When you have more than one vehicle, it expands the amount of mental energy and time each day that you need to invest in figuring out which keys are the right ones for the purpose you have in mind. The thing is, this amount of time and energy, especially of the mental variety, tends to expand on a steep curve as you get past two or three sets of keys. While you can have an entire locker or wall full of keys, it can become excessive.
This becomes even more difficult when the keys aren’t so much about keeping your vehicle safe, but about a massive investment of cash and credit. When you have a dealership or fleet service, the sheer volume of vehicles and, by extension, keys can become an exercise in frustration that’s almost unparalleled.
Protecting the flock
In a lot of ways, protecting a fleet of vehicles is a lot like protecting a flock of sheep. When one disappears, it’s usually a terrible thing and tends to be permanent. As well, this can be very economically damaging in several ways, not the least of which is an increase in your insurance costs. Of course, there needs to be a way to protect your proverbial flock from theft.
Granted, locking up the keys in a locked cabinet, in a locked room, and in a place that’s highly visible to your entire staff is almost a given. This is a solid line of defense against a set of keys spontaneously disappearing, and one of your vehicles suddenly peeling out of the lot. Of course, this is by no means a complete solution to the problem of potential theft.
The keys themselves
At some point, you’re going to find yourself in a room where there’s a veritable forest of keys. Your mission is to quickly make sense of which one or set of keys you need to grab off of the hangers. When you have such a choice to make, it can quickly become a tiring one. The good news is there are some solutions that will turn this into a more manageable set of choices for you.
The most simple and mentally easy solution to protecting the keys comes from MBR Marketing, which has developed a system of Car Key Tags that allow people to chronicle the keys to all of their vehicles, no matter how many there might be. There are several different styles of key tags, each of different materials and colors, so that every vehicle’s set of keys is easy to identify almost at a glance.
Protecting sets of keys is a vital part of having any kind of vehicle fleet, even when it might not seem that way at first. While keeping the keys safe is essential, keeping each set of keys organized in relation to the entire group is just as crucial to making sure your fleet stays safe. You have just enough choices to make things interesting.