FLEET CONSULTANT VALUE PROPOSITION EVOLVING
WORDS BY PAUL OLIVER
The role of a Fleet Manager is increasingly multi-faceted – resulting from additional regulatory compliance commitments , challenging vehicle utilisation environments , increased vehicle costs , supply chain issues , and now the transition to lower emission vehicles … just to mention a few !
Similarly , Fleet Consultants are increasingly busy working with clients to deliver better Return On Investment ( ROI ) outcomes , improved risk management procedures and future-proof fleet strategy that meets the ever-changing environment .
While in many cases Fleet Consultants are engaged by organisations that do not have staff with dedicated fleet expertise to manage the fleet , there are increasing incidents of organisations with their own fleet teams seeking external assistance to drive results .
This sometimes arises due to a lack of resources – staff are so caught up in operational fleet management that strategy development takes a low priority .
Yet increasingly , it seems that executive officeholders are recognising the need to challenge the ‘ status quo ’ of their existing fleet operations and long-held assumptions through a Fleet Review / Audit to determine opportunities for improvement and the development of revised fleet strategy .
Here we consider some of the main triggers and types of work being undertaken .
COVID Impacts
Although we all want to move on from COVID19 the reality is that it stimulated fundamental changes in workplace behaviours that have strong fleet implications .
Central to this is the implementation of hybrid working arrangements and the increased acceptance of online meetings – resulting in a growing number of staff working part of their work week at home . This phenomenon is impacting fleets in numerous ways :
Fleet Utilisation - tends to be the first consideration and perhaps the most obvious when vehicles become visibly idle . With more work carried out from home and online , the use and ultimately the effectiveness of pool vehicles is being impacted .
Conversely , where vehicles have allocated custodians , the percentage of business use and overall cost effectiveness sometimes requires review .
This often leads to a need to clearly identify the transportation needs necessary to support the delivery of organisational strategy , sometimes requiring changes in fleet deployment .
Grey Fleet – with more people working from home there is clear anecdotal evidence of
4 ISSUE 41 JULY 2023 / WWW . AFMA . ORG . AU