The Hidden Cost of Managing a Fleet In-House
If you don’t have a fleet manager, are you the one being asked to approve a repair to one of your company vehicles? It’s not a big deal. The quote looks reasonable, your approve the spend, but it tells you very little about what the vehicle problem has already cost the business, and what it could cost in the future. Spolier alert, we’re talking costs to the business; in people and pressures, not just spend.
You might have a handful of company vehicles, or work for a larger business where only some employees need one: in either case, it can make perfect sense for HR, operations and finance to share the fleet work. When a car needs a repair, though, the time it takes from each team is easy to miss if you're only looking at the quote.
The cost beyond the repair
A driver reports a problem. HR handles the updates, operations speaks to the garage and you approve the repair. The invoice captures the garage's charge, and perhaps a hire vehicle, but not the working time each person has spent on it, including the driver. That time comes out of their other work.
If this becomes a regular part of the week, it can wear on people. Colleagues in HR and operations still have their own targets to meet while taking on work outside their core roles. Over time, that pressure can affect morale and may influence whether someone wants to stay. It is harder to put a price on than a repair, but it belongs in the conversation about what managing the fleet asks of your business.
See the full cost of the work
If you want to investigate, you can start with a recent repair. Put the repair and any hire charge alongside an estimate of the working time spent by HR, operations, finance and the driver (including any time spent collecting and dropping vehicles). Use each person's employment cost if you want to translate that time into pounds. If the vehicle was off the road, check for how long and what that meant for the business, without counting the same lost time twice. A few recent cases will tell you far more than a guess at an hourly fleet management cost.
Look beyond repairs, next. Vehicle selection, day-to-day administration, de-hire and licence checks all take time, as do questions about maintenance procedures or vehicle policy. You might find that the arrangement works well for your fleet. If the cumulative staff time is greater than you expected, you can decide whether to set aside more time in-house or bring in specialist help for the day-to-day work.
At Covase, dedicated account managers handle day-to-day fleet coordination with drivers, suppliers and your team. What that means for our clients is less routine fleet work falling to HR and finance. Their people can spend more of their time on the work they were hired to do, while staying involved in decisions that matter to the business.
If you would like a clearer picture of what your fleet is costing your business and your people, talk to Covase about your current set-up.