ANALYSIS | Fleet Management


to control your fleet and trust allows a vehicle fleet to operate in a more co- ordinated way, hopefully delivering the finance director’s vision or strategy. “To see real-world results, financial


directors and the fleet team must work closely together, along with input from HR. Principally, however, they must ensure costs are controlled and that fleet managers have access to the management information, including benchmarking and specific KPIs they require on essential areas.” Part of the finance director’s role is


to challenge the fleet manager about new ways to tackle old problems. Fuel is a case in point. Switching mileage reimbursement from the government’s Advisory Fuel Rate to the actual business fuel used has saved some fleets thousands of pounds a year. As a foundation for financial directors,


Part of the finance director’s role is to challenge the fleet manager about new ways to tackle old problems


key considerations should include total fleet costs (or whole life costs), leasing costs, fuel costs and other ‘controllable or avoidable’ costs. Leasing costs would be replaced by funding and depreciation costs for an outright purchase fleet. However, while this provides a benchmark for costs, it can only go so far in providing insight to fleets. “Fuel costs are oſten viewed as hard to


manage as variations are driven primarily by pump prices,” says McDonald. “But they can be controlled by addressing driving skills, vehicle policy, mileage reimbursement methods and so on as well as choosing the right kind of vehicles for the company.” Fleet management technology is an


expense, yet is also an opportunity to demonstrate how organisations can create a much better return on their investment in their fleets in terms of time, money and employee productivity with the aid of telematics, data analysis and reporting. Among several technology firms


gradually moving the goalposts in terms of fleet management soſtware is In-car Cleverness. As well better soſtware and user dashboards, it has adopted high-fidelity measuring sensors and OEM supported connections to ECUs, enabling the In-car Cleverness system to provide high levels of precision across fuel consumption to remote vehicle diagnostics, incident detection and reconstruction, and full visibility of all vehicles. Paul O’Dowd, Head of Sales at In-car


Cleverness, cites a number of reasons that back up the case for investing in fleets and fleet management technology, and one of those is that it allows companies to increase their capacity. “Technology is a game changer for any business with a fleet of vehicles, but by analysing the rental sector alone our customers are typically able to slash insurance costs by 20% or more,” O’Dowd explained. He continued: “Having determined that


company cars have a business role to play and settled on a financial strategy, smart employers will back this up by using telematics.”


The adoption of new technology is


already benefiting the fleet sector, where running costs and investment is vital to the overall health of the business. Small and larger fleets are utilising telematics to monitor how vehicles are being driven by all drivers to gain specific insights and decrease costs. “It is a vital part of the business fleet for both fleet managers and company financial directors and it’s not just about driver behaviour; it improves utilisation, maintenance and residual values which can all be managed more efficiently,” said O’Dowd. As well as ensuring the fleet team and HR work towards a shared strategic approach and communicate effectively, the financial director must consider deploying technology wherever possible. Fleets managers and financial directors will then start to see costs controlled, while enhancing safety through improved driver behaviour. Q


dofonline.co.uk DIRECTOR OF FINANCE 41


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