At LeasePlan we have more than 30 years’ experience and expertise of devising fleet strategies for a wide spectrum of small, corporate, international and public sector organisations; strategies that are fit for purpose.

We have distilled this knowledge into a product designed to guide a client systematically through the development of a relevant fleet strategy and associated fleet policy.

We call it ‘Fleet Balance’. The main reason for including it here is that it goes right to the heart of this chapter – designing a fleet strategy and policy – and our thinking should be valuable to any fleet manager embarking down this path.

So, what is Fleet Balance?

Fleet Balance is a solution that LeasePlan offers to its clients to help them develop a fleet strategy and fleet policy that is aligned to the needs of the business. It fulfils the need for sustainability in fleet management. It also prompts companies to look at their fleet strategy, considering the people, planet and profit component, often described as the Triple Bottom Line approach (TBL).

Sustainability is often seen as an environmental concept. However, fleet managers nowadays need to control costs while ensuring driver satisfaction and safety, complying with (local) legislation and considering environmental issues. This is true sustainability; much broader then addressing the environmental aspect only.

Fleet Balance’s main objective is to help organisations find the right focus in their fleet management strategy, balancing environmental, social and economic aspects. A holistic approach is desired, as merely focusing on one of the TBL topics (people, planet and profit) would be too limited or leave out opportunities.

Fleet Balance is a true sustainable solution that goes beyond the environmental angle. It is a consultancy approach and has three steps:

• Set the desired ambition level (to be)
• Assess the current situation (as is)
• Close a possible gap between ambition and reality by utilising available fleet management services

This approach helps organisations to look at their fleet in a holistic way and to include all of the different stakeholders that influence the fleet management strategy of a company.

People from HR, purchasing and finance are included in determining the best fleet balance for the organisation. It uses the TBL approach and applies it to fleet management. It supports organisations in leveraging the people, planet and profit component of their fleet management strategy in a way that suits their overall sustainability strategy.

It provides these benefits:

• True sustainability, integrating fleet costs, driver interests and the environment
• A structured and holistic approach
• Positions fleet management on the agenda of top management when it comes to sustainability
• Enables companies to find proof for a sustainable approach

Fleet Balance is primarily meant for businesses that face the need for sustainable fleet practices as part of their overall sustainability strategy. In addition, it can be an eye-opener for fleets that are currently not aware of the opportunities available to them.

Let’s look more closely at those three elements; people, planet and profit.

People refers to fair and beneficial business practices towards labour and the community and region in which a company is active.

A TBL company is one that has adopted a reciprocal social structure in which the well-being of the company, its employees and other stakeholder interests are interdependent

It seeks to benefit many constituencies, not exploit or endanger any of them.

In concrete terms, a TBL business would make reasonable expectations of its employees; pay fair salaries; maintain a safe work environment and tolerable working hours and not otherwise exploit a community or its labour force.

Such a business also typically seeks to ‘give back’ by contributing to the strength and growth of its community with such things as health care and education. In terms of fleet management, ‘people’ refers to driver satisfaction, driver safety and duty of care.

Planet refers to sustainable environmental practices. A TBL company endeavours to benefit the natural order as much as possible or at least limit the negative environmental impact of its activities as much as possible.

It reduces its ecological footprint by, amongst others, carefully managing its consumption of energy and non-renewables and reducing manufacturing waste, as well as rendering waste less toxic before disposing of it in a safe and legal manner.

In terms of fleet management, ‘planet’, amongst others, refers to air pollution reduction, carbon footprint, a ‘clean product lifecycle’ and environmental aspects in general.

Profit is the bottom line shared by all commerce, conscientious or not. In the context of a sustainability framework, the ‘profit’ aspect needs to be seen in a broader sense; as the economic benefit enjoyed by the host society. It is the lasting economic impact the organisation has on its economic environment.

This is often confused and limited to the internal profit made by a company or organisation. In terms of fleet management, ‘profit’ primarily refers to controlling and reduction of mobility costs.

What is the Fleet Balance methodology?

Fleet Balance aims to connect fleet management to the overall sustainability strategy of a company. Therefore it is important that a company’s senior management is involved as well as the fleet manager.

It requires the input of people from operational level, strategic level and from decision-makers, and asks the audience to balance items such as cost control and driver satisfaction.

Based on the preferences of the people involved, the sustainability ambitions of an organisation will move in different directions. For example, a finance director will automatically focus more on cost control than their colleague from the HR department.

Hence, the first step is to create awareness with the target audience, followed by an assessment of the current and desired situation.

After the assessment it is necessary to determine the gap between the current and desired situation, after which you come up with decisions on how to achieve the desired situation. Ultimately, you are aiming to develop and implement a balanced sustainable fleet strategy.