Measuring the performance of your fleet by clearly defining strategy and tactics

Measuring the Performance
of Your Fleet By Clearly
Defining Strategy and Tactics
1st Annual Fleet Management Conference
Johannesburg, 4-5 May 2016

Christopher Hill, MBA, CMC
 1974-78 Fleet Manager, Leasemaster
 1978-83 Fleet Manager, General Foods
 1983-85 Fleet Manager, Reichhold
 1985-93 Fleet Manager, Honeywell
 1993-94 Director Total Fleet Management, Triathlon Leasing
 1994-97 C. Hill Management Inc. Fleet and Travel Management
 98-2002 Manager Fleet & Equipment, Enbridge Gas Distribution
 2003-04 Fleet Manager, City of Toronto
 2004-11 Manager Central Fleet, City of Hamilton (Ontario)
 2012-13 CEO, Electric Mobility Canada
 2014-16 Fleet Operations Specialist, Grant Thornton LLP

What Do You Want To Be Known
For?
 A trusted and valued supplier of high quality services that
help users deliver their peak performance, OR
 Another internal source of mediocre service that gets in the
way for no noticeable benefit.

What Management Wants
Fleet Manager

Agenda for Part 1
 What is “Strategy”? How is this different from “Tactics”?
 Building a framework to find solutions
 Problem identification
 What needs to be addressed
 Strategy options for fleet management
 Developing tactics to implement the strategy by management
function (Finance, Information Technology, Operations,
Human Resources, Marketing and Communications)

Agenda for Part 2
 Your Fleet
 Who controls fleet expenses?
 Tactics by management function - developing these for your
own fleet situation
 Creating Your Fleet Strategic Plan

What is “Strategy”?
 'Strategy' is part of everyday business language and is often
used in the wrong context ( 'Operational Excellence' is not
strategy).
 The core of any strategy is about making choices of where
to play and how to win, supplemented with a 'why' (the
objective) and the 'how' (doing it).

Defining “Strategy” and “Tactics”
 1. Situation: what have we got
 2. Objective: what do we want
 3. Strategy: what is the most effective way to get it
 4. Tactics: how we are going to do it
STOP

Creating Strategy
 Developing a solution framework – problem identification
 “What needs to be addressed?” (WNTBA)
 WNTBA and Strategy Options
 Sort the problems and issues by management function -
Finance
Information Technology
Operations
Human Resources
Marketing and Communications

Measuring the performance of your fleet by clearly defining strategy and tactics

Agenda for Part 2
 Focus On Your Fleet
 Who controls fleet expenses?
 Tactics by management function: Finance, Information
Technology, Operations, Human Resources, Marketing and
Communications - developing these for your own fleet
situation
STOP

Finance
 Control and accountability
 Budget-based relationship or transaction-based relationship
 User budget line items for fleet expenses
 Life-cycle estimates
 Cost controls and reduction targets
 Leasing

3 Main Drivers of Fleet Costs
1. Number of units in
service.
2. Number of kilometers
driven.
3. Type of vehicles in the
fleet.
1. How many waste
collection trucks?
2. Weather-related usage
such as snow removal.
3. Trucks or cars?
Who effectively controls these drivers, the fleet
manager, or the users?
STOP

Recovering costs through
chargeback rates (1)
1. Having the budget in fleet is inefficient – users, not fleet,
control the cost drivers.
2. Users must budget for reserve fund, fuel, repairs, driver
training and licence renewals, with line items in their own
operating budgets.
3. User behaviour will not work for economy unless users are
accountable for costs, i.e., continuing to operate
equipment with warning lights on.
4. Having prices for transactions, such as mechanic labour
rate, parts, and fuel allows comparison to outside
contractors.

5. Fleet has advantages over outside contractors: usually
costs for facility rental, utilities, insurance are covered
elsewhere.
6. Fleet has disadvantages compared to outside contractors:
mechanics are on salary instead of piecework; wages are
higher; simple jobs (oil changes) don’t have the volume to
justify a headcount at a lower wage rate.
7. Resistance to more work by accounting department to
recover costs.
8. Inadequate fleet information system must be adjusted to
handle transaction costs.

9. Ideally, users receive a “bill” to be paid when they pick up
the keys.
10. Users will try to avoid expenses by cutting back on oil
changes and inspections.
11. The most effective response by users is to reduce the
number of fleet units (#1 driver of fleet costs) by turning in
the “just-in-case” units. Most fleets have 25%+ excess
units. Peak demand user activities can be met through
sub-contracting.

Inputs and how you recover them
Input (what you pay for directly) Transaction pricing (your
products and services)
1. Labour (employee costs) 1. $/hour
2. Materials 2. Cost plus markup
3. Outsourced services 3. Cost plus markup
4. Overhead 4. Covered in markup and labour
The highest risk is poor quality in any input. Example: inferior quality
vehicles as a result of lowest bid procurement rules damage the fleet
system through higher maintenance needs, lower reliability for users.

Information Technology
 Systems
 Data capture and input
 Reports produced – 8 key performance measures that matter
to users
 Budget management
 Benchmarking

What the User Wants – 8 Key
Performance Measures for Fleet
1. Suitable
2. Reliable
3. Safe
4. Affordable
5. Energy Efficient
6. Environmentally Friendly
7. Available
8. Compliant
1. Kilometers/year OR hrs
2. Work orders/year
3. Accidents/million km
4. $/km
5. Litres/100 km
6. Greenhouse gas/year
7. #labour hrs maint./year
8. Safety/regulatory rating

Operations
 Shop Hours
 In-house Mechanical Services
 Contracted (outside) services
 Parts
 Fuel
 Driver Training
 Safety and Regulatory Compliance
 Procurement
 Remarketing

Human Resources
 Creating a high quality of life at work
 Labour relations with union staff
 Handling grievances and collective agreements
 Technical training for mechanics
 Non-union staff
 Succession planning

Marketing and Communications
 Fleet Strategic Plan
 Senior management/Council approval
 Fleet Advisory Committee
 Green Fleet Plan
 ISO standards
 Membership in associations

Strategic Fleet Management Program
A municipal fleet has a diverse variety of equipment
including cars, medium and heavy trucks, trailers and
specialized off-road units used for maintaining
municipal property and infrastructure. Most have a
central garage , works yard and bulk fuel facility. Some
have multiple sites.
Focus
and
Manage
Outsource
Return to
users
Lowest Cost
Fastest
Least Disruptive
Strategy Opportunity Assessment
More costly and split
among many suppliers.
Disruptive for users, can’t
focus on main job.
Recommended
Strategy
Strategy
Alternatives
1. Improving labour relations and internal
communications through increased
interaction between management and staff,
2. Finding technical training for mechanics.
3. Managing non-union employees.
4. Handling grievances and collective
agreements.
Human Resources
The implementation of the “focus and manage”
strategy to use the existing fleet service to enhance
the productivity of municipal departments.
Situation, Objective and Strategy Tactics by Management Function Tactics by Management Function (continued)
Key Characteristics
• Customer service
model.
• Continuous
improvement based
on ISO elements.
• Centralized service
management.
• User accountability.
• Accurate and
balanced cost
recovery
Define the Objective
The core business of Fleet is to acquire,
repair, maintain and dispose of light,
medium and heavy duty mechanized
equipment used in municipal operations.
Answer the question: “What Needs To Be
Done?” Identify three top priorities and
choose the best strategy to accomplish
them.
1. Establishing control and accountability.
Who really controls the three principal
drivers of fleet costs?
2. Recovering all costs through chargeback
rate including sufficient capital reserve
funds.
3. Adjusting life-cycle estimates to achieve
lowest cost for each unit.
4. Implementing line-items in user budgets to
enable users to control expenses.
5. Establishing cost controls and reduction
targets.
6. Investigating leasing as an alternative to
reduce the need for capital reserve funds.
Finance
1. Determining the adequacy of the existing
information system.
2. Establishing key performance
measurements that matter to your
customers.
3. Developing an accurate method for budget
management.
4. Using bar coding and real time labour
capture.
5. Developing internal and external
benchmark reports.
Information Technology Management
1. Developing a customer service model
including ISO elements in standard
operating procedures.
2. Creating Service Level Agreements with
users.
3. Managing small equipment with
replacement cost below $5,000 .
4. Assessing service “after-hours” to perform
scheduled maintenance when trucks are
not needed.
5. Improving and shortening the procurement
process.
6. Using contracted-out suppliers.
7. Improving the CVOR record.
8. Managing bulk fuel and multiple fuel sites.
Operations
1. Creating a Fleet Advisory Committee .
2. Preparing a Green Fleet Plan for
consideration by Council to include an
affordable and sustainable approach to
new vehicle and fuel technologies.
3. Participating in organizations that give the
municipality an opportunity to demonstrate
leadership.
Marketing and Communications
© C. Hill Management Inc. 2014
All rights reserved.

Fin
Thank you for attending.
Please fill out your comment form
before leaving today.
Christopher.hill@ca.gt.com

Measuring the performance of your fleet by clearly defining strategy and tactics

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