Share Your Vision
Change is never easy. In fact, many resist it. That is why it is important to communicate, communicate, communicate what it is that you are trying to accomplish and why.
This is the final tenant in the five-part Fleet Wellness program.
Most companies under communicate their vision for change by a factor of ten. An email or meeting announcing your Fleet Wellness Program is not enough. Begin with your Fleet Wellness Strategy. Share your objectives, why they are important to your stakeholders and staff, and share where you are going and how you plan to get there. You must communicate this message consistently and often. Your goal is to create buy in at all levels. Introduce your KPIs and provide regular updates on progress against goals as measured by the KPIs.
Update Your Fleet Policy
Now would also be a good time to evaluate your fleet policy or develop one if it doesn’t exist. A fleet policy supports your Fleet Wellness Program, creating consistency across the organization and clarity of what is expected. A fleet policy can include many topics, some of which include:
- Driver eligibility – Define which employees are eligible for a company vehicle vs. expense reimbursement. Some factors to consider are total miles driven each year and job function.
- Vehicle selection options – There is a fine balance here between being too restrictive and too loose. Driver satisfaction matters. Drivers take better care of vehicles they like and are vested in. Consider utilizing a selector list of available options and colors.
- Maintenance guidelines – Fleet maintenance programs monitor routine preventative maintenance costs and frequency, as well as approval levels for non-routine repairs.
- Disposition guidelines – Define when and how vehicles are disposed. Many factors play into the ideal time to dispose of a vehicle from market dynamics, to brand, model, mileage. They all play into the value of vehicles.
- Personal use of company vehicles – Make expectations clear on whether personal use is permitted and if so, is the use restricted to the employee? Their spouse? How will the company be reimbursed for the personal use? Who covers insurance?
Additional topics could include driver testing, accident protocol, and upfitting specifications.
Your Next Steps
Fleet Wellness differs from company to company. In all cases, it represents a disciplined methodology to approach buying, maintaining, managing, and disposing of vehicles needed in your business.
The most important factor is that your team is talking about continuous improvement, measuring the progress, and ultimately realizing the benefits of lower costs, better cash flow and improved operating efficiencies. The status quo of the past can be improved upon. Focus on goal setting while building accountability and specificity into the fleet management process.
Fleet Wellness will power your healthy fleet of tomorrow as we promised. You will realize the benefits of improved fleet operating costs, operating efficiencies, driver safety, and reliability. You’ll feel improved perspective in viewing your fleet against peer benchmarks and industry best practices.
Get Started Today!
Take three to five action items from The Five Tenets for Fleet Wellness and put them into practice now!
To learn more about how you can use the Fleet Wellness program to assess, track, and measure the health of your fleet and your progress toward your strategic goals, download our eBook.
We had the pleasure of working with several of our clients on a video where we let them tell the story of fleet management. At Doering, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for our customers.
