Fleet managers are struggling to manage workloads, with nearly 90 per cent finding it a challenge to prioritise tasks. More than half claim they have no time to plan for future business while short-term targets are distracting many from long-term success.
The findings from a study of almost 1,000 fleet managers show most blame the backlog on bureaucracy and attending too many meetings, according to a report in Fleet News, the weekly newspaper for fleet managers in the UK.
The report, which has been published by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), also shows just 30 per cent of managers “understand how their career will progress”. However, despite difficulties with juggling their priorities, the majority of fleet managers (83 per cent) look forward to being at work.
Jo Causon, marketing director at the CMI, believes companies need to do more to support fleet managers. She said: “Organisations need to provide a supportive and open environment so individuals can dedicate time to developing fresh ideas.
“If employers fail to invest in the skills and competencies of individuals, there will be a serious impact on how well they perform in a global market.”
Filip Van Mullem, marketing director at Fleet Logistics, said the role of modern day fleet manager should be based around taking strategic rather than operational decisions, and enlisting the help of a professional fleet management supplier to handle the day-to-day operational elements of the fleet, using best practise techniques, could only help that process.
“As a professional fleet management supplier, it is our role to provide back-up and support to the fleet manager, to strengthen their position within the organisation and relieve them of some of the administrative burden, using the tools at our disposal to help ensure the fleet runs as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
“This support can include the introduction of the latest technology to provide a total cradle-to-grave service covering all aspects of the operation of the fleet.
“Fleet Logistics exists to help operators of large, multi-national fleets reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO) by combining expertise, infrastructure and scale across Europe. Our focus is on managing the complexity inherent in a large fleet and on reducing cost through an optimized sourcing strategy. In this role it is not unusual for Fleet Logistics to deliver a TCO reduction for our customers in excess of 10 per cent or more.
“Instrumental in our achieving this scale of savings and service is a portfolio of market-leading IT-based systems and support tools, which help deliver substantial cost savings, first rate service quality and total transparency for our fleet customers,” he said.
At the heart of Fleet Logistics’ operations is the powerful web-based Fleet.Net fleet management platform – a tailor-made software application which is the hub of Fleet Logistics’ fleet management solutions database. Amongst its many functions, it allows Fleet Logistics to provide fleet customers with complete consistency across their total pan European operations and is the basis for Fleet Logistics’ widely envied consolidated reporting capability.
Many service providers are able to provide country-specific fleet reports, but Fleet Logistics is uniquely able to provide consolidated reporting across ALL European countries in real time. This is a major boon for fleet customers as it provides a complete, transparent and consolidated pan European view of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) information at both operational and strategic level, and effectively and continuously supports the correct decision-making process from a local and international perspective.
When it comes to vehicle sourcing and funding, Fleet Logistics’ uses a multi-bidding approach to leverage the differing rentals offered by leasing companies, caused by their diverging views on residual values, to find the optimum monthly rentals for the fleet customer.
To this end, Fleet Logistics recommends never less than two, and almost never more than three, leasing company suppliers, dependent on the fleet customer’s volume, because experience has shown that this number of suppliers encourages price competitiveness between suppliers which works positively to the customer’s advantage – leading to lower total costs of ownership.
“Fleet managers need not feel threatened from the introduction of fleet management specialists like Fleet Logistics, as we are there to help and strengthen their role, not diminish it. After all, the saving from one head, the fleet manager’s, is nothing in comparison to the savings that we know we can generate from best practise methods such as multi bidding,” he added.
For more information on how Fleet Logistics can help you tackle issues facing your fleet, please contact one of the four business development directors whose contact details are shown on the front page; email info@fleetlogistics.com or visit www.fleetlogistics.com.
