ORIX Corporation manages more than 1.3 million vehicles around the globe, as one of its six core business streams, with interests in fleet leasing and management, car and truck rentals, car sharing, used car leasing and car sales.  

We talk with Barry Nicholson, the General Manager for the local ORIX New Zealand business, on navigating his people through Covid-19, how ORIX is supporting its customers and considerations for fleet owners during this time.

“While it feels like a lifetime ago, in February we came away from an Exec Offsite with a clear strategic focus to re-imagine how customers move people and goods. We could never have predicted the relevance and urgency of innovative thinking that would be required in the weeks that would follow,” says Nicholson.

Instead of conversations with customers considering the validity of new mobilisation models, car sharing, ride sharing or transitioning to EV technologies though, the team at ORIX found the topics quickly turned to the most basic of needs.  Help me mobilise more vehicles. Help me with temporary storage of my vehicles while we determine our future path.  Help me to reduce my outgoings.

So how well positioned were ORIX to support customer requirements during lockdown?  “It became about prioritising the ‘here and now’ to best support our people, customers and suppliers,” he says.

“The key priority was to relocate our people safely to their home environments, alleviate any remuneration concerns for the period and give them full access to working platforms.”  This enabled ORIX to turn their attention to supporting customers and suppliers from Day 1.

ORIX proactively communicated services to their customer portfolio, that would be available during the Government's Covid-19 Alert Levels and any gaps in the wider supply chain that would impact capability.

“We were well positioned from the start to support essential businesses, having the breadth of products and services available to get customers mobile with short term leases on used vehicles, car rentals and trucks, and without any undue reliance on the external supply chain,” he says.

Other than the ORIX Vehicle Sales business unit, most fleet services remained available throughout Alert Level 4 for essential businesses. Support for non-essential businesses took the form of general business support, planning and decisioning in readiness for changes in alert levels. “For others, sadly, we fielded requests for payment relief for the period or guidance on reducing outgoings.  Very few however, had requirements to exit lease arrangements and return vehicles as a result of Covid-19”.

Nicholson’s Top 5 considerations for fleet owners:

• Is your lease still working for you?  If you’re not fully optimising the inclusions, engage your fleet company to restructure it and recognise immediate savings 

• Have you got a partner to save you money on vehicle transactions?  Why pay full price on a service or a set of tyres if you can leverage the discount structures of a fleet management company for a nominal fee that is more than offset by the savings?

• Does it still make sense to own your vehicles? If you’re after some much needed capital, selling your cars to ORIX and leasing them back could help your business.

• Does it make sense to tie into long term arrangements? Policy aside, proportioning part of your fleet to temporary vehicles or shorter-term leases may give you more flexibility at a lower cost in the long term.

• Take the opportunity to re-imagine how your fleet fits into your business in the future. We’ve learned a lot through the lockdown including the importance of agile operations, digital interfaces, the power of cloud-based technologies.  Maybe you won’t have the same fleet requirements in the future.

By the third week of May, ORIX was operating around 90 percent of its’ pre-Covid forecasts. The level of quoting, vehicle orders, fleet management and leasing steadily increased and used vehicle car sales were just as strong. 

Is it a promising sign?  “Yes, but we remain cautiously optimistic as there are still so many unknowns.  For the moment we’ll focus on what we do best, staying connected to customers and continuing our pursuit to deliver new fleet solutions and innovations.”