The importance of vehicle availability
“Your cheapest vehicle is the one you don’t have” perhaps a frivolous statement but the truth is that poor availability requires that you need more vehicles than is necessary – each with high costs.
So what are the causes of poor availability and how do we correct it and raise availability?
Vehicle downtime has roots in accidents and maintenance and the time to repair to get the vehicle back on the road. The bureaucracy of the public sector imposes extensive levels of authorisation and budgetary processes, without the urgency of getting vehicles back on the road. Payments to supplier are delayed and some eventually choose not to provide the required service.
This has been successfully overcome by outsourcing to specialists who take early ownership of vehicle service requirements. These services include claims, accident and maintenance management. The customer certainly has strict control of the service provider through agreed expenditure limits and reporting.
The outsourced Claims Management process which precedes and authorises the repair is now available as an online service. The accident report, photographs, driver’s details are initially captured and reported to insurers. The accident management interface provides costing and suppliers details. This facilitates online workflow management and expenditure authorisation.
With Accident Management the specialist supplier applies a strictly time managed process to obtain quotations, assess the quotations, appoint a supplier and importantly ensure prompt repair. The process is about strict cost, time and quality management and payment to the supplier.
The Managed Maintenance process is very similar. The supplier service has the backup of extensive databases of job cost standards and skilled technical evaluators. Again the process is about strict cost, time and quality management and payment to the supplier.
The above processes will significantly reduce turnaround times and increase vehicle availability. There are the additional benefits of quality expenditure reports which add value to the supply chain process and driver training for correct vehicle and equipment usage.
A necessary and complimentary requirement is the measurement of availability using telematics systems which routinely provide detailed activity reports; - driving time, standing, hours of usage, distance travelled and importantly driver behaviour. Establish your performance benchmarks, analyse actual usage and manage the variations and trends.
All of these services and management controls will improve utilisation and reduce you fleet size. There is no better method to reduce fleet costs when you consider a new LDV can cost R100,000 pa and a Heavy Commercial Vehicle R250,000pa – Total cost of ownership (TCO).
Managing your fleet size is just not restricted to numbers. It’s also about selecting the right vehicle for the job – do you really need a 4 x 4. Can you use outsourced rental services to cater for seasonal or specialised and infrequent usage. It’s about understanding your needs and having information available to facilitate decisions.
The financial benefits of improved utilisation are substantial. For a fleet size of 200 vehicles a 5% improvement reduces fleet size by 10 – 15 vehicles depending on current availability levels. This has a minimum cost benefit of approximately R1.0 million pa depending on vehicle type.