Senior management exerts intense pressure on fleet managers to control and/or reduce vehicle acquisition and operating expenses. To accomplish this, a fleet managers can pursue three different cost-control strategies — cost savings, cost deferral, or cost avoidance. In order to implement a successful cost-control strategy you need to institutionalize the mechanisms to curb money-wasting behaviors.
May 22, 2017
Any time you make an exception to fleet policy in resolving a driver-related problem, you may potentially create a new problem that will come back to haunt you in the future.
May 4, 2017
A growing number of employees have been caught using their company vehicles as a tool to generate supplemental personal income for themselves.The fastest-growing trend in unauthorized usage of company vehicles is working as an Uber or Lyft driver. But using company vehicles to moonlight goes far beyond Uber and Lyft.
January 30, 2017
The fundamental requirements of your business necessitates minimum fleet equipment specifications that, as a result, pre-define the expense parameters from both a fixed and operating cost perspective. If you acquire vehicle assets that best fulfill your fleet application, then any supplemental cost reduction will only be based on incremental refinements The best way to achieve additional cost reduction is by modifying driver behavior.
January 1, 2017
If an employee threw trash all over the office floor, scratched the paint off the walls, broke the light bulbs, left holes and dents in the wallboard, and skipped routine maintenance on the copier until it overheated and broke, no manager would tolerate this abuse. Yet, that is exactly what some companies tolerate when drivers abuse their company-provided vehicles.
June 18, 2016
The overwhelming majority of drivers want to do what’s right for the company; however, just because your company implements a written fleet policy doesn’t mean drivers are following it. A common problem is the fleet manager communicates policy to the drivers’ managers, but the word doesn’t get down to the individual drivers. How do you increase driver compliance with fleet policy? Here are 10 suggestions.
June 16, 2016
I recently attended a seminar comprised of fleet drivers from different corporations, and what surprised me was that none of them knew the name of their company fleet manager. Is this important? I think so.
May 5, 2015
Without establishing a plan and the policies to implement it, there will be no uniform focus to meet sustainability goals or a consistent framework to maintain compliance with these goals in terms of asset acquisition, fuel consumption, and vehicle operations and maintenance.
July 28, 2014
The relentless demand by management to reduce costs year-over-year is producing extremely cost-efficient fleets. The best example is the trend by some fleets to shift drivers from allowance or reimbursement programs to the company-provided vehicle program. For these companies, they are finding that it is less expensive to have an employee participate in the company car program than providing a driver allowance.
June 18, 2014
There’s no other way to say it, except bluntly: Managing an executive fleet is a headache. I am not going to say otherwise. But, if it is one of your job responsibilities, consider yourself luckier than others. Managing an executive fleet puts you in front of senior management and gives you an opportunity to showcase your value to the company. Here's how you can leverage this to your maximum benefit.
May 1, 2014
If an employee threw trash all over the office floor, scratched the paint off the walls, broke the light bulbs, left holes and dents in the walls, and skipped routine maintenance on the copier until it overheated and broke, no manager would tolerate this abuse. Yet, that is exactly what some fleet managers do tolerate when drivers abuse their company-provided vehicles.
February 24, 2014
When selling out-of-service fleet vehicles to employees, companies need to ensure fleet policy is uniformly applied — without exception — and that all buyers are treated uniformly and consistently. If you are involved in individual price negotiations, it is prudent to document the sales process. Auditors want to ensure that policy is being enforced uniformly and consistently throughout the organization. Here's what you need to do to ensure you sail through an internal audit with flying colors.
November 7, 2013
Many fleet vehicles require specialized synthetic motor oil, special coolant fluids, filters, OEM-manufactured spare parts, and strict adherence to manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedules to guarantee new-vehicle warranty coverage. The OEMs have become more stringent in requiring adherence to their maintenance service recommendations for a vehicle to remain eligible for new-vehicle warranty coverage.
October 28, 2013
Does your corporate culture encourage compliance with fleet policy? It should, because fleet policy is a crucial component of a company’s overall cost-control strategy. In my discussions with fleet management companies over the years, they tell me that the best managed fleets tend to be those that adhere to a written fleet policy. All too often, however, managers attempt to control fleet costs on the backend. The best time to control cost is before it occurs.
October 4, 2012
Nearly all fleet-related expenses, both fixed and operating, are influenced by when a vehicle is taken out of service. A growing number of fleets are shifting to more flexible vehicle replacement cycles. Some fleets no longer call their replacement cycle a policy and instead call it a “guideline.” They want to reserve the right on determining when to take a vehicle out of service based on prevailing market conditions rather than predetermined mileage and months in service.
October 4, 2012