Fleet management is about optimizing lifecycles, managing risk, and keeping operations running smoothly. But then there are the days that stretch the limits of what can go wrong.  

We asked fleet managers to share their strangest tales. You may recognize yourself in some of these stories. Others, you'll be grateful you never experienced.

At least they keep the job interesting, right?  

This is Why We Have Personal Use Policies

The son of an executive took his dad’s company vehicle to the beach for a bonfire party, recalled Karyna Zarate of Audubon Companies, about an incident from many years ago at a different company.  

“He parked the vehicle on the beach and had a great time partying with his friends… so much so that they all passed out that night on the beach.”

However, they were awoken by the high tide. The tide came in and swept the company's SUV out to sea. “That poor executive did not know how to even explain this to us.”

The Tree Truck: When Nature Took Over Fleet Management

Every fleet has that one vehicle that somehow slips through the cracks, said one anonymous fleet manager. 

“You know the one, parked ‘temporarily’ behind a branch office until someone can ‘figure out what to do with it,’” they said. “In our case, that temporary pause lasted about six years (I am likely being kind).”

The vehicle in question was a large utility truck, missing one small component: the engine. Over time, it became less of a truck and more of a nature reserve, they said. “Eventually, a tree, a real, living, photosynthesizing tree, grew straight through the cab floor, out the window, and proudly through the roof like it was claiming new territory.”

“By the time anyone noticed, the truck had achieved a kind of poetic equilibrium,” they said. “It wasn’t mobile, but it was definitely ‘green.’ Removing it required more than a tow; it needed a forestry plan.”

For this fleet manager, there was a fleet lesson learned: “Even an engineless vehicle has scrap-metal value until neglect turns it into scrap metal. A depreciating asset left unmanaged becomes more than just a liability; it becomes part of the ecosystem. Literally.”

An executive enters the fleet manager's office and reports a strange noise coming from his vehicle…more specifically, coming from the engine. The fleet manager asks when the last oil change was. He replies, "I was waiting for the check engine light to come on before I took it in.”

You Can’t Eat an Equinox  

A driver was traveling on a remote highway when all of a sudden, his rear passenger window exploded into his car. It was determined that a hunter who shot and missed a deer did not realize there was a public road behind the field he was hunting in.  

“Yes, he missed the deer but bagged an Equinox,” recounted a fleet manager who wished to remain anonymous.  

The Case of the Vindictive Employee

A terminated employee decided to return his company car, which was full of perishable food items, recounted the same fleet manager. He drove the vehicle to a remote area in the Arizona desert, rolled up the windows, left the keys on the front seat, jumped in his friend's car, and fled the country.

The car was found by a police patrol, and they reported the smell was so bad they thought there was a body in the car. “The vehicle had to be totaled due to the damage caused by the rotten food, and the smell could not be removed,” said the fleet manager.  

Jasper, the Workout Ghost

Jeb Lopez, owner of Wheelz Up, remembered the early years of his delivery business growing his driver base and client list.  

In 2016, as meal-plan delivery was just emerging, the company partnered with a rising healthy meal company in the D.C. area. Drivers often worked late-night routes, navigating dark hallways and unlit paths among the unpredictability of deliveries between midnight and early morning.  

“One memorable night, a driver entered a gym at 2:30 am to place meals in a fridge using a keypad the owners provided,” said Lopez, adding that the gym was pitch-black and eerily silent.  

“As he hurried to finish, he heard weights clank and saw a pale silhouette raise its arm and point toward him. Terrified, he bolted up the stairs and called us in a panic: "There's a F*** ghost in that gym, man! I'm taking an Uber home, and I quit!”

When Lopez’s team arrived later, the van was still idling outside, lights on. “We checked the gym ourselves. Everything was quiet, though the cold air as we turned off the lights was enough to make us sprint back out.”

Lopez recollected the gym owner’s response: “Sounds like you met Jasper, our resident ghost. He likes to work out in the early hours.”  

“We kept the route,” Lopez said, “but added a daylight surcharge.”

The Narcoleptic OEM Rep

“I had a rep from an OEM come into the office, not once but twice, and fall asleep mid-meeting,” said a commercial fleet manager who wishes to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. “In the first instance, I assumed they were tired from the drive, or maybe from low blood sugar. I gave them the benefit of the doubt.”

But after working with this rep again, it happened again.  

“I don’t know this individual personally, but they have fallen short in areas we were used to seeing top-tier performance,” the fleet manager said. “I still work with this individual from time to time. Maybe I'll begin bringing coffee to our meetings.”

Running Yourself Over Is Grounds for Termination

That same anonymous fleet manager recalled another story about a new fleet manager who pulled a vehicle into the company’s shop on an inclined driveway.  

The fleet manager had mistakenly pulled the hood latch instead of the emergency brake, then exited the truck, which rolled back over the fleet manager.  

“Luckily, they sustained only a few minor injuries. However, the individual we hired to keep our drivers safe, informed, and compliant, who runs themselves over, comes with a stigma you can't shake. Needless to say, the individual is no longer with us.”

It’s Called Preventive Maintenance for a Reason, People!  

Joe Lukacs of Sherwin-Williams recalled a situation any fleet manager can commiserate with — a Ford Fusion that racked up 31,409 miles without an oil change before the engine seized.  

“Driver didn’t realize they needed to change oil,” Lukacs said. “After that driver no longer had a company vehicle.”

The Nuns, Fuel Thief, and the Really Bad Smell

Fleet Hall of Famer Lisa Kneggs’s stories run from the unfortunate to the scary to the “what was he thinking?”  

Back in the days of the Chevy Lumina (before it was discontinued in 2001), a driver ran into a car full of nuns. “That driver did not have a good day,” she mused.

Like Lukac’s oil abuse story, this one is also all too familiar: A gas station attendant contacted Kneggs with reports that a driver of one of her trucks — with the company logo clearly visible on the side — filled his truck up with fuel and parked at the store.  

He then approached customers and offered to put fuel in their vehicles for cash, using the company’s fuel card. Of course, he was terminated, and charges were filed. And the station attendant? “He received a nice steak dinner and movie tickets,” Kneggs said.  

She recounted the story of the box truck that was stolen, emptied, and taken across multiple state lines. It was finally found, and the driver was arrested for multiple felonies.

“He was a bad, bad dude,” Kneggs said. Upon opening the back of the truck, it was found that a murder had been committed in the truck. “No amount of detailing could save that box.”