As fleet managers battle with ongoing vehicle supply shortages, rising costs and a pressure to electrify their vehicles, these and some of the other key industry challenges they face day-to-day were brought to light at a recent Fleet News round table.

The event, sponsored by sopp+sopp, featured fleet decision-makers who were short-listed for this year’s Fleet News Awards.

A second round table took place on the same day. You can read about it here.

Supply chain

While vehicle supply was cited as a key issue for a large number of attendees, many also cited challenges with the wider supply chain. In particular, downtime management was highlighted as a result of lengthy lead times for repairs.

Lee Jackson, head of fleet and transport at Marston Holdings, said: “I think in these times you find the things that we just used to do have all changed now. COVID reset everything and now you've got to find ways, again, to re-invent everything that we do as fleet managers to make sure we improve the availability of the fleet. You start to find little elements that you can make improvements on, but you've got to find suppliers that’ll work with you.”

Aaron Powell, fleet director at Speedy Asset Services, added: “We've actually put spare wheels back in our vans because it’s so difficult to get anyone to come out for a puncture these days. So, we've put the wheels back in and then we’re just getting someone to come out and swap it, which is so much quicker.”

Paul Tate, category manager at Adler & Allan, explained: “You have to drive the supply chain’s key performance indicators, make them work for you and set the expectations of what you do. And if they don't hit it, see the door? You're out if you're not delivering what we want.

“I know we’re busy in the day job, but you have to set down the ground rules and make them work to them, because if you don't do that they just sit back. They only have they seem to be reacting to the ones who shout the loudest.”

Jackson added: “So for me, you want to work with someone who wants to be innovative, wants to do other things and will look at different ways to improve your fleet availability. It’s in your hands to make a difference.”

Electric vehicles

The Government’s strategy to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 and all non-zero emission vehicles by 2035 is causing havoc for some fleets, especially in light of the recent rises in energy prices.

Alan Akester, group procurement, facilities and fleet manager at Thomas Hardie Commercials, said: “We're looking to go electric on all our vehicles. We've done it with our cars already but we're now looking at the vans and our trucks.

“We spoke to a telematics company and managed to get free telematics fitted into every single van with the intent that at the end of our six month trial we'll both use the data - they can take it away for their customers and we'll use it ourselves to see what vans can go to electric.

“They’ve been in for a month and I read a report in the last week, just to see where we are, and not a single one can be electric right now.

“On the trucks, our use of trucks is literally shunters, it's moving around depots or maybe from one depot to another to drop off a trailer. We just don’t do the miles in them and at £400,000 per truck it’s just not financially viable for us to do that yet.”

Jackson added: If you’ve got a diesel truck at £250,000 and an electric truck at half a million which are you going to go for? If I write a business case for an electric truck versus a diesel, I have to do a write down value over 10 years rather than over five years. It’s ridiculous and that’s before you consider that it’ll cost three times more to run than a diesel.”

Powell said: “You can’t even say that electric is cheaper anymore. It's gone from 13p per kWh to 64p per kWh.”

Owain Pearce, transport manager at Oxford City Council, said: “I'm very pro electric but this last year has been the bane of my life with electric because the whole industry has changed. We've downsized a lot of vehicles to actually allow people to go into electric, but a significant portion of our fleet is taken home overnight and that has been one of my issues.

“One of the solutions I've come up with is actually creating a charging network around the city. So, I've integrated with a number of different organizations to gain access to 350kW chargers, which we've got a corporate account for, so they can effectively go in and charge. The cost, unfortunately, is one of the negatives, because that's gone up so much in the last year or so.

“We have also done a lot of work to get drivers to charge at home and were one of the first to implement a gully system. So effectively, you can lay cables directly through the pavement, out to the street, for those that don’t have a driveway. But it is not easy, it is a logistical nightmare to coordinate your whole fleet around this. You're having to go through every single vehicle in a case-by-case basis.”

Grey fleet

With new cars and vans in short supply, the cost of rental vehicles soaring, and more drivers opting for cash instead of a car, many fleets are facing a growing pool of grey fleet vehicles.

Miranda Falconbridge, head of driver safety at Telent Technology Services, said: “One initiative we introduced last year was a new policy around compliance with grey fleet drivers. Previously, we were not great at checking licenses or business insurance documents. So, we've now automated that through our expenses system. It means people cannot simply claim any business mileage in a private vehicle unless they have a valid class 1 business insurance certificate.

“That has given us 100% compliance, we then make sure that we're checking their driving licenses at least every six months through TTC, so it's all automated. That also allows us to do a driver risk assessment against those drivers, so we can provide them with e-learning courses.”

Changing fleet roles

Outside of the day-to-day challenges of running a fleet, round table delegates also raised concerns about the future of the fleet manager role. A number of participants stated that the role is rapidly evolving, but there’s often little awareness of what fleet managers do.

Jackson said: “I want to professionalise fleet. In transport you get CPC holders and professional qualifications. There should be a fleet professional qualification. I think fleet should sit by itself because it touches so many other streams in business from an HR and Finance to operations.

“Really the size of it and the influence it has, to me, puts it in a prominent position, because fleet actually makes such a difference to a business.

“Fleet is all around you, but people don’t really see it as a career.”

Amanda Duffy, head of compliance at Essex Bulk Services, said: “We're just trying to raise the profile of the industry no matter what job it is you're doing. So, we wanted to go from cradle to grave. So, from a driver, driver trainer, welder fabricator, CPC holder, just everything. But, again, it's going into the schools and educating them right from the beginning.”

Delegates:

• Paul Tate, category manager, Adler & Allan
• Lee Jackson, head of Fleet & Transport, Marston Holdings
• Aaron Powell, fleet director, Speedy Asset Services
• Daren Ryder, fleet & Compliance Manager UK, Univar Solutions
• Ben Mann, sourcing & contracts specialist, National House-Building Council
• Owain Pearce, transport manager, ODS (Oxford City Council)
• Matthew Neale, group fleet manager, Platform Housing Group
• Alan Akester, group facilities, procurement & fleet manager, Thomas Hardie Commercials
• Amanda Duffy, head of compliance, Essex Bulk Services
• Miranda Faulconbridge, head of driver safety, Telent Technology Services