What a topic! Pull the string out of the back of my neck and watch me go – but where to start?
Clearly from the opening support story from SG Fleet (see page 10), the services to fleets topic really starts with the question of partnerships and that applies to just about every aspect of running an efficient fleet.
You may be a very capable fleet manager, but I’ll put good money on the fact that you have already figured you can’t do it all yourself. Or at the very least, that fleet management is a lot easier when someone (or three) takes a little bit of the grunt work away.
So, the first thing is to accept the value of partnerships. The second thing is to figure out what it is you can’t do or don’t know and then make those things the first problems to handle and use those partnerships effectively.
Some things you can handle with ease – we could assume reporting or possibly policy development – is one of your core strengths, but what about implementation of those policies; something which requires people management skills.
If this is a challenge for you, then perhaps looking to a third party in the form of a fleet management company might be in order. Is there someone in your organisation you can co-opt into helping you with people management?
What about number crunching? Is this a field you are comfortable with? A fuel card supplier might have the answers you need, and not just for fuel and discounts but for other vehicle-related consumables, all neatly tabulated and ready for reporting.
And speaking of reporting…had you thought about telematics to make your life easier? Yep, telematics – big, scary word but since telematics has been part of the fleet scene for some time now, the whole field has become so much more manageable and therefore useful.
Telematics suppliers have changed too. They have seen the value of establishing and maintaining partnerships with companies they once called customers.
To this end, telematics suppliers have advanced their offerings to embrace a much wider range of fleet services including elements of Health and Safety compliance – which may not be what you expected from a telematics specialist provider.
Telematics leads into the realm of driver training – a bit of a delicate subject as nobody thinks they need driver training.
Their driving performance might suggest otherwise and that being the case, a critical service to fleets is that of a driver training supplier. You can make this fun as an annual team building exercise, or you can make it mandatory by integrating it into a fleet safety policy.
Then of course there is the business of the vehicles themselves.
Vehicle section can be a very tricky business, especially now with the blending of electric vehicle and hybrids with petrol and diesel engines.
What’s the best option for your fleet? An open and frank discussion with a lease company partner could tell you.
Like telematics solutions providers, lease companies can help in ways you might not have thought of, including – but not limited to – vehicle fitout and signage; two areas where mistakes made through ignorance can be costly.
Partnering with a lease company doesn’t mean handing over the keys to the city – erm, fleet. The fleet management companies learned a long time ago about not taking their customers for granted.
Accordingly, lease companies will be guided by their clients to a certain degree. Of course, if those clients don’t know what they don’t know, the lease company will be more than happy to offer guidance and advice.
