Jonathan Kamanns, associate director, fleet and driver safety for Boehringer-Ingelheim, has won the 2022 Edward J. Bobit Fleet Manager of the Year award. Kamanns was chosen from a pool of 14 qualified nominees. He accepted the award at the AFLA conference in Tucson, Arizona. The award is sponsored by AFLA and Wheels Donlen.

Kamanns manages a fleet of 3,200 units for Boehringer-Ingelheim.

Kamanns has been with the organization for two years, yet has 18 years of experience in fleet. When Kamanns took on the role of fleet manager in January 2021, his company had sought a 50% reduction in fleet tasks executed in-house through vendor consolidation and by leveraging technology.

Kamanns conducted reviews of every task currently managed by BI fleet and turned vehicle inventory management over to the organization’s fleet management company. He improved aspects of compliance, optimized end-of-service vehicle sales, created a sustainability review and roadmap, improved employee satisfaction and visibility, updated the account structure for more efficient billing and reporting, enhanced batch data feeds while reducing administrative tasks, and improved driver education.

His work allowed the fleet department to focus on strategic goals, and under his direction, the organization has realized over $2 million in estimated annual savings from the decision to leverage outsourced remarketing and a 26% reduction in average cost per mile. In the 12 months ending in March 2022, BI’s Fleet Department realized $7.6 million in direct savings, with the expectation that the savings will grow as the program matures.

“Executive leadership is so incredibly important,” Kammans said, upon accepting the award. “To be able to make monumental changes that have a $7 million impact that quickly, you have to trust from executive leadership. I’d like to thank my organization for that.”

In conclusion, Kammans recognized his business network in the audience. “If you, over my 18-year career, have ever had a conversation with me, have networked with me, was a supplier of mine, would you stand up?” he asked. “There’s no way we could’ve done this, without all of you.”

Automotive Fleet and sponsors AFLA and Wheels Donlen extend our sincere congratulations to Kammans and to each individual that was nominated this year for their peer-recognized achievements and performance.