Sleeping giant AssetWorks gets ready to shake off low-key approach

Despite looking after four million vehicles and 10 million other equipment assets globally, AssetWorks is barely known outside of its home market in North America.

This sleeping giant of the fleet industry is about to awaken, though; those running the business believe now is the right time to shout about its success.

As UK managing director Mike Gadd (left) explains, previous company bosses have been content to quietly grow the business over the past 40 years.

“Very little is known about our brand in the UK, our presence has always been low-key," says Gadd, who joined the company two years ago.

He and new recruit sales and development director Simon West-Oliver (right) are keen to raise  the profile of the AssetWorks name.

Headquartered in Pennsylvania, USA, with global regional offices including Manchester, UK, the company provides fleet management, enterprise asset management (EAM) and fuel management systems across the UK and North America.

Its FleetFocus fully-integrated fleet management system delivers software and services to improve fleet management and operational efficiency. The ‘cradle-to-grave’ vehicle and equipment management system is delivered with modules managing preventive maintenance schedules, work orders, inventory and much more.

Optimal lifecycles

Its Capital Asset Management (CAM) system helps fleet operators determine the optimal lifecycle of an asset, and the company also offers a series of role-based mobile applications called SmartApps.

Companies use the software for fleet management and maintenance, lifecycle cost analysis, fuel management and motor pool management, which aims to increase vehicle utilisation and phase out grey fleet.

Globally, the company works with more than 500 private and public sector businesses and, closer to home, lists several county councils as well as Royal Mail and TNT among its customers. Although reluctant to reveal the finer detail of its  UK operation, the company says its clients run cars and around 91,000 commercial vehicles.

Although predominantly focused on vehicle assets in the UK, worldwide it counts airlines and US cities among its customers and looks after several unusual assets from trees in New York’s Central Park to gun racks in city police cars.

West-Oliver joined the company earlier this year. He has more than 30 years’ experience in industry, most recently working for Drive Software Solutions.

“Our organisation is very different to others in this sector,” West-Oliver says.

“Globally, we manage more than 14 million assets, our nearest competitor manages about one and a half million.”

“AssetWorks’ fleet covers every element of a fleet operation, from acquisition through to disposal, it’s how you acquire vehicles and how you manage them.”

As you’d expect following the Government’s announcement of a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and HGVs from 2040, AssetWorks is in conversation with customers about transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs).

Such a huge undertaking requires careful planning and proper data analysis, something that the company’s Capital Asset Management can assist with by calculating the lifecycle costs of a fleet’s vehicles and its assets.

It is available as part of the FleetFocus package or as a standalone product.

West-Oliver says: “Many fleets are focused on replacing all of their ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, but we ask them ‘is this the best route for you? Is what you’re doing financially viable within the timescale?’

“The modelling we do with CAM helps organisations understand what the impact is going to be so they can make critical decisions in a financially and eco-sensible way.”

Remote implementations

Gadd states that 95% of implementations for new and existing customers are performed remotely, which reduces its own carbon footprint.

In 2020, the company launched FuelFocusEV to help fleets record and monitor electric vehicle (EV) data as vehicles charge. The system can be installed in existing charging points, for example, at a company depot.

Information collected includes date and time of charge session, length of charge verses plug-in time, kilowatts consumed and kilowatt per  hour cost.

The data is fed into FleetFocus, presenting fleets with the opportunity to benchmark and make informed decisions about their business moving forward.

West-Oliver says: “We’ll see a shift from data being the new fuel rather than oil. EVs are driving computers that can provide intel, not just about range capabilities but about the actual asset and its performance.”

He describes the automotive sector “as an exciting place to be” adding:

“There are changes around decarbonisation, mobility management and the growing emphasis on usage as opposed to ownership.

“The world is changing and we’re now developing this concept of a circular economy, where people need to do more with less. And software providers in that circular economy must embrace it –  it’s no longer just about managing that piece of tin on the road, with the four bits of rubber on  each corner.

“And behind all that you need a software platform that embraces that whole economy – and that’s what AssetWorks has. Every part of the circular economy is embedded in the total solution.”

Workshop workflow

The requirement for technology to offer a digitalised contactless workflow in customers’ commercial vehicle workshops is a growing requirement as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, AssetWorks says.

No longer are technicians happy to pass pieces of paper around so the use of technology to perform this – through hand-held mobile devices and SmartApps – is crucial.

But such technology can be applied to many other areas of a fleet operation.

For instance, AssetWorks has developed hands-free workflow processes centred around Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) Earned Recognition, a voluntary scheme for vehicle operators to prove their organisation meets driver and vehicle standards. Information is regularly shared with the DVSA and, in return, vehicles are less likely to be stopped for inspection.

Being part of a such a large organisation – parent company is the Volaris group, itself an operating group of Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Constellation Group, a huge software business with a presence in 150 countries – gives AssetWorks the high level of financial security that many fleets demand, Gadd says.

“We’re a large, financially secure organisation and that’s an important factor for many of our clients. A lot of our competition has been challenged in this uncertain economic time.  We didn’t furlough any staff throughout the pandemic,” he adds.

Haven of stability

“We believe that we are a safe-haven of stability in a world of uncertainty, providing optimisation, mobility solutions which are productivity-based  to help improve operational efficiency,  sustainability, social responsibility and compliance and safety.

“We’ll continue to invest in our people and businesses. That helps us to be the best-in-class fleet management software supplier that provides a circular economy to support the road to carbon neutrality – fleet management software must  be able do that.”