Managing the hidden risks of commercial fleets.

Story by Danny Glynn, Managing Director, Enterprise Flex-E-Rent.

Like an iceberg, many of the risks facing businesses operating commercial fleets can be invisible or hidden beneath the surface. Fleet operators may not readily have the evidence, nor gather and analyse the right data, to see and mitigate these risks in advance.

The commercial impact of factors such as vehicle downtime or clean air legislation can be significant and hard to pin down. In addition, companies that commit capital into purchasing commercial vehicles could impair their ability to invest in their core business, and the cost of ‘wrong-sizing’ or misspecification can be other factors that erode performance.

Smaller and medium-sized businesses with less internal resource to manage commercial fleets at peak efficiency are especially at risk.

The wider business implications of these ‘silent’ risks can be difficult to measure. It’s important for businesses to think of what is not happening – and that can be difficult. For example, they might need to look at some of the opportunity costs they might be facing:

• What did we not do as a business because all of our cash was tied up in vehicles?
• How many customers did we let down because our vans broke down and people were left waiting?
• What’s the impact on cost if maintenance depots are not within reach of our offices or there isn’t a mobile repair option?
• How many extra miles are we driving and what’s the impact on the environment if we’re driving older vehicles?

Understanding these hidden risks through data analysis means commercial vehicle operators can be in a better position to conserve capital, improve efficiencies and deliver a better service to their customers. There are four key areas businesses could look to explore.

For the full story please go to the Driving for Better Business website.