Department Vehicles - Fleet Money down the Drain?

How to Lower Costs and Manage Responsibly

Department vehicles in all too many fleets are an out-of-sight, out-of-mind type of thing. While most fleet managers can tell you exactly what percentage of their local fleet is past due on preventive maintenance or they can rattle off the latest utilization statistics for their motor pool fleet, few fleet managers can report the same information about vehicles that are permanently assigned out to departments or external organizations. Why? In most cases, lack of visibility with respect to odometer data and vehicles use data is the culprit. The result is that many fleets risk higher costs due to poor maintenance of vehicles or even higher costs due to carrying of excess fleet inventory. The good news is that the solutions for responsibly managing department vehicles are easy to implement.

A logical approach to evaluating and getting control of your department vehicles is to take the following steps:

Step 1 – Evaluate whether you should try to manage department vehicles more responsibly

Step 2 – Identify which aspect of department vehicles you need to manage

Step 3 – Implement ways to collect and report on the department vehicle data

Step 4 – Continuously evaluate whether you are responsibly managing department vehicles to the extent that your stakeholders expect of you.

Step 1 – Evaluate whether you should manage department vehicles

As someone who visits with dozens of fleet managers each year, I've heard many reasons why fleet managers turn their back on department cars.

• "They [departments] pay for the vehicles and the maintenance whether I manage them or not. Let them manage their own fleet."
• "They are GSA vehicles – they don't cost much to maintain and carry."
• "They don't want us micro-managing them."
• "They won't give us the data we need to manage the vehicles effectively."

If you are ultimately the person responsible for the overall fleet and monitoring adherence to fleet policies, you should be managing the department vehicles. Whether you take the steps to collect data from the departments yourself, or you delegate the task out to the departments, you need to decide that you will start collecting more accurate and timely data.

Step 2 – Identify which aspect of department vehicles you need to manage

Most fleet issues and inefficiencies stem from lack of policy or lack of procedures to monitor and enforce fleet policy. The challenges with department vehicles are no different. If you don't have policy regarding vehicle use in departments, you need to initiate the process of getting that policy in place. If you have a policy, then your decision is where to start. The chances are that you have policies that cover:

• Reporting of odometer readings
• Minimum miles per month per vehicle
• Minimum utilization per month across a department
• Eligibility to drive department vehicles

Consolidate the list of policies you will attempt to monitor and enforce and then determine how you can help department users provide the visibility you need regarding use of their vehicles.

Step 3 – Implement ways to collect and report on the department vehicle data

Years ago, there weren't many ways for departments to easily and efficiently provide data to fleet managers. With the advent of web-based fleet management systems, self-service fleet kiosks, and even in-vehicle telematics, collecting data is easier than ever. And, it doesn't have to be expensive or complex.

Examples of easy ways to collect fleet data from departments include:

• Use web-based mileage & trip reporting: Products such as Agile's FleetCommander provide easy-to-use on-line forms for reporting mileage and trip data. Department staff can proactively login and provide mileage data on-line.
  
  The emails include a link to click on that navigates the user to the user's own mileage collection form.

It's fast and the data is error-checked. FleetCommander even has a tool that sends out emails with a reminder if department staff is late reporting mileage.



• Use a self-service fleet kiosk: A self-service fleet kiosk can be located within each department. Fleet kiosks are typically touch-screen computer screens that provide a simple user interface similar to what you would see at an airport check-in line or in a hotel lobby. Kiosks provide a quick-and-easy way for fleet drivers to record the pick-up and return vehicles. User-friendly kiosks will have a way to enter odometer readings and other valuable information, too. In essence, fleet kiosks provide a self-run motor pool. Kiosk hardware doesn't have to be expensive. And, the software is included as just another set of web-based pages in products such a FleetCommander. With a little investment in hardware, fleet managers can reap a huge return in terms of utilization and odometer data.
  
  
• Telematics: Telematics offer yet another way to collect utilization and odometer data. This solution, albeit more expensive than several alternative solutions, provides valuable information straight from the vehicle… with no human intervention.

Security and privacy of fleet system data is now a standard feature for modern web-based systems. Ask your fleet system vendor how you can collect data more easily from your department staff and drivers.

Step 4 – Continuously evaluate whether you are responsibly managing department vehicles to the extent that your stakeholders expect of you.

Rome wasn't conquered in a day. Don't think that you can start managing all department vehicles at once. Start small… perhaps with a single department. Or, start by collecting only one or two data elements. Once you share success stories about how much you've saved the organization, you will have support from many different stakeholders!