It’s one thing to have a fleet vehicle that doesn’t start on a cold morning. That knocks things back a bit in your workflow, but it’s manageable.
The real issue arises when a car, van or lorry fails to start mid-route. Especially if it’s all alone, parked on a pavement somewhere in the countryside.
Then, you have to scramble to get it going again or tow it back to the workshop. Then you have to spend time testing and fixing it. That’s hours of work your fleet technicians could have spent doing something more important. In the meantime, your drivers sit waiting, and your customers start ringing in.
The fact is, most of those non-starts are avoidable. While failure in 12-volt or 24-volt batteries usually appears sudden, it often develops over the preceding months. So, treating your fleet’s batteries as an asset rather than a spare part keeps your vehicles moving… and making money. This blog shares some pro tips for maximising the life of your batteries.
Focus on when you charge your fleet batteries
The RAC claims that batteries are the biggest reason for breakdown callouts. And that makes sense. Most people never think to check their car’s batteries, except maybe at a routine service.
Technicians either never charge batteries until they fully discharge, or charge them every night. Both of these approaches (deep discharges and overcharging) are detrimental to lead-acid batteries, shortening their lifespan and reducing available power.
However, your charging habits are one of the most controllable operations and costs in fleet work. We suggest working with your technicians to implement an in-house battery maintenance system. We can provide you with the monitoring system, data logging and equipment you need to enable your technicians to periodically test all the batteries on all your vehicles and log the results.
That way, you’ll build up lots of data about each battery’s performance over time. Most importantly, you’ll know the optimal time to charge them using a professional battery charger. Make sure you enforce this testing and charging policy across the fleet, so your results are consistent.
Compensate for temperature changes
As you’re well aware, batteries aren’t too happy in any kind of temperature extreme. They’re most happy at room temperature and slightly warmer. For most, a temperature of between 20°C and 25°C is spot on. That means our winters drag down performance and, in some years, even our summers can introduce temperature-related problems.
Batteries rely on chemical reactions between the active material on the plates and the electrolyte. At lower temperatures, the molecules in the electrolyte move more slowly. And with less movement, the reactions that release electrons take longer, so the battery can’t deliver as much current. This is known as a higher internal resistance, and it’s why batteries struggle to crank engines in winter.
On the other hand, at high temperatures, those same molecules move faster, meaning faster reactions. This isn’t good news. The speed-up increases side reactions, too. As these wear down, the battery can’t carry as much charge. In fact, as a rule of thumb, for every 10°C rise in temperature, the chemical wear inside a battery roughly doubles. So, operating at 35°C for one month uses up the same amount of life as operating at 25°C for two months.
Then there’s the AGM and EFB batteries that your fleet probably uses to some capacity. These behave slightly differently under temperature loads:
- Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) – here, the electrolyte is trapped in glass mats. This makes AGM-style batteries more resistant to vibration and slightly better at operating with a partial state-of-charge (SoC). They tolerate cold starts better than standard lead-acid batteries, but are sensitive to overcharging and high temperatures, which can dry out the electrolyte and shorten their life.
- Enhanced Flooded Battery (EFB) – these batteries are an improved version of lead-acid, with reinforced plates and additives to reduce sulphation. They handle stop-start duty cycles better than standard lead-acid, but their higher internal resistance makes them slightly less reliable in the cold. Deep discharges and heat still accelerate wear.
So, what can you tell your fleet technicians to do about it?
First, park your vehicles under cover whenever possible. This shields them from the worst of the cold and the hotspots from summer sunlight. Parking under cover, particularly inside, combined with monthly battery checks, should go a long way in improving your batteries’ performance. However, you could also investigate fitting thermal protection where possible.
Invest in ongoing maintenance to reduce fleet downtime
We’ve already discussed Implementing a battery management programme to help identify the subtle clues that a battery is starting to fail. Your workshop technicians should conduct routine tests for conductance, internal resistance and voltage under load, because these are among the simplest tests for revealing real-life battery problems.
Process, training, policy enforcement, correct charger setup, regular data review and thermal management all play a role – but you don’t need to tear up your existing workflows. A battery management system can be very simple. Get your fleet technicians to conduct a quick test as part of regular vehicle services or inspections. These tests take only a few minutes.
The only thing to add or enforce is the use of an effective battery tester capable of reading all the data you need. These testers should automatically or periodically sync with software (like ROBIS) to log all their results. That way, you’ll build up a picture of battery health against vehicles, routes, drivers, times, seasons and so on. And this means you’ll avoid all the vast majority of those non-starts, so your fleet workshop can focus on what it does best, keeping your vehicles moving, not just getting them started again.
Where Rotronics comes in
Here at Rotronics, we work with fleets in logistics, utilities, emergency services, public transport and other industries. Across everyone we’ve worked with, we’ve consistently seen that the fleets that test their batteries monthly see far fewer roadside failures and lower replacement and repair costs.
Rotronics developed and managed ROBIS, an online portal where you can store, track, compare and automatically flag your batteries’ performances. Ask us more about ROBIS and our ROBIS-compatible testers today.
It’s not difficult to swap a battery out for a new one during scheduled downtime, and it avoids recovery fees and keeps service levels ready. The story always circles back to the point that your batteries aren’t just a ‘fit-and-forget’ accessory. They’re reactive systems that respond to how they’re used, charged and maintained.
Speak to us today about our battery testers and chargers, and building a battery care programme that suits your fleet.
