Senior management should not underestimate the value an in-house fleet manager provides to the company.

"A competent fleet manager can easily save a company millions of dol­lars," said Jim Frank, president of Wheels Inc., a fleet management com­pany headquartered in Des Plaines, IL. "These savings are not through vendor selection, but through the effective im­plementation of fleet policies, such as determining the types of vehicles to be placed on a selector and determining how long they will be kept in service."

The effective implementation of fleet policies requires a strong in-house fleet manager, someone who will be an internal advocate, setting goals and then implementing them, added Frank. "An in-house fleet manager is some­one who understands the culture of the company, its decision-making process, and someone who has the time to implement these changes, which sometimes are multi-year projects," said, Frank.

Implementation of ideas is a crucial role played by the in-house fleet manager. "You can come up with great ideas for programs, but if they don't get implement­ed, it's for naught," said Frank.

Traits of a Good Fleet Manager

What makes for a good fleet man­ager?

"It is someone who has good com­munication skills, who has empathy, and who has credibility with manage­ment because they have a strong knowledge base," said Frank. "They must have the ability to conceptualize an idea and communicate it and have the ability to work within their organi­zation to get it implemented."

Being a good fleet manager doesn't require a specific educational back­ground, however. "You see people come into fleet management from all sorts of backgrounds," said Frank. "The secret is being a good manager. You need to emphasize the manage­ment part of fleet management. It is working with the vendor, how you communicate within your organization, and how you get pro­grams implemented. Those are all man­agement skills. It is also the ability to analyze data and un­derstand the ramifi­cations to your business."

As the fleet man­agement profession has become more au­tomated, this has led to greater opportunities for fleet man­agers to become true managers.

"One of the exciting things that has been happening over the past six years is that the job has become a much higher-level job and much more rewarding," said Frank. "By outsourcing a lot of the nuts and bolts aspects of the job, it has elimi­nated a tremendous amount of pa­perwork and allowed fleet managers more time to manage their fleets rather than administer them."