Where should you go for a fresh and innovative approach to vehicle leasing? The answer is Yoogo Fleet.
Yoogo Fleet is a disrupter in the fleet leasing space and is proud to be the only New Zealand owned and operated lease and fleet management provider, with a team of experienced industry professionals.
Yoogo Fleet has a clear development strategy that has seen it adopt innovative and best in class products and processes. This ‘smart’ approach to leasing has resonated with customers and seen Yoogo Fleet rapidly increase its market presence over the past few years.
Founded in 2013, Yoogo Fleet is part of the well-established Speirs Finance Group, a business with a 50-year heritage of supporting New Zealand businesses. Having Yoogo Fleet under its wing is a natural extension of a history going back to Palmerston North in 1968 when Nelson Speirs started Speirs Finance.
Yoogo Fleet is described by its founders as a uniquely different and agile provider with a wealth of experience, but without legacy platforms, protocols or mindsets from the traditional leasing market. Local ownership and a total focus on NZ business allows Yoogo Fleet to remain agile and responsive to emerging technology and evolving best practice, and with all management, executive management, and even equity ownership based in New Zealand, the team have a clear and unobstructed pathway to building a simply better fleet leasing and vehicle management model.
Data-Led fleet management
One of Yoogo Fleet’s unique customer value propositions lies in the technological advantage of having data from their fleet portfolio plumbed directly into Yoogo’s core operations platform. Utilising real time vehicle data enables Yoogo Fleet to efficiently and effectively manage their customers’ fleets.
Nigel Bell-Booth, GM Sales at Yoogo Fleet explains: “We looked at how technology could fit within the Yoogo Fleet formula of being innovative and ‘out-of-the-box’, while at the same time, delivering something that would add meaningful benefit the end user, our customers.” Adds Nigel, “In a world where data is critical to making informed business decisions, telematics provides our customers with comfort that they are running their fleet effectively and efficiently.”
Telematics data redefines what a fully maintained lease is all about, as the data enables Yoogo Fleet to proactively manage maintenance and servicing schedules as well as timely and accurate compliance management (RUC, WOF, COF and vehicle registration). Couple that with Yoogo Fleet’s innovative ‘direct to driver’ vehicle management tools, and a lot of the time-consuming admin and guess work is removed, along with the business risk of a vehicle travelling outside of its servicing and compliance parameters.
Even more importantly, the inclusion of a fully integrated telematics suite allows Yoogo Fleet’s customers to analyse and understand how their fleet is operating with a minimum of disruptive fleet management processes to their business.
Nigel states, “Understanding what ‘normal’ looks like for your fleet, comparing that to similar types of fleets, then identifying and drilling down to those exceptions within the business can be hugely helpful for our customers. The simple fact is that most fleets simply don’t know how their vehicles are utilised day to day, and understanding this offers huge benefits in terms of maximising staff time, optimising assets, and ensuring the business is operating both cost effectively, and safely.”
Go Green – EV transition
Yoogo Fleet has a strong history of providing EV solutions to customers. Yoogo launched a pure EV car sharing programme with a customer in the South Island in 2017, a first of its kind at the time and since then Yoogo Fleet has continued to support its customers as they look to transition to EVs. In 2021 the business launched a new customer product – Go Green - a full wing to wing EV transition programme supporting customers to manage the change management process and transition from ICE vehicles to EVs.
“Go Green is our end-to-end EV transition program to support our customers in the transition to a low emission fleet” says Nigel.
The Go Green programme begins with an analysis of the current fleet – again, incorporating telematics data to ensure a ‘real world’ evaluation of the client’s fleet, understanding how the vehicles are utilised, and identifying vehicles and drivers that would offer a great initial adoption.
Nigel comments, “From here, a selection of appropriate fit for purpose vehicles will be suggested taking account of the customer’s own sustainability roadmap and current fleet usage profile. It is vitally important to give sound, objective advice to ensure any EV transition not only achieves the customer’s carbon reduction goals, but also delivers on a practical level for users within the business”.
A key part of the transition process is charging infrastructure, and Yoogo Fleet has established a relationship with charging solutions provider EVNEX – also a New Zealand owned and operated company. “Smart home charging seems to be the predominant direction for widespread and successful BEV uptake”, states Nigel, “though most clients are also looking to invest in at least some workplace charging capacity”. Yoogo Fleet offers several financing options on charging infrastructure, from a ‘bundled’ lease solution for home charging, to a bespoke funding option for more extensive commercial applications.
“We’re looking to break down the barriers to EV adoption,” says Nigel, “so that we can help our customers operate their fleets in the most sustainable way possible, with minimal disruption to their drivers and their business operations.”
“Finding out the answers to leasing EVs for your fleet, or how to improve your ICE fleet efficiencies starts with a simple phone call. Our team is ready to assist and guide your business to an effective and efficient fleet solution.”
With a combination of innovation, agility, and an inherent drive to better its customers’ needs, Yoogo Fleet has quickly established itself in the New Zealand market and looks set to continue to grow and evolve.
