Organizer

This organizer is capable of carrying many of the items you may need for traffic enforcement. However, it also has many other drawers that can carry other equipment, giving you a lot of control over what you need and where it should go. The drawers pull out to give you full access over organization. There is an upper platform to give you space to store large objects as well.

Mind you that these are just a few of the pre-built organizers that Extendobed offers. There are plenty of other options available, plus you can make your own custom traffic enforcement equipment storage systems.

Sticky

How To Increase the Length of Your Truck Bed

June 15, 2021

How To Increase the Length of Your Truck Bed

How To Increase the Length of Your Truck Bed

Truck beds are some of the best storage spaces for working people. You can fit thousands of pounds of equipment onto the back of one vehicle. However, they do have their limitations. First, they still have rather limited amounts of space for storing equipment. They can also be difficult to load and unload, as you need to climb in and around them to do so. Luckily, knowing how to increase the length of your truck bed can fix these problems.

Switching Bed Frames

The simplest way to get a larger truck bed is to invest in a larger bed frame. This will replace your vehicle’s bed and switch it with a bigger one. Making this switch isn’t something you can do on your own, and you’ll most likely need a mechanic to do the installation for you. Also, there’s a limit to the larger frames, as they can only increase your vehicle bed space by small amounts.

Bed Extender Kit

A bed extender kit is what it sounds like; it’s a simple extension you mount onto your vehicle that extends past the original truck bed. These kits are simple, and you can even install them on your own. However, they aren’t as durable as your truck bed and stick out of the truck.

Custom Slide-Out Tray

Now, one of the best ways to instantly add a lot of space to your truck bed is to install a custom truck bed sliding tray. These trays can double your storage space, and some can even slide out over 110 percent – past the taillights. This means that you can store large equipment and bring it out to you when you need to load or unload it, saving you lots of time and lowering health risks as well.

So, if you’re wondering how to increase the length of your truck bed, these are the main three ways. You can also increase storage with storage organizers and add-ons if you so desire.

Sticky

How To Reduce Workers Comp Injuries and Claims

June 03, 2021

How To Reduce Workers Comp Injuries and Claims

How To Reduce Workers Comp Injuries and Claims

There is nothing worse than the injury of an employee. From a personal standpoint, no one wants another person to suffer an injury, and in some cases, all you can do is hope for their quick recovery. From a business standpoint, however, injuries can cost a lot of money and really hurt the company. That is why it is best to do everything one can to reduce these incidents. Here is a guide on how to reduce workers’ comp injuries and claims.

Work With Workers

The biggest thing any business can do to reduce workers’ comp injuries is to simply prevent the injuries in the first place. That is why it is important that you work with the employees to identify potential risks. Promote clear and open communication between workers and those in charge to help identify problems and fix them. The workers will know what they need best.

Identify Risks

The second step in the process is to actively work on identifying risks. Run frequent inspections of any work facilities to find obstructions or unsafe areas. You should also run checks on equipment and high traffic areas to ensure safety.

Eliminate Hazards

If you discover any dangers, you need to act fast to eliminate the issues. Look for layout improvements and replace any damaged equipment that may pose a risk to employees. Put in guardrails and improve safety guidelines to decrease risk.

Upgrade Equipment

Another thing you can do is upgrade equipment to newer and safer replacements. Look for equipment that can get the same job done while increasing worker safety. You don’t need to sacrifice efficiency for this equipment either. There are plenty of efficient tools that increase safety, such as custom truck bed storage. By bringing tools and equipment out to your workers instead of having them climb into a vehicle, or lifting heavy items form awkward angles, it lowers injury risk and can increase loading and storage efficiency by over 100 percent.

Provide Training

Another great step toward lowering workers’ comp claims is to offer company-wide training. This will ensure everyone is on the same page with safety precautions and will teach employees how to use the newest techniques that promote efficiency and safety.

This is how to reduce workers’ comp injuries and claims at your business. By implementing these steps correctly, you should see fewer claims come in and fewer injuries overall.

Sticky

Fire Equipment Storage: How To Choose a Storage System

May 18, 2021

Fire Equipment Storage: How To Choose a Storage System

Fire Equipment Storage: How To Choose a Storage System

 

When you’re managing a group of firefighters, it’s pivotal that you send them in with everything they need. Many lives and a lot of property can be at risk in any incident, and the equipment you carry can make the difference. However, ensuring you have the right equipment on your vehicles and having quick access to it are two different problems, especially considering the speed that firefighters need it. This is why it’s so important that you know how to choose and design a system for fire equipment storage.

Determine Equipment

The first thing that you should do is determine what equipment you will need on each vehicle. Without a thorough understanding of what your firefighters need, it’s impossible to plan correctly. This is a good time to talk with your crews, as they know best what they require and how often they use different things. Other than them, asking and communicating with your peers in neighboring municipalities will also give you good insight.

Plan Space For Equipment

Once you have a strong understanding of the equipment you will need to carry, plan out the vehicle’s storage space. The goal is to find areas in the truck or apparatus that can carry the equipment and allocate those spaces to it. You should also look for things you can improve in your vehicles to more efficiently store everything you need to bring. Things like aftermarket modifications, which help to add storage or organize space, are good places to start.

Organization

One of the major things that you need to do to help your personnel is organizing the area. Since you’ll be working with different crews and changing personnel, you’ll need to decide what your Standard Operating Procedures will be for how and when to use the equipment. Then, you’ll need to have all personnel follow your SOPs. This means every piece of equipment must have a designated place where it should belong. This way, everyone will know where things are, regardless of shift changes or personnel changes. It’s also important that someone regularly goes through the vehicles to check that all the equipment is there and properly stored.

Organize by Need and Frequency of Use

Arranging all your equipment according to its accessibility and practicality will allow you to get the most out of your organization system. The more useful an equipment piece or tool is, the easier it should be to find. If a piece of equipment that sees frequent use is not easily accessible, it will cause your team to waste time whenever someone goes to use it. For example, it’s beneficial to store frequently used tools closer to the entrances of the truck to lower the amount of time it takes to get to them.

Standardize Your Layout

Once you have a good layout that works for your needs, apply that system to every similar vehicle in your fleet. Having different layouts for similar vehicles performing similar functions can confuse people and waste time. So, you should make sure that everyone knows about your SOPs and your organization system and that every similar vehicle has the same arrangement.

Features and Things You Need

Every department will have unique needs, but there is some standard functionality that you should consider for each type of vehicle knowing it will be worth the additional upfront investment.

Mobile Work Areas

A mobile workspace is a great idea for a lot of different reasons. When you’re on the scene of an incident, you’ll need areas where you can review building designs, MSDS, and other critical information. Having a mobile workplace where you can set up operations can be invaluable.

Gear Lockers

Most stations have gear lockers. A gear locker area on an apparatus can be a good thing for turnouts or other gear. There are plenty of suppliers that provide proper storage for gear on a firetruck.

General Storage

One of the best ways to increase your apparatuses’ usefulness to the team is to maximize and optimize their storage. However, this isn’t as simple as throwing on a few extra storage boxes and calling it a day. To expand and improve the storage of a fire apparatus, you will need to keep these tips in mind.

Versatile Compartments

Adding extra storage through aftermarket modifications is a great plan for carrying equipment. One of the best ways to add this storage is to use compartments that can hold multiple things. Don’t get a compartment only capable of carrying one specific equipment type because the tools you use might change in the future. It’s best to plan for future growth as it’s likely that you will carry more or use different equipment over time.

Tool Storage

There are many storage tricks that you can apply to help efficiently store any tools you have on your vehicles. Utilizing mounting walls is a great place to start, as these items provide storage, organization, and easy tool access. Mounting tools and equipment on vertical walls will make it easy to find and access them.

Expanding Storage and Organization

There are other ways to expand and organize your vehicle storage as well. A good way to do so is to install things like heavyduty drawer slides for trucks, which give you extra storage and allow you to use your limited space more efficiently. Investing in some truck organizers can save you a ton of room in the firetruck and even help prevent injuries when you’re loading and unloading equipment.

Knowing how to choose or design a storage system for fire equipment storage is an essential skill to have, as laid out here. The extra time a storage system can save is vital to firefighters. Consequently, you need to look for things that will save them the most time. Finding a system that you can customize to your needs is key, as there is no standard for what your firetruck might need. So, keep your options open and plan carefully with your team.Fire Equipment Storage: How To Choose a Storage System

Sticky

Top Rules To Follow When Organizing Your Work Van

May 11, 2021

Top Rules To Follow When Organizing Your Work Van

Top Rules To Follow When Organizing Your Work Van

Organizing your work vans is one of the best ways to increase efficiency. It is not uncommon for workers to lose hours every week dealing with a messy van. Finding the correct tools and loading materials can take much longer if your van is not orderly. In addition, the van might be carrying too much inventory, or the worker not realize they actually have what they need in the van, but make the costly and unnecessary trip back to the warehouse. To get that efficiency, you will need to organize your van. To help you achieve that goal, here are the top rules to follow when organizing your work van.

Work From the Bottom Up

It is best to start your organization from the beginning. Clear out your van and start fresh, then slowly find places for everything. It is best to start with placing heavy things lower to the floor. This will help prevent items from shifting. You should place lighter items on top or above these heavier items to allow better access to them.

Organize for Convenience

You don’t just want to organize your items according to where they will fit, but also to how often the item is necessary. The more you use an item or tool, the easier accessing it should be. You do not want your most common tools to be a hassle to grab every time, so make sure you organize with that concept in mind.

Utilize All Space

One thing that many work vans do not do well enough is utilize their space. They can have shelves and storage mounted on the walls of the van, but it usually leaves “dead space” in the middle. It is easy to fill your cargo area with tools and think you are full. However, there is usually plenty of space that is still usable in your cargo area. That is why you should invest in something like a industrial truck sliding trunk tray, or sliding cargo area tray, which can maximize your carrying capacity and help you utilize that dead space in between the van’s side walls more efficiently.

Use Some Modifications

One thing that can help your organization is the addition of aftermarket modifications. Just like the sliding tray, there are many other things that can help you organize your equipment. Installing tool hooks or adding extra storage can give you a lot more control over your van’s space. You can even add things that improve the overall quality of your van, such as extra lights.

These are the top rules to follow when organizing your work van. If you keep these in mind when reorganizing, your vans should be a lot easier to use, and your employees should be more productive.

Sticky

Ways To Improve Your Upfit Process

April 28, 2021

Ways To Improve Your Upfit Process

Ways To Improve Your Upfit Process


Upfitting your fleet vehicles is a very important process that signifies the advancement of your business. Moving toward a better and more efficient fleet is important to improving your business. That is why you should do everything you can to make sure the process goes well. When you are upfitting your fleet, there are certain things you can do and ways to improve your upfit process. Below are some suggestions to help you improve your upfitting process.

Involve the Workers

One of the best sources of any information is a first-hand account. That is what your workers will provide for you. There is no one else that can tell you what you need better than your employees. Only someone who works with the fleet on a consistent basis will be able to tell you what it lacks. That is why you need clear communication between yourself and your employees for the upfit to work.

Identify Equipment

One of the first steps you will need to accomplish is to identify everything your fleet needs to carry. This can differ drastically from business to business. Even within the same fleet, separate vehicles might carry different gear. You need to account for all of these factors in your upfit plan. That way, your vehicles will carry exactly what your employees need.

Identify Needs

Once you have identified the equipment that you will use in your fleet, you should search for other needs that must be met. This is one place where your worker’s involvement is so important, as they know what they need for the job better than anyone else. Perhaps better storage or tire modifications to help with driving are in order. Figure out what could improve the work area and mark it down for later consideration.

Identify Goals

After you have identified the needs and equipment of the fleet, you should organize everything into attainable goals. Do not simply create a vague “improvement plan.” Focus on what the workers say and what you notice yourself. The best way to set goals is to look at the task of the fleet and figure out what your fleet vehicles need in order to accomplish that specific task. For example, if your fleet vehicles need to carry 500 pounds of equipment, make achieving that weight a goal. If regular access to heavy equipment is needed, make sure your designs allow for that to happen.

Set a Plan

Now that you know what your fleet needs, you should take your time to plan the upfit process in greater detail. Do not rush it—take your time to find the correct solution to every problem and organize your area carefully. You want to hit everything you can with your plan; otherwise, you will have the same problems with the new fleet. That is why it is so important that you give yourself the time to tweak the plan. Below are some things you should keep in mind when making the plan.

Standardize the Fleet

One of the biggest things you can do to help your fleet is to standardize all the vehicles. This may not always be possible, as each vehicle may serve a different purpose. However, if you can, it is best to ensure all your vehicles are as similar to each other as possible. That way, there will not be any confusion if someone is using a different vehicle. This also makes it easy to adjust things or solve problems if everyone is working with the same tools.

Keep Efficiency in Mind

One of the major reasons that businesses get an upfit to their fleet is to improve efficiency. Try to address each aspect of the fleet vehicles to get the best improvements in performance. Don’t just focus on what the vehicles can carry, but also how they drive, how best to carry that load, and how often each piece of equipment is accessed by your work crews. Loading and unloading equipment wastes a lot of time.

Focus on Safety

It can be easy to invest in things that will improve efficiency. However, it is just as important to focus on the safety of the workers. All efficiency savings can be lost with one worker’s comp claim. Installing more storage can seem like an easy solution, but without enough room, workers can hurt themselves. This goes for a lot of the potential changes you can make. That is why you need to invest in things that will provide a boost to productivity and protect your workers. A good example of this is a large aluminum storage trunk that slides out, which provides a lot of extra storage space and organization. At the same time, it reduces worker injuries by providing better access to equipment and eliminates lifting heavy items from awkward angles.

Don’t Be Afraid To Invest

One of the most common things people do in their fleets is to try the cheaper options. It can be daunting to make such a large, upfront investment. However, investing good money into your fleet will help you save and make more money in the long run, especially if that equipment can be transferred to future vehicles. A good fleet upfit will help your workers accomplish more in a shorter period while reducing costly on-the-job injuries. This new speed will let you take on more work, earning you more money in the long run. View each improvement to your fleet as an investment in your future. By improving efficiency of the work truck storage system in their fleet, one company was able to add $19,000/year in revenues per truck without having to invest in additional equipment or personnel. The ROI for their upfit investment was only 3.4 months!

Plan Who Gets Upfitted First and Use Them To Train the Rest

There are always those in a fleet that are more open to change and like new technology and equipment. And there are those that are more resistant to change. Use your “first adopters” and upfit their vehicles first. Get honest feedback, then allow them to communicate to the rest of the team about how well the newly upfitted vehicles have helped them. This builds excitement within the team and can also help overcome any pushback from those that would typically fight change.

Stay in Contact

One of the last big things you can do is stay in contact with those you have working on the upfit. As the installation continues, you will want to stay up to date with all the changes. Even before the installation, contact the installers and come up with a detailed budget and plan. Make sure everyone knows what to do to ensure the process is as seamless as possible. This will prevent any mix-ups and will keep you informed about your fleet at all times.

If you keep these ideas and ways to improve your upfit process in mind, you should have little to no problems with the product. Your fleet should be able to handle your business’s needs and continue to grow without worry.

Ways To Improve Your Upfit Process
Sticky