There can be no denying that Fleet Management has become an integral part of the modern business. It is believed that there are currently four million such units in operation across the continent of Europe, but what exactly is Fleet Management and how does it work?
About the best definition of the term ‘fleet management’ describes it as being a system which looks after the running of a commercial company’s fleet of vehicles. Typically speaking, fleet management mainly concerns automobiles such as company cars, vans and trucks (or limousines if your business is particularly fancy).
In the case of more specific situations and companies, fleet administration systems can also include rail machines (eg: trains), aircraft (such as for example aeroplanes and helicopters), sea faring craft (including boats and ships) or even space shuttles (if you happen to represent NASA). However, for the sake of this article, we will keep things nice and simple and focus vehicles such as vehicles and vans which more people are likely to be familiar with.
Fleet Management Solutions often include a very diverse spectrum of different kinds of services and functions. The most common of these are listed below:
• Financing Vehicles
• Managing Drivers
• Managing Fuel
• Vehicle Maintenance
• Fleet Telematics
• Tracking Vehicles
• Vehicle Diagnostics
• Health & Safety Procedures
Please take note, however, that not all fleet management solution services will offer all of the aforementioned functionalities (nor will they need to), while others may indeed offer entirely different services for companies / businesses with very specific needs (such as the NASA space shuttle programme which was mentioned earlier – that is very different from your standard fleet management modus operandi!). Most fleet solution companies are quite flexible in this regard and can tailor their services to suit their individual customers / clients’ specific needs.
Making good use of a qualified and experienced fleet administration solutions company allows a business to relieve themselves of the pressures associated with managing an entire fleet of vehicles and the variety of associated tasks and challenges associated with them such as legal requirements and motor insurance particulars. Essentially, it frees up time and energy which the business can focus elsewhere.
While some larger companies like to use their own “in-house” department for managing their automobiles, this is simply not an option for smaller businesses which simply lack the time and resources to set up a whole new department for the purpose of fleet management solutions. To that end, most businesses will typically outsource their fleet administration tasks and responsibilities to an external fleet management solutions company. On the other hand some companies use fleet maintenance software to assist them.
By outsourcing to an exterior organization which specialises in fleet solutions, a vehicle reliant business stands to save a great deal of money as not only will it not have to manually purchase an entire new fleet of vehicles off its own initiative, but it will also not need to incur the costs of day to day vehicle maintenance and repairs or replace their automobiles when they become old or defunct. Interestingly enough, by consistently replacing its fleet with new vehicles, a business stands to save lots of quite a lot of money in that newer vehicles tend to require considerably less maintenance and repair works. Newer automobiles also tend to be more fuel efficient and eco-friendly which, in many countries, means reduced tax rates for the company.
A qualified and professional fleet solutions company is more likely to be able to adequately and efficiently predict when a fleet’s vehicles have “outgrown their usefulness” and reached a stage in their product life cycle where they are no longer considered to be economically viable than the business who hired them. To this end, external fleet solutions companies are a truly valuable commodity for any firm or business which makes use of automobiles in its daily running activities.
To ensure that your business makes the very best use of its time and resources, be sure to seek out the solutions of a professional Fleet Management
Fleet Management 