One of the critical tasks of a fleet manager is to develop a fleet selector that provides effective transportation for company drivers.

The fleet manager is entrusted to review and update the selector regularly, at least annually, to make sure the vehicles perform their intended tasks.

Fleet managers also must consider various factors, whether he or she is developing, or updating, a fleet selector, such as ensuring that the vehicles are properly equipped and meet company guidelines.

Why Develop a Fleet Selector?

At the outset, it is essential to define what a fleet selector is and state why it is necessary. Reasons vary, and guidelines are usually governed by company philosophy.

“A fleet selector is necessary to clearly indicate which cars different categories of employees can order. It also avoids having employees ask for makes and models that aren’t on the selector list. And it provides for efficiency in our ordering process,” says Linda Jennings, fleet manager for Van Waters & Rogers Inc., a chemical distribution company headquartered in Kirkland, WA.

Randy Shadley, national vehicle fleet manager for Nextel Communications in Denver, says it helps to ensure, among other things, vehicle standardization. “With standardization, it saves time instead of spec’ing out a vehicle every time you need to order one. It also facilitates volume negotiations with manufacturers.”

Rodger Evans, director of fleet management for AT&T Broadband in Englewood, CO, says that vehicles in his fleet are considered “tools” required to assist the driver to perform a job function. “I believe a selector list is generally prepared in order to allow the user choices such as make, model, color, and optional equipment according to the user’s personal preferences.”

For Michael Buffi, fleet manager for MetLife Auto & Home in Warwick, RI, the main advantages of developing a selector list are to “reduce the risk of one certain model being a ‘lemon’ and provide driver satisfaction.”

According to Debbie Mize, fleet manager for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, MO, a vehicle selector “clearly states to the driver the vehicles and options that have been agreed upon for the fleet. It assures that the correct vehicles for the company image, job suitability and resale are met vs. using a dollar amount and leaving the models up to the drivers.”

Define the Job Function

The first key step in developing a selector is identifying the job function of a vehicle, says Bret Watson, supervisor, fleet administration for Sprint Communications, Long Distance Division, in Overland Park, KS. He oversees 2,200 vehicles, which comprise mostly light trucks and vans.

“In my case, in the communications industry, my first steps are to determine if we need a truck, car, or van. If it’s a truck or van, determine what weight range for the vehicle that you need: 1/2-ton or 3/4-ton. Determine what body company is going to install the add-on equipment, be it shelving for vans or utility toppers for pickups. Once that’s defined, we’d put a package together and make sure weight ranges and everything go together. Then we’d get approval across all regions that yes, this is going to be the standard, and that everybody in this type job function will use this type of vehicle. And depending on location, that could vary a little bit. But for the most part, we try to develop standards,” says Watson.

Carl Nelson, motor vehicle administrator for AT&T Network Services Business Unit in Summit Point, WV, also agrees with the importance of identifying the job function of a vehicle. He oversees about 3,000 vehicles, which include 121 cars, 249 vans, and 1,183 trucks (mostly 3/4-ton to 1-ton), and 139 SUVs.

“After identifying what class of vehicle is needed for a job, we determine what equipment it has to carry. The total of the normal daily test equipment, supplies, plus the driver would determine the proper size of the vehicle as far as 3/4-ton vs. 1-ton (based on payload capacity),” says Nelson.

“When you need a heavy-duty truck to perform a specific function, you don’t have a whole lot of options,” adds Nelson. “If I had an option, I would much rather put a sedan to support a particular job function because it’s going to be a less expensive vehicle and it’s going to have a substantially better gas mileage than our trucks. But if you have to tow an 8,000-pound trailer, you’re not going to do it with a sedan. So the job function is the most important factor. If somebody comes out with a vehicle that runs 35 mpg that would support the job, I would take a look hard look at it.”

While AT&T Broadband offers a variety of vehicle types (mini cargo vans, full-size vans, and pickups), the type of ordered unit is generally driven by the job function more than personal preference. “This fact is most often overlooked in the fleet industry when discussions of ‘drivers’ and ‘selector lists’ arise,” says Evans.

Determine the Right Equipment

After identifying the job function of a vehicle, the next step is providing it with the correct equipment that would help enhance its resale value and would cut down unnecessary downtime spent on making changes if the vehicle isn’t equipped properly.

Having the right equipment is the most important factor when spec’ing the vehicles, says Shadley. “Having too little equipment affects the vehicle’s suitability for the job, and can hurt resale value. Having too much equipment unnecessarily raises your fleet costs. And it’s hard to reduce equipment levels once your drivers are used to a certain standard. And many fleets, both public and private, must also consider the image its vehicles present.”

With the recent downsizing at AT&T that increased the work load, responsibilities, and coverage area of each driver, Nelson says that it is imperative that each vehicle be properly configured upon delivery, since his company drivers don’t have the time to make any changes or corrections after delivery. Most are also on call 24 hours, seven days a week.

“We put the standard packages on the trucks. But we add power steering, brakes, and air conditioning. Everything’s heavy-duty: the biggest battery, the heaviest-duty alternator, heavy-duty shocks, and trailer/towing package,” says Nelson.

The type of equipment on a vehicle may be dependent on job function of a vehicle in a geographic area, as is the case at Sprint.

“In some states some job functions may require that the selector vehicle have a strobe light. Some regions might dictate having an alarm system. In some regions we might have to put a 9,000-pound winch on the front of the truck if they’re traveling in areas where they may have to winch themselves out of a difficult situation. Some vans might require having a ladder rack. Some might dictate that they have spot lights,” says Watson.

Optional Equipment if Necessary

Job function also dictates what type of optional equipment is added to the vehicle, giving careful consideration to the optional equipment that would add to resale value.

“Most of our vehicles go through an upfit body company process,” says Watson. “As far as vehicle options are concerned, we try to choose options so that they’re going to improve our resale value at the end of term. Typically for all our technicians, they get tilt cruise, power door locks, and cassette radio. Sedans have power door locks, windows, and seats.”

Nextel usually specs just the minimum level of equipment needed to make the vehicles suitable, says Shadley. “However, these days so much equipment is included in packages that you often end up having to get extras just to get your basics. For example, we consider power door locks and power windows to be required equipment for safety reasons. To get these options on some vehicles, you have to buy a package or trim level that also includes power seats.”

Buffi says MetLife considers the cost of certain equipment and if it’s a necessity for their drivers. “We consider power seats as optional for our drivers. If the manufacturer puts this in a package, we may opt for it. However, we would not get this as a stand-alone. Cruise control is a different story. We feel this is essential for our drivers and would purchase it even if it was a stand-alone option.”

Geographic Considerations

Even though Sprint tries to establish standards, sometimes geographic considerations might dictate that a vehicle have a bigger engine.

“For the mountainous regions – Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana – where drivers may be pulling heavy trailers, they’re going to get a larger engine on their pickups than somebody who’s driving in Kansas City or a city in the flat Plains states,” says Watson.

At Van Waters & Rogers, pickup trucks and SUVs are ordered on an exception basis for outside sales staff when there is business justification for them, says Jennings. “For example, SUVs are only provided if they’re driving in rough territory, or rough roads, and these vehicles would be mainly for personnel working for the company’s oil and gas division.”

Review Selector on As-Need Basis

Due to start-up divisions at Sprint, Watson often finds himself adding vehicles to the selector. One new technology that has been recently roll- ed out is ION (Integrated On-Demand Network), which will enable consumers to carry on simultaneous conversation on one phone line while he or she is logged on the Internet. This technology required new vehicle specifications, says Watson.

“General Motors is our primary supplier, but depending on need and time of year, in our selector we’ve brought in Ford as a secondary supplier,” says Watson. “We might have to go to whoever could produce vehicles the quickest. If we get a new division starting up, we need say, 100 cargo vans, and GM has built theirs and Ford still has two weeks to go, our selector will change somewhat and we’ll quickly develop a spec for Ford. So the selector is also dependent upon delivery times.”

“The key issue is: Are you operating a fleet where you’re just replacing existing vehicles and the delivery times aren’t such a concern, or are you running a fleet where you need vehicles as fast as you can get them such as in a start-up, then that would change your selector somewhat?” adds Watson.

Another AT&T division has recently negotiated a contract to provide a long-term communications service to General Motors and Hughes Electronics.

“Our CEO told us that we will be a GM fleet,” says Nelson. “So it came down the ladder that I would buy General Motors products. That’s what cut the selector in half. Up until this year I would give the driver a choice between a Ford or a Chevy.”

But this doesn’t mean AT&T will only purchase GM vehicles exclusively, says Nelson. “If Ford, for example, has a vehicle that’s not comparable to GM, we would go with Ford. I would expect that for the next 10 years we’ll be directed to go with GM vehicles.”

Factors Affecting Resale Value

Having the proper equipment, whether standard and/or optional, helps enhance the resale value of a vehicle.

“I’m going to get the money back on resale because a vehicle happens to have say, air conditioning, as opposed to a bare-bones vehicle that wouldn’t have it. It’s going to sell quicker and it’s going to sell for a higher price,” says Nelson.

As a cost-effective measure, Nelson says he would transfer a remountable design package put on a pickup truck to another truck. “When I see a truck that’s 3 or 4 years old with 75,000 miles, I don’t have to buy a new package. I could move it over to a new truck quickly and easily. This saves a tremendous amount of money.”

At Hallmark Cards, Mize says drivers select vehicle color from a list given to them. “We do not order colors that we feel will be poor resale colors or very hard to maintain, such as black.”

Other factors that affect resale value of the vehicle include:

• Popularity/track record of model.

• Time of year sold.

• Geographical location.

• Age.

• Mileage.

• Condition of vehicle.

Pros & Cons of Driver-Paid Options

Buffi says driver-paid options help increase driver satisfaction and give incentive to drivers to buy their vehicle at turn-in time.

“We have gone both ways with driver-paid options,” says Buffi. “At one point we were allowing the drivers to get whatever they wanted, with the exception of increasing engine size. Now, however, we have eliminated driver-paid options to ease the administrative burden while we have worked through a recent acquisition that doubled the size of our fleet. But we may go back to this for the new model-year.”

At Van Waters & Rogers, Jennings says driver-paid options include CD players, power seats, and different configuration of front seats (bench instead of bucket), but the company doesn’t allow bigger engines, bigger tires, fancier wheels, upgraded models, moon roofs, and sports packages.

“We allow very few driver-paid options because we want our vehicles to remain business-like and fairly uniform. We also don’t want to pay to repair or replace expensive options such as a power moon roof,” adds Jennings.

Nextel also doesn’t allow driver-paid options because “allowing personal upgrades would contradict the ‘business tool’ image we promote for our fleet program,” says Shadley. “If a driver has a legitimate business reason for needing an option, we’ll provide it. Also, many of our vehicles are pooled, so we have many different drivers. Imagine what would happen if I tried to reassign a vehicle that another employee had purchased upgraded equipment for.”

Safety is also Important

At Wendy’s, safety is given primary consideration when it comes time to developing a selector. “We’re looking for ABS and airbags – the two biggest factors that we require for all vehicles. Some of the cars have side airbags, so if they’re available, it will be in the car,” says Scott Mayo, director of fleet for Wendy’s International in Dublin, OH.

Management & Driver Input

While a selector needs final approval from senior management, who would generally go along with the fleet selector presented by the fleet department, it is likewise important to consider input from drivers.

Wendy’s completes its selector every January and July, says Mayo, who oversees 1,000 vehicles. “We do it semi-annually just to make sure that there haven’t been significant changes in product or need.”

Mayo says he receives input from drivers throughout the year. “Does the vehicle fit their needs? Is the vehicle big enough? Safety is always a factor.”

Buffi says MetLife drivers have limited input. “We have 1,000 drivers in the fleet. If we gave everyone their say, we would get 1,000 different suggestions. However, we do have a pulse on what drivers like and don’t like and we do take that into consideration if at all possible. We bring our recommendations to upper management. They pretty much go along with our ideas. We may have to adjust slightly, but overall, they support us.”

At Van Waters & Rogers, the selector process starts in late spring when “we go back and review what we’ve done in the past,” says Jennings, who oversees 500 vehicles. About 20 percent are light-duty pickups and SUVs, and 80 percent are cars, spread through 40 states.

“Drivers don’t have a lot of input into our selector but we look at the trends within our company and try and continue with the most popular vehicles,” says Jennings.

This year, Van Waters & Rogers received specific input from managers who have staff using pickup trucks and who were concerned about fuel efficiency.

“As a result of their input in many cases, we’ll be going to some smaller trucks now,” Jennings said. “We’re dropping trucks with V-8 engines.”

Nelson says he receives minimal input from senior management. “They’re so far removed from the vehicles and what the vehicles support. They pretty much defer to those of us who work on a daily basis and interface with the drivers to meet the needs of the business as well as the drivers.”

“Senior management will look at my budget and see what I’m doing with it,” says Nelson. “Middle management basically rubber stamps what I recommend to them. I make the decisions on the selector within corporate guidelines.”

Shadley prefers to get input from the drivers’ managers. “It helps to validate the ‘needs’ vs. the ‘wants.’”

In the case of Duke Energy Field Services in Denver, Katy McFadden, fleet manager, says she carries the selector herself and goes over it with senior management to get their approval.

How Broad Should the Fleet Selector be?

Randy Shadley, national vehicle fleet manager for Nextel, says a selector should be just broad enough to ensure that all vehicle requirements are met. But he says the disadvantages of having few vehicles on the selector include the “all your eggs in one basket” syndrome. “A widespread recall campaign can remove a large portion of your fleet at the same time. Also, if a model gets a bad reputation that negatively affects its resale, you suffer proportionately. Fortunately, we haven’t experienced either of these problems in our fleet.” Debbie Mize, fleet manager for Hallmark Cards, points out the advantages of having a narrow selector:

• Learning maintenance and problems of each is much easier on fewer models.

• In communicating with drivers, it is much easier to become familiar with two or three vehicles vs. 10.

• Ordering is much more streamlined with fewer models.

• Negotiations can often be better with fewer models and especially with fewer manufacturers.

• Fewer models in the fleet help redistribution when personnel leave or when there is a restructure.

Rodger Evans, director of fleet management for AT&T Broadband, says having a broad selector helps include enough selections to meet all anticipated task conditions, plus the flexibility to accommodate exceptions. “With a very large national fleet, exceptions often seem to be the norm. But disadvantages of a broad selector are primarily the need to maintain a large number of specifications, and adjust to changes for each.”

A broad selector allows the drivers to have a choice and reduces the possibility of saturating the fleet with “lemons,” says Mike Buffi, fleet manager for MetLife. “We have gone both ways in the past. Right now we are attempting to unify the fleet and put company logos on the vehicles for name recognition and greater visibility. This is where company philosophy becomes a factor.”

Gail Royer, fleet and parking services manager for Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, OH, says, “We used to have representation on our selector from all manufacturers. Drivers spent way too much time trying to decide which cars to select.”

Sprint Drivers Can View Selector on Intranet

Sprint’s selector is located on the company’s fleet Web page, which enable company drivers to view the vehicles.

“Most of our vehicles are designed to do a specific job function,” says Bret Watson, supervisor, fleet administration for Sprint Communications, Long Distance Division. “The advantage is that they can take a look at the vehicle that they want to order. The information we provide shows them what will cost them per month, what the variable expenses are, and what the options and equipment are on the vehicle. But they really don’t have a choice from being able to pick vehicle A, B, C, or D. It’s pretty much limited to the function that they’re performing.”

AT&T Network Services Narrows Selector

Due to recent company-wide downsizing, AT&T Network Services has narrowed its selector from 87 to three vehicles this year.

“The reasons are corporate policy of single sourcing, cutting costs through volume discounts, efficiency, and ease of reassigning after retirements and restructuring,” says Carl Nelson, motor vehicle administrator for AT&T Network Services.

AT&T Network Services previously had a mixture of vehicles of different sizes, configurations, and packages. “We determined that if everybody gets the exact same thing, it will enhance our ability to move it someplace else to support a different job or a different location,” says Nelson.

“Previously, we would have a selector for a 1/2-ton Ford two-wheel-drive, a 1/2-ton Ford four-wheel-drive, a 3/4-ton Ford four-wheel-drive, a 3/4-ton Ford two-wheel-drive, etc. We would duplicate it all for Chevrolet; we would duplicate it all for Dodge. With pickups, for the1/2-ton category, we would have six different truck specs: two for Ford, two for Chevrolet, and two for Dodge; the same thing for the 3/4-ton, and the same thing for the 1-ton. We offered several different sedans and several different SUVs. So by the time you add it all together, it came up to 87 different specs,” adds Nelson.

Starting this year, supervisors and administrative personnel drive a Chevrolet sedan. Outside plant supervisors get a 1/2-ton Chevrolet four-wheel-drive pickup. The rest of the drivers are assigned a 3/4-ton Chevrolet pickup.

Benefits of a Single-Source Selector

Mike Heim, Allstate Insurance Co.: “We use a ‘primary dealer’ as a single source for ordering all of our vehicles. We use a preferred manufacturer for more than 95 percent of our fleet vehicles. The benefits are excellent pricing and service.”

Carl Nelson, AT&T Network Services: “Key advantages are standardization and larger fleet discounts/rebates.”

Randy Shadley, Nextel Communications: “It allows you to take advantage of volume purchasing incentives. You also can get better sales and service support from the manufacturer.”

Mike Buffi, MetLife Auto & Home: “We are able to negotiate the best deal with the manufacturer and it unifies our fleet for greater visibility and name recognition [with our logo on each vehicle].”

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