Fleet of vehicles in a snow covered parking lot during a snow storm and winter weather

Is Your Vehicle Fleet Ready for Winter?

Avoid Costly Downtime Caused by Winter Weather

For much of the country, winter is on the way. As the temperature drops, the batteries in your cars, trucks and other fleet vehicles have a much harder time performing, making them far more likely to fail. Once a vehicle goes down, it can end up costing you time, money and manpower.

Batteries Plus has the batteries, chargers and other essentials you need to keep your fleet vehicles running smoothly and help you avoid costly downtime.

Why Car Batteries Die in Winter

Cold weather slows down the chemical reactions that take place inside an auto battery. This causes the battery to produce less electrical current. A car battery loses approximately 30% of its power at a temperature of 0℉. In addition, lower temperatures also cause the oil inside your vehicle’s engine to thicken, making it harder to turn over the engine. This creates a situation where your battery has less current available to perform a job that requires more current than in moderate temperatures.

If your organization operates in an area that experiences both extreme hot and cold weather, the effect is often magnified. High temperatures can cause water to evaporate out of your battery’s electrolyte, decreasing its overall capacity. Then, when winter hits, the weakened battery will have an even harder time performing.

How Can You Protect Car Batteries from Freezing?

A fully discharged SLI battery will freeze at temperatures above 0℉. That freezing point goes all the way down to -72℉, however, when the battery is fully charged. That’s why it’s so important to keep the batteries in your fleet vehicles charged up.

Driving your vehicles on a regular basis will do an adequate job of maintaining their batteries’ charge, however, if you have vehicles in your fleet that aren’t driven all that often, you’ll want to have a battery charger on hand to maintain them when they’re sitting idle. A jump pack is another valuable resource. Jump packs are portable auto batteries that allow you to jump start stalled vehicles when they’re out in the field without the need for a second vehicle.

What is the Cost of Vehicle Downtime for Your Fleet?

While a stalled fleet vehicle is certainly inconvenient, the costs associated with that downtime may be larger than you think.

For starters, there is the loss of income associated with the vehicle itself. Compound that with any towing and service costs, which typically run a minimum of $100 per hour. If you have your own in-house service employees, dispatching a member of your staff puts additional strain on your resources. Will you need to rent an additional vehicle to offset the disabled one? That’s even more lost revenue.

Batteries Plus Can Help Reduce Vehicle Downtime

Batteries Plus makes it easy to stay on top of your fleet vehicle needs. While our brick and mortar locations are relatively small, we have our own distribution center and supply chain operation with access to over 60,000 specialty batteries, including replacement SLI batteries for cars, trucks and other heavy duty vehicles, battery chargers, jump packs and more.

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About the Author

Batteries Plus Bulbs is the largest and fastest-growing provider of batteries, light bulbs, and repairs for smartphones and tablets.

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