Company Announcement - With the recent welcome drop in fuel prices, South African fleet managers must resist the temptation to take their eyes off the fuel gauge. Technological advances and high fuel prices over the past few years have boosted the adoption of best practice in many South African fleets, taking fleet efficiency to new highs. Fleet managers who continue to maintain this discipline even when fuel prices drop will emerge as winners, says Dr Molapo, Head of Standard Bank Fleet Management. But what are these best practices? The Standard Bank Fleet Management team, with its experience of working with large numbers of fleets over several decades, breaks best practice in fleet management down to driver behaviour, vehicle maintenance, fuel management, tyre management and accident management.

But the fundamental principle upon which best practice in all of these fields is based, says Dr Molapo, is driver cooperation. The best fleets in the world place at least as much emphasis on the people-management side of things as they do on managing machines, if not more. The other golden thread that runs through the management of the best fleets in the world is long-term thinking. Investment in timeous maintenance and replacement, training and new technology always seems more expensive than squeezing a few more kilometres out of what you have, but it pays in the long run – and helps to create the world class fleets.

Driver behaviour
When it comes to managing driver behaviour, best practice starts with training. Top fleets do not skimp on training their drivers for the simple economic logic of it: well-trained drivers use less fuel, fewer tyres, make fewer accidents, and take better care of the vehicles. The training pays for itself many times over. South Africa is well-endowed with training facilities and service providers who offer on-the-job training throughout the country. Yet, training remains a grudge purchase for many local fleet managers, says Dr Molapo. Companies that suffer from short-term thinking are unwilling to pay for training courses, and fleet managers fear that investment in training will be lost as drivers are poached by bigger fleets. This may occasionally happen, but generally companies that emphasise staff development tend to keep their people for longer.

Best practice in managing driver behaviour includes constant feedback and evaluation. Modern technology has caused nothing short of a revolution, with telematics being able to flag harsh braking incidents, speeding and a host of bad driving habits.
Well-run fleets incentivise their drivers to improve their behaviour, for example through bonuses earned for fuel savings and incident-free trips. Incentives need not only be financial. Peer and team acknowledgement can help change behaviour, as well as varying degrees of ownership, from owner-driver to employee share schemes.

Fuel Management
Even with a drop in the oil price, fuel remains the single biggest cost in running a fleet. Just a few percentage points off a fleet's fuel consumption can add up to massive savings. Don't drop fuel efficiency targets and keep on scrutinising fuel-consumption reports for exceptions to make sure leaks are plugged early, urges Dr Molapo. Driver training and fuel-efficiency incentives, careful route planning and using vehicles suited for their functions must remain important best practices.

Maintenance management
Best practice in the management of vehicle maintenance has produced an industry of service providers that help fleet managers with the scheduling of timely servicing and ensuring that mechanical workshops do not overcharge. Whether outsourced or internal, the driver is once again the fleet's key to making sure that preventative maintenance is done before the vehicle breaks down. Drivers must be trained to be tuned into their vehicle's aches and pains, and to report them as soon as possible. Well-run fleets also try to coordinate a vehicle's maintenance with driver leave so as to minimise disruption.

Tyre management
Giving each driver a tyre-pressure gauge and instilling a daily habit of checking tyre pressure is recommended as best practice. Making sure it becomes a habit requires some monitoring effort on the part of fleet management, and drivers must be incentivised to change their behaviour. The other big factor in good tyre management is to make sure that the tyres on each vehicle are fit for purpose.

Accident management
The best fleets have fewer accidents, but they also have thorough accident protocols in place for when it does happen. Best practice in accident management emphasises the health and safety of the driver and others involved in the accident. Once again, it starts with the driver being aware of what to do in case of an accident, including emergency and first aid procedures, as well as clear protocols for gathering and reporting information about what went wrong. Many top fleets use accident-management services which, like outsourced managed- maintenance services, help to make sure that repair workshops do not overcharge and the correct repair work or replacement decisions are made. Dr Molapo says most fleet management best practices have developed over a long period and don't change much, but the technology through which they are implemented certainly does. Telematics and other forms of information technology have made information gathering, monitoring and communication with drivers instantly accessible to fleet managers.

Today, a fleet simply cannot compete with the best without telematics. The challenge is to make careful cost-benefit analysis when deciding to adopt telematics upgrades, and to guard against information overload through sensible reporting systems and exception management. Finally, it could be argued that staying in touch with the industry advances and best practices is in itself a best practice.