THE CAR AND TRUCK FLEET AND LEASING MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE
Our long-time editor and fleet expert, Mike Antich, offers opinions and ideas on the overall commercial fleet industry and draws interesting comments from fleet managers and other industry professionals from across the country. Mike was inducted in the Fleet Hall of Fame in 2010.
Time in the shop, instead of on the road, means lost sales and less face time with customers, putting downward pressure on the bottom line. Downtime mitigation is key to controlling costs and helping to maximize fleet uptime.
Overall improved business conditions opened pent up demand for replacement units, especially in the oil sector and construction, which in the prior several years had scaled back new-vehicle acquisitions due to stagnant growth.
One under-discussed topic is when a fleet vehicle is impounded because it is part of a crime scene and declared by the police to be physical evidence in a criminal investigation.
Running a well-managed fleet is a complex task that requires supervision by someone with deep subject-matter expertise. As a result, a fleet manager’s capabilities and expertise can be easily overlooked by executive management not versed in the intricacies of fleet management.
Corporate fleets are on the verge of a productivity revolution triggered by increasingly pervasive and sophisticated vehicle connectivity tools being built into vehicles that will transition fleet management from a reactive to proactive profession.
Multinational corporations are changing the way they source and manage their vocational fleets to better identify true costs and to leverage opportunities to reduce spend and to maximize the operating efficiency of these specialized vehicles.
There isn’t a single trait that epitomizes a great fleet manager; rather, it is a multitude of traits interacting with one another. The best fleet managers are jugglers who can balance a variety of variables to make the fleet program work efficiently.
Today, more than ever, fleet managers must be goal-oriented in all aspects of fleet management. But, in an era of doing more with less, it is important to select your goals wisely.
A vehicle’s total cost of ownership is comprised of its fixed costs, operating expenses, and depreciation per year or during the course of its service life, minus its anticipated resale value. During the course of a vehicle’s service life, TCO is subject to change due to a vehicle’s age and numerous external factors, which has a direct bearing on replacement policies.
Excessive engine idling doesn’t just consume fuel, it also creates engine hours, which depending on the OEM, are used to determine when the powertrain warranty expires.
