Deliver continuous improvement
No matter how well managed a fleet may be, there will always be an aspect which can be improved. This can be identified by careful analysis of the management information so it’s important to maintain the review process. As well as spotting new areas for attention, this review also allows the fleet manager to verify that matters that have been tackled stay tackled.

Update policy and processes
The demands of the business will evolve, legislation will be amended and facilities and services available in the marketplace will change. Additionally, the management information available will become more and more statistically valid.

All these developments drive change and it’s vital that the policy is updated to reflect the new realities.
Small changes on a regular basis are much easier to deal with than a major change which always, it seems, has to be applied in a panic.

Changes in policy will very often trigger a need for the associated processes to
be updated.

Manage performance
Having identified those issues which require attention, they will need to be prioritised in terms of compliance with legal or organisational culture demands or cost control.

Managing the driver’s performance is usually a matter for the line manager and the best outcome is often achieved by working closely with them to secure and maintain improved performance.

Above all, be realistic about what you can reasonably achieve. Many fleet managers have obtained the best results by addressing a handful of the worst cases on a regular and routine basis – for example, by focusing each month on the five or 10 drivers delivering the highest levels of fuel consumption or perhaps who are buying their fuel at the highest price.

Evaluate information
Information should be reviewed on a regular basis to identify issues that need attention. The exceptions could be individual vehicles or drivers or groups of vehicles or drivers which are inconsistent with the norm. ‘The norm’ could be based on an internal standard or external benchmarking.

It’s appropriate to take into account the nature of the specific driver or vehicle deployment. For example, identical vehicles will deliver very different fuel consumption when one is often struggling in city congestion while the other can maintain steady progress on a motorway. However, don’t accept that every variance is rooted in a unique operating situation.

Gather information
To manage performance of the fleet, measures must be established.
The obvious measures include costs, normally by category; fleet size by employee band; mileage profiles, which include the split between business and private; and, in a perfect world, commuting mileage as well.

This might well constitute some of the data that flows out of the process of mileage reporting or expense claim.

Data may also come from telematics devices and fuel cards.

Collecting and storing data can be a time-consuming and costly business. Some fleet operators turn to their leasing or fleet management provider for top-level reports instead of wading through the data themselves or use dedicated fleet management software with dashboards which show the key information.