Creating a Fleet Strategy

(first in a series of fleet strategy articles)

How do fleet managers and those responsible for company cars go about creating a fleet strategy? There are many factors to be taken into consideration, and here, in the first of a series, Run Your Fleet lists the principles and items that Fleet Managers and those with responsibility for Company Fleets should take into consideration when drawing up their fleet strategy document.

Assess Fleet Requirements

The first very basic item – how many vehicles do you need and what sort of vehicles will they be? How will you decide which vehicles are available to your employees? Will they have a choice of vehicle? If so, what will the criteria be? Also take into consideration if your company will be running any “grey fleet” vehicles. Study the legislation and tax break information to ensure that the cars meet all emission standards.

Staff Development and Training

What Advanced Driving Courses will you offer to your drivers? State in the document what training company vehicle drivers will be offered, how often refresher courses will be offered, and how many courses that the drivers will need to take. Staff should be kept informed on all changes to legislation that affect company vehicle drivers, so you’ll need a mechanism by which you will do this. Will it involve face to face briefings, will you run webinars over your intranet or can you use videos which can be accessed when the employee is able to do so? How will you measure and monitor the effect of what you’re doing?

Fleet Administration

Who is in charge of all the company’s fleet administration – are you using software to manage your fleets?  State who has access to the records, and how these records can be used. State in detail all the paperwork that is required, with examples of how it is to be completed. Take into account

• Driving Licences
• Road Tax
• Parking permits
• Speeding and parking fines
• Traffic offences
• V5 and MOT management
• Police and court information

Fleet Strategy

It is important that your fleet strategy document is as comprehensive as possible.  We will be adding new updates in this series, covering all aspects of fleet and vehicle management. Whether you run your fleet in-house, or have it looked after by a specialist fleet management company, your strategy document needs to be kept up to date in a way that makes it easy and productive to do so – both for you and for the benefit of your employees who drive fleet cars.

If you have any tips or advice on how to create a working fleet strategy document pleased do let us know and we’ll make sure we are covering them in our next blog.