Fleet Policy Management
Are you doing it the Old Way?
Your fleet policy
establishes expectations regarding vehicle administration and vehicle
use for your staff, your drivers, and your sponsors. Well written
and well enforced policies guide you through your normal and
not-so-normal fleet activities. However, without well-written policies, every
fleet activity potentially requires input and judgment calls from
fleet staff or managers. So it behooves us all to expend the
energy it takes to develop, communicate, and enforce a
sound fleet policy. Are you managing your fleet policy well?
Developing and Maintaining Your Fleet Policy
You can trust that
hundreds of fleet managers before you have needed a fleet policy.
The great news is that there are many resources for you that leverage
the trials and tribulations of those fleet veterans. Ask colleagues
in similar environments for a copy of their policy and learn from
their efforts. Search the Internet - a Google search on the term,
“Fleet Management Policy” returns more than 700 links.
If you are a member of the National Association of Fleet
Administrators (www.Nafa.org),
check out their “Vehicle Operation Policies kit”.
Alternatively, a reference such as “Model Fleet Management Policies and Procedures" from California Fleet News Publishing ( www.fleetnews.com), may be just what you need. And, there are many more resources.
There’s no need to develop your own fleet policy starting from
scratch!
Communicating Your Fleet Policy
So, you’ve got
your fleet policy. Now what? Years ago, you’d print and mail
copies to every person involved with your fleet. You might even have
required them to sign it and send it back. You’d often queue
up policy changes to avoid the laborious process of printing and
distributing the changes. More recently, organizations have gotten
in the habit of emailing the new or updated policies or posting them
on a web site. Is that enough? It may be, but it sure isn’t
the most efficient way of doing business.
Proactive vendors of
fleet and motor software such as Agile Access Control, Inc.
allow policies to be posted on-line.
Posting
your policy on line may eliminate the need for paper distribution
What’s new about
the approach implemented in their FleetCommander
product is that the software can also automatically ensure that fleet
staff and drivers have read the latest changes to the policy. When a
user logs in to FleetCommander for the first time to perform tasks
such as enter odometer readings or request a vehicle, they are
prompted to acknowledge that they have read the fleet policy.
Fleet
users are prompted to read the policy only if they have not already
read it.
Acknowledgement that a
fleet user has read the policy is recorded in the system.
When
a user reads the policy, a record of the date and time is recorded
Have a policy change?
No problem, fleet administrators can command systems such as
FleetCommander to prompt users to acknowledge the fleet policy
changes. The benefit is that every fleet policy change can be
acknowledged by each fleet user. For
example, if a “No cell phone use is allowed while driving”
policy goes in to effect on April 10th, FleetCommander can
prompt users to acknowledge having read the policy change. In the
event that there is a perceived violation of policy, the system will
have a record of each driver’s acknowledgement of the policy –
including the date that they acknowledge it. It’s all
automatic. It’s easy.
Think communicating
policy is not important? An audit of a state-run fleet in the
mid-west identified that more than $750,000 could be saved annually
simply by communicating to fleet drivers that they are to use regular
octane fuel rather than high octane fuel. What could your fleet do
with an extra $750,000?
Enforcing Your Fleet Policy
Fleet policy is only valuable if it is followed and enforced. Although
that’s rather obvious, why isn’t it done? Common reasons
that fleet managers often provide for why policies may not be
enforced include:
Enforcing policy
takes staff & resources
Enforcing policy
is too time-consuming
The data does not
exist to enforce policy
Policy enforcement
is contentious
Enforcing policy using
fleet and motor pool management software such as FleetCommander
eliminates each of these arguments for many aspects of policy
enforcement. Using examples, it is clear how software is a great
enforcer.
Example 1: Enforce
the policy of “Driver’s must have a current driver’s
license before using a motor pool vehicle”
The
old way: Each time a driver arrives to pickup a vehicle, ask her
for her license, check the expiration date, and hand-out keys only if
the license is not expired. This is time-consuming and is often
skipped when there is a shortage of staff or a large influx of people
to pick up vehicles.
The
new way: Let software automatically check expiration dates and
also check to see that the fleet staff has seen the unexpired license
on at least one occasion. Look at the examples below. When a fleet
driver requests a vehicle, the system will let that driver know that
the license on file is expired. The driver will be prompted to show
a license when picking up the vehicle. Likewise, when the
driver arrives to pick up the keys, the fleet staff will be warned
that the driver’s license needs to be validated. Once
validated, it is easy to update the driver’s record so that
subsequent checks are unnecessary. It’s easy.
Users
are notified of fleet policy enforcement when making a vehicle
request
Example 2: Enforce
the policy, “Only drivers that have passed a driver safety
course may drive 15-passenger vans.”
The
old way: Drivers requesting use of a 15-passenger van would be
prompted to prove that they have completed a training course when
they picked up a vehicle. Alternatively, fleet staff would be
required to check paper-based files or other sources to ensure that
the driver is eligible to drive a vehicle.
The
new way: Let software such as FleetCommander automatically
enforce the rules. If a driver has not completed the safety course,
do not even make it a possibility that the driver could request a
15-passenger van. Only allow the capability for which the driver is
eligible.
Fleet
Administrators can establish their own enforcement rules – in
this case using the concept of “Access Groups” found in
FleetCommander
FleetCommander has many
features such as this that automatically enforce rules for training,
use of vehicles at a certain site, or even use of vehicles for a
particular reason. If you would like to learn more about
communicating and enforcing fleet policies through FleetCommander,
email or call us at (408) 213-9555 or visit us on-line at
www.AgileFleet.com.
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