Automotive Fleet's former editor, Mike Antich, shared his opinions and ideas on the overall commercial fleet industry and draws interesting comments from fleet managers and other industry professionals from across the country. Mike was inducted in the Fleet Hall of Fame in 2010.
Demand for new- and used-vehicles will not abate any time soon due to the tremendous pent-up demand that will carry through calendar-year 2022. Industry-wide (both retail and fleet), it is estimated that there were 4 million vehicles worth of pent-up demand at the start of calendar-year 2022.
The biggest impact has been caused by the microchip shortage.
The limited the availability of replacement units for many fleets is forcing vehicle service lives to be extended. As a result, fleets are implementing “fleet preservation” strategies to mitigate the negative impact of operating higher-mileage vehicles beyond their normal lifecycles.
Fleets need to be more flexible with the type of vehicles they order in the next couple of new-model year ordering cycles. Here are six vehicle acquisition strategies that can serve as potential work arounds to mitigate some of today's inventory constraints.
Over the decades, procurement has become more and more involved in sourcing fleet assets. Initially, procurement started with lower-hanging fruit, primarily company cars, but now it’s going further up the asset chain in sourcing more complex vocational fleet vehicles.
Corporate fleets are on the cutting edge of a productivity revolution triggered by increasingly pervasive and sophisticated vehicle connectivity tools being built into vehicles that will transition fleet management from a reactive to proactive profession.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the next real challenge for pan-national fleet managers, direct and indirect procurement managers, and executives to whom fleet ultimately reports, is how to transition the management of their multi-regional corporate fleets to a global platform.
The COVID pandemic has created a spike in fraudulent claims targeting vocational trucks by instigating staged accidents, which involves maneuvering an unsuspecting employee driver into an intentional crash in order to make a false insurance claim or to file a lawsuit against the company if it is self-insured.
Two universal challenges faced by fleet managers in the 2021 model-year were longer lead times and tight product availability, particularly constrained was van and truck chassis availability. The COVID lockdowns in 2020 and the shutdown of all North American assembly plants from mid-March to mid-May 2020 triggered a domino effect resulting in delays with the new model-year bid process during a period of widespread budget constraints.
Today’s used-vehicle market is the best it’s been in the history of fleet management and my anecdotal forecast is for it to remain strong through the balance of 2021 and into calendar-year 2022. As a result of these favorable market conditions, some fleets have begun shortcycling some of fleet vehicles.
There are a number of “hidden” costs to offering employees the personal use of a company vehicles. It negatively impacts the resale value of a vehicles. On average, personal use accounts for 15-18% of the overall miles accumulated during a vehicle’s service life. This blog will explore the various other hidden costs of providing personal use.
There’s a direct correlation between vehicle weight and fuel economy. Vehicles get better fuel mileage when not loaded with unnecessary weight. An extra 100 lbs. in a vehicle could reduce mpg up to 2 %. One of the chief culprits responsible for accumulating unnecessary weight onboard a vehicle is drivers.
Vehicle abuse is an avoidable fleet cost. This abuse is wide-ranging, running the gamut from damage caused from fluid levels being low, missing PM intervals, driving on underinflated tires to extreme situations of jumping curbs or carelessly scraping the sides of parking structures.
Multinational corporations are changing the way they source and manage their vocational fleets to better identify true costs and to leverage opportunities to reduce spend and to maximize the operating efficiency of these specialized vehicles.
The pandemic has opened Pandora’s box on working from home – both good and bad. While it has yet to be determined whether this is long-term or short-term trend, it will impact fleet operations.
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