If you are feeling a little overwhelmed by the latest fleet technology, the fire hose of data your vehicles are generating, or by senior management questions about the latest headlines regarding autonomous, electric, or fuel cell vehicles, rest assured you aren’t alone.

If you are wondering when it’s all going to stop or at least slow down, the bad news is that it probably never will. The good news is that you’ve got some great resources at your disposal to help you separate the facts from the fiction so you can focus on the things that matter today and tomorrow without getting distracted by the things that won’t matter for 10-20 years.    

There are things you can do right now that will make a huge difference for your fleet. Embracing telematics, safety management, right-sizing your fleet, right-sizing your vehicles, and watching resale trends can make a world of difference for your bottom line. If you are using an FMC, they’ll guide you through the analysis you need to do to make the right choices for your fleet.

If you happen across an issue of Automotive Fleet, or better yet, across the AutomotiveFleet.com website you’ll find a treasure trove of articles, white papers, and archived webinars that can also help you through the process. If you can’t find what you need there, we have several areas where you can “Ask the expert” and get a quick response to your individual questions.

Fleet suppliers, as a general rule, are a great resource and one that is overlooked by many. While the suppliers obviously have a dog in the fight since they want to sell you a product or a service, they are also constantly thinking about the long term. They don’t want to sell you something you don’t need or something that won’t add value because they want to be a long term partner. The fleet market is finite, so they can’t risk alienating customers by selling them something they don’t need or that they aren’t ready for. In many cases, the salesperson you are dealing with will have decades of experience in the market and can do a lot to help you filter out the noise and the shiny objects from the real data.

I beat this drum regularly, but for those that have missed my prior 10,000 mentions, your fellow fleet managers are a great source of information. If you don’t have a network of fleet management peers, it’s time to start building one. You don’t have to guess about whether a product or service will perform as promised when you can talk to someone who has already bought 1,000 or 10,000 versions of that product or service. A good network of peers will be like your own personal Yelp on steroids.   

If you disagree, let me know.