Want to win a fleet award? The first step is to generate accomplishments that are worthy of awards, of course. We’ll get to those in a sec. But I need to mention this upfront, because it is the most overlooked part of the process — make sure somebody knows what you accomplished. That’s fleet award truism #1.

Every year, strong candidates never make it onto an awards ballot. Sometimes no one nominates them. Sometimes a nomination starts but doesn't include enough information. And sometimes fleet managers simply aren't comfortable advocating for themselves.

Truism #2: Judges can only evaluate what is put in front of them.

This was my impetus for the blog. Mission accomplished. But it also spurred thoughts on what it takes to win a fleet award as I peruse this year's nominations for Automotive Fleet'sFleet Visionary, Edward J. Bobit Professional Fleet Manager of the Year, and Fleet Hall of Fame. And this year, we’re adding the new Mike Antich Spirit of Fleet Award.

The awards recognize different types and stages of achievement.

Fleet Visionary focuses on professionals with 10 years or fewer in fleet who are introducing new perspectives, methods, efficiencies, and technologies. Fleet Manager of the Year emphasizes the pinnacle of business acumen and execution. Hall of Fame recognizes significant contributions over a career. The Spirit of Fleet recognizes a fleet professional whose contributions extend beyond their own position to strengthen the profession as a whole.

No formula guarantees an award. But this year's submissions make a few things very clear.

First, Make the Case

There is a significant difference between being nominated and being nominated well.

Don’t phone in an application and think the judges will fill in the blanks! Won’t happen. Move past the easy phrases like "reduced costs and improved safety" with ones that explain the fleet's size and complexity, identify the problem, describe what changed, and document the savings, accident reduction, productivity improvement, or other business impact.

Keep records of your major initiatives. Save the before-and-after metrics. Ask suppliers and internal stakeholders for supporting information. Document the circumstances behind the accomplishment. Don’t rely on others to do this, but feel free to supply them when the nomination happens.

Some might think judges mark a self-nomination lower than a third-party nomination, since a self-nom is a “pick me” scenario without a true advocate. I sincerely tell you, this isn’t the case. Two identical applications — one self-nominated, one third-party nominated — make no difference to the judges.

Show Measurable Results

"Reduction in costs" is good; "saved $4 million" is better. That’s obvious, but I’m setting up the point.

Pulled from this year’s submissions: Avoided $500,000 in supply-chain costs through proactive procurement; a new factory-order and bailment strategy delivered $4 million in savings; a telematics initiative reduced at-fault accidents by 88% and overall accidents by 67% in its first year; reached 98% mobile-app adoption; achieved 97.3% mileage reporting; realized 95.8% preventive maintenance compliance while helping move 70% of the fleet to hybrids.

You know fleet managers are on top of their game with exact and quantifiable numbers like those.

Not every accomplishment needs seven-figure savings attached, but context counts. What was the problem? What changed? What improved? By how much?

Tie Fleet Results to the Business

Fleet managers think about vehicles far more than their C-suite. The business mission is to serve customers, keep employees productive, control expenses, manage risk, support growth, and increase capacity.

Fleet is a vital part of this mission, and often underappreciated. The strongest nominations make that connection to the business’ mission.

One submission credited changes involving telematics, utilization analysis, and vehicle redesign with helping the company serve an estimated 1 million additional customers annually without increasing fleet size. Wow, that’s powerful, particularly in front of the judges.

Another nominee produced more than $1 million in remarketing returns, additional partnership savings, an 8% reduction in fleet expense per vehicle, and a 6% reduction in cost per mile.

These are fleet accomplishments, but more importantly, they’re also business accomplishments. If you're describing your own results, ask yourself: What did this allow the company to do better?

Manage Complexity, Not Just Size

It's easy to be impressed by a big fleet. Plenty of them are among this year's nominees, including operations with several thousand vehicles.

But vehicle count doesn't say how difficult a fleet is to manage. One fleet manager is standardizing vehicles and processes across a fleet of more than 5,000 vehicles and hundreds of smaller home services businesses.

Another nomination mentions integrating two large corporate fleets following a merger, including policies, suppliers, specifications, and operating processes, while maintaining service continuity.

Make an Early Career Impact

The Fleet Visionary Award presents a different challenge. It is limited to professionals with 10 years or fewer in fleet.

Yet, as you review these nominations year after year, you see how quickly expectations for newer fleet professionals have changed. Today's newer fleet professionals are being exposed to data, safety, procurement, sustainability, technology, supply chain, and business strategy much earlier in their careers.

One nominee, only about five years into a fleet career, has already worked through a fleet management company transition, a 30% fleet expansion, hybridization, safety programs, compliance improvements, and data-driven driver coaching.

Another, with only three years in fleet, helped support growth from roughly 800 to nearly 1,200 vehicles while redesigning onboarding and offboarding processes.

Another became the company's first in-house fleet manager and helped oversee fleet growth from 600 vehicles to more than 2,400 while changing sourcing, deployment, upfitting, telematics, and remarketing processes.

The message is simple: You don't need 20 years in fleet to contribute. Visionary nominees evolve into Fleet Manager of the Year nominees, and perhaps Hall of Fame nominees one day too.

Give Back

Each award recognizes and values giving back to the fleet community through sharing expertise, mentoring newbies, fostering collaboration, contributing time and leadership, and demonstrating generosity and stewardship.

The Mike Antich Spirit of Fleet Award embodies this and complements the other three. It is fitting that the award bears Mike's name and his legacy of service.

At some point in a career, the question becomes bigger than: What did you accomplish? It becomes: “Who did you help? What did you share? What did you build that remained after you moved on?

Build it Now, Don’t Wait

That brings the process full circle. Don't wait until nomination season to figure out what you've accomplished. Document your initiatives now.

It sounds like a straightforward formula:

Make a change. Measure the result. Connect it to your business. Share what you learned. Help the next person succeed. Make the case. Get nominated or nominate yourself.

Following these steps isn’t that easy, and completing them won't guarantee you a fleet award. But you know the real benefit? You’ve helped to make the profession better.