Four years ago, when Tony Fanciullo came to Sasco Electric, an electrical contracting company based in Cerritos, CA, he knew from previous fleet management experience that leasing vehicles could save the company money. Fanciullo oversees the operation of 110 fleet vehicles - mainly pickups, passenger cars, and Jeep Cherokees used by sales reps and managers, and a handful of medium-duty trucks.

After assuming his job as director - warehouse operations for the company, Fanciullo was able to convince company management that leasing was the way to go. "Prior to this, the company purchased vehicles for employees on an 'as needed' basis, an acquisition method that offered none of the benefits of fleet purchasing such as fleet incentives and volume discounts," Fanciullo says.

Fanciullo was able to implement other changes that saved his company money on fleet operations such as:

• Developing a selector list. Prior to Fanciullo's arrival at the company, the task of vehicle selection was left up to the driver, with approval from company management. One of the results of this practice was that employees were unhappy to see others receiving company vehicles with more attractive equipment packages. Developing a selector list gave the company more control over the vehicles being ordered and equipment packages.

• Establishing lifecycle criteria. Fanciullo convinced management that more uniformity was needed in vehicle lifecycles and retention periods. Prior to his arrival, vehicles were driven up to high mileages which resulted in lower resale values.

• Implementing a preventive maintenance program. Sasco Electric leases its vehicles from Enterprise Fleets, headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Besides leasing vehicles, Sasco utilizes Enterprise's preventive maintenance (PM) program. Utilizing this program and staying on top of fleet maintenance is another change Fanciullo implemented that has saved his company money.

Before his arrival, PM was handled on an individual vehicle basis, without an overall program regulating maintenance intervals.

Company drivers now take their vehicles to approved maintenance vendors. The drivers use a fleet maintenance card issued by Enterprise for purchases up to $200. Vendors must get Fanciullo's approval for work costing more than $200.

Enterprise sends reminder cards to fleet drivers when PM is due on vehicles. Fanciullo monitors PM intervals for each vehicle, and personally calls drivers and asks them to have PM performed on their vehicles if that work is overdue.